The summer she battled cancer, mom cleaned out her recipe box and left the things she loved and used. My sisters and I spent lots of time trying to figure out the best way for us all to get the recipes. I was troubled thinking that my sisters wouldn't be able to keep everything the recipe box entailed if I only made copies for them. I began to brainstorm on the best way to preserve all that the box encompassed that was mom. And so this book was born. Other than the pictures, its only contents are the true items that came out of mom's recipe box.



We were not always kind to mom's cooking. Once upon a time, mom made ratatouille, an acquired taste for adults who actually like vegetables...much less kids under 10 who did not. We hated it so much that Lara wrote up a contract binding mom to never make ratatouille again. We made mom sign it. It is in moments just like those...the ones where we did not appreciate her attempts to try new recipes...that mom would exclaim in protest, "I'm going to go out to the backyard and eat worms!"