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| Our family inherits traditions from various cultures: African, African-American, American, Chicano, Mexican, among others. These disparate cultural influences have played an important role in the food that has nourished us and occupied a supporting role to many of the important ceremonies and rites of passage that have been the milestones of our lives. I have attempted to capture into a physical record the recipes that have been passed down orally or collected for one reason or another.
A cookbook is generally not considered a piece of literature nor is cooking often considered more than just an applied science. Yet, a cookbook can be the most appropriate medium for snippets of cultural or familial autobiography and storytelling. And cooking as alchemy is born when the measurement and combination of natural elements are accompanied by magic. This cookbook seeks to contribute to the elevation of cooking, traditionally performed by women, to an art form.
Almost intuitively, we manifest our inheritances through our actions that bind us in time to the souls of our past and future.
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Recipes are an important part of this cultural, gender, and familial heritage. I hope this cookbook helps the women of my family to reach the lofty goal of recollecting the memory of our culture, our clan, and our gender and the more practical goal of sharing recipes of all kinds that bring comfort to our daily lives. I also hope that as you use this cookbook, you will make corrections, add recipes, or write in memories, anecdotes, or other musings to be added to future versions of the cookbook. - Adrienne S. (2/10/2002)
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