My mom is getting up there in years so whenever she comes to visit, I make a point of cooking up some of our favorites from when I lived at home many (many) years ago. Her "recipes" are that in name only - lacking key preparation details, changes to ingredient amounts ("I never used that much sugar"), zero mention of cooking times or temperatures, etc. I'm lucky that her memory is still very sharp so she still remembers all of that missing information. We make the recipe as a "mother - son project" and I take detailed notes along the way so I'll be able to recreate myself the food I remember eating growing up. We have a great time doing it too and it brings back lots of good memories in the process. Most importantly, I don't want to say down the road that "I wish I had the recipe for those cookies but now it is too late".

We nailed the poppy seed squares, the perogies are still a work in progress (the recipe was a little too vague even for her), and dumplings are next.