The Penknife Gift Guide
The food gift that keeps on giving
I am incredibly easy to buy for. I love a bauble, adore a silly little kitchen trinket, will gladly add any cookbook or food related text to my shelves, and don’t get me started on my cardigan obsession. There are plenty of things I want and will enjoy if given, but truthfully, I don’t need anything. So when my extended family inevitable asks, “What do you want for Christmas?” I really just want to wave them off and say I don’t want anything, but they won’t listen and inevitably fret over what to get and then panic-buy a gift card. I truly believe it is the thought that counts, but thoughts are a precious commodity this time of year and thinking of others requires a fair amount of mental labor. And it’s rarely my grandfathers or uncles thinking about these gifts. The last thing I want to ask my busy, self-employed aunt—also the mother of four—to do is waste any of her precious mental bandwidth on hand wringing over a present and spending her money on me.
This year, all I want for Christmas are recipes.
I want my aunt’s lasagna, which I know she pulled from the back of a pasta box, but I want it written in her beautiful bubbly script with all the ingredient subs and little riffs that make the dish her own. I want my grandma’s sesame chicken nuggets that used to be THE event of the summer every year, drawing out neighbors and friends as she fried up batch after batch of crunchy, crispy bites. I want my grandad’s spinach and spam that he devised as a bachelor all those years ago. I want my brother-in-law’s granola that he makes every week for my sister-in-law’s breakfasts. And I want my great aunt’s molasses cookies that are always in her cupboard and I need her to tell me how she keeps them so snappy despite the Houston humidity.
I want these recipes. I will use these recipes. I need these recipes because they will help me feel close to my family even when we’re far apart. And while many of these recipes were inspired by other preexisting ones, I want the recipes as they see them and make them in their own kitchens.
Fifty years from now, the cookbooks published right now will be helpful texts that tell of the ways we were told to cook or told how other people cooked. Few, if any, modern publishers allow a cook to publish a recipe just as they make it in their own kitchen, with all the embodied bits and pieces of context that make it so human. That heavy handed pour of vanilla, using that cast iron pan that has decades of seasoning built up, those specific spices lovingly sent from a home across the sea. That doesn’t make cookbooks and their recipes any less important or special, but they are just one part of the larger picture. A scene that recipes, passed from one person into the hands of another, help fill out and make whole.
“What do you want for Christmas?”
I want your recipes. Doesn’t have to be now, doesn’t have to be by Christmas, but whenever you have the chance.
And, I hear y’all grumbling: recipes take time and labor, too! Girl, I know. So to that end, I’ve come up with a few items that double as reverse gifts that will also help lessen the burden on the folks being asked to share their culinary knowledge.
Set your gift giver up for success with a few new writing tools to make the process feel special and specific to the two of you. Good writing tools make writing even more enjoyable, so consider the recipient, their writing needs and preferences, and consider letting them keep the extra supplies if possible. I’m imagining most folks you might ask for recipes will be fine, if not keener, to use physical writing tools over digital ones. That said, if someone prefers to send you digital recipes, consider setting up a shared online storage folder or make a dedicated email thread and be virtual pen pals!
a journal - doesn’t have to be a dedicated one for recipes, but I do like the very pretty recipe journals from Papier!
recipe cards - index cards work just fine, but you can find some great vintage recipe cards online.
pens - everyone has a favorite; if not, go for something fun!
pencils - for folks who might make mistakes or want to update ratios! here’s a set that includes a selection of curated pencil options!
As a professional writer, I can tell you with complete certainty that writing is work and the best way to get work done is with support systems. My system usually involves three different types of drinks, chocolate, and various moody playlists.
tasty snacks and treats - a fancy chocolate bar (I like this women owned brand), a selection of their favorite chips, a container of homemade something or other!
a coffee shop gift card - third places are great for recipe writing!
a playlist for writing to - set the mood!
I recognize that not everyone is comfortable with sharing their hard-earned recipes. There is an established understanding and etiquette about recipe sharing and if someone says no, you need to respect it (lest you suffer the consequences). If you’d like to pressure them just a little bit though, consider one of the following:
ingredients from the requested recipes - a special spice, a bag of local flour, a jar of good tomato sauce.
a new apron - I’m currently obsessed with this see-through one.
the promise of a homecooked meal - get out your craft supplies and make a coupon book!
do a recipe swap! - use my recipe cards below!
My favorite part about asking for recipes is that it isn’t just a gift for you, it’s almost always a gift for them to share their food memories, too. It’s a gift for the whole world (and future food scholars!) to have those recipes written down. And, you can spend as little or as much as you like and you are able. Bonus: this gift counts as both a material item AND an experience!
Print the above on standard printer paper or on heavier cardstock, cut into four, and write down your recipes!
Happy gift giving!