Some years ago, my mom polled all of the (very large) extended family about what their favorite dishes were that Gramma made. She then got all of the recipes from her, put them all together in a book, and gave a copy to each of us for Christmas that year. It’s the only cookbook I ever use (even though some of the recipes got transcribed a bit wrong).
I inherited my mother’s cookbooks with all her handwritten recipes, a lot of which are attributed to this friend or that. There is one in there that is attributed to my great grandmother. I use her Christmas cookie recipes every year, and I make her batter bread quite often.
Yeah, when I’m doing the “Sunday gravy” sort of spaghettit sauce–slow cooked with a lot of meats-- or a bolognese, I always start with a soffritto of onions, carrots, and celery, before building the sauce with the rest of the ingredients. It’s not an unusual way to start those types of sauces at all. In fact, that combination of onions, carrots, and celery is often called the “holy trinity” of Italian cookery. I’m not entirely sure I’ve even seen a recipe for bolognese that didn’t call for carrots.