Mother Knows Best

CURATING | by JANNA LUFKIN

A COUPLE TIMES A YEAR MOM COMES TO VISIT. We all have favorite things we like to do when she arrives. My husband breaks out bottles of wine he’s been saving for someone special. Our daughter gets Grandma’s advice with a sewing or craft project. Me? I take complete advantage of her — I get her to help me with a project.

A number of years ago I had a whopper: organizing my ever-growing heap of recipes.

I had a mess of recipe cards, newspaper clippings and torn-out magazine pages. My intentions to try new things were good — my system to find them was not.

Imagine my surprise when the ultimate organizer revealed she didn’t really have much of a system either. WHAT?

So over a long weekend of sorting, sharing and laughing, we designed one that worked.

Here it is:

• We started sorting, piling and tossing, accompanied by comments like “You think this sounds good?” and “Seriously, you’d make that?”
• Once sorted, we filed tried-and-true recipe cards by type, from A to Z, into a file box.
• Next, we inserted favorite recipe clippings into 3-ring binder sleeves and organized them from A to Z into binders.
• We reserved one 3-ring binder for holiday recipes. “Oh, so you have that recipe — I was looking for that!” (Amuma’s Rice Pudding.)
• Lastly, we filed untried recipes, sorted and alphabetized by type, into accordion files. When I’m ready for something new I’ll try one. If it’s good I file it in my permanent system; if not, I toss it.

I think of Mom and that weekend day in and out and I thank her over and over again. Not only for the solution to my problem, but for the precious memory of the time we spent together.