Yellow cakes/ cocoa powder frosting how cookbooks relate to gardens

[PunkinPeep]

My favorite published cookbook ever, which i no longer own and can't remember the name of, is a cookbook published by a Mennonite church in Michigan where my dad's family is from. It has all the old recipes from the ladies in the area who were old 30 years ago. The recipes use words like 'oleo.' It's full of great recipes. I lost one in a house fire, and when my mom bought me a new one, somehow, it was lost again in a move. So now, i have my mom scan and email the recipes to me.

My other favorite is the little picture album cookbook that my mother made for me (that i didn't lose). She put a collection of recipes from my mother's cooking, side by side with pictures from my childhood. Now, when i find a recipe i like and want to use regularly, i rewrite it on an index card and add it to this little book for easy reference. I make all sorts of little notes or re-writes in there. And once i find the perfect whatever (cornbread, biscuits, chocolate cake) recipe that i like, i don't really look anywhere else.

I don't know exactly how this relates to vegetables, but it's really nice to talk about.

 

[journey11]

I write in mine too! If something was a fav or tanked or if I changed the recipe a bit.

Now that I'm really getting into canning, I try to plan my garden around my cookbook. That way I don't have to run to the store and waste money on an herb that I could have easily grown!

My grandpa brought me a pressure canner he got at a yardsale, and it had a several old (50's and 60's) cookbooks inside it that the previous owner had written her notes on. I thought that was pretty cool, feeling in touch with the history of what that canner meant to her before, and now to me.

I have an old manilla folder stuffed to the gills with recipes that I have collected over the years. All my favorites and go-to stuff is in there and my envelope is starting to fall apart. I keep telling myself that I am going to buy a scrapbook and sit down and put them all in there, organized hopefully!

 

[Hattie the Hen]

As some of you know I do some volunteer work for a charity called Oxfam here in the UK! I help out in one of their bookshops. After my eye operations a few years ago I had become a bit of a hermit & I thought that this might help draw me back into the world again. I decided on try one of their bookshops rather than their other outlets that sell clothes, china etc because I had a great love of books & years ago worked in one to help out a friend.
Now I go once a week to help sort, price & stack shelves as well as serving customers etc.
We sell huge numbers of cookery books & it is very interesting as to what people choose. Of course all the newest titles sell well but we often get them re-donated pretty fast as they tend to be very 'chef-y'. Recently I have noticed a lot of people asking for books of very traditional English recipes for their comforting & economic dishes. There has been a great revival of interest in the books of Elizabeth David -- my great favourite. She really taught me to cook in the 1960's. .
For information on her here's a link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_David

In the same genre I love a wonderful US writer called M.F.K Fisher who I didn't discover until about 25years ago but who's works I treasure. Unfortunately not many people over there have heard of her. Shame on you all!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._F._K._Fisher

Strangely enough both women were almost exact contemporaries & both led very interesting lives. I have often wondered if they ever met? I would have loved to be a fly on the wall if they did.
If you come across their books grab them quick.

BUY MORE BOOKS I say, waving my banner (especially cookery & gardening ones.....!!! )

Enjoy yourselves!


:rose Hattie :rose

 

[PunkinPeep]

Oh yes! That reminds me! A few months ago, i was at the city Senor Center Thrift Store, and i found an old copy of the Betty Crocker cook book. I can't find a publish date on it, but it's in kind of a binder, and from the printing, etc., i'm making an uneducated guess that it was probably published in the 70s.

There are so many great recipes for things that no one ever thinks about making (at least in my circles) anymore. I love the basic bread recipes, and i'm hoping to experiment with some things i've never made but want to.

I love older cook books. I really really would love to get a copy of the original 1930-something Joy of Cooking. That would be so awesome!

 

[HiDelight]

Punkin I googled "Mennonite Church Cookbook" and found a lot of them online but from all over the US ..maybe you could find your beloved book that way? you may have already tried but I know what you are saying

I have a Grange cookbook from Penn and am sure I would be lost if I lost it ..it seriously had the best cookie recipes I have found anywhere ..the pages are all doughy and stuck together

I am not sure but I feel I have posted this on this board someplace else but one of the best cookery books I own and am SO glad I bought it when it was $20 and I thought hat was too much ..if you see this in a thrift or used bookstore GRAB IT!!!
The Victory Garden Cookbook
http://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-m...0780X/ref=cm_ciu_pdp_images_1?ie=UTF8&index=1

Marian Morash knows her way around a vegetable and she taught me how to love and respect them!

now The Victory Garden is a shell of its former self ...so sad where it has gone I can barely stand to watch it!!! and the food ..the "chef" or whatever that guy thinks he is ..blech ..

Hattie what I would love to wander your bookstore with a huge pocket full of cash oh man I am so jealous volunteer work in a used bookstore ...sigh ...a girl can dream

Journey if you get organized can you please fill us in on how??? I try but even my card box ..no one else has a card box???

should we start a TEG card box???? even as a little girl I loved recipe card boxes ..god I am old

you guys are great thanks for participating I was hoping this would not die on the vine ..I am thinking there is another cookbook thread here because I am having deja vu maybe we can merge them if there is?

 

[digitS']

HiDelight, there are questions today about fruit tree pruning - do you have a recipe for using them for smoking meat?

I have a notebook of recipes - some that have been used many, many times. There's even some sausage recipes but they aren't worth sharing.

I have my mother's Good Housekeeping Cookbook but the front and back pages have gone missing ! I think it sat in too many counter-top spills . . .

My wife probably thinks I'm crazy to keep that thing. It looks like one of the Dead Sea scrolls.

Steve

 

[ducks4you]

I know how cookbooks relate to gardens: cherries for CHERRY PIE!!!
Speaking of cherry pie..PunkinPeep, could you copy the cherry pie recipe from that Betty Crocker cookbook? I use it ALL OF THE TIME, but I had to memorize it because my page has gone missing. The latest editions have a totally different recipe!!

BTW, the those reading, there is no such thing as a GOOD pre-made pie crust. Those things taste stale and awful--gotta make 'em fresh!

 

[PunkinPeep]

Happy to.

Is this it?

And i agree. If i haven't made the crust, i don't feel like i've made the pie at all. I also despise recipes whose ingredients are things like 'cake mix' or 'pudding mix.' I love knowing i made things totally from scratch. But that's just me.

Let me know if you can see this.

 

[journey11]

My collected recipes are all on different sized pieces of paper and some are handwritten, some are not. I tried once to begin typing them all into the computer all nice and neat, but I stopped because it didn't feel the same to toss out the originals (some have sentimental attachment or were given to me by family/friends) and also it was ridiculously time-consuming!

Although I haven't begun yet, I intend to get a big 3 ring binder (I may need more than one). I am going to categorize my recipes like a cookbook does, and I am going to use the kind of page inserts that you lift and it sticks to itself (static cling, I guess). That way, I can add and rearrange them if I need to later on. As long as cookies are in one place and meat categories, appetizers, etc in another, I think I will be able to better locate them when I need them!

ETA: Another project I have on the backburner that I hope to get to someday, hopefully before my children are grown, is I want to do a scrapbook of favorite family and heirloom recipes. I'd like to have info and pics in addition to the recipes, done up very pretty, to highlight why that recipe is important to me and what it meant to my family. I think that would be really special and make a nice wedding gift for my daughter someday.

 

[HiDelight]

Oh Journey I did this with my kids and you must do it for yours ..it is already becoming generational for us ..I got a huge journal type book when we tweeked a recipe we added it to the book put the childs name on it and usually some of the foods as well stuck to the pages just for old times sake

it is now being enhanced with my grandson's efforts

his buttered carrot recipe is going in this weekend


I am eyeballing that gooseberry pie! YUM!!! Punkin!!!