The Baby Bear Stew Story

The story continues…..
We left off with the first version of the cookbook being printed and distributed in 1979, as a surprise Christmas gift for our family. They all loved the gift and asked if we had more copies to give to their friends….fast forward from 1979 to 1990…”Several moves later, when the Weisser family returned to California from Guam, Kerry decided to expand the earlier version of the cookbook.”

With the help of my brother, Rad, and his original Mac computer that used floppy disks, I began to type up more of our family favorite recipes. With the help of my mom, sister and aunt Nancy, we collected more recipes and tested each one to make sure it would make the cut before it was added to the cookbook. My Uncle Yogi and cousin Kurt owned a printing company in Redwood city and they published the first edition of Baby Bear Stew: A Family Heritage Cookbook. Helping illustrate the cookbook were the oldest three of my four daughters-at the time Rachel was 9, Jessica was 7, Bethany was 4 and Bekah was 18 months old. Bekah did get her handprint made into a turkey for one of the illustrations and she was my sweet baby buddy who sat and played on a blanket near me while I typed every day. Each chapter begins with a drawing and a saying like “You can give without loving, but you can’t love without giving”.

The 1990 newspaper article explains…”All the recipes are “tried and true”. Most are relatively simple or “easy gourmet” but there are a few elegant ones like Nancy’s Flaming Veal and Gram’s Orange Tarragon Chicken with Grapes. Most of the salad recipes have been adapted to use plain yogurt instead of sour cream for health conscious people who are watching their cholesterol and fat intake.” This was a fairly new concept in 1990 and as the years have gone by, my daughters and I have made many more adaptations to all of our favorite recipes to make them healthier. We all just mark up our copies of the cookbook and as you can see in the picture below, my copy has been used so much in the past 25 years that the cover has fallen off….time for an updated version!!!!!

When the first edition, a 220 page spiral bound book with over 300 recipes was published in 1990, we had a book signing at my aunt Nancy’s house and invited all our friends. We sold over 200 copies that day and have to date sold over 1,000 copies. We just had 200 copies of this first edition reprinted a few months ago that will be available for sale through our blog at the end of this week.
My dream is to write another cookbook during the 2015 calendar year, as a 25 year anniversary tribute, that will be ready to sell by next Christmas.

The book’s title, Baby Bear Stew, comes from a favorite family story……..
One day, my mom, (aka Grammie Rozzie) made a pot of vegetable chili, which none of us kids wanted to eat. Unperturbed, she started to tell us a story. It was about a baby bear on a cold wintery day, whose mother set before him a dish of warm stew called Baby Bear Stew. Wide-eyed, my brother, sister and I listened to the story of the baby bear and started eating our stew. By the time the story was finished, so were our bowls of vegetable chili-which ever after was forever called Baby Bear Stew. It has become our family’s signature dish-served at all big family functions.

Our giveaway looks a little different this week. Come back tomorrow for the first day to enter! This giveaway will go all the way through next Tuesday (December 10)! Please share with family and friends as we share a family tradition and heirloom that is very close to our hearts! The winner will be announced on Wednesday- it will be worth the wait 🙂 And don’t forget…You will have the opportunity to purchase Baby Bear Stew: A Family Heritage Cookbook next week (Great Christmas Presents!! :D)!

Family recipes are a great way to share traditions, memories and love. Cooking with your children is a great way to pass on a legacy of love.