The Cookie Conundrum-

[Mother Of Four]

I've been pondering the Recipe Racket for a little while and I think I've struck on why it bothers me so much that Mrs. McCain takes recipes and doesn't give credit where it's due, instead making claims that they are old family favorites etc.

I have four beautiful children and I've the fortune to be able to stay home to raise them. Cooking for your family (to me) is a highly personal thing. You have to learn your children's tastes, example: when my 13 year old daughter was just a toddler she wouldn't eat mashed potatos unless they were blue. If they were BLUE, you see- they couldn't BE potatos.

It's a PLEASURE to see your family eat what you've prepared for them, and sitting down to eat a meal together gives you time to go over your day and share what's going on in your lives. Trial and error over the years have helped to teach me how to bake, and send goodies into school or to my husbands work.

There is NOTHING wrong with using a recipe from a book or a site, that's what they are placed there for. However, making claims that it's a family thing passed down to you- is presenting a false face to everyone who hears you say it. (or reads it) It's a slap in the face to the people who DO have recipes passed down. It cheapens it.

Sure, maybe it's a minor thing. But to *ME* it's a window to a much bigger problem for the McCains, if she is so bent to present a false face- what exactly is her real one and why doesn't she want to show it?

[annabanana]

1. "If they were BLUE, you see- they couldn't BE potatoes"

Ah..The Lewis Carroll child rearing method... my favorite.

[1Hippiechick]

2. Many times I have used recipes from others and I have no idea where they got them--

-which means they could have been copied directly from a magazine, the back of a package, etc. I'm not trying to play devil's advocate here, just commenting on how unwittingly it could happen to anyone. Some of the recipe posts regarding it being word-for-word were not word-for-word. I haven't checked, but I bet the same recipe could be found on some of the online recipe site such as AllRecipes.com

Just food for thought (pun intended)

[Mother Of Four]

4. I understand that fully-

It's the whole thing of her saying these are passed down, instead of giving credit where it's due.

[1Hippiechick]

12. I guess I was taking it a step further in that she may have been told that it was an old family

recipe, but I see your point. Had that been the case, to be honest about it she would have needed to have said something like, "This is a recipe from a friend who says this has been handed down in her family for generations."

[ccharles000]

3. ...

My mom never made my food blue. She did however put pain medication in my pudding after I had my tooth removed.

[moriah]

5. I have only one recipie that was passed down to me.

It was my grandmother's cornbread dressing for Thanksgiving.

Likely, it's the same type of cornbread dressing most people have. But hers tasted so much better than anyone else's.

I did have to make a modification to it, however, when I first cooked it. You see, I was married to a Romanian immigrant. He was a wonderful cook, and so was his mother. He did most of the cooking. When he came to family Thanksgivings, however, he always said the food just didn't taste right. He couldn't explain why, he just said it was bland, it didn't have flavor. (I have to admit turkey can be bland, but...) I just didn't see how he couldn't like my grandmother's cornbread dressing.

Anyway, we moved away and it was going to be my first Thanksgiving away from my family. He didn't know any traditional Thanksgiving dishes, and had said he just wasn't interested in the holiday. I was. So I made a full Thanksgiving dinner.

However, I'd noticed a commonality when he cooked, and when his mother came to the States and cooked for us -- they both used cilantro in everything. (Some people, BTW, have weird tastebuds and cilantro tastes awful -- it's a genetic issue, similar to the experiments you might have done in high school science class where you tried to see if you could taste that weird chemical.) Fortunately, I wasn't one of those who had a cilantro mistasing gene, or I might have died eating his food. *grin*

So I added cilantro to the mix of herbs in the dressing, added cilantro to the mix of herbs I used to rub the turkey, and then made the rest of the Thanksgiving meal. I did it differently than my family did -- found several recipes on Cooking Light that I thought would be good. Made mashed potatoes with loads of garlic and rosemary, and instead of a sweet potato pie or candied sweet potatoes, I made a recipie that I found on there where you baked sliced sweet potatoes in a mixture of butter, brown sugar, and peach nectar, cooked with dried cranberries and dried apricots. (You cooked the butter and peach nectar mixture first with the dried apricots and cranberries to rehydrate them, and then you layered sweet potatoes and that mixture, and baked it.) Also did what they called "fake cinnamon rolls" where you put butter, cinnamon, and brown sugar in the bottom of a muffin tin and press sliced canned crescent roll dough in -- they look like cinnamon rolls but are really easy to make. Did a pumpkin maple pie -- with the sweeteners used being maple syrup, brown sugar, and Splenda.

He thought I was crazy cooking that much food, and wasn't really convinced he would like any of it. But dutifully he made himself a plate and tried everything. And started raving about it being the best Thanksgiving dinner he'd ever had, that if he'd known I knew how to cook he would have made me cook more often, and ate literally half of the pan of dressing that night, and quite a bit of turkey.

When he asked me why it tasted so much better than the other Thanksgiving dinners he had, I just smiled.

... I had found the secret weapon.... Cilantro!

[Mother Of Four]

6. I was grinning by the middle of the post-

That is awsome- Thank you for sharing that!

[KittyWampus]

8. that's a lovely story. hope it's written down for your children or grandchildren

[fasttense]

7. The whole thing is a lie.

Do you really think Cindy McCain cooks? This is just a sample of her lifestyle:

"Cindy McCain, through a family trust, sold the family mansion in Phoenix for $3.2 million and bought a $4.6 million Phoenix condo in 2006. The couple may also jointly own a condo in Arlington, Va., assessed at $847,800...

John McCain held a barbecue recently for reporters at a two-story cabin near Sedona, Ariz., that sits on 15 acres owned by his wife's family trust and a real estate partnership in her name. The property includes four single-family homes and is worth nearly $1.8 million.

It's clear the rustic retreat is considered family property... The amenities include a soda fountain and, of course, a Budweiser beer tap."

I have worked with the uber wealthy children. They don't know how to wipe their noses let alone how to cook. I knew two teenagers of a very wealthy man (my former boss) and I had to take them in my old jalopy to meet their father one day. One of them asked how to get the window down since there was no button. When I told her about the crank and then showed her with my window, she looked at me as if I were crazy, this was back in 1992.

I guarantee you little Cindy can't cook. Now what are her chefs favorite recipes? That would be interesting.

She is pretending to be middle class and do things like the mass unwashed but she doesn't cook her family's meals anymore than she cleans her own toilets.

[KittyWampus]

10. My friend worked as art counselor at summer camp for wealthy. Topic of buying a used car came up

the girls were like "why would anyone buy a used car"

[Stephanie]

9. Bill Clinton was also asked for a recipe. He said, here's my favorite one that our cook makes for us

Honesty, how refreshing is that? Also the Clinton's cook, Oscar Flores, is now serving in Iraq. And his cookie is getting excellent reviews. Michelle does not pretend to have invented a recipe, she credits the girls' godmother, "Mama Kaye", who gave it to her. But as you point out, pretending a "family friend" gave you the recipe (what is her NAME, Cindy) when it is CLEARLY a copy and paste job by a McCain intern (again) is just a stupid lie.

[goldcanyonaz]

11. I must try those oatmeal cookies, yummy