IF? I am without a doubt the cookbook QUEEN. I love cookbooks. The older the better, in my opinion. My heart raced, and I found myself just rambling on and on about cookbooks I'd had, wanted, seen, or dreamed of having (one of which was in the box!). She laughed because, after all, she DID have two full boxes of cookbooks herself.
A few years ago, ok probably 15 years ago, I went to a party thrown by some business associates. I didn't want to go. I don't know why, maybe I had something better to do, but providence had a plan for me. I found myself hiding in the breakfast nook of the Victorian house, while everyone else enjoyed themselves in the living area. Ok, I'm a wannabe hermit. I've admitted it. Back to the story. In the nook there is a small cupboard with cookbooks. Naturally I examine said cookbooks. One of them is a Pepperidge Farm book from the '30s I think. Very exciting! But even more exciting is what's inside.
The appendix contains reprints of two smaller cookbooks. Both are considered 'the first cookbook ever written'. One in English and one in French (both of which I conveniently speak, so yay for that). These are from the 1500's, maybe earlier. I find myself completely lost in these books. Roasts and sauces and how to dress a pheasant and all. I'm amazed at how things haven't really changed. After who knows how long, the Sicilian comes to get me to go home. I'm SO sad to leave this book whims, but I dutifully return it to the shelf. I must have talked about it for a week or more, because it must have sunken into his normally sweetly oblivious brain, and later under the Christmas tree I found a copy of that cookbook. I love it.
Cookbooks really are a microcosm of our society for the discerning eye. Pick up a church collaborative cookbook from the 40's or 60's or 80's. They look very different one from the other. This box today was from a woman who had lived in 8 different eastern countries, and gathered cookbooks from them all, as well as helped create collaborative books of recipes of 'the Oil Wives' in Singapore, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia...
The picture shows most of the books I got. My dream Julia Child cookbook, books of Chinese, Persian, Malaysian and Tyler Florence's cuisines, plus a few of those collaborative books in which I'm sure I will find a few great recipes.
Oh and what is the Two Billion Dollar Cookbook? That's what wives do when they're shipped off to Alaska so their husbands can conduct the cleanup of the tanker Valdeze. That was actually at Barnes and Noble, proceeds going to a cleanup foundation.
All that to say, pick up a cookbook or two at a garage sale, or in your grandmas old stack and just read. Don't read to cook. Read to discover what their life was like, what was exciting to try. My Meme had her share of recipe stashes. Her favorites were from the newspaper and always had an interesting note in them by the author... Serve with an icecream cocktail...never substitute margarine...make this in a tin pan so you can bend to pop out.
What is your favorite cookbook? May not be the one you use the most but just love reading... Please share!
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