Buried Treasure

A few days ago G was looking for a specific picture in our old photo alblums. Some of these photo alblums are 25 to 30 years old covering undergraduate days, graduations, single life, marriage and finally the children. Pictures taken with old Kodak cameras, Polaroids and yes prior to the digital era. I don't know how many of you remember the photo albums with the sticky backing covered with a plastic sheet. Well in case you haven't checked, these pages don't age very well. Either the gummy, sticky material adhesives itself to the photo back or all the sticky material seems to vanish resulting in the pictures doing a free fall as you turn page to page.

Anyway, I decided it was time to get new albums and go through these pictures in an organized fashion. No, I'm not into scrapbooking, nor making dainty little laced edge frames with cute words. I simply needed to move pictures from one album to another. I found some nice albums which should last another 30 years and spent the day going through all those memories. I was surprised at the "keepsakes" I had stored in these album pages. This includes annoucements, napkins from special events, dead flowers, cards, obituaries, invitations, handwritten personal letters (from the days before email), newspaper clippings and whatever else I couldn't bare to throw away.

Out of all this (I filled 4 album binders each holding 300 pictures each from about 6 old albums), I came across three flowery stationary pages with 7 handwritten recipes. They were nicely folded but no envelope. The handwritting looked like my mother-in-law's immaculate 4th grade teacher style cursive.

I don't remember ever seeing the recipes before nor are they treats that I can remember her making or that are even her "style". I'm sure I didn't ask for them. The recipes were for "Ice Box Cookies", "Pumpkin Bread", "Divinity", "Spirited Raisin Cookies", "Brownie Mounds", "Candied Nuts" and "Potato Candy". Where they originally came from and how long they have been in that album is a question I'll probably never get answered or at least not anytime soon.

So what will I do with this buried treasure? Even though they are holiday type recipes, I can't wait to try a couple of them now. (The directions are not clear/complete and appear to be written as if it's understood what your steps are.)

Ice Box Cookies

2 1/2 sticks oleo (I'll use butter)
1 1/12 cups confectioners sugar
3 cups flour
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup nuts

Cream butter and sugar, add 1 cup flour and 1 egg (mix). Add remaining flour, salt, vanilla and nuts (mix). Wrap or roll up in wax paper and refrigerate overnight. Cut 1/8 inch slices and bake at 375 deggrees for 10-15 minutes.