This past weekend was just great! After not seeing each other for almost two years (or more!), much of my family gathered at our youngest daughter’s home to celebrate missed birthdays, upcoming birthdays, and an engagement!
Meghan and I decided to surprise everyone by carrying on my mother’s traditional fall treat – Fruit Kuchen, otherwise known as THE PEACH AND PLUM CAKE. Mom started making this delicious treat in 1963. The last year she made it was 2008, three years before she passed away. Over a 45 year period, Mom only missed making her kuchen 7 times. One was probably due to her being hugely pregnant. (Welcome to the world, baby brother, Dean!) The other “misses” were probably due to illness or hospitalizations. Mom really knew how to carry on a tradition. You can read my 2017 post about tradition here.
How do I know all this? She wrote it down! Mom carefully noted all the dates on the pages of her cookbook. In 2010, we published a family cookbook, Omi’s Kitchen, which contained all my mother’s favorite recipes (including photos from the pages of her cookbook!), some of my siblings’ favorites, and assorted family history tidbits. You can read my original post about Omi’s Kitchen here.
To add to the surprise, we also made a few (33 to be exact) Linzer cookies, a family tradition for Christmas. To round out the “holiday seasons” Andy (my son-in-law) made his fabulous Apple Crumb pie (a new Thanksgiving tradition!). Dean brought cookies and pastries from Lucibello’s in New Haven, so Easter was represented as well.
Can’t wait for the December cookie-making extravaganza!!
Thank you to Marian Burk Wood for encouraging me to post during October – Family History Month.
Who We Are and How We Got This Way 
What a sweet tradition your family had! Love the desserts (yum) and seeing the dates next to the recipes makes me wish I’d begun doing that decades ago. A fun post, great way to kick off Family History Month!
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