Monday, February 6, 2017

AROUND THE KITCHEN TABLE -- Our first cookbooks


LESLIE: Today, we're starting something new in the Mystery Lovers' Kitchen. On the first Monday of the month, we’ll gather around the Kitchen table to chat about something on our minds—food-related, because we’re all obsessed with cooking up recipes as well as crime! Today, we’re remembering our early cookbooks. We hope you’ll join the conversation in the comments.

As a teenager, I worked at Waldenbooks, and on September 8, 1978—I dated the bookplate—I used my employee discount on The Vegetarian Epicure, Book Two. The author, Anna Thomas, traveled widely in Europe and beyond, then created vegetarian versions of favorite dishes. Opened up my little palate, I’ll guarantee you! We still adore the salad torcoloti, and I used her curry and garam masala blends as the starting point for my own, in the Spice Shop Mysteries.

A few months later, I picked up Laurel’s Kitchen, the first cookbook to delve into the science and nutrition of vegetarian cooking. I still consult the tables of cooking times for grains and beans, and make the vegetarian chili often. Now I wish I’d sprung for the hardcover, but at the time, the 3.95 paperback was all I could manage!

Actually, the first cookbook I ever bought was probably this copy of Betty Crocker’s Cookbook, my mother’s Christmas wish. There’s no inscription or, oddly, a publication date, but I’m guessing 1976. It lives in my kitchen now, and while I don’t use it much, it isn’t going anywhere for a long time.


One small selection of my collection
DARYL:  I will never forget my first cookbook.  I still have it. The Gourmet Cookbook, volume 1. I started cooking way back when - I mean way back. I sold pies around my neighborhood when was 7. Chocolate pudding pies with whipped creamed topping. I made dinners. I designed menus. I played "restaurant" with my sisters. In high school I became more serious about learning to cook. Not just the dishes my mother or father made - yes, my dad loved to make Crepe Suzettes and Sunday omelets and barbecue anything - but I wanted to make things that were "gourmet." With sauces and exotic flavors. I ordered The Gourmet Magazine and challenged myself to make one new recipe every month. When I realized I could "do" it, I decided to save my allowance and purchase the cookbook. It wasn't cheap! It is still a go-to cookbook for me. For so many items: biscuits, beef stew, roast beef. The book is oil-marked and milk-marked and pie filling-marked.  I wasn't a neat cook. LOL But I don't think the book cares. It knows it has been well loved.  I will forever be grateful to this cookbook for inspiring me to think bigger when it came to the kitchen.

As for cookbooks in general - they are the reason I decided to write the Cookbook Nook Mysteries. When I stepped into a culinary bookstore and drank in the wondrous array of cookbooks at my fingertips, I fell in lust. That's the moment I knew I had to immerse myself in that world for one of my mysteries.


SHEILA:  My mother was a good plain cook--meat, starch and veg, plus dessert--so I grew up knowing the basics, like how to boil water. But my mother's idea of creative cooking was to add Vermouth to whatever meat dish she was making. Her cookbook collection was kind of pitiful: it might have filled one bookshelf. I still have the copy of The Joy of Cooking that she must have gotten when she married.

That was fine, because when I was a child, I was not a courageous eater. I had to separate each of the components of my dinner and consume each of them one at a time. I hated onions and mushrooms, and I never knew what garlic was (although I was fond of artichokes and asparagus, mostly because they were fun to eat). My grandmother, who lived in Manhattan, sometimes took me and my younger sister to lunch in what must have been some nice restaurants, but I have no memories of what I ate there.

It wasn't until I discovered Julia Child and Mastering the Art of French Cooking (whose co-author Simone Beck is often forgotten) that I realized what "real" cooking could be like. It was the first cookbook I bought, as a gift to myself when I graduated from college and moved into a small apartment with a kitchen that could fit in a closet. I still say, if you have only one cookbook, get this one. The recipes may have French names, but they work. Julia had a sense of humor and would insert comments like, "this may look curdled, but don't worry--it will smooth out later." Her ingredient proportions were generous, she used herbs liberally, and when she said a dish would serve four or six people, she was right--and they were for normal people with healthy appetites.

I still have that copy, and you can tell which are my favorite recipes by how greasy the pages are. When I married, my husband adopted some of the recipes as well, and still makes them. I even bought two copies (on sale) so I'd have back-up if the first one disintegrated into shreds. I don't know if I would have fallen in love with both cooking and eating if I hadn't found Julia Child.

BTW, we named our daughter Julia. Okay, maybe not solely for The French Chef, but that first Julia was in the back of my mind. And now my daughter makes croissants for a chain of coffee shops, and is learning to bake bread in large quantities. So maybe it rubbed off.


MARY JANE MAFFINI/VICTORIA ABBOTTt  When I got married, I was able to make tuna fish sandwiches (white bread only, no crusts) and I could fry chicken, with some singeing.  My mother-in-law was a wonderful cook and so was my mother so the time had come to pull up my socks. Things did not go well with the sock pulling.


I quickly came to hate cooking but I did like to laugh and was good at that.  Eventually I turned to Peg Bracken's popular (at the time) I Hate to Cook Book, a small and hilarious volume published in 1960.  There were enough 'keepers' in those pages to save me from daily mortification. Bracken was like having a friend in the kitchen: she didn't mind a trick or two and she was always ready for a joke.   The I Hate to Cook Book is still going strong and was reissued for its 50th Anniversary: it even has a Facebook Page!

After nearly fifty years, I still have my original  I Hate to Cook and still make a few of the recipes. Unfortunately, in the process I began to like cooking and then was forced to invest in more ambitious and heavier cookbooks like Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I never did master the art of French cooking, but thanks to the wit of Peg Bracken I learned to find the fun in the kitchen.  I did not name my daughter Peg, but you will notice I am still hanging around with another Peg who can be very funny.

A few years back, I decided to include the battered little blue book in a box headed for Goodwill.  But at the last minute, I realized there would never be a good reason to get rid of it.  We keep our friends!


PEG: Looks like Sheila and I both learned to cook from Julia Child and Simone Beck! I got a cookbook for a wedding present (1974) called Make It Now, Bake It Later. One recipe was for a casserole that included white bread and tiny canned shrimp.  Enough said!


KRISTA: Mary Jane, that's such a cute story. I never heard of that cookbook! My first cookbooks were from a collection that my mom bought at the grocery store. They came out one at a time, and she bought one every month. She had all of Julia Child's books, but they didn't have many pictures, which was very important to me as a kid. I read cookbooks by photo, not by recipe. I looked for those old cookbooks in my mom's house the other day but I fear they're long gone so I don't even know who published them.


LINDA: I love to laugh when I cook, Mary Jane. Helps get me through some dicey situations, so to speak. My first cookbook was a gift from my sister when I got married. She knows me so well! It's Craig Claiborne's Kitchen Basics. Up to this point, I hadn't cooked often at home and my roommate, when I'd moved out, was so good, I gladly left it up to her. So, having married another good cook, I felt the challenge to up my game. Craig helped me through it all...and still does. I can never remember equivalents when it comes to measurements, so I let Craig Claiborne handle that. 


LUCY: Your stories are so much fun ladies! Sheila, my mother cooked like yours, only not well. She didn't like desserts either--her idea of a company dessert recipe was red grapes in sour cream! Cooking for 6 after working all day was a chore, and kids underfoot did not help. So I didn't learn much about cooking growing up. But I did inherit her copy of The Joy of Cooking, and I would still have it if a puppy hadn't eaten the cover off. And then some Florida roaches began to nibble the pages, and that book became history. I still love the cookbook, though, and use it as a starting point for lots of recipes. Thanks, Mom!


CLEO: Like some of you out there, I come from a tradition of a little bit of this, a pinch of that--and a whole lot of garlic! My mom and her sister (who lived with us) were born in Italy and learned to cook from the women in their family. They had 3 x 5 cards with their handwritten notes, clipped items from newspapers, and tried out recipes printed on food packaging, but there were no cookbooks that I can recall.

Dad grew his own vegetables and made his own wine. His parents were dirt poor and his mom (my grandmother) baked bread every morning for the family in an outdoor oven (again, no cookbooks). My own first memory of written recipes came from beautiful, glossy recipe cards that Mom received through the mail—probably a bonus with a magazine subscription. I remember my eyes growing wide at the incredibly beautiful cakes, cookies, pies, and other foods in that stack of cards. Somewhere in that moment, the seeds were sown to try my own hand at food photography and recipe writing. Written or unwritten, it's clear the wish for all our recipes remains the same—that we eat with joy!
 

🍰

And you, readers? 
Do you remember your first cookbook? 
Is it still in your collection?




Krista's book, Mission Impawsible, launches tomorrow. She's giving away a copy today! We hope everyone will join the conversation and leave comments. If you would like to enter the contest for Mission Impawsible, leave your email address in your comment, please.

91 comments:

  1. My Dad was the Cook in the family. His pot roast and steaks were to die for. My Mom burnt everything. So I picked up a few things from my Dad and inherited a Good Housekeeping Cookbook from my Grandmother...thank you for the chance to win ...
    Marilyn ewatvess@yahoo.com

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  2. My mother used her extensive library of Better Homes & Gardens cookbooks. The BH&G New Cook Book (the classic red plaid one) is the first book I bought myself, and still the one I turn to when I need information. I have 3 copies of it -- a reprint of the 1953 edition, the 1965 edition my mother used, and the 2007 Celebrating the Promise Pink Plaid edition I bought myself. I find it interesting how the recipes and information in each edition are slightly different, and each one has slightly different things in it. My mother also gave me copies of the other BH&G books she used when I got married, so I can make my favorite dishes without calling her for all the recipes. Beyond those reference books, my favorite is an English cookbook that has done all the work converting classic American dishes for ingredients available in my new home country of Australia -- it's so nice to have the work done for me in regards to ingredients I can find to make deep-South and Tex-Mex favorites easily.

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    1. I'm so glad other people collect multiples! I swear the early editions of Joy of Cooking and Fanny Farmer had recipes for cooking squirrel and maybe possum, but those kind of disappeared over time.

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    2. Sheila, I'm pretty sure my Joy of Cooking has a recipe for cooking squirrel! I wonder what they taste like--chicken?

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    3. Lynn, I've got two copies of that red & white BHG cookbook, two -- my mother's copy from 1948 and one I bought in the early 1980s. That American-to-Australian conversion cookbook sounds like a real find!

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  3. I love to collect cookbooks. Some I even use. Our family like Cleo's kept our recipes on recipe cards. I have been scanning them and putting together a cookbook for my kids and grandkids with pictures of which family member recipe it is and a little story about the recipe and person for a keepsake for them. Enjoyed this post

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    1. Deb - What a beautiful keepsake you're creating for your children! Love that! (Needless to say, I still treasure the handwritten cards from my mother and aunt.)

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  4. My mother has an amazing cookbook that she carries with her when she comes to visit me. My grandmother, who I cook like, never used a book.

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    1. I love that she bring it with her, Tonya! That's so sweet.

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  5. I'm like Cleo. My family didn't really use cookbooks. My great grandmother and nana did everything by taste. My great grandmother didn't believe in writing down recipes and my aunt and I have been trying to recreate some of her dishes for twenty years with only some success. Cmkeck311@aol.com

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    1. My grandmothers were like Cleo's, too. And my grandfather made his own wine. I never saw either of them look at a cookbook--they would make homemade ravioli, fabulous sauces but never desserts--always Italian pastries from the bakery. My other grandmother showed me how to make some things but she never measured--it was a "handful" of flour or a "pinch" of salt!

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    2. Christine and Peg - It's interesting how cooking customs change through the years--and even the attitudes about cooking your own meals or growing your own vegetables. It's very popular (even hip) now to have a garden of herbs and veg. In my childhood, it was the mark of a family hedging its bets against bad times. My dad's family came through the Great Depression with great skills in the grow-your-own department, and I miss Dad's big, beautiful tomatoes every summer!

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  6. My first cookbook was my grandmothers's and she gave it to me because she never used it. Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, with the red and white checkerboard cover, pages on meal planning and how to properly set a table. There isn't a date but guessing from the picnic picture of a red and white plaid thermos and the mom in a shirtwaist dress I'm guessing late 50's early 60's. And I still use it for some things. Even though I just pull it out open it to the page and never look at it again. After all My busia taught me to cook, a little bit of this a little bit of that and stir till it looks right.

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    1. That's wonderful, Suzanne. Even if she didn't use it, it must remind you of her each time you look at it.

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  7. I received a treasure of a cookbook when I was engaged and i use it and cherish it. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com

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  8. My cookbook collection is small but precious. A beautiful and old cookbook from a friend which is my favorite. I use newer ones for my family and weekends. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com

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  9. Cleo, great photo! Was your mother a war bride?

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    1. Leslie - Thank you, I love that photo of my dad and his mother, my grandmother Grazia (Grace) Cerasoli Alfonsi. My dad (Tony) met my mom (Rose) at a dance in the Pittsburgh (PA) area in the 1950s. My mother came through Ellis Island with her family when she was still very young.

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  10. My (Yankee) grandmother never learned to cook at all, beyond fudge and meatloaf, and I'm not sure she owned a cookbook--although when she was working for Lipton in New York she hung out with various foodies like Craig Claiborne. The Irish side? At least one of my Irish great-aunts was a cook for a family in Connecticut, and I have her short notes. Most striking is that every recipe seems to include sugar, even the savory ones. I've gone to the other extreme--I went to see Julia Child do a cooking demonstration in San Francisco (and I still have the recipe handout!), and I was in a small restaurant in Berkeley when James Beard walked in. He was an unmistakable figure, and immediately recognizable (but I'd "discovered" the restaurant before him!). My mother had his cookbook on barbecue grilling, and I recently picked up a used copy. Great pictures!

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  11. I love the Better Homes And Garden cookbook. My parents gave me a copy when I moved to Mississippi. I have my mom's older version also. It had recipes that I used that are not in the later versions. I don't cook much anymore as it is just me.
    marlene(dot)ezell(at)gmail(dot)com

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  12. My first cookbook was a book of cookie recipes. I don't have it anymore but I used to make a no bake chocolate rum ball recipe from it.
    sgiden at verizon(.)net

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    1. One of my all-time favorite cookie cookbooks was one I bought in 1972, and I still use it. It even has its price sticker on it: I paid $2.95. Great sugar cookie recipe.

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    2. That does sound delicious, Sandy! I love rum balls.

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  13. My first cookbook was a huge brown book. I wish I still had it. It was used as a prop for a play and wasn't returned. It had everything - recipes, conversion charts, substitution suggestions. My other cookbook was Mother's in the Kitchen from La Leche League. Still miss the other. cheers@marjimmanor.com

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  14. I'm not sure as I don't cook a lot. My favorite cookbook, however, is one my mom made for me with family recipes. Thanks for the opportunity to win! mcastor07@gmail.com

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    1. That's always such a thoughtful gift. I know many people who cherish their collections of family recipes.

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    2. Such a wonderful gift, Melissa! I did one for Victoria but then I borrowed it back from her and still have it. Oops.

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  15. My first cook book was a steno pad of all of my mother's recipes. She gave it to me as a gift when I went off to college...I loved having all of her comfort food recipes. mommatoodle at msn dot com

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  16. My first cookbooks were the Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls and the Peanuts Cookbook -- I started early. I still use the French Toast recipe from the Betty Crocker cookbook!

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    1. Celia - That Peanuts Cookbook sounds adorable. And I love that you still make the Betty French Toast!

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  17. My first cookbook was Better Homes and Gardens first cookbook in the red and white gingham cover. I received this as a wedding present. I still refer to it occasionally. My biggest regret is not learning to make homemade white flour tortillas. My mom made the best! She tried to teach me, but mine never came out like hers. Never could make them round. I will just stick to homemade rolls, that I can do. I loved reading your stories! I remember watching Julia Child on her cooking show, it was fun! Thanks for a chance to win! crossxjo @hotmail. com

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  18. I collect cookbooks but I don't cook very often I have some Paula deen some rachael ray some pioneer woman some from churches I've picked up I live them all thank you for the chance to win debbiesherwood50@gmail.com

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  19. Watching Julia Child on TV inspired me to make croissants when I was in college. I think the first cookbook I bought was also during college. At this point I was living at home and commuting to college in New Orleans. I bought Recipes and Reminiscences of New Orleans at the student book store. I also have the 1968 version of the red and white check BHG New Cook Book. That was probably a college-era purchase too. After I got married in 1972 I bought the New McCall's Cook Book. Still have all these plus numerous others from regional women's clubs, Southern Living, and lord knows what else. In fact I purged the collection last year.
    Pat D
    patdupuy@yahoo.com

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    1. Do you still have the New Orleans cookbook, Pat? I'll bet that one was a good read, too.

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    2. Absolutely! I use the King Ranch chicken casserole recipe in it. It is a good read, along with other regional cookbooks from Texas and Louisiana.

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    3. I have the Recipes & Reminiscences of New Orleans as well. It's the only cookbook I could ever find a recipe for Daube & Spaghetti that came close to my Grandmother's. Unfortunately she took that, her gumbo, and grapefruit straw recipe to the grave with her. I still regret not asking her for those recipes or paying attention when I had the chance. The recipe in the cookbook is not exactly her recipe, but it's pretty close.

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  20. My first cookbook is the Betty Crocker book Leslie showed above. I loved the run-binder because it allowed me to add my own recipes. I learned a lot from that book, but later I would pick up specialty cookbooks...breads, pastas, barbecue, and a big book by Julia Child.
    kat8762(at)aol(dot)com

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  21. I grew up with cooks. Our dog ended up over-weight with a heart murmur from the left-overs from The Art of French Cooking. Those cream sauces were too much for her. She was the first pet I ever heard of to be put on diet pet food!

    For Christmas towards the end of college my parents gave me my own copy with this note:"For your more affluent days".

    Leslie, I had both of your first cookbooks and wish I'd kept them.

    I think my really first one was Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls Cookbook.

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    1. Oh, Libby -- I'm kinda laughing about your chubby puppy! And I LOVE your parents' inscription!

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    2. That's quite the legacy, Libby! The princess dachshunds are urging me to try it here as I still have both the Julia Child "masterings".

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    3. As I think about it, why on earth did we give the food to the dog?! Why didn't we eat it?

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  22. I was in a foster home and my foster mother passed so i had to do the cooking at the age of 10 also for 7 other kids and my dad. We lived on a farm and had chores and a paper route to do so cooking i had done very little this was my 2nd home and i had gotten there 3 years before. I took one of her old cook books she had gotten from Australia and that made no sense. So i did meat balls ,burgers things like that and i had no idea that i had to cook vegis also so i just made 1 hot meal and then added canned vegis with no choice. It was scary years later he remarried and we were still there and she was from Hawaii and her cooking was mainly of curry and I didn't like that at all. When I was to be married I got a Betty Crocker cook book for a shower and worked with that for years. I loved Julia Child and also liked that my daughter really liked to cook when she got in her teens but she made such a mess! ptclayton2@aol.com

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    1. Clearly you learned to be resourceful early.

      I'm sure we all love the movie Julie and Julia -- Madame Child was a messy cook, too! (And maybe favorite foodie movies should be the topic for a future First Monday conversation!)

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    2. What an amazing history, Peggy! It couldn't have been easy but I loved your resilience.

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  23. I remember using the Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook to make dinner for my family when I was a kid. mtl166(at)verizon(dot)net

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  24. I can remember my mom using the Betty Crocker's Cookbook. She still has it & will pull it out for those family favorite recipes.
    turtle6422(at)gmail(dot)com

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  25. The Betty Crocker cookbook, I don't have it anymore, but I used it lots, I think it just fell apart.

    kaye.killgore at comcast.net

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  26. Everyone I grew up with cooked & so did us 4 kids. There were plenty of generations of recipe cards, recipes on food packages & we even had a kid's cookbook with great recipes in it that started us out with the basics & graduated us to the big cookbooks. Betty Crocker was the kid's book publisher & of course they were the ones we graduated to. Thanks for the fun memories & the chance to win. doward1952(at)yahoo(dot)com

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  27. I'm a cookbook lover! My first was Betty Crocker but my fav first one was given as an engagement gift. We use to cook out of it, write the date when we tried it and notes on changes, additions, etc. it was a precious jewel and was a really huge church group cookbook. We sadly lost the cookbook in a hurricane. So years later I hunted down a copy. It wasn't the same as when we were first married and so it just sits in the shelf. Thanks for asking. What a sweet memory to recall. Cafescrapper@gmail.com

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    1. Susie, what a lovely memory -- thanks for sharing it. Notes really make a cookbook come to life, don't they?

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  28. My mother grew up in Chicago. She had an Italian neighborhood on one side of her and an Irish on the other. I loved her stories of when they would have big celebrations, like a wedding, the women would get together and cook up a storm. Her techniques bordered on all that knowledge she would gain from that. I don't ever remember her using a cookbook until later in life. My cooking is, I guess, and extension of what she learned and shared with me. I really loved cooking with my mom. It is one of the things I miss most about her. My email is dianerae56@yahoo.com

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    1. There's something so fundamental about making food, particularly when you're making it with others and sharing all around. Wonderful memories!

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    2. Diane - Great memories. Your mention of weddings brings back lots of good memories for me--and the baking (and eating!) of the Italian cookies, trays and trays of them!

      Sheila - Agree! Proust's madeleine moment pre-dates all of us, of course, but I think most authors value the power of food and memory in fiction.

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    3. I never trust a novel where the characters don't eat!

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    4. Leslie - Ha! Could not agree more.

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  29. Hi, I am a Huge fan of all you ladies. I have spent many enjoyable hours reading your work and trying your recipes. My first cook book was Joy of cooking. I remember when I was little my dad coming in and asking my mother when she was going to teach me to cook. I watched a lot and hung around close but never really got told how to do what. I grew up went to college and three of of girls moved in together as we were all teaching at the same school. We looked at each other and said who is going to cook. I ventured out to say I would try it first, as the deal was the other two had clean up We made it four days each having a turn . I had the fourth day and they decided they liked clean up better than cooking and I became the cook. I found out I had learned a lot by being at my Mothers elbow. Thanks mom. I also have tons of cookbook . I read more recipes and then somehow make my own version. I am 78 and loved all your stories and had a lot of the same experiences. I had a lot of chuckles to recalling the same feeling and experiences. Thank you for writing all your wonderful stories.

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    1. Thanks for chiming in, Sue! I love that kitchen 'deal'. I wish I'd gone to college with you. You could have bailed me out in the kitchen. Hugs.

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    2. Thank you! We have a lot of fun here. Years ago, when I was living with a couple of roommates, we were in kind of the same situation. Two of us enjoyed booking; the third one tried, but oh goodness, the stuff she came up with! It didn't take long until she volunteered for clean-up duty, while we cooked. (BTW, we kept a clipping of Julia Child's kitchen on our fridge--I was thrilled to finally see it at the Smithsonian years later.)

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  30. My mother was a wonderful cook and baker and she made everything from scratch. She hardly ever used a cookbook, but instead had a journal that she had gotten from her mother who was a master baker in the early 1900's. My mother wrote all of the recipes down and so didn't need a cookbook very often. But she did have one and I was devastated that one day, someone asked her about her cookbook, and she gave it to them. I was crushed but at age 10, even though she knew my next youngest sister and I liked to cook and bake, that we had HER recipes in her book and didn't need that cookbook. I got my first cookbook which was a very good one for beginners which gave all ingredients that could be substituted for another, and all of the conversions of times and temperatures and had tons of descriptions of the herbs and spices and little black and white photos of each. I used that cookbook until I got married and then began collecting cookbooks, like hundreds. I was in a cookbook club where you would get three free if you bought one, and then each month thereafter you had to buy one. I had gotten up to over 800 hardcovers or full sized books and around 1,000 cookbooks if you counted all of the paperback types and church booklets.
    We had a room filled with bookcases all of cookbooks. I finally decided to thin out my collection and I donated hundreds of them to the library, even nursing homes as many people there still liked to READ a cookbook for fun. I gave away others to family and friends and sold them for 50 cents at a yard sale we had. I finally got my collection down to about 350 and then before we retired and moved to our much smaller home I got rid of another 100. I think that I have about 300 now, which doesn't look like many as I can fit at least 80 into a four shelf cookbook (piling others on top). I know I need to sort through them again and donate again, as most of my recipes are either in my head or now on files that I put into the computer. I still have kept for 17 recipe boxes with all hand written recipe cards too. Maybe someday my grandkids will think that is cool, but if not, so be it. It is hard to get rid of things at times but now I think it is time to just let them go and have restaurants do the cooking a night or two a week. I have all of the other necessary recipes still etched in my head, and if I need something quickly, I can go online.

    I still have my original Betty Crocker cook book from the early 1960's that I got as a wedding shower gift, which I will never give away. Someone else can go that someday.

    What a lovely trip down memory lane, and now..... I should go get together a few cookbooks to donate that I have not touched, except to dust, in five years or so. :)

    Happy cooking and baking.
    Cynthia B.

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    1. You're very bracve, Cynthia! I find it hard to part with them, but the time is coming soon ...

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    2. Cynthia - Your collection of cookbooks is incredibly impressive and cheers to you for the donations you've made. Your mother and grandmother (master baker!) sound like exceptional women (and clearly they've made you one, as well)! Finally, you are so right about those who enjoy simply reading cookbooks. I often hear from readers who don't cook but enjoy reading the recipes at the back of my mysteries. I think all of us crime-writing cooks here at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen have experienced that. Thank you so much for stopping by our Kitchen table today.

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    3. What an incredible collection you must have! I often find old cookbooks at yard sales and flea markets, and you can learn so much about other eras by reading what and how they cooked.

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  31. My cookbook was a collection of recipes from all the Levy County Bus Drivers. They were all old recipes from their mothers and grandmothers. It's not a hard back book. It's a ring binder style. The wonderful gems that are included! It's still my prized possession!

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    1. I love the sound of that, Mary Alice. Hidden gems. Hugs.

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    2. Awesome, Mary Alice, that sounds like something the Smithsonian should have. No kidding. I read somewhere that an archive is being assembled of regional cookbooks just like yours!

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  32. The first cookbook I had was a cookbook for kids called My First Cookbook. It had really easy recipes, and my sister and I loved to use it. Probably the first cookbook I bought for myself was The Better Homes and Garden cookbook. My mom loved and collected cookbooks. She passed away two years ago, so now my sister and I have all her cookbooks. We also have all her handwritten recipes. cking78503(at)aol(dot)com

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  33. I remember buying a Peanuts Cookbook (Charles Schulz)when I was in grade school. I think this may have been the first cookbook that I bought. I still use the lemon bar recipe that was in it.

    kxh_share@yahoo.com

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    1. I need that recipe. :) Honestly, I love lemon bars, but have never found the perfect recipe. I feel a binge coming on...

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    2. Leslie, my daughter got a good recipe for lemon bars from her middle-school home-ec class (her teacher there insisted on being called "Doctor" since she had a Ph.D.). We're still using it--I'll have to send you a copy!

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  34. I adore cookbooks! KRISTA I wonder if the little cookbooks your mom bought were by Pillsbury? I had a subscription to those, but other companies had them too. My first cookbook came from my grandparents as a Christmas gift, Betty Crocker's Boys and Girls Cookbook. It has a picture of a boy holding a cake with a girl & boy looking on. I still have that cookbook. My son made the Cinnamon Puffs (I think that is the name). He made a slight error with the Baking Power, so we had LOTS of cinnamon puffs! Happy Times!

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    1. Helena, love that story! I can just see the puffs multiplying!

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    2. Helena Georgette, it's possible but I don't think so. I'll have to look on Ebay and see if I can find them.

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  35. I never owned it (though I will if I ever find a copy!), but the first cookbook I recall using was The Nancy Drew Cookbook I checked out from my library as a teenager. I think I still have some hand-written recipes somewhere, that I copied out of that book. Another favorite is/was The Mickey Mouse Cookbook - I still like to look through that one nce in a while. It makes me happy!!

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    1. Wow, I never knew that! Wonder where we could find a copy . . . But did Nancy actually cook? She always had Hannah Gruen in the kitchen.

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    2. Amazon has the Nancy Drew cookbook from 1973. They referred to it as the original. My daughter became a fan and I bought it for her a few years ago hoping to spark her interest in cooking, and eating better. She loves chili and pastas and I so hate pastas. But to no avail. She tried 2 of the recipes and that was the end of her interest. Bummer. Della

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  36. My first cookbook was The Better Homes and Garden Cookbook. I now have a big collection of cookbooks. Looking forward to reading Krista's "Mission Impawsible".
    diannekc8(at)gmail(dot)com

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  37. My first cookbook is/was my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook, which I still have since the mid 60s. I have a lot of really cool older cookbooks.
    lkish77123 at gmail dot com

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  38. Even after 53 years of marriage I still have some of my first cookbooks, like Betty Crocker and Fanny Farmer and a real organic country cookbook which I have packed away. That cookbook was about all natural garden to table or farm to table foods and that is still how I want to cook now. I was a real cookbook collector which worked well for research when I wrote my food columns years ago, but I don't need all that many anymore. I have a few that I will save forever. Most of my favorite recipes are remembered...The only ones I still reference are when baking and i am needing precise measurements.
    Lived reading the comments. Very interesting and fun.
    Cynthia
    ceblain(AT)tmlponline(DOT)net

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  39. My first cookbook was the red Betty Crocker. I received it as a graduation present in 1974. It has been well loved thru the years. But my prized possession is my moms cookbook. It's a Searchlight Recipe Book from 1944. Love that old book and seeing my moms recipes she wrote were ever she could find room.
    Deniece
    Dee2164@hotmail.com

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  40. My very first cookbook was The Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls, which my sister (3 yrs younger) and I shared from the book fair when I was in 4th grade. I've been telling my students about this, since my school's Spring Book Fair is coming up in 2 weeks. I learned how to make meat loaf and mashed potatoes with this cookbook, along with chocolate chip and oatmeal/raisin cookies. And my sister became an awesome baker (she baked challah from scratch when she was 14). My husband is a great cook, and when he was a much younger man he loved books by Craig Claiborne and James Beard, most of which we still have. My husband has also been collecting recipes and compiling them in a document on his computer (and backed up offline). We still do mostly home cooked meals and rarely eat out.
    Katharine Kan
    teenlibn at hotmail dot com

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  41. My first cookbook was a spiral notebook with handwritten recipes from my mom and grandma and recipes cut out of the newspaper and magazines. They were both great cooks but I'm not sure I ever saw them use a cookbook. I got a copy oft Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook for Boys and Girls for my 13th birthday. And almost 50 years ago my grandmother gave me The Ground Beef Cookbook (over 500 recipes!) and The Domino Sugar Cookbook. I still have my mom's habit of clipping recipes but now I can download them Mystery Lovers' Kitchen!
    sallycootie@gmail.com

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  42. The first cookbook I owned was the Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook received as a bridal shower gift. My Mom and Grandma were great cooks and bakers. My brother and I spent hours helping them in the kitchen. There are several cookbooks that I treasure. I inhefited all of my Mom and Grandma 's cookbooks, some in Dutch and many dating back to the late 1800's and 1900's, plus a cookbook we compiled as a fundraiser to pay for our daughters first wheelchair. U of C press donated the printing. It contains recipes from family members and friends (many who are no longer living). Most recipes included are family favorites served when there were potluch gatherings. I still make many of those recipes today.

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  43. This may be an off-the-wall question. I know I had an early version of the Easy-Bake Oven (the heat source was a light bulb!), and it came with some adorable tiny baking pans--but was there a cookbook that came with it? I don't remember one, but I know I baked things in that oven.

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    1. I do believe they did. My sister got one for Christmas when they first came out in the early 60's. Vaguely remember my grandmother saying something about having a child size cooking stove when she was that young. But it was metal and burned pellets or sawdust or something like that. Della

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    2. I believe they did. Vaguely remember them. Della

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  44. The Joy of Cooking cookbook was my first. A gift from my grandmother when I showed interest in learning too cook. Think it was 1957, I was 10 then. Then in 1961 I bought my first cookbook, a Betty Crocker. Still have them both. But used Betty Crocker the most. It is being held together with that clear packaging tape. I buy a new cookbook every couple of years. Only lost two in moving. My grandmother could take any ole left over and turn it into a regular gourmet type meal. deepotter@peoplepc.com

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  45. My first was a Klutz cookbook for kids. Which I still have and we use from time to time. ;) My first grown up one was a Betty Crocker Cookie Book, still have and always use too! I love it!
    Awilcox1182@gmail.com

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  46. My Grandmother gave me my first cookbook, Joy of Cooking [because it covers all the basics she said] in '57. I was about 10 and was taking an interest in cooking. Bought my first one, a Betty Crocker in 1961. Bought many over the years and have collected many recipes as well. deepotter@peoplepc.com

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  47. I don't recall ever having a cookbook. When I was a teenager I ordered those recipe cards that came in the mail every few weeks, it was pretty exciting...still have them, but I usually use google or my wonderful cozy collection =) When I'm reading a book with recipes I will sometimes follow each recipe in order for the week, takes all the work out of deciding what to make for dinner. konecny7(at)gmail(dot)com

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  48. I had a Campbell soup cookbook for kids! I made a lot of recipes when I was 12! Then cookies! For 4 h at the county fair, I even got a blue ribbon!

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