Do you remember steno pads? I am not sure if they are as popular as they once were but steno pads used to be a staple in almost every house. Even if there was no secretary office manager in the household you could almost always find a steno pad.
I can not even remember seeing one in a store recently but of course you can order them on Amazon and at Staples. They still come in all styles and colors but the basic design is the same.
But did you ever know that they were the perfect recipe books? My Grandma Bonnie used steno pads religiously and they were her “go to” for jotting recipes down that she wanted to try or ones that were winners in her book.
I keep finding things that I have packed away during this move that bring memories flooding back. I suspect it is because I am really trying to reduce what we have stored and I am trying to go through boxes that we have stored that need to be sorted through. Never mind that I just stowed about 10 big totes of stuff under the eaves in my office of items from the boys’ childhoods. I am not quite ready to tackle those yet.
But these steno pads were a favorite find. Written in my grandma’s sometimes difficult to read handwriting I have poured over them and discovered a lot of recipes that I have incorporated into my own cooking regime over the years.
Knowing that I have a couple of her personal recipe books makes me happy. I suspect my sister might have taken a few as well (Note to self: ask her) because it appears that I have a couple of the volumes of a series of at least 6. Grandma had a system. It actually worked pretty well. She had a table of contents and then wrote recipes down in the order as she found them .
I think at some point she filled the books up and just started filling in on the fronts and backs of them with notes about what the tried and true recipes were. That was typical Grandma. She was a good cook and a lot of her recipes were ones that she used at her church for dinners and lunches. She was probably one of the best cooks in the church and it always seemed like she was preparing something for an event there or to take to a neighbor.
I smiled when I saw a recipe with Maxine in the title. Maxine was her best friend and neighbor and I remember trying that very recipe for fruit pizza myself. One booklet even has Paula’s Turkey Tetrazzini—a recipe from my older sister. Above is Zylpha’s name—another family member whose recipe made Grandma’s notebook.
So I am thinking that maybe I need to start a new series based on these recipe notebooks and feature some Grandma Bonnie recipes. Maybe call it From Grandma Bonnie’s Notebooks? But that would mean I would actually have to stay home and do some cooking, right? Here is her recipe for mush that I was looking for when I did that recent post regaling you of my love of mush.
Do you have a favorite cookbook that has been in your family for a period of time? I would love to hear about it in the comments and remember that every comment counts for our January Comments for a Cause- NFED.
25 Comments
Leave a commentActually, I am working on going through family recipes to make a cookbook for my daughters.
That is awesome! I love that idea!
This is such a fantastic find! I’d LOVE to read about your adventures cooking her recipes. I want to try some too:)
Okay–then I will do it!!!! Let me get home and I will start working on it.
What a great find! I love things like this! I don’t have a family cookbook (I believe my brother kept the recipe box that he made for my Mom with all the handwritten recipes in it), but what I do have that I love is something called MacGourmet. I know, it’s not as personal as a family member’s written recipes, but it is a great software program for organizing all your recipes in one place!
It is a great idea to have all your recipes together. I am not that organized, trust me. I have so many cookbooks and notebooks and cards but it all seems to work somehow. I mean–we have never gone hungry!
Oh, and by the way, I just finished using up a Steno pad!!!
🙂 What do you use yours for?
Love this! I have my Grandma P’s recipe box! She died when I was 11 and I love that I have it. I”m actually working on a project with recipes from each of our Grandmas!
Oh how neat that you have your Grandma’s recipe box–that is such a gift and I look forward to seeing this recipes.
What an absolute treasure you have here. This reminds me of the stash of Mom’s diaries I now have that stretch over more than 50 years. Almost all written in steno notebooks, which I still use today and which are available at WalMart.
I think this would be a great food series.
I love that you have your mom’s diaries. I know I have told you that I want to get my mom’s but she is reluctant. 🙂 You definitely have a treasure there.
{sigh} My mom used steno books all the time. Now that she’s gone, it brings a smile to my face when I see her handwritten notes. 🙂
Ah. I understand full well how things like steno pads bring memories, right? I love finding the hand written notes as well.
What a cool find! I use steno pads when I take notes – being left handed they’ve always been easier for me. They would make great notebooks for recipes!
Thanks! Steno pads would work great for lefties, wouldn’t they? The world is so right handed centered, isn’t it?
Ooh please do share. It’s always interesting to find those hidden treasures.
Okay! I will! I just need to get a plan!
I look forward to the Grandma Bonnie´s Notebooks blogs. I am sure there are some gems in those steno pads. I have a Five Roses Cookbook I won when I was about 14 years old. It has all the stains etc. and is falling apart but it has served me well all these years. My grandma was a great cook too but didn´t write her recipes down.
I need to get organized and make this happen. It may be a bit sporadic but I will do it! I love that you have a worn cookbook with stains on it as well. I have quite a few with stains….I am quite a messy cook.
My grandma had passed her recipes and cookbooks on to me. I treasure her hand written ones the most.
Yes! What a gift you have. I am one of those lucky ones, too, and will always love having these.
[…] tell it is part of something pretty old. It was from a quilt that my Grandma Bonnie (of the famed Grandma Bonnie’s steno notebooks) had made years and years ago. Carla had requested it when Grandma passed and she has had it for […]
[…] Wow – this is a hard one! If I had to pick one or two…one would be this one – These Things Are Truths. And perhaps a recent one that shows a bit of my love of my family (specifically my grandma) – Steno Pads and Grandma Bonnie Recipes […]
I had a Grandma Bonnie. She has been gone for 30+ years, but I still have her handwritten recipe book. She started it as a new bride in 1930, but she used a composition book instead of a Steno. Enjoyed your article, thanks for sharing ☺