LUCY BURDETTE: I have been obsessed with cookbooks for as long as I’ve been cooking, starting back in my 20s. If you looked at my shelves, you'd be tempted to say I have enough, especially considering the fact that I often use the New York Times cooking app to find the recipe I will make next.
But consider that I am (and probably lots of you are) cooking more than ever because of the pandemic. And besides, I'm on a mission to continue to support indie bookstores. And finally, most of these are tax-deductible because I honestly do use them in my work. So I keep buying, somewhat to John’s chagrin. I thought I’d share some of my recent scores and get your suggestions.
Alison Roman's NOTHING FANCY is a new favorite, worth the price of admission if only for her perfect and amazing slow roasted chicken. Lots of other great recipes here too that don’t require gourmet cooking skills to produce.
DRINKING FRENCH by David Lebovitz is mostly all about beverages as you can tell by the title. I bought it as soon as it came out because I follow David avidly. I haven’t used it yet but my friend and fellow Francophile Carol worked her way through many of the recipes during the pandemic. I might start with a tangerine twist...and I suspect we could find our Jungle Red Writers Christmas cocktail in this book.
While we were in Scotland, I saw the OUTLANDER KITCHEN in a gift shop, which bases recipes on Diana Gabaldon's series. Of course I needed it because Hayley Snow would need to cook from it for her report on Scottish food. Besides, it’s a beautiful book and has snippets from all the Gabaldon books that fans will especially enjoy.
Our Jungle Red friend Grace mentioned Diane Mott Davidson‘s cookbook, GOLDY'S KITCHEN COOKBOOK, based on her caterer Goldie's mystery adventures. That reminded me that I probably needed this. I’m really enjoying reading the text, as it’s very personal and gives a good sense of the author behind this series.
Okay that's all the damage I've done recently, though I'm almost ready to order Melissa Clark's DINNER IN FRENCH. How about you guys? Any new or particularly beloved cookbooks to add to this list?
Oh, Lucy, now I’m so tempted to add a few more cookbooks to my collection . . . .
ReplyDeleteI often look online for recipes, but here are a few of my favorite, always-used cookbooks:
The Joy of Cooking . . . but it has to be from 1973 or an earlier edition . . . after that they “updated” recipes or changed them to be healthier and spoiled most of the recipes. More than any of the others, this is my go-to book . . . .
Recipes from a Very Small Island has wonderful seafood dishes; Bobby Flay’s Throwdown! has several really good recipes.
I have several Jeff Smith [The Frugal Gourmet] books: Cooking American, Cooking Three Ancient Cuisines, Cooking with Wine . . . .
And recipes from my mom and my grandmother are always perfect . . . .
I use the Joy of Cooking too Joan. And now crave those recipes from your family:)
DeleteJoan, I have both editions of JOK, but never use either. But I also have the first two Jeff Smith books. I think they were some of the first "grown up" cookbooks I ever bought, and I used them all the time. I was quite distressed when I learned that he really wasn't a very nice man.
DeleteDeborah, what do you mean by "both editions of JOK"?
DeleteAren't there a zillion editions with regular updates?
Well, yes, that's true. I should have said I have TWO editions. One from 1979, and one a couple of years old after it had major revisions.
DeleteSounds like some good books. I don't have any cookbooks, so I can't add to your collection.
ReplyDeleteAll your space is taken up with mysteries!
DeleteGreat deduction. :)
DeleteI’m not much of a cookbook collector, but two that I’ve had for years, the first one since I got married almost 44 ago (it was a wedding gift) are We Make You Kindly Welcome and Welcome Back to Pleasant Hill. Both of these are the cookbooks sold at Shaker Village at Pleasant Hill, near Harrodsburg, Kentucky. They blend in so well with the recipes and dishes I grew up on, plus an expansion for more delicious dishes. I dearly love them both. Those along with family recipes and recipes I get off the Internet supply me with more than enough recipes.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard of those two Kathy, will have to look them up!
DeleteKathy, you might enjoy Vivian Howard's books. Deep Run Roots, and she has a new one coming out called This Will Make it Taste Good. They're very much southern cooking and are supposed to be wonderful.
DeleteLots of beloved ones, but no new cookbooks. I don't use half the ones I have, although maybe I should dive into a few and discover new meal inspirations. Give me my New Basics by Sheila Lukins and Julee Rosso any day, backed up by the Tassjara Bread Book (which I've been baking from for nearly fifty years, gulp), my little go-to muffin book, my Julia Child pie crust recipe, the Victory Garden Cookbook, a Madhur Jaffrey book on simple Indian cooking, and one of the Moosewood volumes. Plus my mother's Christmas cookie recipes on the same old index cards they've been on since I left home.
ReplyDeletethat's a great collection Edith! Having a group I don't use doesn't keep me from wanting the new ones.
DeleteWhen will you write your own?? Wouldn’t that be so much fun? Oh, Roberta,/Lucy, you have to!
ReplyDeleteActually, I'm noodling around with that...you can't imagine how daunting it is...
DeleteHank, totally. Lucy/Roberta, it is a pain to look for your inspired recipes in the back pages of your mysteries. I have often wished to have them in a book of their own!
DeleteI too think there needs to be Hailey Snow cookbook. :-)
DeleteDaunting, yes, but what a fun project, Roberta!!
DeleteI am a big fan of the Mark Bittman cookbook, he’s amazing. But my very favorite is the Blue Strawberry cookbook, by Mark Haller. There are no recipes! Just explanation of why things work. And then you create your own recipes. So it’s a little more science and chemistry then cooking – – for instance, that pesto just needs a green thing, and oil, a nut, and a seasoning. That a roux is butter/oil, some thickener, onions or garlic, some liquid. See what I mean? So knowing why things work allows you to use what you have to create something new.
ReplyDeleteBlue Strawberry sounds like a winner! Less of a cookbook than a cooking education, really. I may have to check that one out. I sometimes get so into the routine of cooking from recipes that I just forget I can create on my own, even though (she says without humility) I have found myself pretty good at it when I do.
DeleteWe LOVE our Harold McGee, On Food and Cooking: the Science and Lore of the Kitchen. It answers so many questions and is easy to understand. When my sons are home, we're always bringing McGee to the table.
DeleteOooo! Blue Strawberry sounds like my kind of cookbook. I'm also fond of Samin Nosrat's Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.
DeleteYes, Gigi gave me Samin Nosrat's book, which is wonderful, Hank, for understanding how things work, and it's also really fun to read. She did a great TV series by the same title.
DeleteAnd Hank, I am a HUGE Mark Bittman fan, but I don't actually own one of his cookbooks! But I subscribe to Heated and I cook from his recipes all the time.
Delete
ReplyDeleteWho’s with me on Lucy”s cookbook? Now we need a theme.
Me!
DeleteIsland cooking, definitely.
DeleteOf course!
DeleteI'm with you!
DeleteI'd love it! Or maybe a JRW cookbook, so we could also include all Jenn's recipes from the Crafternooners and the cupcake ladies?
DeleteI don't have any cookbook issues myself but my dad collected a lot of cookbooks in his life. The thing is that I don't know what happened to them after he passed. I'm hoping my mother donated them to the library or something.
ReplyDeleteSince I don't cook much myself, I've never had the need for a cookbook. However, when my father died, my aunt did send me a cookbook one Christmas that was specifically tailored as "recipes for two". I had taken over most of the cooking for me and my mother at that time. I don't think I ever even opened the book though.
that's so interesting about your Dad. What did he like to cook Jay?
DeleteHe did a lot of the cooking in the house but it wasn't like it was fancy type meals or anything. Just the regular dinner for a family of 5 stuff. But on occasion he would try making other stuff. His disastrous first attempt at making his own beans is a family legend.
DeleteBut I think a lot of his cookbook interest was more in the books themselves than a desire to cook his way through any particular volume that he had.
We donated most of our cookbooks, sadly underused, if at all, to the library. I kept a few, including THE JOY OF COOKING, and a few Julia Childs. And the BHG that I've had for decades, because it's packed with memories. Mostly I find recipes online or go to Tim and Victor's web site -- https://tjrecipes.com/ -- because I know everything has been tested.
ReplyDeleteHowever, unless I'm baking, I tend to wing it. And even then I substitute everything except the amounts of leavening, fat, liquids, and flour. Some of my favorite meals are those concocted out of what's in the pantry/fridge/freezer.
I think finding ideas online has made a huge difference. I love those sites where you plug in what you have on hand and an idea for a meal appears. Today I have a half a dozen pears, sent to me in a Harry and David's basket. So I will search for a pear cake I think. Other wise they will all be ripe at the same time and might get wasted.
Hank, I completely agree that Lucy should produce a cookbook. Or maybe all of you, a JRW Cookbook! What fun that would be to read and use.
Oh pear cake sounds amazing... I am off to Tim and Victor's website...
DeleteIn 1970 I was given a cookbook by an insurance agent looking to get a newlywed couple to buy life insurance. I still have that paperback cookbook, the same one my dad and I cooked from together when I was a child. He taught me to make biscuits (although I'm still not great at them), dinner muffins, Swiss steak, and stuffed pork chops, of all things. Which I've never made once as an adult.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was the dessert cook, using recipes from women's magazines, mostly, but also from a mimeographed and oilcloth-covered (blue checks) cookbook compiled by the mothers and lunchroom ladies of my grade school, which I also have. It's a snapshot of late 50's/early 60's cuisine, using ingredients like canned soup and Jello. It has the famous oatmeal/peanut butter/cocoa boiled cookie, CocaCola cake, carrot and German chocolate cakes, and a recipe for the Hungarian Coffeecake they served in our cafeteria. I made that every Christmas morning for decades.
Every edition of The Joy of Cooking was written just 3 miles or so from where I'm sitting right now. The Rombauers and Beckers lived in my community, although I'm not sure if Ethan Becker still lives in the area or not. Each edition IS different, Joan, but I love them all, for different reasons. If you want to know anything about cooking or ingredients, or the history of a food, it's in one of them. My husband has been known to read it as he would any other nonfiction book. I have four and have to remember which book has my favorites. The Brussels Sprouts Cockaigne ("cockaigne" being an indication it was one of the Rombauer family favorites) turns even sprouts haters into true believers. The Flourless Chocolate Torte is my go-to fancy dessert.
When I bought my first microwave in 1974 it came with a cookbook from Litton that I still use, despite the poor stained thing falling apart. Quiche Lorraine, amazing brownies, tuna casserole, gravy, and so much more--all standards from that cookbook. Yes, in the microwave. I know!
And I've mentioned before that I keep Diane Mott Davidson's books with my many (many) other cookbooks, along with binders of printed out recipes and folders of ones cut out of magazines. I recently went through and culled a lot of the magazine ones. And my browser recipe shortcut list is ridiculously long.
Ann, I created a recipe for a pie contest that uses pears, if you'd like it. It's called Pear Amour Pie, and it took a second place ribbon.
Oh that s9nds good. Post it here?
DeletePear Amour Pie
DeleteCrust:
1 C ground pecans
1 C ground cacao nibs
¼ C sugar
¼ C butter
¼ tsp salt
Mix well in small bowl, until mixture forms a cohesive ball. Press mixture into bottom and sides of 10" pie pan. Bake at 350° for 10 minutes. Set aside.
Filling:
3 C peeled and sliced Fair Ridge Farm pears (about 6-8, depending on size)
¾ C raw honey
¼ C Calvados brandy
3 T cornstarch
1 T fresh lemon juice
Few grains of salt
Mix together in medium-sized bowl. Using tongs, arrange pear slices in concentric circles in prepared pie crust. Ladle remaining syrup over pears, then dot with 3 T of butter.
Bake at 425° for 30 minutes; reduce heat to 350° and bake an additional 10 minutes. A pan underneath pie plate will help to catch juices that boil over.
I love hearing about Joy and all your other cookbooks Karen. What in the world are cacao nibs? that sounds like chocolate...
DeleteRoberta, they are small bits of cacao beans, before they're processed into chocolate. They have an intense flavor, and loads of antioxidants. Some people sprinkle them on yogurt or cereal, and I've used them in brownies instead of nuts.
DeleteI just realized this specifies "Fair Ridge Farm" pears. That's only because the pie contest required a recipe that specified a particular item found at our local farmer's market. Any pears will do.
DeleteI've largely gone off of cookbooks, though there are a few old tried and true ones I still use. My very favorite is SKINNY ONE POT MEALS by Ruth Glick, because there are easily a dozen recipes in it that I actually make, and often. I usually find I get a cookbook, try a few recipes from it, and in the end only one or two make it into regular use. That's why I have moved instead to collecting individual recipes, usually either downloaded from the internet or cut from a newspaper or magazine. I tried using a binder for these, but it has become overstuffed, so now I'm thinking of putting new recipes into an accordion file until I try them, and moving only the ones I think I will want to cook again into the binder.
ReplyDeleteI have an entire drawer of clipped recipes, most of them never used. sigh...
DeleteMy go-to is the Betty Crocker cookbook. You know, the iconic one with the red-and-white checkered cover. Mine is a 3-ring binder style and some of the pages are torn out they've been used so much. But have a question? Betty knows - from how long to cook a roast to what temperature to cook lamb.
ReplyDeleteA couple years ago I bought the Mystery Writers of America cookbook. Some of the recipes sound delish, but the ones I'm most interested in call for ingredients I don't have at that moment. I need to plan better.
I have that same cookbook on my counter, where I can grab it easily. I love the charts on cooking times for various meats and vegetables! Also, the back cover has all those measurement equations -- how many tablespoons in a quarter cup, etc.
DeleteI have a recipe in the MWA cookbook, Liz - opposite Hallie's!
DeleteThe best chocolate cake ever came from Betty Crocker, and fudge sour cream frosting. Always requested for birthdays in our family...
DeleteSusan, yes!
DeleteEdith, I remember that.
Lucy, I'm still trying to make a really moist cake from scratch, but I made...cocoa frosting (using cocoa powder instead of melted chocolate) that is the most popular frosting I've ever made. And Betty's sugar cookie cutouts have been deemed "better than a bakery's" by my family. :)
I taught myself to cook from the Joy of Cooking, NYT and Silver Palate Cookbooks, later adding three gems: The Best of the Best from Georgia and Connecticut College cookbooks, and the Cape Cod Montessori School cookbook, which has excellent seafood recipes as well as a killer cranberry muffin recipe I adapted for chocolate chips.
ReplyDeleteI bet the Georgia cookbook is full of gems!
DeleteI have dozens of cookbooks and folders full of all types of recipes. I have Martha Stewart mags going back a decade or more (which I keep telling myself I'll go through and clip and toss one day) and most of the cookbooks are only for one or two recipes at this point. Because of my allergy to honey and also sensitivity to certain other ingredients, not to mention the kosher style thingy, I have to alter almost every recipe, especially in newer cookbooks or magazines. I discontinued one mag last year and will discontinue it's sister this year because it's just annoying to find each recipe is useless for me.
ReplyDeleteI am getting lots of my baking ideas from the website: Sally's Baking Addiction, which is amazing in the depth of explanation and the suggestions for substitutions that she includes in each recipe. My other baking source is the King Arthur Flour website. That is not to be believed! Their helpline is beyond compare with a room full of experts to help with all your questions.
The actual cookbooks that get used the most are Bread Machine Magic and More Bread Machine Magic. I bake a bread from one of those books at least twice a week and have probably tried 30 or more recipes from each one at one time or another. My machine mixes the dough for me, then I take it out to rise and bake in my own bread pans. They are just amazing breads.
Also, Jenn's Cupcake Bakery series has cupcake recipes in the back. I would love a compilation of those recipes, as well!
I use both of the websites you mentioned Judy!
DeleteYears ago I collected cookbooks and had many wonderful ones. One of my favorites may have been an American Heritage - one book recipes, the other book was a history. I'd love to find that one again. But when the house burned down so did all my cookbooks! The home ec. teacher at the school where I taught gave me some cookbooks she was discarding so they could get new. Two were Betty Crocker cookbooks that looked just like the ones my mother used when I was growing up. I mean "just like", batter smudges, notes in margins and all!
ReplyDeleteOh Judi, the house burned down...that's heartbreaking. the butter smudges on BCC are mandatory I think
DeleteThank you for that, Lucy but I've often said if that is the worst thing to happen to me, all is well. Except for losing my dog of course, but I think it would have been so traumatic for him had he survived it might have been for the best.
DeleteMy mom was a cookbook collector. It made Christmas shopping easy. She had glorious ones from all over the world and she cooked from them. When she passed I took the Vincent Price Cookbook, Good Housekeeping, and Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks all of which I treasure for the notes she wrote. She had given me the spiral bound books from the Time/Life Foods of the World when I married.
ReplyDeleteMy cooking "career" began with the NY Times Cookbook, but the vegetarian one and the Clive Claiborne one. I still use recipes from both although the vegetarian one is long lost. I'm going to have to go in search of the Goldie cookbook - I have made many of Diane Mott Davidson's receives and it would be great to have them all in one place.
What a wonderful memory about your mother's collection. I wonder how you chose what you took?
DeleteThat's why I decided to buy DMD's cookbook--and I'm finding so much to enjoy about the stories she's telling about her life and the series.
I have a Betty Crocker, and two Better Homes and Gardens, a few of Jamie Oliver's, and a lovely copy of The Pound Cake Cookbook, by Fran C. Wheeler, that Debs gave me after I gave her one of my lemon pound cakes. I've used them all for at least one thing. The BHG binders are my favorite starter cookbooks.
ReplyDeleteMy newest acquisition, however, is a direct outgrowth of hanging out here on Jungle Red. You ladies introduced me to Julia Buckley's books, and I'm really enjoying her new Hungarian Tea House mysteries. After cruising through the recipes in the back of those books, I realized I wanted to know more about Hungarian cooking and culture, so I bought The Hungarian Cookbook by Susan Derecskey. Everything sounds delicious, but I'm going to have to figure out how to negotiate the sour cream, since I'm somewhat lactose intolerant. Fun reading, though.
I love Hungarian food - and yes, sour cream is almost obligatory!
DeleteBut chicken paprikash for example always sounds good to me even before the sour cream is added. So I bet you can manage. Does yogurt have the same bad effect as sour cream?
DeleteI used to be able to eat yogurt, and that's definitely the direction I'm leaning. I can certainly eat cheese, including cream cheese. Sour cream may be okay. Fresh milk, milkshakes, and ice cream are definitely out, though. I'll find something I can use, or adapt.
DeleteWhen my cookbook shelf started pulling away from the wall due to having too much weight on it, I decided I'd better start buying ebooks instead of paper. I download them to my iPad and prop it up in the kitchen when I'm cooking, and it's worked out very well. I've even repurchased a few of my favorite paper books that were falling apart. One of the side benefits has been that I have my cookbooks available whenever I travel, so it's easy to make dinner for our hosts or give someone a recipe.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I don't know why it took so long for me to realize this, but earlier this year I finally figured out that public libraries have ebook versions of cookbooks. What a great way to try before you buy! I borrowed "Dinner in French" a couple of months ago, and I like it very much; I'll definitely be buying it when the budget allows.
Cathy, I've bought a bunch of e-cookbooks when they are on sale for $1.99 or $2.99, thinking I'll use them on my little Amazon tablet, but then I forget to look at them...
DeleteI rarely use ebook cookbooks either Debs. Though I do pull up recipes from Mystery Lovers Kitchen on my computer or ipad. Glad to hear about DINNER IN FRENCH! I love her recipes in the Times, so figured I'd like this too.
DeleteLucy,
ReplyDeleteI have quite a collection of cookbooks. When I was a baby, I had a babysitter who would become a Chef. She started a restaurant in Mendocino. Our family has a collection of Cafe Beaujolais cookbooks - Morning Food and Evening Food. I have a Harry Potter cookbook.
I have a cookbook based on recipes from the TV show Friends. I have a Baking with Julia Child cookbook. I have Food For Thought by Cristina Ferrare. I have a community cookbook with a Foreword by the Duchess of Sussex from England. On my IG feed, there is a photo of a homemade cookbook put together by parents of my pre-school class. And I have many more cookbooks. I have been practicing my cooking skills since the shut down. One of my IG friends sent me a recipe for gingerbread cookies. I modified it to dairy free wheat free version and it was still good! I used vegan butter.
The Outlander cookbook looks wonderful. Great idea to have Hayley Snow get a copy and try different Scottish recipes.
Diana
Your collection sounds like so much fun! and what a treat to have babysitter turned chef...
DeleteI had the joy of eating at Cafe Beaujolais 😊
DeleteI am very susceptible to cookbooks, and have been known to buy one because I liked the cover. Or because it was very local to where we were on vacation. Beach plum recipes from Cape Cod, anyone? My husband brought home some classics when he worked at Random/Knopf a lifetime ago. In the last few years, I've mostly stopped the book buying. But I have a story : some years ago I spotted a facsimile copy of a children's cook book I had as a child. Kitchen Fun by Louise Taylor Bell.The original was falling apart because MY MOTHER had it as a child. Take a look: https://vintagecookbookshelf.wordpress.com/2017/02/17/kitchen-fun/ My 2nd grade granddaughter is not back at school yet and I am doing some grandma classes. We started with cooking and I gave her that cherished book, not expecting much. She was thrilled! Loved the illustrated ingredients list, the fanciful names, the fact that she could read it. So - now I have a new favorite cookbook.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great story Triss! I will go look...
DeleteIt's a charmer, from 1932,and uncredited but then pretty famous illustrator-Jessie Wilcox Smith
DeleteLucy, I bought Drinking French right at the beginning of lockdown. As soon as the liquor stores started allowing curbside pickup, I stocked up on some of the recommended ingredients. Watching David Leibovitz's Apero Hour on Instagram every day got me through the first couple of months of lockdown, so I suspect I'll always associate that book with that time. And I discovered that I like vermouth!
ReplyDeleteCookbooks, yikes. I have such a weakness. I have too many and I still keep buying them. Maybe it's because they represent possibilities? And because I love photos of food. But now that my house is cool and I can use my oven again, I will have to dip in. I have a new book by Carla Lalli Music, who, sadly, no longer seems to be writing for Bon Appetit since their big shake up. It's called Where Cooking Begins and it looks like a great book along the lines of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat. My cookbooks I've used the most in the last year or so have been Instant Pot books: Ann Mah's Instantly French, Everyday Instant Pot by Alexis Mersel, and America's Test Kitchen Mediterranean Instant Pot, which, interestingly, I've found to be the least reliable.
My absolutely most used cookbook is Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. I had to bind it up with tape the other day! Although this book was aimed for novice cooks, it's great for quick and delicious things when you just need to get dinner on the table. Other long time faves are Dairy Hollow House Soup and Bread Book, and Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. Edith, I still have my Moosewood books, too, but haven't cooked from them in years. I think I've kept them mostly from nostalgia and because I love the covers.
Darn it, now I have more on my list:(
DeleteMoosewood is the cookbook I go to for soups. It is absolutely where I begin if I want to make a soup other than beef barley or chicken soup.
DeleteI have never cooked soups from Moosewood, since I usually use the Dairy Hollow House book. I'll have to check them out!
DeleteI hate to cook, but I love to collect cookbooks. Go figure! One of my favorites is from the Biltmore House. Not only does it depict the various holiday meals served there, it gives an excellent history of the Biltmore. Perhaps the two I cherish most though are by Peg Bracken: The I Hate To Cook cookbook and the Appendix to the I Hate to Cook cookbook. Would you say my character, Sarah Blair comes by it naturally? Also, in the post I recently ran, we realized the winner wasn't announced a few days later: The winner of Three Treats Too Many was Margie Bunting - who needs to contact Hank or me (DHG@DebraHGoldstein.com)
ReplyDeleteYou're too funny Debra! Photographs are a big attraction, though interesting that there are none in Diane Mott Davidson's cookbook.
DeleteI had to thin the herd a few years ago. I still have my original BH&G cookbook from 1968 and the New McCall's cookbook from 1973. Many of mine are favorite recipe compilations from clubs and groups in Louisiana, Texas, and Minnesota. I have a couple of Southern Living cookbooks and a couple of Justin Wilson's too. What a character! A few are souvenirs in a way: cookbooks for Spain, Ireland, and Scotland. Mom had the Joy of Cooking but I never used it so didn't add it to my collection. And a pamphlet full of recipes for New Mexico's green chiles. I can't say I've used that much if at all!
ReplyDeleteI'd use that cookbook for green chilis if I had them!
DeleteNow I am in big trouble! Not only do I want Dinner in French, but I must have Melissa Clark's Instant Pot cookbook!!! Ouch!
ReplyDeleteI've been reading about folklore as an academic subject lately, and it occurs to me that all those church, and office, and cafeteria lady compilation cookbooks would probably make a great study. My very first best friend recently sent me a copy of the recipes our kindergarten teacher collected from our mothers. It was typed onto mimeograph forms, and included a lot of desserts that neither Lola nor I could actually remember anyone ever making. A real blast from the early 1960s past.
ReplyDeleteGigi, that makes me think of the mimeographed recipes that the teachers shared back in the day at one of my first teaching jobs. I often use some of those recipes for dips and for marinades even today.
Deletethat is such a great idea for a study Gigi!
DeleteI'm really late to the covo today because yesterday our fridge gave up the ghost and today the new one was delivered. It sort of relates to today's topic of food and cooking, no?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, here's my contribution for a good read in the foodie realm: What We Eat When We Eat Alone by Deborah Madison with charming illustrations by Patrick McFarlin.
I've read it twice and simply love the quirky tales of solo meals. And the illustrations are splendid.
Not exactly a cookbook, but very satisfying and even inspiring for my own occasional solo cooking/eating.
must go look at that one too Amanda. Hope you didn't lose too much from the fridge!
DeleteThis sounds like a good one for me, Amanda
DeleteHub has taken over the cooking since the pandemic hit - YAY!!! I am absolutely buying him a couple of these babies to keep the interest going. Thanks, Lucy!
ReplyDeleteDo it Jenn! though he sounds like he's pretty creative on his own...
DeleteRoberta, I didn't know you were such an avid cookbook collector. Me too! I've been attending virtual SIBA this week and yesterday one of the publishers presented a cookbook called THIS WILL MAKE IT TASTE GOOD by Vivian Howard. Of course it's cooking in the South. They are sending me one. As if I need another one. haha. I love David Lebovitz and follow his blog everyday. What a character. Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDelete