All Recipes Are Home

by: Marcy Rosenbaum & The Awful Purdies

"Taste, like smell, bypasses the part of the mind that is logical and educable and travels directly to the primitive brain, seat of instinct and memory." (NYT, 1996)

"Not surprisingly so many people who answered the question we asked 'What do you think of when you think of food?', combined reference to favorite dishes with recollections of time spent with family, born to or chosen. Food is what connects me to my eastern European roots (Grandma’s stuffed cabbage), my formative years (my father’s gourmet creations), my current social life. As the song tells, my father took cooking seriously and I still have his old cookbooks, which I occasionally open to the most used pages to try and recreate our time together. I was tickled to get to write this song in collaboration with my band mates, mirroring the care and creative process that has gone into the hundreds of potluck meals we have shared. Yum!"

~ Marcy Rosenbaum

When I miss you, I practice archaeology
Excavating another old recipe
From the book with the well worn pages
I can’t believe I haven’t seen you in ages

ooh... oh the memories
mmm... brings you here with me

Grandma rode on oxcarts, trains and crowded boat,
coming to a new land with just a satchel and a coat
and her book with the dog-eared pages
the flavors of her family to carry through the ages

ooh... oh the memories
mmm... brings you here with me

My father cooked with passion and with revelry
Proudly serving dishes he prepared so tenderly
From the book with the spine now broken
It’s how he showed his love for us though not a word was spoken

ooh... oh the memories
mmm... brings you here with me

Come into the kitchen, listen carefully
let’s make something special like my father made for me
from the book with the sauce-stained pages
Traces of his fingers, relics of life’s stages

ooh... oh the memories
mmm... brings you here with me

When you miss me, gather up your family
Circle round the table and share this old recipe

ooh... oh the memories
mmm... brings you here with me

when you miss me, please practice archaeology