Lost … and rediscovered!
I lost my little box of family recipes in a move, including the gingersnaps my mother made. So now I want to bake! After looking at many that were wrong, I stumbled across this one (the grand prize winner)! Soft, chewy, spicy, and just the same as I remember, except that these also have crystallized ginger - even better!
Amateur Barbarian, if you can scan or transcribe the card maybe somebody here can help out.
Women’s Day or Family Circle had a pull out with Holiday Cookie Recipes, probably in the late 80’s or early 90’s. One was a chocolate crackle cookie with a hint of cinnamon. My favorite ever - the outside crackly (having been rolled in powdered sugar before baking) and the inside soft and almost like a cake brownie.
I suppose you can count this. My ex-wife made the most amazing M&M cookies I’ve ever, ever had. They were always in the house and I ate a lot of them. About once a year, I’d get sick of them and ask her to stop making them for a few weeks but that was it. In the 11 years we were together, I’m sure I’ve eaten thousands upon thousands of them. We’re still on good terms and we have a kid together so I see her on a regular basis and a few months after we split up she brought me a batch of over cooked ones (I like my cookies a bit on the darker side) so I’m sure she still makes them, and to be honest, I could probably just ask her for a batch or ask her for the recipe, but that would be weird and I really don’t need to add 15 M&M cookies a day to my already crappy diet.
Thanks, but I doubt it. The writing is clear enough; it just doesn’t add up to a recipe. I’m not sure what its purpose was - like a reminder card to a master wizard, or something.
Not a recipe I ever had, but . . .
Years ago (late 80s) there was a Chinese restaurant in NYC’s West Village that had a dish called Rainbow Chicken. I’ve seen Rainbow Chicken in other Chinese restaurants, but none of them were like this. It contained fruit like Mandarin oranges, peaches, pineapple and coconut, with a creamy white sauce. It was somewhat sweet. Unfortunately the restaurant closed.
Green tomato chutney
Mrs Zeke
My mom’s arroz con pollo recipe, which she learned, while living in Puerto Rico, from a woman in who spoke no English and my mom spoke no Spanish.
The recipe was lost in a house fire a couple of decades ago. It was different than any arroz con pollo recipe I’ve been able to find in that it does not have saffron in it and it does have tomatoes and peppers. I discussed it on an old usenet group a long time ago and have a couple of candidate recipes but haven’t gotten around to trying it. Don’t really dare to because I am afraid I’ll be disappointed.
A restaurant chef’s recipe for teryaki marinade. It had measurements in “desert spoon” quantities. I got it from my ex-wife’s aunt, alas no longer whinnying with us. Red wine, soy, dry mustard, sugar, garlic, etc. But the quantities are a mystery.
A dessert spoon is 10ml or two teaspoons.
You’re welcome.
Got a conversion factor for “half an eggshell of water?” (Great-something grandmother’s spaetzle.)
That… would have a lot to do with the hens 
Is your mom my age? Around 70? Would she have gotten the recipe from those Pillsbury cookbooks sold in grocery stores?
Because there’s a minestrone recipe in one of those that would qualify as “midwestern”. The stock is made with beef shank. Other ingredients are cabbage, carrots, spaghetti pieces, canned tomatoes, and kidney beans. It’s awesome.
I lost a flan recipe that was ridiculously easy, using sweetened condensed milk. Also an aunt’s orange cake, a chocolate cake made with mayonnaise, and a quiche that makes its own crust and has cheese, bacon, and sliced tomatoes.
Are you my cousin? I had an aunt who made those too.
A local place makes those but with raisin filling instead of dates.
Have I told this story before? I probably have, but I’m gonna repeat myself, because I like this story:
When I was a kid, my father was diagnosed with cancer. During his treatment, my mother often had to be out of town with Daddy, and we had babysitters a lot. Next door to us lived a lovely older couple - he was a retired postman, she was a housewife, and the Wilkeses became very much like grandparents to us, including the standard goodies from the oven.
Well, Daddy died, we moved to a different town, and then another, and mostly lost touch with Mr. and Mrs. Wilkes. About twelve years ago, I went to Mr. Wilkes’ funeral, but I didn’t attend Mrs. Wilkes’ a couple of years later - no one there would have known me.
About 9 years ago, I was in a thrift shop about ten miles away from this little town. I found an old cookbook for a couple of bucks, started thumbing through it, and out fluttered an old envelope front (with a penciled recipe on the back,) addressed to Mrs. J. Wilkes, Route 1, (Small Town Where We Had All Lived) Georgia.
The cookbook has hand-written recipes in the margins, 7-minute icing on the flyleaf, recipes clipped from the paper and taped at the head of a chapter, splattered pages from the most popular recipes… And I now have Mrs. Wilkes’ lemon icebox and lemon meringue pie recipes, her chocolate pound cake secrets, the scribbled notes on how to make her pickled green beans, etc. And I have happy memories.
There’s a near legendary icing recipe that’s gone missing in our family, since my childhood. I contend that it’s nothing more than butter, confectioner’s sugar and vanilla, but as I don’t eat cake any more, I’m not going to try to replicate it, and others disagree, so there you go.
My grandmothers weren’t much in the way of bakers, so I’m fair sure I’m right. My grandmother on my father’s side, on the other hand, was a hell of a cook. Much bacon and lard was employed to great effect, and my grandfather died of a heart attack, a happy man, just one week after his retirement. Probably best most of those recipes remain lost.
That is an awesome story. I can imagine your joy upon making that discovery. 
I have a future lost recipe: My dad makes this amazing Spanish frittata with potatoes, and no one can replicate what he does to make it taste so good. He’s written down a recipe, but lots of people in my family have tried it out and their results never taste exactly right.
When I was a little kid, my mom made a bunch of jars of marmalade using a recipe she found somewhere. It used frozen orange juice concentrate and that’s all I remember. I asked her why she only made it once and she said she lost the recipe- it was on a box or in a magazine or something and got thrown out.
I have my mom’s recipe for a mayo chocolate cake -
[ul]
[li] 1 1/2 cupsS ugar [/li][li] 6 tablespoonsC ocoa [/li][li] 1/2 teaspoonS alt [/li][li] 3 cups Flour [/li][li] 3 teaspoons Baking Soda [/li][li] 1 1/2 cups Mayonnaise [/li][li] 1 1/2 cups Water [/li][li] 1 1/2 teaspoons Vanilla [/li][/ul]
[ol]
[li] Place all ingredients in bowl and beat well.[/li][li] Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 pan.[/li][li] Bake 45 minutes at 350 degrees.[/li][/ol]
Hm, the cooked fudge frosting card is missing, I will have to see if it is on mrAru’s desk, he made it last time and probably forgot to put the card back.
I can remember being told by my mom they used mayo because eggs were fairly strictly rationed [unless you kept chickens]
Ah, snickerdoodles.
[ol]for the cookie dough:
[li]1 3/4 c all-purpose flour[/li][li]1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder[/li][li]1 tsp baking soda[/li][li]1/2 tsp baking powder[/li][li]1/8 tsp of salt[/li][li]1 stick (1/2 c) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature[/li][li]1 c granulated sugar[/li][li]2 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped[/li][li]1 large eggfor the sugar mixture to roll cookie dough in: [/li][li]1/2 c granulated sugar[/li][li]1 tsp ground cinnamon[/li][li]1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder[/li][li] sea salt optional[/li][/ol]
Instructions
[ol]
[li]In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together dry ingredients (flour, cocoa powder, soda, baking powder and salt). Set aside.[/li][li]Melt chocolate over a double boiler. Set aside to cool to room temperature.[/li][li]In a large mixing bowl, beat butter for 30 seconds until creamy. Gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy (3 to 5 minutes).[/li][li]Add egg and mix well.[/li][li]Add melted and cooled chocolate and mix well. Scrape the sides of the bowl if needed.[/li][li]Add the dry ingredients and mix on low just until incorporated.[/li][li]Mix all of the ingredients for the sugar mixture in a flat plate.[/li][li]Scoop the cookie dough using 1,5 Tbsp size scoop, roll in balls and roll in sugar mixture. Place on a plate, cover with foil and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, preferably overnight.[/li][li]When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.[/li][li]Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat.[/li][li]Place cookie dough balls on baking sheets, leaving at least 2 inches of space between them.[/li][li]Bake for 8 to 9 minutes. No longer than 10 minutes.[/li][li]Let cookies cool completely on sheets. They will look wet and underdone in the creases. They will finish baking while cooling.[/li][li]Store in air-tight container for up to 5 days.[/li][/ol]
Notes
The total time depends on how long you refrigerate the dough. Chilling it will produce thicker cookies.
Written out as an aide memoire.
Go ahead and transcribe it, I will see if it is anything like any of the soup recipes I got from my Iowa mom, I can perhaps see if I have anything close enough for you to tweak better to match your memory.
And now I have happy goosebumps! Thank you for sharing that. (If you shared it before, I missed it.)
Thanks! I’ll give it a try when it gets bearable to think of turning on the oven. 
For 20 years my father’s recipe for Early American Pancakes was lost after a move. A few years ago I rediscovered it in a bundle of recipes at my sister’s house. She didn’t even know she had it. I also discovered the dark deep secret of what made them taste so good. Normal pancake recipes call for a tablespoon or two of vegetable oil. This recipe calls for a cup of melted butter. I haven’t dared to make the heart-clogger recipe since I discovered it.