Every night, when my father begins to cook for my family, he takes out our family recipe book, which has been passed down through my family for generations consisting of many fine dining Italian Cuisine meals. The book itself is very old- looking due to the many hands that have held it  throughout the years, so it’s not very appealing. The pages themselves have turned yellow-brownish because of how far it’s traveled over time. 

My family has several family recipes including lasagna and this donut-shaped cake that we have been making for as long as I can remember. By practicing these recipes and perfecting them throughout the years, the book isn’t as useful but it holds memories of my parents teaching me about the recipes and where they originated from. When I was younger, my mother always told me that it took my extended family hundreds of tries perfecting the recipe for the donut-shaped cake. 

This recipe book goes way back to before I remembered, but I know that my grandmother on my father’s side of the family was the one to give the book to my parents. I knew my grandmother had always been an amazing cook just by seeing her create these delicious recipes in the earliest days of my youth. These recipes, which have continued to evolve, preserve heritage and regional identity. Altogether, these recipes connect to American’s changes in innovation, while still honoring older traditions. The food we make from this cookbook is tying our ancestors together, generation to generation.
 

– FL

Relationship:  Im/migrant Im/migrant