“A calico-covered journal filled with handwritten recipes” left by her paternal grandmother inspired a high-schooler to write an entire book.
The year was 2010. I was starting and lazily giving up on Old Line Plate. Meanwhile, Grace Kenneth Collins was finishing a chapter every month on a book filled with stories and recipes. Presumably, the young go-getter was also completing her homework. According to a list in the Baltimore Sun, she graduated in 2012.
I can’t begrudge Collins for having an enviable amount of gumption, however, because the resulting book, “Sour Beef & Cheesecake: A Food & Family Memoir,” is pretty enjoyable. “I must confess that I am more of a storyteller and an eater than a cook,” wrote Collins in her introduction. The book is filled with charming anecdotes from the vantage point of youth, about adventurous eating, family lore, and of course, food.
“I Think I’d Be Her Favorite” was the title of the chapter with the titular Sour Beef recipe. Collins, having never met her grandmother Mickey, knew her only from family stories and the recipes in the calico journal.
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