Review / Pittsburgh Tribune – Review – Cooks share family recipes on kitchen website
Cooks share family recipes on kitchen website
0 Comments | Tribune – Review / Pittsburgh Tribune – Review, Jul 27, 2010 | by Candy Williams
Fond family memories can be as close as a recipe card — or an interactive website dedicated to sharing recipes, stories and cooking traditions.
For Pat Quolke of Mt. Lebanon, Our Kitchen Stories — an online community sponsored by Shop ‘n Save — is a good way to pass on her favorite dishes to her large extended family. Her mother, the late Eleanor Quolke of Emsworth, had 10 siblings, nine children, 25 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, with numbers 11 and 12 on the way.
Since her mom has been gone, Pat says she and her four sisters started a tradition of spending a weekend together once a year at one of the sisters’ lakeside home near Cleveland. This will be the 13th summer the women make the trek together.
“There’s always lots of good food,” Quolke says. “We make meals for each other, and we’re always saying to each other, ‘Send me that recipe when you get home.’ “
One of her most-requested recipes is for her mother’s gingersnap cookies, which Pat says are chewy rather than crispy “and everyone loves them.” Grandma Quolke’s Gingersnaps is one of several recipes that Pat has posted on the Our Kitchen Stories site, www.ourkitchenstories.com.
“It’s a nice way to share it with everyone, and every time I make them, I think of her,” Quolke says.
She also posted her mother’s recipe for Grandma Quolke’s Nutbread, a recipe that has been in her family for more than 50 years.
“Her small nutbread loaves were made in empty Campbell’s soup cans,” Quolke says. “After they were baked, she’d wrap them in Saran Wrap with bright ribbons and give them as Christmas gifts to family and friends.”
Another contributor to Our Kitchen Stories is Susan Loya of Mt. Washington, a retired social worker who admits she’s “not real computer savvy,” but finds the recipe exchange site easy to maneuver.
“The whole concept is very inviting,” Loya says.
Loya has added her recipes for Korean Spinach Salad, Southern Baked Fish, Simple Salmon and her mother-in-law’s recipe for Mama’s Golden Pound Cake.
“She made a lot of foods the family enjoyed,” Loya says. “She was of Serbian background and was very involved in the Mothers’ Club at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in McKeesport. In the ’50s, she helped spearhead a collection of recipes that was compiled by the club.”
Our Kitchen Stories features recipes grouped by heritage, course/ dish, main ingredient and seasonal holidays. A separate section includes recipes submitted by Shop ‘n Save employees.
In addition to posting their recipes and stories, visitors can interact with other users, read their family stories and locate recipes to fill their personal online cookbooks.
“We wanted to create a community that would preserve the rich culinary heritage of this region and the legacies of some of the best everyday chefs in our region — our mothers, our grandmothers and even great-grandmothers,” says Shannon Baker, spokeswoman for Shop ‘n Save.
“We thought about the wonderful neighborhoods that make up Pittsburgh — German town, Polish Hill, Bloomfield,” she says. “We wanted to allow generations of families and friends to share the recipes that are unique to our communities, that they grew up with, and that they can continue to enjoy and share.”
Nearly 600 stories and recipes from Western Pennsylvania cooks have been posted to the website since its launch in the spring, Baker says. The site will continue to evolve with more features to be added, including tips and trends from professional chefs and special offers from Shop ‘n Save.
Baker attributes the success of the website to the resurgence of interest in home cooking.
“More and more people are going back to their kitchens and making meal preparation a family affair,” she says. “Cooking at home is a way to slow down, save money and enjoy family and friends.”
Grandma Quolke’s Gingersnaps
This recipe is from Pat Quolke from My. Lebanon.
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
Sift together all of the dry ingredients. Set aside.
Melt the shortening; cool. Once cooled, add the sugar, molasses and egg
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