In this video, Maha Pulomena shares two of her favorite recipes from childhood, ones that she still enjoyed cooking for her family as an adult. Her mother passed on one of her favorite cookbooks to Maha so that she could make them for her own family. During the filming of this tutorial, Maha mentioned that she had her favorite recipes from the book, like Mujadarah, memorized, but that she would always keep the book itself because it reminded her of her mother and bears her mother’s handwritten inscription. She also joked that she is having a hard time deciding which of her children to pass it to, whether her daughter or her son, Matt, who you see in the video.
Favorite recipes are shared not just because they are delicious, but because they have meaning. When we share food with each other, we create meaning. Food provides both physical and psychological comfort, and we remember loved ones through sharing their recipes.
Maha Pulomena’s story underscores two very important aspects of foodways: the role cookbooks play in our lives, and the way we use food to remember those who have passed away.
Cookbooks, whether formally published or put together by a local or affiliated group (often called “community cookbooks”), are one of the most important ways that we use to preserve our recipes. Some people learn how to cook entirely from cookbooks, and some people contribute their own family recipes to community cookbooks to share with others. These recipes and the cookbooks that hold them become important family heirlooms, and ways to share the past with new generations.
The next time you see a community cookbook, take a look through its pages. Was it put together by a library association? A church or a mosque? An extended family? Imagine the stories told around those recipes, and the families who share them.
Videos
Mujadarah – English
Labaneh – English
Mujadarah – Español
Labaneh – Español
Recipe Cards
(PDF download in English and Spanish)
Behind The Scenes