Woman Uses Kitchen Design to Turn Her Grandmother's Famous Noodle Recipe into a Beautiful Tribute
There’s nothing homier than filling your house with family heirlooms. And for many women, mementos from loved ones can be the necessary detail that turns a new house into a home.
One homeowner’s special tribute to her grandmother recently warmed hearts online after she used the design of her new kitchen to creatively honor her family’s history.
Amanda Reger was finally building her dream home. The mom of three had designed the new house “from scratch,” and she was especially excited to be able to add a few personal touches to the place where her daughters would grow up.
There was one area of her new kitchen that seemed perfect for a unique detail — though she wasn’t sure exactly what she wanted to do with it.
“That area of our pantry had the perfect stretch of wall for an interesting backsplash,” Reger told The Western Journal. “I used subway tile everywhere else but wanted something special that still fit my design.”
But soon after she started brainstorming an idea for the wall, she remembered a special gift from her grandmother.
“My grandma is known for her noodle recipe which was passed down to her from my great-grandma and was recently passed down to me,” Reger wrote on Instagram. “It’s the best noodle you’ll ever eat and it’s famous in our family.”
When her grandmother gave Reger the treasured recipe, she wrote it out on a card in her own handwriting. The piece of family history meant a great deal to the 32-year-old, as it represented years of the women in her family caring and providing for their loved ones.
“Around the time I was choosing all of our fixtures and such, I dug out my grandma’s noodle recipe that she wrote out,” she said. “My girls had requested chicken and noodles for supper that week.”
“I will be honest,” the mom told The Western Journal, “I usually grab a bag of frozen egg noodles. But I finally got brave enough to try my grandma’s recipe. She always talks about how the trick is rolling them thin enough and I was nervous I just wouldn’t do it right.”
But Reger’s grandmother, Esther Ricketts, couldn’t have been more excited to have her granddaughter join the long-standing tradition.
“At last we have another noodle maker in the family!” she wrote in a text message to Amanda. “I am so proud of you!”
That’s when Reger decided to immortalize the family recipe in her kitchen.
“For me, this recipe is comfort — family — Sunday dinner memories,” she told The Western Journal. “I used to sneak in on Sundays and sneak the noodles off of the table while they were drying. My girls love them raw too. It’s just that one special well-known dish in our family.”
She knew she wanted the recipe displayed somewhere it would always serve as a reminder of the women who had come before her.
The mom of three used Limitless Walls, a custom-mural printing company in North Carolina, to create a customized backsplash from a scan of the noodle note, “complete with the smudges from my girls helping me make them that day.”
“I always admired [Ricketts’] penmanship and thought with the black and white writing it would fit perfectly with the other elements of our home. The wall is scanned from the original recipe card she wrote for me. It’s all just so special,” the granddaughter added.
“It’s one of my very favorite parts of our home,” she wrote on Instagram.
After installing the finished product, the only thing left to do was reveal the tribute to Ricketts. Reger gathered her family and invited her grandmother over, filming the sweet moment the older woman saw the new wall for the first time.
Her reaction was priceless.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BwgVkt5AzIc/?fbclid=IwAR0NoPdJ-5PG_5KKWKzMAMQdY0kgb7UgQRNCUw6TaJGHI1XuZ-Nb1HeaSBI
In the video, someone hands Ricketts a tissue, saying, “You’ll need this.”
The prediction quickly comes true, as the grandmother grows emotional seeing her own familiar writing etched on the wall.
“She always has the perfect words to make you feel like you’re the most special and brilliant person she’s ever known,” Reger said of her grandmother. The special video shows just how important it is to surround ourselves with reminders of home.
Since having the wall revealed to her, Ricketts has handed down a treasured rolling pin that was Reger’s great grandmother’s, excited to see her granddaughter continuing with family traditions.
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