The start and reason(s) for this website/blog came together over a longer time period. It started with my nieces here in the USA asking if we had any of Oma Kaethe’s Recipes (Grandma) translated into English.

During a conversation with my sister in Florida (their mother) I discovered, that my mother’s old cookbook was in her possession and she was willing to share it with me.

This cookbook is handwritten and the beginning of it goes back the time she finished school over 80 years ago. Some of the recipes in it even predate her as they are handed down from her Grandmother and considering that are now spanning seven generations in our family.

So my wife and I scanned the book and translated it page by page over a 2 year period. My wife added many of my mother’s recipes’ which where nowhere to be found in that old cookbook, in a separate section. We combined it all and burned CD’s for every member in our family, also our nieces and nephews in Germany.

This cookbook could actually be considered a small guide to German culinary history. Some recipes reflect the substitutions they made during and after World War II, it also shows what was in short supply or available during the “bad times” after the war by comparing the ingredients list (different ingredient amounts she documented at least 15 separate times over the years) of the annual “Christmas Stollen”. As a little note, the recipe we use for our Stollen ingredients dates back to her list from 1954.

Let me just mention that I was nice enough to return the original cookbook to my sister.

As we found more recipes from my mother after completion of this task and talking to my sister Inge in Germany we decided to start a recipe website in German (ingeskueche.com) and English (ingeskitchen.com) to share these and other recipes we like.

We also included recipes from my wife’s family and some we received from friends and customers .

I hope you will enjoy our effort.