Writer / Tami Hudson
Writing a cookbook, or a book of any kind, was not something that I ever planned to do.
But if you knew my grandma, Vivian Huff, you know that she could be very persuasive – even bossy, if you will. Before she passed away in December 2023, one of her last comments to me was that I needed to write a “real” cookbook. And by that, grandma meant that every recipe needed to have a photo along with it.
My grandma had a vast recipe collection, and while she was still able, I sat next to her bed as we went through her recipe box together, me furiously taking notes as quickly as I could to keep up with what she was sharing with me: memories from cooking with her mom and sisters, dishes served at family get-togethers, meals shared with friends, stories of growing up in North Liberty, Indiana, and then her life in Lakeville, Indiana, once she married my grandpa and they had five children including my mom.
I really never thought I’d actually get around to writing a cookbook, even though I kind of promised my grandma that I would do it. I really just said that I’d do it to make her happy, as I knew that is what she wanted me to say. But as she often did through the years, grandma got her way one last time.
This recipe scrapbook, as I like to affectionately call it, really tells my grandma’s life story. I don’t know that either of us really intended for that to be part of the book, but it just sort of happened as I started to write. I originally thought that I’d just be sharing grandma’s recipes, but it ended up being so much more.
As I share in the book, grandma lived a large life. She never knew a stranger, and was a great friend to many over the years. I like to think that if I have a tenth of the friends in my lifetime that grandma had in hers, I can count myself as blessed. She loved to play bingo, visit the casino, shop and go out to eat. She also loved her family fiercely, and nothing made her happier than to host a large group of us any time that she could. She loved a party and never minded being the center of attention – she was planning on throwing her own 95th birthday party!
I don’t think that grandma realized what a gift she was actually giving me when she more or less directed me to write this book. I know that I never imagined what I would learn in just a few months. As I started to do research, read numerous bits of family history and talked to other family members, it became quite clear that there was so much more that needed to be told. Yes, I needed to share grandma’s recipes, but I also needed to tell the story of where she came from and what she did in the 94 years she had here on Earth.
My oldest granddaughter wanted to make a recipe from the book when she was at our house recently. As I guided her through preparing it, she asked a great question: “How come we don’t have dishes like this at our family get-togethers?”
That question brought me full-circle to the real reason that grandma knew that I needed to write this book. Our recipes and memories need to be shared with the next generation. It is up to us to see that traditions made in the kitchen are carried on for our children and grandchildren. We need to continue to tell the stories and memories from the past in order to allow new ones to be made in the future.
