Preserve the past, safeguard the future with heirloom keeper recipes

For the holidays over the past few years, my friend, Lainey Smith, of Bluffton, has baked me a cheese pie made from a special passed-down recipe that came via her late grandmother Nana Sadie (Sadie Sharaf) and mother, Lillian (Sharaf) Smith, also deceased. As if the pie and the act of baking it weren’t enough, Lainey also shared with me with Sadie’s keeper recipe, which, of course, makes Lainey more a sister than a friend.

Passed-down recipes are typically hand-written on index cards or recipe cards specifically printed for that purpose, or on scraps of paper that are full of stains and all sorts of notes that have become harder and harder to read with time. It could be wear and tear that makes reading them so difficult, or failing eyesight, but in the days before computers and recipe blogs, this is the way we traded recipes with family and friends. Most of us kept the cards in metal file boxes, or tucked them away inside cookbooks. I didn’t have so many cookbooks then, so locating the cards wasn’t as hard as it sounds.

Nana Sadie’s recipe for cheese pie, deemed and named “great” by her family, also has pen and ink roots, but for sharing here (and on the Web) has been neatly typed, baked and photographed. In spite of being presented in this manner, the recipe is still a keeper, but holding a passed-on recipe card or note that was once held by a loved one who has also passed-on, is a lovely, back-in-time, experience.

In going through my own file box of hand-written recipes, I came across a special recipe for Fettuccine Alfredo. I make it only occasionally, because while the pasta dish is nothing short of scrumptious (and handy for using up a half block of leftover cream cheese), the dish is also over-the-top rich.

Don’t attempt to lighten up these recipes. Yes, they are chock-full of calories, but they are also bursting with “yumm.” So, when serving them, think small, think special – think Nana Sadie.

More in Life

Pork, fermented kimchi and tofu make the base of this recipe for Kimchi stew. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
Kimchi stew ushers in fall

This stew is spicy with a rich broth and fatty bites of pork — perfect for a chilly, clear-skied autumn day

A girl dressed as Snow White takes candy from a witch at the Orca Theater’s Trunk or Treat in Soldotna, Alaska on Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. (Jake Dye/Peninsula Clarion)
October packed with Halloween events

October brings with it fall festivities, trick-or-treating opportunities and other seasonal celebrations

File
Minister’s Message: The right side of fairness

In God’s kingdom, the point isn’t that those who have get more, but that those who don’t have get enough

A copy of “Two Old Women” is held inside the Peninsula Clarion offices on Monday, Sept. 25, 2023, in Kenai, Alaska. (Ahlyn O’Hara/Peninsula Clarion)
Off the Shelf: Athabascan legend enchants, informs

The two women, shocked that they’ve been left behind by their family and friends, resolve that they will not resign themselves to death

Rusty Lancashire does some baking. (1954 photo by Bob and Ira Spring for Better Homes & Garden magazine)
The Lancashires: Evolving lives on the evolving Kenai — Part 5

Ridgeway homesteader Larry Lancashire was reminded of the value of such friendship in December 1950 when he shot another illegal moose

Will Morrow (courtesy)
Passing the time

There are lots of different ways to measure the passage of time

Shredded chicken and vegetables are topped with a butter crust in this classic chicken pot pie. (Photo by Tressa Dale/Peninsula Clarion)
A meal for when you need a hug

This classic chicken pot pie is mild and comforting

Kenneth Branagh portrays Hercule Poirot in “A Haunting in Venice.” (Photo courtesy 20th Century Studios)
On the Screen: Murder most haunting

Hercule Poirot takes on supernatural in latest Agatha Christie adaptation

Most Read