One man's Trash...

         "Where is that recipe book of Mums? The one that has her beef casserole in it. It's here somewhere because I know I used it just last week when Nicole came over for dinner. Did you put it away somewhere, 'cause you're always stuffing things in the drawers any old way."
         "No Darling, I don't know where it is." replied my husband Russell absent-mindedly. He is watching TV so I guess I should be happy I received a reply at all. Realising that there is unlikely to be much help from him, I decide to start a systematic search of the kitchen and it's not long before I locate it in the third drawer. I tell my husband a little sarcastically that he can stop looking now, and get no response.
         I sigh a little as I glance across at the photo of Mum. The frame really leaves a lot to be desired - it doesn't suit the room at all. She gave it to us when she paid us a visit last month, along with quite a few other knick-knacks.
         Since my father passed away, Mum has decided to unclutter her life. Hence the photo, and the recipe book and numerous other items that I've inherited over the last 18 months. It seems that every time I see her, I come back with something new. Last time she hinted that maybe I would like to take her cat, God forbid. My two crazy whippets would have a ball with a cat!
         I try to appreciate the gifts, I really do. They're my Mum's after all. But some of them are of just no use. And it's really hard to find sentimental value in the majority of them.
         Take her recipe book for example. You would think that because I'm a chef, I would enjoy and appreciate having my Mum's recipes. I am after all planning to leave my own treasured recipe book to my daughter, fully expecting it to be as important to her as it is to me.
         But Mum's recipe book is a mess. She has recipes cut, torn or photocopied and stuck into an old school exercise book. There are no sections whatsoever, and there's definitely no such thing as an index. Every time you open it, bits fall out, and many of the pages are stuck together from where she has spilled some unknown ingredient on it.
         To tell you the truth, I'm surprised she has a recipe book. I don't remember ever seeing her use one. I don't think she really enjoys cooking - but she does enjoy good food, I'll give her that. And she has superb tastebuds! She can taste a new recipe that I'm contemplating adding to the Cafe' menu, and after some thought say, "It's very nice, but..." . She will go on to suggest that I add some little thing and much to my annoyance, she's usually right. The pumpkin soup would be fine without a carrot blended through it, but it's the carrot that adds that extra dimension to the colour and flavour.
         As I search through her recipe book for the beef casserole, I realise that many of the recipes have one or two ingredients scribbled across the pages. I had seen this before, but really hadn’t taken much notice. Now I realise that they are the little extras she knew the recipe needed to make it really something special. As I flick further through the book, I see that the added ingredients are quite unusual and not something that I would ever have thought of adding myself. I realise that maybe I really do have a treasure here. I grab a highlighter and start from the beginning, sorting and reorganising the recipes with all the respect and care they deserve.