Mount Pleasant family recipe shared on headstone of nearby cemetery
Family recipe shared on headstone
We all have family recipes, whether they are new or old. When you think of where to keep them, the kitchen seems like a perfectly good place. But one woman's mind went to the cemetery.
MOUNT PLEASANT, Wis. - We all have family recipes, whether they are new or old. When you think of where to keep them, the kitchen seems like a perfectly good place. But one woman's mind went to the cemetery.
Cemetery recipes?!
What we know:
There is one dish Wisconsin's Michele Robinson has cooked and cut too many times to count – Spaghetti Chicken Casserole.
Robinson said her mother, Karen, made the dish almost weekly. Now, at her Mount Pleasant home, Robinson made it for FOX6 News.
The backstory:
Robinson's mom passed away in 2017. Michelle said cooking was her mother's love language – with Spaghetti Chicken Casserole being the grandkids' favorite.
Should Robinson ever forget that recipe, all she needs to do is drive eight minutes to the cemetery, or walk a few feet to her backyard, where a replica headstone exists.
"So, here's the bench and the recipe's actually on this backside here," Robinson said.
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That's right – the recipe for Spaghetti Chicken Casserole is engraved on Karen's headstone.
"Had to do something big for her," Robinson said. "The recipe, that was her that was her world."
Michele Robinson
Recipe is in a book
Dig deeper:
In addition to the gravestone, the recipe is also written in Los Angeles author Rosie Grant's book, "To Die For." The book is a compilation of 40 gravestone recipes with stories on each family.
"There's just something really powerful about food to remind us and connect us with the memories of a lost loved one," Grant told FOX6 News.
Grant said the idea came after she interned at a cemetery. She saw unique gravestones, including one with recipes.
"I just kept cooking them and trying the recipes and eventually more came out of the woodwork," Grant said.
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People eventually started sending photos and recipes to her, leading her to travel around, and document the families and the food.
"It's a celebration of each of these people," Grant said.
"Forever memorialized. They'll know my mom for her recipe if nothing else," Robinson said.
Recipe: Grandma's Spaghetti Chicken Casserole
Ingredients
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 1 medium red pepper, chopped fine
- 1 small union, chopped fine
- ¼ pound butter (cook 5 minutes)
- ½ cup grated cheddar cheese
- 2 cups of diced chicken
- 1 can cream of chicken soup
- 1 cup milk
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 jar pimento, chopped and drained
- 1-7 oz. spaghetti, cooked and drained
Instructions: Bake 350° for 30 minutes, or until bubbly and cheese is melted.
The Source: Information in this post was produced by FOX6 News.