Antique Recipes and Running Away to Home 2.0

Robert and Jeem messing around on the day of Robert’s potato harvest. They spent a lot of time taking pictures of the weird ones.

The Running Away to Home paperback comes out Oct. 2. To celebrate the new edition, with travel photos and antique recipes, I’m kicking off a blog series about foods passed down through the generations.

These first recipes were gathered by the good Croatian-Americans of Centerville, Iowa. For years, this former coal mining community gathered for Croatia Fest to celebrate Croatian history, food and song. (Incidentally, they also have a gorgeous library with a stained-glass domed ceiling that houses some great genealogy information).

When I wrote Running Away to Home, one theme stayed in my mind: When we forget our connections with the rest of the world, we lose what it means to be Americans in the first place.

For my family, the best way to keep those connections is through food. Centerville published Croatia Fest recipe books, which reader Patty Timmens shared. That’s where our first recipes will come from.

Here’s the first line of the first paragraph of the first book (firsts!):

It is believed that the first home of the Croatians may have been situated in present day Afghanistan, located in Turkey in 500 B.C.

Did you even know that? I didn’t. Always thought I was full-on European white girl, and here comes a revelation to blow that thought so much further east.

We’re all connected.

I hope you’ll consider contributing your family’s antique recipes, too, be they Croatian or Czech or French or Norwegian or African or Pakistani or Indian or Latin. We all need to eat, and we all love our home foods. To share a family recipe handed down through the generations, send it to me via email by clicking here and I’ll publish it on this blog or email the document to jen@jennifer-wilson.com.

It’s a common connection. And a tasty one, too. Let’s eat!

Mrkopalj knew how to plant a garden—great potatoes in particular. Here’s a recipe to use the fresh ones coming into season. Sprinkle on fresh herbs for extra tastiness. Or bacon! Bacon always works.

POTATO SOUP (JUHA OD KRUMPIRA) by Helen Bubenyak

2 T butter                                                            1 T chopped parsley

2 T chopped onions                                         ½ c chopped celery

2 ½ t salt                                                            2 c diced potatoes

1/8 t pepper                                                        2 c water

1 t flour                                                                3 c milk

Heat butter in one-quart saucepan, until lightly browned. Add onions and fry slowly until yellow and tender. Then add salt, pepper and flour. Blend well.

Add parsley, celery, potatoes and water. Mix thoroughly, cover, place over high heat (about 3 to 5 minutes). Reduce to low and cook 15 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Add milk. Heat thoroughly. Serves 6.

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