From the Family Kitchen Book Review

Every ingredient and recipe in your kitchen has a story. You eat what you eat because of where you came from and the people that fed you along the way. The evolution of your personal food history is directly related to your upbringing, whether it was a holiday tradition that sparked your love for baking or your traditional Italian family that fostered an addiction to all things cheesy. The point is food played an integral role in the formation of your social traditions.

From the Family Kitchen, by Gena Philibert-Ortega, is essential reading for anyone interested in the intersection of cooking, food origins and family traditions. Exploring the cultural, economic and physical factors that influence our food choices, the book inspires readers to dig into their family food histories and preserve them for future generations. In addition to historical guidance and practical genealogical resources, From the Family Kitchen also includes a beautiful recipe journal to encourage readers to record their own family traditions. Whether your interest lies in exploring food history and how certain traditions or tastes came to be, experimenting with vintage recipes and hosting techniques or recording personal food traditions for (and with!) your family, From the Family Kitchen offers something for everyone.

Celebrate Your Family Recipes and Heritage

From Great-grandma's apple pie to Mom's secret-recipe stuffing, food is an important ingredient in every family's history. This three-part keepsake recipe journal will help you celebrate your family recipes and record the precious memories those recipes hold for you--whether they're hilarious anecdotes about a disastrous dish or tender reflections about time spent cooking with a loved one.

The foods we eat tell us so much about who we are, where we live and the era we live in. The same is true for the foods our ancestors ate. This book will show you how to uncover historical recipes and food traditions, offering insight into your ancestors' everyday lives and clues to your genealogy. Inside you'll find:

- Methods for gathering family recipes
- Interview questions to help loved ones record their food memories
- Places to search for historical recipes
- An explanation of how immigrants influenced the American diet
- A look at how technology changed the way people eat
- A glossary of historical cooking terms
- Modern equivalents to historical units of measure
- Actual recipes from late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century cookbooks

This is a wonderful book pack with great information and recipes. It discusses about family food traditions as well as family food history. At the back of the book (about 1/3 of the book) is a recipe journal where you can write down your favorite family recipes and share them with other family members.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gena Philibert Ortega is a consultant for Family History Expos, RootsMagic and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. She speaks on various subjects involving genealogy to nationwide and international audiences via webinars as well as to groups throughout California and Utah. Gena serves as Vice-President for the Southern California Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. She is also a Regional Director for the California State Genealogical Alliance. She is the director of the genealogy social network GenealogyWise, which currently has over 24,000 members.





Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of the book in exchange of my review in this post. Any expressed opinions are my own and personal thoughts. No other compensation was given.