Sharing my recipe - am I being weird about this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I need some perspective on this, and I know I will get honest answers here!

I have a recipe for a thing that I like to make - it's not a family recipe per se, but it was my mother's recipe and she makes it as well. I bring it to potlucks, etc. and it always is very popular. It's a little unusual, but nothing crazy. My MIL has had it a few times at my house or when I've brought it places, and while she's said that she likes it she has never expressed any interest in getting the recipe. Until this weekend, when she said she wanted it so she could submit it to her church for their cookbook. I really don't want my recipe in the church cookbook. It's not like it's a secret that I would never share - I would be fine with giving it to my MIL for her own use - but I'm not a fan of it going in the cookbook and it rubs me the wrong way that she only wants it to put it in there. The cookbook is some benefit for their choir, and she's not even in the choir.

So what say you? Am I being oversensitive about this? Or do I have a right to be a little peeved? And would it be weird to tell her that I don't want it in the cookbook?

She's a member of the Church and the choir is an integral part of the Church. Is she going to give you credit? Once upon a time I was a gourmet cook (rarely cook anymore) and I had recipes that were mine. If someone asked for recipe I gave it to them and never left out an ingredient but I did say that my measurements were never exact and I seasoned to taste. The funny thing is that somebody else's dish using my recipe never tasted as good as mine. Probably because I made dish more often.

I had a cousin who made a coconut cake that was light as air and beyond delicious. I asked her if she would give me recipe and she said, "Honey, I don't really have a recipe but you can come over and watch me and take notes." It didn't work. She's gone now and her coconut cake recipe went with her.

Immitation is the sincerest form of flattery. It's a recipe, not a kidney.

[Anonymous]

I'm gonna be just a lil bit upset if this recipe is for grape jelly meatballs!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It's not a family recipe--it's not something that OP created or invented--it's not even particularly special or unique, apparently. So really, who cares?
Makes me think that OP is exactly the kind of petty, trite, small DIL I sincerely hope never to be stuck with. How do you know your MIL will pass it off as her own? Why care?

Jeez.

Makes me think you're bound to be the over bearing, b*tchy, pain in the *ss MIL we all hope to avoid.