DEBORAH CROMBIE: I had to get "books for cooks" in the title, because it made me think about one of my favorite bookstores anywhere, BOOKS FOR COOKS on Blenheim Crescent in Notting Hill, just off Portobello Road. The tiny shop is a cookbook (or "cookery book", if you're British) lovers dream, and they do cookery demonstrations in the equally tiny kitchen at the back.
The thing is, I have wee bit of an thing with cookbooks. I know you can get anything off the Internet these days, but it's just not the same as holding a book in hour hands, browsing through recipes to see what catches your fancy.
This is my official cookbook cabinet in the kitchen.
This is the little table in the butler's pantry.
This is obviously not very efficient as you can't get to the ones at the bottom of the stack...
And I'm not even talking about the ones piled on the kitchen island or tucked away in other spots around the house. Oops.
It would be great, of course, if I actually cooked out of all of these books. I am really really embarrassed to admit that I own cookbooks that I've only made one or two recipes from... Okay, okay, I own cookbooks that I have never made a SINGLE recipe from!
But I cannot resist a cookbook. They are so full of promise. Meals that might be fabulous, dinner parties or cookouts planned, cocktails drunk, favorite places revisited or dreamed of.
And every so often you discover a gem. This is one.
I came across a reference to this book in Eater London (which I subscribe to because I like to keep up with what's going on in the London food scene.) This was in a piece about Ciao Bella, an Italian restaurant on Lamb's Conduit Street, just down the block from Duncan's Holborn Police Station. I've never eaten there, but have always meant to, so I was intrigued that this cookbook had mentioned the place.
I ordered the book from the UK, not realizing until much later that it had been a big deal there when it was published in 2019, winning all sorts of accolades, or that it had been pushed out in the US just this last summer. The book is gorgeous--I've always had a weakness for books that are illustrated rather than photographed--and the recipes all sound scrumptious. (Kit cooks one in A KILLING OF INNOCENTS.)
But it's the writing that blew me away. This is a cookbook that you read like a novel, joyous and heartbreaking, and I would put Ella Risbridger up there with any of the most iconic food writers, many of her influences among them.
So if you need a present for a cookbook loving friend, or just for a reading friend, this one comes highly recommended!
REDS and readers, are you addicted to cookbooks? What gems have you discovered?
AND-- Alert from Hank!
Ah, cookbooks. Although my old Joy of Cooking is my go-to cookbook, I have shelves of cookbooks . . . a couple of Frugal Gourmet books with really good recipes, several I inherited from my mom that are books with just one thing [like side dishes], several of those books that everyone contributes recipes for and you end up with an enchanting mix of things to try.
ReplyDeleteMy Frugal Gourmet Celebrates Christmas is a lovely book to read as much as it is recipes but my treasure is a little handwritten book my mom put together for home economics when she was in school . . . .
The Frugal Gourmet! I have a couple of his books, Joan. One is even signed! But I don't have the Christmas Book.
DeleteI started with The Joy of Cooking and More Cooking With A Jug of Wine. My father died and I realized that the ceremonial dinners were now my responsibility. My mother objected to The Jug because I was constantly sending her to the liquor store for small bottles of alcohol. She worried about her reputation. ( I was 16)
DeleteI love cookbooks. All kinds. They present wonderful dreams.
I have found over the last 18 months that reading recipes lowers my blood pressure which spikes over horrible virus news and horrible political news.
Since I don't cook, the only "cookbooks" I collect are the recipes at the end of the culinary cozies I read. Some of them do sound very tempting.
ReplyDelete(And Hank, how can First Chapter Fun be a great lunch time break if it happens at 9:30 in the morning for me here in CA?) ;)
Alton Brown Good Eats cookbooks - cooking with a side of science is a fave with us engineers.
ReplyDeleteI like your comment.
Delete“Cooking with a side of science “ doesn’t appeal only to engineers. I’m always interested to learn what lies behind a good dish.
True, lots of us like knowing why things work (or don’t!).
DeleteI do like know why things work. And I've used a lot of Alton Brown recipes from the Internet but don't own any of his books. I don't think:-)
DeleteShirley Corriher (a former biochemist)has been one of my favorites for eons, with help especially on baking. Genius!
DeleteYES, The 3 Alton Brown Good Eats cookbooks are the best! We make his cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.
DeleteHarold McGee is a favorite in our family! FOOD AND COOKING: THE SCIENCE AND LORE OF THE KITCHEN. He knows everything about yeast, acid, ingredients, roasting - everything!
DeleteI love Junior League or PTA cookbooks and have quite a few. They usually have great recipes and everything from the tried and true casseroles to the mine is fancier than yours cake recipes. But my go to cookbooks are Alton Brown, America’s Test Kitchen and Joy.
ReplyDeleteAll classics!
DeleteI don't have many cookbooks, although they can be interesting to look through. My two cookbooks that actually get used are ones I've had for 45 years, one was a shower gift when I got married and the other I bought because it was the sequel, so to speak. They are small volumes from Shakertown Pleasant Hill restored village outside Danville, KY. The first volume is We Make You Kindly Welcome, and the second volume is Welcome Back to Pleasant Hill. What's great is that they are still in print and sold at the shop there, only $5.00 and $5.50. If you try to order them on Amazon, you will be directed to a used book store and pay lots more. These two little cookbooks are full of the kind of dishes I grew up with--scalloped oysters, corn pudding, pecan pie, and more. And, I'm a fan of looking up recipes online and printing out a few from time to time. That's how I got my chicken spaghetti recipe I like so much.
ReplyDeleteHank, I am so sad that I won't be able to tune in tomorrow. My granddaughter has asked me to come and take her to lunch and visit the bookstore, and I cannot turn that down. I will have to watch the video, but at least I can look forward to that.
Have a great time with your granddaughter, Kathy!
DeleteMy cook book collection is small compared to Deb's, but most of mine are drool-worthy gifts from her that have greatly increased my eating and cooking repertoire.
ReplyDeleteThat's nice to know, my dear!
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ReplyDeleteDEBS: Yes, I totally feel the same way as you. Although I mostly get new recipes online (Milk Street, Smitten Kitchen etc.), I still love browsing through (and buying new) cookbooks.
ReplyDeleteI have one floor-to-ceiling bookcase (out of 22) filled with most of my cookbook collection. I own @120 cookbooks + one bookshelf filled with past issues of food magazines like Fine Cooking, Eating Well and Cooking Light (no longer subscribe hard copies).
So far, I have bought 8 cookbooks/food references this year. Some were discount books from Chapters Rideau that sounded interesting (e.g. The Complete Leafy Greens Cookbook) or written by celebrity chefs:
Jamie Oliver's TOGETHER
Molto Batali (Mario Batali)
Rocco's Healthy and Delicious (Rocco Dispirito)
And the new reference book that I am looking forward to browse is:
GASTRO OBSCURA: A FOOD ADVENTURER'S GUIDE (from the Atlas Obscura)
My go-to cookbooks are:
DeleteSmitten Kitchen, America's Test Kitchen The New Best recipe (1000+ exhaustively tested recipes), The Complete Book of Soups and Stews, The Epicurious Cookbook, Goldy's Kitchen Cookbook (Diane Mott Davidson), the Sable and Rosenfeld Cookbook and The New Canadian Basics Cookbook.
Wow, GRACE: That's a LOT Of bookcases and books! And a dedicated one for cookbooks!!
DeleteAMANDA: Yes, that's true. I do have room for more bookcases (none in the main hallway) and still have some bare walls in the living room, lol.
DeleteGrace, now I'm going to count my cookbooks!!!! What do you think of the Jamie Oliver? I thought about buying that one. I have most of his books but the one I used all the time is Revolution. It was intended for people who didn't know how to cook so most of the recipes are simple and I can get them on the table after work.
DeleteWow,Grace! I've gotten some terrific recipes from one Canadian pal from the LCB(O) that I still use to this day!They are usually reliable and not too difficult.
DeleteDEBS: I own several Jamie Oliver cookbooks. I was watching him start off as The Naked Chef on PBS. I use tried recipes from both the Cook With Jamie and Jamie's 15 minute meals.
DeleteThis newest cookbook focuses on at-home meals but they are organized by themes (e.g. curry night, taco night, steak night, garden lunch, picnic love). I have marked a few recipes that I may try...
LYNN: Yes, I made several recipes from my collection of LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) Food and Drink bimonthly magazines. They are mostly pretty easy to follow.
DeleteChiming in as a Jamie Oliver fan, though it's his videos online that I watch. I am particularly fond of seeing him in the kitchen with his kids. So fun!
DeleteYes, I noticed that CBC GEM has a bunch of Jamie Oliver videos. I plan to watch them (as well as my first GBBO, and the Canadian show) sometime this winter (or lockdown), whichever came first.
DeleteI don't buy cookbooks any more, and use four or five standards (plus Madhur Jaffey when I want Indian) out of my collection. Although you might have convince me with Midnight Chicken!
ReplyDeleteMy go-tos are New Basics, Mad About Muffins, Joy of Cooking, my tattered old Tassajara Bread Book, Victory Garden Cookbook (recipes are listed alphabetically by the vegetable featured!), and a Julia Child volume that isn't her classic (which I also have) but a follow-on. Plus two Jaffeys and a Test Kitchen.
I do have a couple I've never cooked out of. Every time I open Jerusalem by Ottolenghi, I get so excited - but I'm always missing an ingredient or three or it sounds too complicated.
EDITH: I love the Ottolenghi cookbooks but have the same problem. His newer cookbooks, Ottolenghi Simple (pared-down recipes) and Ottolenghi Test Kitchen (pantry items-focused) are more approachable for the home cook.
DeleteI have the same problem with Ottolenghis--I have Plenty and Jerusulem--and also a picky husband who wouldn't eat half the recipes. Boo. I'd like to try the two Grace mentioned.
DeleteI have made 2 or 3 dishes from Ottolenghi Simple but have not bought/browsed through the newest one yet. It is on hold at the Ottawa library.
DeleteI goofed above. The full title of that book is Ottolenghi Test Kitchen: Shelf Love
Cookbooks are a not-so-secret vice of mine. My older ones were put in storage when I was doing a major renovation of my condo. They are still there, along with the ones from my mother and grandmother. Because I have such limited shelf space, I began borrowing cookbooks from the library, vowing only to buy ones I felt I would use repeatedly. Ten years later, my bookshelf in my tiny kitchen is overflowing.
ReplyDeleteSo, Deborah Crombie, do you have any of Nigel Slater’s books? He is one of my favorite food writers and the reason I started to read The Guardian. My first book of his was Notes From the Larder: A Kitchen Diary with Recipes. The entry for January 1 is ‘A humble loaf and a soup of roots.’ My favorite recipe is ‘Poor man’s potatoes,’ perfect comfort food for mid-November (or any time you need it).
I have two more of his books: Tender - described by David Tanis as a ‘garden-to-kitchen approach’ to vegetables, and, most apropos to this season, The Christmas Chronicles, which Slater calls a collection of ‘notes, stories and essential recipes for winter.’
Slater’s writing is a treat, and he masterfully but subtly celebrates the bounty of England. I highly recommend his work.
P.S. I just put a hold on a copy of Midnight Chicken at my library. I can’t wait to read it.
Babette: I, too, love cookbooks and, these days, get them for browsing from my local library. Also, I'm a fan of Nigel Slater's writing, especially TOAST, his memoir.
DeleteI enjoyed reading Toast, especially after I was familiar with his food writing. It provided the backstory.
DeleteI also enjoyed reading food-related memoirs such as
DeleteStanley Tucci's TASTE: MY LIFE THROUGH FOOD, and
David Chang's EAT A PEACH.
The news about Stanley Tucci having tongue cancer is devastating, knowing his love of food AND his acting career, both of which depend on that part of him.
DeleteKAREN: Yes, I can't imagine having to be fed through a tube for 6 months after chemotherapy. But his cancer scare reignited his passion for food. I had no idea that he had written two cookbooks.
DeleteBabette, I've read Toast, but I don't have any other Slater books. Must remedy! He is a wonderful writer. I've also ready Stanley Tucci's Taste, which I loved, and I've watched some of his TV series about food in Italy.
DeleteI had wanted to watch Tucci's TV series about Italian food but could not figure out a way to watch it from Canada. Tried CNN online with no luck during the live broadcast.
DeleteGRACE: I follow Stanley on Tucci on Facebook and via that 'channel' have been able to watch some of his videos. I'm in the 'hold' line at my local library for his book.
DeleteAMANDA: Thanks for the FB tip. Funny, I follow many mystery fiction authors but not celebrities like Tucci.
DeleteLaurie Colwin's cookbooks with chatty essays, which are like having coffee or a glass of wine with an old friend...while cooking together.
ReplyDeleteElla Risbridger, who wrote Midnight Chicken, was very influenced by Colwin. I was a huge fan of Laurie Colwin, too.
DeleteAnother Colwin fan! Until recently, I still made her delicious plum jam! I read her novels, too, and it's still said that she's gone so soon.
DeleteI typoed said for SAD. OOPs.
DeleteI have a couple of cookie books, the MWA Cookbook that came out several years ago, but I always go back to my standby - Betty Crocker in the iconic red and white check cover. The only recipe from there that has ever let me down are the snickerdoodles. They always come out too crunchy.
ReplyDeleteI have the MWA Cookbook, too. Was delighted to have my recipe opposite Hallie's!
DeleteDebs, I must order that cookbook now! Also on my list Dorie Greenspan's newest and one on southern baking that I think Santa will bring me.
ReplyDeleteLUCY: I have Dorie Greenspan's book on hold at the Ottawa Public Library.
DeleteLucy, I was thinking of you when I wrote this post. I think you'll adore this book, and I do recommend literally reading it like a novel. Let me know what you think!
DeleteI love Laurie Colwin's books! Also her novel HAPPY ALL THE TIME. So tragic that she died so young.
ReplyDeleteI have a coverless JOY OF COOKING (my mother's) that I go to for basics like soft boiled egg timing. A massive, doorstop-sized, 2-volume GOURMET COOKBOOK, also my mother's, that I keep for old time's sake... my recipe for chocolate covered orange rind is in there. Marcella Hazan's THE CLASSIC ITALIAN COOKBOOK (killer minestrone). And several tattered MOOSEWOODs. Beyond that I go to the Internet and I have folders and folders of clipped out recipes. For Christmas eve I'm making a cranberry trifle and a ham with rootbeer (!) glaze... both from the Washington Post. Corn pudding from the NY Times archives. Often I print out several recipes from different sources and cherrypick ingredients and steps.
Hallie, I think we cook alike. A bit of this and a bit of that, and let's use up the brussels sprouts.
DeleteFor Christmas I'm doing a standing rib roast -- yes, for the two of us -- and a friend who won't come in but will take a huge plate of food for her dinner. Roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, gravy, sprouts, pickled beets. For Christmas Eve, instead of Seven Fishes, we are having asparagus, scallops crisply sautéed in butter and a little vermouth, rice with parmasan and more butter, and either mince pies or Christmas cake or both for dessert.
No recipes will be harmed in this effort. Promise.
.ANN: Do you deliver? Salivating here.
DeleteYes, Ann. Are you sure you don't want to move back to Texas??
DeleteHallie, I print recipes, too, but I can never manage to organize them into folders.
DeleteHallie, I'm a recipe "tweaker" from way back. I wonder if your old Joy of Cooking's whole real hardback cover came off? Years ago, when the jacket cover of mine tattered to shreds I used the old make a brown paper bag as a new cover for it!
DeleteThe whole cover did come off, and I replaced it, too... with some fabric-covered cardboard. Very elegant. Sadly I've lost the last few pages of the index.
DeleteI'm so over cookbooks after a big purge a few years ago. After 60 plus years of cooking, I don't need a recipe for most things, and even if I have one, I change it. Baking is different of course, as I can't possibly remember whether its baking powder or soda or both! Now when I want a recipe, I find it online and go from there. If it looks good, I print it out, mostly because I don't leave anything important out!
ReplyDeleteI kept the Joy of Cooking and the BHG, a Martha Stewart Christmas Cookie paperback, and 2-3 others. I depend on Tim and Victors Joyous Recipes online a lot. But mostly I investigate the contents of the fridge and freezer and concoct some witch's stew for dinner. For all this casualness, I get very few complaints ;<)
It would be churlish to complain about that, Ann! Julie knows better, I'm sure.
DeleteOh, I can cook without cookbooks, although probably not as well as you, Ann. But I love cookbooks, and love just reading them even if I don't cook all the recipes. Or any of the recipes, lol
DeleteDEBS: I am the same as you. I mainly cook without using cookbooks. I just enjoy collecting and browsing through them.
DeleteI love to read cookbooks but I don't necessarily make the recipes. I own many but some of my interesting one are Delish A Martha's Vineyard Cookbook by Philip R. Craig and Shirley Prada Craig. He wrote the J.W Jackson books.
ReplyDeleteI used to be a big fan of David Letterman; my son and I attended the show a couple of times. So I had to get Home Cookin' with Dave's Mom.
Recipes From A Very Small Island by Linda Greenolaw and her mother Martha Greenlaw. Linda was famous as a boat captain who was featured in the book The Perfect Storm. She's written books as well.
I remember my mother had an old thin, black book of recipes. Searchlight Recipe Book, first published in 1937 by Household Magazine, and later reprinted in 1942. I'm not sure just what recipes my mother made from it, but my sister found it on ebay on got it for me. Some of the recipes are pretty far out there.
I will have to get that Midnight Chicken for sure.
I've heard of the Greenlaw book, Judi. So interesting.
DeleteDo give Midnight Chicken a try!
I love to read cookbooks, but discovered early on that I'll never make most of the recipes. So my collection is limited and the recipes I use the most are either in my head or in a looseleaf binder. Like Hallie, I'm likely to search for something online, print out a few variations and put together an end result that suits me. I often check cookbooks out at the library to get my cookbook fix. I'll be searching for Midnight Chicken and am making a list of other titles from ones mentioned here. Thanks, y'all!
ReplyDeleteOh, gosh, I have so many cookbooks, collected from as far back as fifth grade, 60 years ago, with the oilcloth-covered mimeographed recipe book that was used as a fundraiser for my Catholic school. There are many much-loved recipes in that little booklet: Boiled Cookies (the ones with oatmeal, peanut butter and cocoa), Carrot Cake, Hungarian Coffeecake made with sour milk.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the freebie paperback cookbook an insurance salesman gave me after I was married in 1970. It's the same one my dad and I cooked together from when I was a kid. Baking powder biscuits, sweet muffins, Swiss steak, and so much more. The poor thing is held together with rubber bands, and it's so fragile, but it's priceless to me.
My go-to cookbooks are one of the three versions of Joy of Cooking (all different, sometimes radically), one of the two versions of Betty Crocker, the well-thumbed hardback cookbook that came with my first microwave in 1975, a meat cookbook from around that same era, Barbara Kafka's Microwave Gourmet (potato soup in half an hour!). and another microwave cookbook from HPBooks with fabulous recipes for lasagna and tetrazzini and other great dishes. Plus at least three cookbooks dedicated to using chocolate, including one each from Hershey and Nestle. Then there's the family cookbook I put together, bulging with printed out recipes. Indispensable. My daughter's housekeeper in Nairobi uses it to cook for them, and when we visited she made two of Holly's favorites for us, and better than I would have!
My favorite cookbooks to read are any Joy of Cooking, Julia Child's French Cooking (although I hate how the recipes are laid out in both these books), and Patricia Cornwell's Food to Die For. Lots of delicious-looking Italian dishes.
There is a dedicated cabinet in our kitchen for cookbooks, but there are at least two more boxes in the basement I've never unpacked. You'd think I was running a restaurant here.
I have two versions of Joy, taking up a lot of space in that cabinet, and I never use them. But I keep thinking that I should!
DeleteJoy's Brussels Sprouts Cockaigne changed our lives! I also love the flourless chocolate torte, and Potatoes Daphinoise, and so many others. The drink recipes in the older editions are such fun in these days of the revived cocktail.
DeleteBut the best part, and the part that has gotten my husband, of all people, to read a cookbook, are the food science sections. We have both learned so much from them.
Okay, I will have to pull out my original Joy, which was a gift to me from my sister-in-law when I got married the first time, in 1979. Maybe just for the classic cocktail recipes!
DeleteI am a recovering cook book addict. When I lived in a house in MO I had hundreds of cookery books. Then I downsized to a small apartment in MI. So I just have one small bookcase dedicated to cookbooks. And because of the pandemic I’ve stayed out of bookstores. But I have 1 on my Nook, Great Balls of Cheese. I got it from the library purely for the name and discovered the blueberry goat cheese log with balsamic blueberry sauce. It’s one of the recipes that you make once and then everyone expects it every time. So I bought it for my Nook so I can cart it to gatherings for people to copy.
ReplyDeleteI have a bunch of cookbooks on my Kindle, too, but I forget to look at them.
DeleteThat’s why I just have the one on my Nook. It’s more satisfying to turn pages and look at pictures. And I don’t worry so much if I spill on it.
DeleteUsually, I read everything that everyone writes before I respond but I have to hurry today and must contribute to this topic. Almost every cookbook on the shelf upstairs has at least one recipe that I use often. New recipes come from the newspaper, magazines like Martha Stewart Living and Cook's Illustrated, or the internet. One issue of Living from 16 years ago has about 10 recipes that I still use. It was incredible! New issues aren't as enticing. My latest cookbooks are Martha Stewart's One Pot and Joanne Chang's Flour, both not new.
ReplyDeleteI bake bread a couple times a week and almost always start it in my bread machine and bake it in my oven. My bread bibles are Bread Machine Magic and More Bread Machine Magic by Linda Rehberg and Lois Conway. This year I've made at least 50 different breads from their recipes.
I bake a lot and my recipes mostly come from Sally's Baking Addiction. King Arthur Flour is so reliable and fabulous, their help line unfailingly helpful, that it is my other go-to online source for cakes, cookies, pies, bread...
There are several cookbooks that I consult regularly. The Complete American Jewish Cookbook by Anne London and Betha Kahn Bishov is one of them. I bought it in Israel in 1976. Not a new cookbook. For vegetarian soups I go to my old Moosewood Cookbook. Great soups!! Our recipe for cornmeal pancakes comes from an old Better Homes and Gardens from the 40's. The best pancakes in the whole world, hands down! Flour has a cookie recipe that reminds me of Grandma's sugar cookies, so yes to that. There are other cookbooks that I use to adapt recipes from but hardly ever just make the recipe as written. They are all pretty old, too.
There are some other cookbooks on the shelves downstairs, and I do go there occasionally but for the most part the food I cook most often does not have a recipe. I don't have room for another cookbook on my shelf near the kitchen and would have to believe it was going to change my life before I bought it.
I LOVE food memoirs and essays.
ReplyDeleteMy kitchen bookshelf has Laurie Colwin, plus Ruth Reichl's Tender at the Bone, and a Julia Child volume of letters. Plus a handful of my most useful old cookbooks, a notebook bulging with my most used recipes (written on postcards, mainly), plus my mom's old wooden recipe box.
Then I'd say Midnight Chicken is a must for you, Susan!
DeleteOne of several favorites are my books by MFK Fisher, Susan!
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ReplyDeleteThrill of the Grill by those guys that owned the wonderful East Coast Grill. . Art of the Pie, by Kate McDermott, which will have you in the kitchen instantly. The fabulous and brilliant and necessary Blue Strawberry Cookbook, that does not contain recipes, but only reasoning and chemistry cooking logic so you can make anything out of anything. Sheila Lukens, Mark Bittman, and my fabulous Joy of Cooking, so battered and splattered with wine and tomato and brown blotches.
ReplyDeleteBut I have to say I am absolutely enchanted with the way you can put into Google, for instance, chicken zucchini mushrooms tomatoes. And 1 million different possibilities come up. It’s fantastic! And educational.
Yes, I cook from Google constantly. I guess I should pay more attention to who actually is writing the recipe I'm using.
DeleteANd it's interesting, how the recipes are presented. LONG chatty intros and explanations (leaving room for the ads in between), and then a video demo, then the ingredients then finally the recipe. The video demos were annoying at first, but they do really allow you to see what "chopped" means.
DeleteHank, that method of presenting recipes annoys me silly. But Julia Child did exactly the same thing in her French Cooking recipes. Which is why I've never made anything from them, I suspect.
DeleteHANK: Did you make that bread pudding on Monday?
DeleteI have so many cookbooks that I would have to make dinner for 50 years to really use them, and I'm almost 70! My stand byes are The Joy of Cooking from the 1950s without a cover and missing most of the index. My Dear Husband bought me an identical copy, but I'm saving that one for good. My other
ReplyDeletefavourite series is Edna Staebler and Food the really Schmecks because it has great Canadian Mennonite recipes. I love to cook from scratch with local ingrediants. My daughters once complained that when I went grocery shopping I only bought ingrediants not good food.
So funny, Chris! I hope your daughters changed their minds as they got older!
DeleteIngredients! SO funny. ANd a tiny bit scary...
DeleteChris, that made me laugh! One day a few years ago I made a little list for hubs to get at the store when he and one of my brothers ran errands. Brother was puzzled, and said what do you need "ingredients" for? What's that? He only knows how to cook bacon and eggs, basically....so now it's a running family joke!
DeleteEdna Staebler! That's a blast from my past. I lived in Waterloo ON to attend university in the 1980s. I did enjoy Mennonite baked goods at the FM.
DeleteOh, yes. Yes! How fun to know I am not alone. Strange little cookbooks (beach plums?) that are souvenirs of travel. Old favorites I barely or never use anymore, but can't quite get rid of.(Betty Crocker for basic baking, anyone?) Yes, yes, cooking memoirs. I have been known to buy a cookbook because I loved the cover. (Ssh, no one in my house knows this) I've pretty much stopped now though, since 1.entertaining has stopped 2. my husband is teaching himself to make his own strange favorites and 3. I mostly get new recipes from the NY Times subscription cooking feature. Fun to see in my mail during the week and found some great recipes. Also a few that don't work no matter what I do.And when it comes to some old favorites - that fruit crumb cake my mom AND my grandmother used to make? Of course I revert right back to my recipe file.
ReplyDeleteStrange Favorites. GREAT book title! xxx
DeleteOh, this post speaks to me, Debs! I too have a thing for cookbooks although not much of a cook these days. My all-time fave is Pat Conroy's Cookbook which is full of really tantalizing recipes interspersed with essays. Laurie Colwin, Ruth Reichl - can't get enough. The illustrated Susan Branch cookbooks are such treasures. I have an old cookbook that I dearly treasure Which contains recipes from old Atlanta restaurants - all of which are now closed. Lots of memories attached to that one! And my mom's old copy of Country Cooking which I found when clearing out her apartment. It's held together with a bit of red Christmas ribbon.
ReplyDeleteKaye, anyone who loves Colwin and Reichl is a candidate for Midnight Chicken!
DeleteKaye, I think I've read everything Reichel has written! Love her, too!
DeleteMidnight Chicken is now happily residing on my Kindle. Merry Christmas to me!
DeleteCookbooks! YES - Oh, I am so looking out for Midnight Chicken.
ReplyDeleteMy mother was the cookbook collector in the family. Every year for Christmas, mother's day, and birthday, I bought her a cookbook. She was a gourmet cook and didn't need another recipe, but these books were more travelogue than cooking. They were gorgeous and each occupied a place of honor on the coffee table until the next one arrived.
I have a shelf of cookbooks in my office and I do use them often. To safeguard the books I copy each recipe that I made and intend to make again into a computer file and print and keep those in a loose leaf notebook. When the grease and gravy stains turn into a biohazard, it's time to print a new copy! My favs? The spiral bound Time/Life Foods of the World series my mother gave me, The NY Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, and my collection of local cookbooks usually from the Junior League or churches. Those contain home cooking recipes at their best.
Kait, you are much more organized than me...
DeleteThat's a from your mouth to God's ears statement, Deb. Actually, I've moved too much and almost always lost books in the process. I think movers leave them behind because of the weight!
DeleteI had a built-in cookbook area of two big shelves when we built our home years ago.Not enough,so built 2 more shelves up on the walls,and we got a baker's rack. Then I inherited both his mom's and mine's cookbooks. I read some like novels, besides writing my own family-friends cookbook in 1982. I used to ask for cookbooks as souvenirs when anyone traveled somewhere new and exotic! Then a few years ago I had to wean myself from buying more, and now mainly get recipe ideas online, and even stopped printing most and putting them into binders. It's definitely an addiction! Oh, I check them out from the library, too. Such a nerd.
ReplyDeleteAnd I forgot to say a lot of my collection are from Jr.Leagues and PTA ones! I cherish so many, especially the Lafayette La. Jr. League "Talk About Good II" with prints of the late George Rodrigue, which we got autographed on a long-ago trip to Lafayette, etc. with dh's fave aunt and uncle.
DeleteI do enjoy cookbooks, but my addiction is knitting books. There is no way I will ever have enough time to knit all of the projects I've collected but I do love to read the patterns. It helps me sleep! Sidenote: The Hooligans asked for cookbooks for Christmas and so they are getting new copies of my old reliables: Good Housekeeping and Betty Crocker as well as the latest by Bittman! May they go forth and cook! LOL.
ReplyDeleteBittman's How to Grill Everything might be a good one for the boys.
DeleteAnything by Elizabeth David! I think I have collected all of hers. Something about those old Penguin paperbacks is very evocative. There's something about sitting alone at the kitchen table with a bowl of pasta, a glass of wine and South Wind through the Kitchen, or An Omelette and a Glass of Wine.
ReplyDeleteLove those recipe titles!!
DeleteMy favorites: the three Good Eats cookbooks, Joy of Cooking, the Pepperidge Farm Cookbook, the Helen Corbett Cookbook and Elena’s Mexican Cooking, the latter from the Fifties, and she uses lard in everything, but the flavors!
ReplyDeleteWe recently took about 50 cookbooks to Goodwill (the snooty library resale store doesn’t accept them) and they were delighted to get them.
Helen Corbett! I hadn't thought of her in years! My mom was a big Helen Corbett fan and she must have the books. I don't know what happened to them.
DeleteYes, Helen Corbett! Deb, did you ever eat at the Zodiac Room in Neiman's? MIL used to make Helen's brownies and other goodies. My books from her are also falling apart!
DeleteI did! My mom and I had lunch there occasionally, but that was a LONG time ago!
DeleteWhat a great thread. Cookbooks are awesome. I love the community collections. I have some from my Grandmother's church on the Wild West Frontier, from my Mother's sorority ladies and one I bought locally last year called "pandemic recipes!" My shelves also contain some old standards given to me by my Mother: A Betty Crocker binder, two copies of the Joy of Cooking, a Settlement Cookbook. I use them all the time. Additions from my Mother-in-law include Food for a Small Planet (I think that's the title) and _Gourmet Grains, Beans and Rice_. My additions include the entire set of Molly Katzen's Moosewood books, _The Vegetarian Epicure_, _Cooking with Jamie_, _Indian Cooking_ and recently _Cook this Book_ Each of them have favourites. You can tell because the books open to the same page every time you put them on the counter. There is also a wonderful text called _Ratio, The simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking_. On the net, I've done a Masterclass by Ottolenghi that was eye candy, three Masterclasses by Thomas Keller and one by a Mexican chef whose name currently escapes me. (She taught me that I never want to eat masa made the right way, because then I will never be able to eat masa any other way, and I don't know anyone who has that kind of time! Moral to that story: Good food takes time.) I caught up with Alton Brown and reviewed Good Eats on You Tube and dropped into Smitten Kitchen on Instagram more than once and recently found Jamie Oliver on FB. I think I like to look at food as much as I like to cook it! I'm really excited to check out Nigel Slater, Laurie Colwin, _Midnight Chicken_ and perhaps, most of all _Blue Strawberry Cookbook._
ReplyDeleteI am so envious of your Master Classes. Were they really worthwhile? I have the big French Laundry coffee table book.
DeleteI have really enjoyed 95% of the Masterclasses. The cooking ones have taught me a bunch and I love watching them present the food. They have texts that come with the class. Perhaps my favourites are the class by Helen Mirran on acting and Daniel Negranu on playing poker. I have no interest in learning how to act or in playing poker, but learning how they do it is fascinating. It would make good character research.....
DeleteShalom Reds and Readers – I don’t own too many cookbooks. Only one or two coffee table books with recipes in them. Several months back there was another JRW post about cookbooks and while I didn’t comment, I was inspired to look online for a copy of the Settlement Cookbook that my mother owned when I was a child. The copy I purchased is dated 1928. When I was kid, the Campbell Soup company sold cookbooks by mail for fifty cents. I had at least two of those books and cooked more than several dishes that used their soups. I subscribe to the New York Times Cooking site and have hundreds of recipes saved in their vaults. I also save recipes from a bunch of other food sites and have recently begun printing some of them out and putting them in a looseleaf binder. Sadly, I just like reading the recipes and don’t cook very often. That may change, as my diabetes is recently mandating that I watch my diet more closely with an eye toward healthy dining.
ReplyDeleteDavid, I'd recommend Robin Ellis's (he was the original Poldark) cookbooks. He's diabetic and has really taken improving his health seriously. And the recipes I've tried have been both simple and delicious. The first book is Delicious Dishes for Diabetics, I think.
DeleteMy husband has become the serious cooks and for books likes classics by Marcella Hazan, Julia Child, Ruth Reichl, and more. He PRINTS online recipes he likes and adapts to make his own notebook and loves to watch Chef John on Foodwishes.com (mostly about the meat).
ReplyDeleteThis post drove me straight to Amazon to read the preview of Midnight Chicken. I immediately ordered it in paperback because I knew 1) it was bedside reading and 2) I would want to share it with cookbook-loving friends.
ReplyDeleteI could not put it down. Hope you enjoy as much!
DeleteEVERYONE is ordering Midnight Chicken today! But may I say, sometimes I wish there was a "like" button to push on this great blog!
ReplyDeleteLynn, thank you! Maybe we will take that up with Blogger:-)
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