While pursuing her masters in Library Science, author and archivist Rosie Grant created a TikTok account called GhostlyArchive, which focused on unique gravestones.  

She discovered Naomi Miller-Dawson's recipe for Spritz Cookies carved into her headstone at Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, N.Y., and decided to post the process of making the cookies for her TikTok audience. "My world overnight blew up," she told "Sunday Morning." It was like crazy, the response from people."

She soon learned of a particular niche in cemetery testaments: recipes etched in stone, immortalizing the loving dishes that the dearly departed had cooked or baked in life for their loved ones. She's now collected the recipes and the stories behind them in a new book, "To Die For."

Below is the recipe for Spaghetti Chicken Casserole that Karen Nelson made for her Wisconsin family, and which is made permanent in her gravestone. Karen's daughter, Michele Robinson, told "Sunday Morning," "Every time we have it, we think of her and then we start telling stories about her. It's always fun to reminisce then."

Spaghetti Chicken Casserole
By Karen Nelson

Ingredients:
2 ounces spaghetti
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
2 cups diced cooked chicken
1 medium red bell pepper, chopped fine
1 small onion, chopped fine
1 jar pimento peppers, drained and chopped
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
One 10.5-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
One 10.5-ounce can cream of chicken soup
1 cup milk

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Cook the spaghetti according to package directions.

In a small saucepan, cook the butter for 5 minutes over low heat.

In a casserole dish, combine the cooked spaghetti, chicken, bell pepper, onion, pimento peppers, cheddar, salt, and pepper. Pour on the melted butter, cream of mushroom soup, chicken soup, and milk.

Bake for about 30 minutes, or until bubbling and the cheese is melted.

Serve and bake with love.

Recipe from "To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes" by Rosie Grant. © 2025 by Rosie Grant. Reproduced by permission of Harvest, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.

     
For more info:

• "To Die For: A Cookbook of Gravestone Recipes" by Rosie Grant (Harvest), in Hardcover and eBook formats, available via Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Bookshop.org
• GhostlyArchive in TikTok

Check out more recipes from the "Sunday Morning" 2025 Food Issue Recipe Index!