Toby's Table: Illustrated Recipes from Grandma's Kitchen

It all started with a recipe box.

My Grandma Toby collected recipes - traditional family recipes and recipes to feed her husband and six kids on a tight budget. Dinner centered around a picnic table that could hold the whole family.

The table remained a centerpiece as grandkids entered the picture, though the picnic table itself was retired to the back porch over time. Food and the table became a centerpiece for gatherings, holidays, the introduction of new babies, and teenage confessions. You could always sit down with Gram, have a bite to eat, play some Yahtzee, and spill your guts about whatever was going on in your life - no judgment.

When I left for college those recipes became a tie to that table, my Gram, and all those good memories. I'd write Gram and she'd send recipe cards back, hand written in her self-described "chicken scratch." I'd make the recipes when I was lonely or homesick to have a taste of Toby's table no matter where on the planet I was at the time.

Nearly two years ago our family lost my Gram, but her legacy lives on in many ways. One of those is the recipe box which has passed to me. However, to me, the recipes are a family gift and Gram always shared and traded recipes with family, friends, and acquaintances. So during Inktober 2017 I began drawing family favorite recipes to turn them into a cookbook so that I didn't squander the gift of the recipe box.

The Book

This project is the result - a perfect bound book of over 20 of our family's favorite recipes, collected by Grandma Toby throughout her life. Each recipe is hand illustrated in black and white. The book also includes a comic I created celebrating her life and the significance of her table, initially published as part of Square City Comic's 4th Anthology, Sensus Obscura.

I encourage you to take a look, preorder the book through one of the backer rewards on Kickstarter, and whip up a taste of Grandma's house. 

And remember, there's always room at the table.