Mixing of heritage

By Sarah

Getting married is like Christmas Day over and over again. Engagement parties, showers, bachelorette parties and the wedding itself leave you and your husband with carloads full of fancy new gifts that transform your home from college-dorm living into something fit for dinner parties and picky family members.

But despite the gorgeous Oriental rug that adorns our living room, the artistic platters that decorate our bookshelves and a kitchen full of state-of-the-art appliances, the best gifts we received were the little things. A guest book with handmade notes that my mom asked our closest friends to create and send ahead of the wedding. A girls’ night a couple of months before the wedding. Albums filled with Tony and my childhood photos.

Looking back now, the most memorable was a recipe book.

Again my mom came up with the idea and enlisted maybe a hundred family members and friends in her scheme. As a few of us gathered for a kitchen-themed shower, she presented me with the plain recipe binder thick with index cards people had sent in.

My Great-Grandma Miller’s gravy recipe now in the hands of the fourth generation, Tony’s Aunt Nancy’s famous Italian beef and the egg casserole we used to devour at team breakfasts after swim practice. There were notes, too, one of which explained that the recipes a friend contributed had won her husband’s heart (or at least his stomach). Another was from Tony’s great-aunt, which said her grandson used to enjoy the dish before he moved to Japan. There was even an adorable photo of Tony, as a child, sitting on top of the fridge.

All of it was compiled, our heritage through food, and mixed together to create something greater.

Now food-stained and worn, the book has proved useful many times in coming up with an impressive dish for a party or a last-minute dinner. But more important, it is a constant reminder of our foundation – the coming together of two families – and the new traditions, memories and recipes melded together in the index cards still to be written.