The Recipe Borrower

Sailor has posted about experimenting the summer away with some new cookbooks.  But what about turning to your own family and friends?  This summer why not set yourself the goal of learning and perfecting five recipes from your forefathers and five recipes from your friends.  These recipes can be for any kind of thing--what knits them to you is that they were part of your communal life and that you benefited from the skill and talent of another cook who cooked for you.  And you will, in turn, cook for others.

For me the top ten would be: (from family) Cheesecake, Bavarian torte, Yorkshire pudding, Champignons Bordelaise, and a tie between Anise cookies?  Blonde brownies?  Seafood quiche?  (from friends) Wild Mushroom bread pudding, Zabaglione, Torta Rustica, Siamese Chicken Curry, and a tie between Lime Torte, Coconut Cake, Spinach soup . . .

What about you?  A great present for someone would be collecting all the recipes from family and friends and putting them together in some kind of cookbook.