I got this book on a whim. I just thought I’d check out some new recipes. But I got to reading it and its pretty interesting. I like the give the RAW diet a 25% shot. And being that I don’t eat processed foods at all or gluten or dairy I’m already pretty much strict. Although that is not at all a requirement. But she looks amazing for being 50! And I want to too. I will never stop cooking my meat but I can stop killing my vegetables by not cooking them. The sprouting and germination is so interesting to me. I’m trying to get the courage to give it a try.

The Grand Prize in the first Pillsbury Bake-Off contest held in December, 1949, (then called the Grand National Recipe and Baking Contest) and hosted in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City — was $50,000.  The only required ingredient in the early contests was Pillsbury’s BEST Flour. (FYI- that $50,000 winning recipe was called No-Knead Rising Twists and it was submitted by Mrs. Ralph Smafield of Detroit, Michigan).

In the Second Pillsbury Baking contest (not yet referred to as a “Bake-Off) was also held in New York City. (In 1957 the competition left New York for the first time and headed for Los Angeles. Since then, Bake-Off contests have been held in Washington, D.C. Florida, Texas and California.) The 1^st Prize Winner in that Second Grand National Contest was Mrs. Peter Wuebel of Redwood City, California for her Orange-Kiss-Me Cake. Her first prize was $25,000.

Since 1996, the Grand Prize has been $1 million. The first $1 million prize was won by a man (Kurt Wait of Redwood City, CA), and that year 14 of the 100 finalists were men. Kurt’s million dollar recipe was Macadamia Fudge Torte.

Until 2002, CBS televised the event. Hosts have included Arthur Godfrey (1949–1950s), Art Linkletter (1960′s), Bob Barker (1970′s),  Gary Collins (1980′s), Willard Scott (1990–1994), Alex Trebek (1996–1998), Phylicia Rashad (2000), and Marie Osmond  (2002). In 2010, the winner was announced live on The Oprah Windfrey Show.  The 2004, 2006, and 2008 contests were not televised. The television airings were produced by Mark Goodson Productions. Bob Barker was the first host to have a male category champ in 1978. Willard Scott & Marie Osmond also had male category champs (1990 & 1992 for Willard) while Alex Trebek had the pleasure to witness history when Kurt Wait won the 1996 Bake-Off with his million dollar recipe.

A lot of us collect the Bake-Off cookbooklets, which originally sold for twenty-five cents. (Curiously, the FIRST Bake Off cookbooklet doesn’t have a price on it anywhere. The Second Bake Off cookbooklet is priced at 25 cents). The price for the 13^th Grand National Bake Off cookbook was 35 cents and the price went up to 50 cents when the 16^th Grand National Bake Off booklet was published. The recently published 45^th Bake Off cookbooklet was $4.99.

The FIRST bake off cookbooklet gives no indication that it was going to be the first of a series – I don’t think Pillsbury realized yet what they had on their hands. It’s the most elusive booklet of all to find and yet – I found mine at a flea market in Palm Springs and paid a dollar for it. I’ve heard of people paying $75 for one. I buy extra bake off booklets anytime I find them—just in case I find someone who needs one.

You know, if you have collected Pillsbury Bake-Off cookbooks for any length of time, how sometimes a Bake-Off recipe becomes really famous.  A good early example is the Tunnel of Fudge cake recipe. The original Tunnel of Fudge Cake, created by Texan Ella Helfrich, didn’t even win the grand prize—it came in second place! (Even so, the tunnel of Fudge cake recipe is featured on the cover of the 17^th Bake-Off Cookbook collection).

Two unexpected events occurred at that 17^th annual Bake-Off Event; one, a famous new dessert was born, and two, the people at Nordic-Ware, the creators of the Bundt Pan, discovered they had a hot selling item on their hands.

Many of us have had the vague impression that Bundt pans—or something very much like them—had European origins and have been around for ages. Didn’t our grandmothers have something sort of similar? Actually, they did.

Food writer, Marcy Goldman, writing for the Washington Post, a few years ago, explained that the Bundt pan, as we know it, was actually designed in 1949 in Minneapolis—but, she says, the story of the Bundt pan is made no less interesting by its recent origin.

Writes Goldman “It was in 1946 that a young engineer, H. David Dalquist, Sr., returned to Minneapolis from his World War II duties, and with his brother started a small company, Northland Aluminum Products, in the family basement, to cast aluminum into industrial products” (One can imagine that products made of aluminum would have been a hot commodity now that aluminum was no longer rationed after the end of the war.)

As Dalquist developed his expertise in aluminum casting, he began to branch out into a few consumer products, including cake pans that he sold by mail order through advertisements in decorating magazines.

As Dalquist himself told the story, one day in 1949, a trio of “very nice ladies” from the local Hadassah chapter of Minneapolis approached him. They described a handmade ceramic baking mold that the chapter’s president had inherited from her European grandmother. The ladies explained that it was used to make bundkuchens, party or ‘gathering’ cakes. It was round and scrolled and like several other European baking pans, had a tube running up the center of the mold…they wanted to know if Dalquist could make them such a thing in metal. Dalquist could and he did. The ladies of Hadassah were happy and Dalquist was pleased enough to add the pan to his “Nordic Ware” line. The cake pan did well right from the beginning, say the people at Nordic Ware, mostly because women’s magazine used the pan for pretty cake photos.

Gerry Schremp, author of KITCHEN CULTURE/FIFTY YEARS OF FOOD FADS, says that sales were slow until the 1960 Good Housekeeping cookbook featured a color picture of a pound cake made in a Bundt pan. Twenty years later, sales took off even more when a lighter-weight Bundt pan was created.

Nordic Ware today is no longer being created in someone’s basement; they have a 270,000 square foot state of the art manufacturing facility with 14 molding pressers, 16 metal forming presses and six high production coating lines.

After Ella Helfrich created Tunnel of Fudge Cake—which has gone through a number of revisions since the original 1966 creation—every woman in America had to have a Bundt pan—and the people at Pillsbury were no slouches; Dalquist began entertaining the big wigs at Pillsbury…serving, of course, elegant Bundt cakes for dessert, and a deal was cooked…er, baked up.

If you browse through your old Bake-Off cookbooks, starting with the 16^th Bake off contest, you will find American ingenuity at work, as contest finalists created a myriad of Bundt cakes, from Hideaway Chocolate Cake, in the 17^th edition, to Fudge Brown Ring Cake, in the 24^th. On the cover of Bake Off #23 is a prize winning photo of Butterscotch rum Ripple Cake and, of course, it was baked in a Bundt pan.

Gerry Schremp says that, by 1972, eleven of the top hundred winners in the Bake-Off contest had recipes which called for a Bundt pan; the grand prize THAT year was a Bundt Streusel Spice Cake.

The Pillsbury people have always been ever-vigilant when a good thing comes along. In 1974, they published PILLSBURY’S BEST BUNDT RECIPES, 100 delicious bread and cake recipes to make in your new fluted tube pan.  Then in 1977, Pillsbury came out with 100 NEW BUNDT IDEAS, which manages to incorporate recipes for main dishes, salads, breads, desserts, and cakes—all made with the versatile Bundt cake pan.  As I leafed through these two booklets, I discovered a wealth of exciting recipes including recipes for “scratch cakes” – you know, those cakes some of us still make without using a mix.

With the advent of Issue #26 of the Bake Off books, another creative cook produced chocolate toffee crescent bars, made with crescent dinner rolls and a whole flurry of new recipes were created with crescent dinner rolls as the basic ingredient—but that’s another story we’ll have to pursue another time.

However, the upshot of the 1966 Tunnel of Fudge Cake recipe was that Pillsbury created an entire line of Bundt Cake mixes, and offered the housewives of America a sweet deal – Nordic Ware Cake pans together with its cake mix.

Dalquist said that no matter how many pans Pillsbury ordered, the amount was underestimated. For about 18 months in the 1970s, in a kind of Bundt-mix-mania,  Nordic Ware was working to capacity, manufacturing 30,000 Bundt Pans daily to keep up with the demand. (By the early 90s, more than 40 million of the pans had been manufactured).

Eventually, Pillsbury took the Bundt cake mixes out of the product line. However, instructions for making a Bundt cake can still be found on the boxes of cake mixes and most of us still have a Bundt cake pan or two on our pantry shelves. (Actually, I think I have half a dozen including my Angel Food cake tube pans—in more recent years Nordic Ware began manufacturing some brand-new wonderfully designed Bundt pans). For those of us who still want to make Bundt cakes from scratch or have a myriad of Bundt cake mixes in our recipe files, Nordic Ware put out a Bundt cookbook which was available directly from Nordic Ware.

Some of us still have the little Nordic Ware  recipe booklet that came with our original Bundt pan; it contains quite a few Bundt cake recipes, including one for Tunnel of Fudge cake..although my booklet offers the original recipe and you can no longer buy Creamy double Dutch Frosting Mix (an essential ingredient in making the original Tunnel of Fudge cake).

Some time ago, I mentioned a Bundt cake to my daughter in law, Keara, who had no idea what I was talking about. I gave her an extra Bundt cake pan that I had (still in its original box) along with a fistful of recipes to try. She was enchanted with the cake pan – Pillsbury people take note – there’s a whole new generation of prospective cake bakers coming along—but she was especially pleased to discover its other possibilities. She called me one day, excitedly, to say “This Bundt pan makes a great Jello mold!”

Meanwhile, time marches on. The theme for the 38^th Bake-Off contest held in Orlando Florida was “Quick & Easy”. The winning one-million dollar recipe was Salsa Couscous Chicken. You don’t need a Bundt cake pan or a package of Crescent rolls to make it.

The $1 million Grand Prize recipe for the 43^rd Pillsbury Bake-off contest was, Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies, created by Carolyn Gurtz of Gaithersburg, Maryland

Now fast forward to the 45^th Bake-Off contest which features, on its cover, a Carrot Cake Tart. That is not the million dollar first prize winner. THAT went to the                       person who created Pumpkin Ravioli with Salted Caramel Whipped Cream. You don’t need a Bundt cake pan or a package of crescent rolls to make it. I miss the good old days.

And if you want to try your hand at making the not-tunnel-of-fudge-cake but a close imitation, try the following which I came across somewhere in my travels. It’s from as newspaper clipping:

ALMOST LIKE A TUNNEL OF FUDGE CAKE

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups margarine, softened
• 1 3/4 cups white sugar
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 10 inch Bundt pan.
2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Gradually blend in 2 cups confectioners’ sugar. Beat in the flour and 3/4 cup cocoa powder. Stir in the chopped walnuts. Pour batter into prepared pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 1 hour, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.
4. For the glaze: In a small bowl, combine 3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar and 1/4 cup cocoa. Stir in milk, a tablespoon at a time, until desired drizzling consistency is achieved. Spoon over cake.

I have been collecting the Bake Off cookbooklets for years – and consequently, have duplicates of quite a few. Write to me if there is a particular bake off booklet you are looking for! I’ll see if I have it!

–Sandra Lee Smith

“Everybody has a favorite comfort food. We tend to have sentimental feelings toward what we ate as a kid even if it came from the “Colonel”. It reminds us of a time when other people took care of us and all we had to do was look both ways before crossing the street…” (From COMFORT FOODS by Rita M. Harris, Prime Publishing, 1997)

Comfort food is also defined in Holly Garrison’s cookbook titled (appropriately) “COMFORT FOOD” “…Certain distinctive foods that are reminiscent of childhood, adolescence, less complicated times and Mommy!” Occasional indulgence in these foods by adults is considered safer than drugs or alcohol and less expensive than compulsive shopping (From “COMFORT FOOD” by Holly Garrison, Dell Publishing, 1988).

Comfort foods seem to be getting a lot of press, these days. I picked up Rita Harris’ book “COMFORT FOODS” at a bookstore in San Francisco (and belatedly discovered that Ms. Harris’ comfort foods are not the same as mine). A quick search of my book shelves turned up Maggie Waldron’s “COLD SPAGHETTI AT MIDNIGHT” (what do chicken soup for breakfast and cold spaghetti at midnight have in common? She asks. “The power to comfort, revive, and even heal, or so goes the wisdom of folk medicine” Harris explains, comforters and revivers, the foods and remedies drawn from our warmest childhood memories, the foods we still turn to when we’re blue and out of sorts; steaming cinnamon tea on a bleak winter night, cooling sherbet for a sore throat, cold spaghetti for a nighttime raid   on the refrigerator to erase a trying day…” (“COLD SPAGHETTI AT MIDNIGHT” by Maggie Waldron, was published in 1992 by William Morrow & Company).

I confess, I have never been tempted to indulge in cold spaghetti at midnight (SEE’s Candy butterscotch squares—yes, cold spaghetti—no). I also suspect that when cookbook authors such as Bert Greene compiled “BERT GREENE’S KITCHEN, A BOOK OF MEMORIES AND RECIPES,” or Mimi Sheraton composed “FROM MY MOTHER’S KITCHEN, RECIPES & REMINISCENCES” or Karen Brown’s “MEALS LIKE MOM USED TO MAKE”– they were all writing a tribute to comfort foods—they just couldn’t limit themselves to one or two dishes.

“STORIES AND RECIPES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s” by Janet Van Amber Paske contains a lot of comfort foods, including one of my favorites—Scalloped Tomatoes. I spent years trying to find a recipe for this dish, which my mother called Stewed Tomatoes but the main thing about it was the inclusion of bread cubes. I think the primary reason my mother made it was because we always had plenty of bread to eat, and it was a sure-fire way to stretch a can of tomatoes. My mother baked two large loaves of homemade bread twice a week when I was a child. My mother’s stewed tomatoes puts me in mind of our house on Sutter Street, my mother ironing our clothes while we children sat around the kitchen table doing homework and listening to “THE SHADOW” or “MY FRIEND IRMA” or dozens of other radio shows.  We all had our favorites—one of mine was Baby Snooks.

When I began putting together material for this blog post, I was reminded of other comfort foods from other times, and began digging into recipe boxes and going through old cookbooks, looking for them. Consequently, my grandchildren became guinea pigs, sampling old fashioned homemade chocolate pudding, tapioca, lemon meringue pie and baked apples, stuffed with chopped nuts and raisins and a dollop of maple syrup.

I had   forgotten how silky-smooth and creamy chocolate pudding made from cornstarch can be.

My favorite comfort food for many years was actually a meal and I think it became Bob’s favorite comfort food too. Let me explain:

When I was a very young girl (maybe 9 or 10) one of my favorite Friday night meals was salmon patties, accompanied by macaroni & cheese, cottage cheese,  and spinach with a bit of hard boiled egg on top. When I was about ten years old, this was the first meal I prepared for my brothers, one night when my parents were off to a bowling banquet or something.

“Do we HAVE to eat it?” my younger brothers implored, when my parents came down the stairs dressed in their going-out finery.

“Yes, every bite!” my father told them.

With my mother’s apron wrapped around my waist, I proudly served dinner; salmon patties, macaroni & cheese,  spinach with a bit of hard-boiled egg chopped on top of it, and cottage cheese in little dishes on the side.

My brothers ate their dinner, then –of one accord, stood up, dramatically clasped their hands to their stomachs, and all fell down on the kitchen floor, groaning. I think I may have kicked them all on their backsides as they roared with laughter.

I still love salmon patties, which you may know as croquettes – and my brothers all still love to remind me of this meal.

Fast forward decades later; one time Bob & I were traveling up the California coast in our little Chinook camper. We camped one night near Point Arena (fabulous lighthouse—I should point out that I have had an ongoing love affair with lighthouses and we stopped specifically to visit the Pont Arena lighthouse) – but! It was cold, dark, foggy and dreary. I embarked on making salmon patties and macaroni and cheese on our little propane stove. We were running out of propane and the flame under the pot of macaroni flickered lower and lower. I was barely able to put together the macaroni & cheese. We ate, shivering, with me apologizing profusely because the macaroni was still – let us say al dente. Bob swore for the rest of his life that it was one of the best meals he had ever eaten. And forever after, whenever I was making salmon patties along with macaroni & cheese, he was sure to say, “This is good but you know what was really great?”

“The salmon patties and macaroni and cheese we had at Point Arena,” I’d finish for him, adding, “The macaroni wasn’t even cooked!”

Nobody ever said that a comfort food had to be good.

Another favorite comfort food of mine is so simplistic—it’s just buttered saltine crackers, with hot tea that has been laced with lemon juice. Often, when I was a little girl and frequently spent the night at my Grandma Schmidt’s, this is what we would have before we went to bed. (And it was always real butter at Grandma’s, not margarine!) If you had the good fortune to be sick AND at Grandma’s at the same time, you would be bundled up with blankets in Grandma’s bed, with Vick’s Salve spread on your chest, and tea and crackers at your elbow…Grandma would be in the kitchen, ironing clothes and you could listen to her daytime radio shows (Backstage Wife, Our Bill, or a local favorite, Ruth Lyons, a talk-show precursor who had a huge following in Cincinnati.

If I have a cold or the flu, or maybe if I am just having doldrums, buttered saltine crackers and hot tea with lemon juice will perk me right up. It ranks right up there with Campbell’s tomato soup made with milk instead of water, and buttered saltine crackers. (and taking a cue from Grandma Schmidt, I cook and bake with only unsalted butter).

There is a wonderfully charming book titled “COOKING WITH MEMORIES, RECIPES & RECOLLECTIONS” by Lora Brody, published in 1989 by the Stephen Green Press/Pelham Books—it’s all good reading, from cover to cover, but the chapter I related to most is titled “READING AT THE TABLE”. Lora tells about all the books she grew up on, eating lunch and reading at the table, ranging from Curious George and Dr. Seuss at first grade level—to the entire set of the Bobbsey Twins, in third grade—until she discovered gothic and romance novels in the 6^th grade…and she tells how she forever associates certain foods with certain books. She tells how recently, when she picked up a copy of GONE WITH THE WIND, she had a sudden urge to eat saltine crackers with peanut butter and then remembered eating just that when she first read the book.

A kindred spirit! I was tempted to sit down and write Ms. Brody a letter and tell her about MY reading material and food associations. One of my nearest and dearest has to do with a set of children’s books by author Enid Blyton, whom many of you probably never heard of. She was a British children’s author (and a prolific one at that, writing and publishing hundreds of children’s storybooks) – and even though she wrote hundreds of books, the small library at St Leo’s school had about four of these books, all from the same series, about these four children who went to boarding schools and managed to have the most fantastic adventures “during holidays”. I read and re-read these books, munching on Reese’s peanut butter cups which I kept stashed under my pillow. One of the children had a parrot named Kiki  which may explain why I had a parrot for over twenty years. I read by flashlight, under blankets (after my mother ordered lights out). I hid in our cherry tree with my books and saltine-crackers-with-peanut butter and other times I huddled with our dog, Mike, on the landing of our cellar steps, where it was warm and toasty in the wintertime, from the heat of the furnace, light coming in from a small window, and no one was likely to find you. (I don’t remember that anyone ever did).

Many years later, a British penpal found five of these books for me—with only the barest description of the stories. Apparently, many British children had grown up with Enid Blyton’s books, just as we had the Bobbsey Twins and Nancy Drew.

I can’t eat a Reese’s peanut butter cut without associating it with Philip and Dinah Mannering, Jack and Lucy-Ann Trent, and their wonderful Valley of Adventure, Castle of Adventure, Sea of Adventure, and Island of Adventure. There were a few others to this series that my penpal sent to me, but they don’t have the same visceral affect on me as do those first four Adventure books.

Holly Garrison, author of COMFORT FOODS says “Comfort foods can be as different at the people who eat them. For some it’s a matter of plunking down enough money to buy a high priced chocolate candy. Others will take the time to fry a pan of mama’s chicken. When we reach for comfort food, what we’re really doing, of course, is reaching for those halcyon childhood days when the sun always shone and we basked in the unconditional love of Mommy and Daddy…”

Later on, she explains, “Researchers seem unable to decide if the benefits of comfort food are purely psychological or physiological, or some of each. When we’re feeling down in the dumps and out of sorts and decide to eat a brownie, is there something in the chewy little bar that really does trigger out bodies into making us feel better? Or are we simply taking a little fantasy trip back in time to Granny’s kitchen, seeking her authoritative assurance that all is well in these live it up, blow ‘em up, anxiety and panic producing times we live in….”

Ms. Garrison says that when she began asking more than 200 people from every section of the country the same question, “What’s your favorite comfort food?” the answers were always very much alike (Although I bet none of them voted for salmon patties.)

The comfort foods (and recipes) in Holly Garrison’s book range from crisp fried chicken and thick skillet gravy, chicken soup, pot roast, mashed potatoes, creamed spinach (Oh, dear me yes), my mother’s scalloped tomatoes, chewy oatmeal cookies to—everybody’s favorite brownies. (Neither my mother nor my grandmother ever made brownies – but I certainly did.  I wonder if brownies are amongst the comfort foods of my brothers, my childhood guinea pigs).

In 1979, Atheneum Press published cookbook author Judith Olney’s COMFORTING FOOD (Ms. Olney is also the author of SUMMER FOOD, THE JOY OF CHOCOLATE, and one of my favorites, “THE FARM MARKET COOKBOOK”.

Says Ms. Olney, on the topic of comforting food, “Ask any random hundred people that you meet, ‘What is the most comforting food you know?’ and there will be a pause, a reflecting searching back through memory and time, and then almost invariably, an answer sprung from the farthest reaches of childhood: a certain dish, its aroma floating from a long-ago kitchen but still vital in the memory; something hot offered over and over and always after a day of wintry play; something bland that tasted rich after a week of eating nothing during illness; nursery foods; odd, peculiar little dishes in which one crumbled crackers into warm milk and seasoned them with butter, or probed bread fingers into a soft boiled egg; or placed five lumps of sugar on a cereal and waited for them to dissolve just so; or a glass of milk and beaten egg over which Mother held a grater so that one might scrape some nutmeg on; and behind the simple bread, egg, milk, (could we but admit one small tasty thumb) there lies that nourishment of which we can have no individual memory but only a collective one speaking to us of a deep security and union which we remember or imagine as the state of infancy; the entire comfort and contentment of the child at the breast….”

(I tried this experiment and first asked Bob—this was quite a long time ago—what his favorite comfort food was, and he replied “Ham Sandwiches”. I asked why. “Because,” he replied, “When I was in the hospital (as a young child suffering from a blood disorder) “my aunt used to sneak ham sandwiches in to me.”  I asked my daughter in law Keara what HER favorite comfort food was and she instantly replied “Jello!” (when she was sick, her mother made Jello for her).

Many of my favorite comfort foods are associated with my mother in law, Bertha Smith, who has long since passed away at the age of ninety-something.

From my husband’s mother I learned to make perfect light and flaky biscuits, and milk (or white) gravy, cornbread and beans, a kind of New England boiled beef dinner, pot roast, absolutely perfect fried chicken, cube steak fried and then smothered with milk gravy, and green beans cooked with a piece of salt pork, cooked until the pot of green beans was limp and salty and yummy. I don’t think I had ever tasted a fresh cooked green bean until I met my husband-to-be. My own mother cooked string beans with some cottage ham, potatoes and carrots – but the string beans were ALWAYS from a can.(and I don’t think I have ever seen a piece of cottage ham on the west coast). I don’t much miss my mother’s version of string beans cooked with meat and vegetables (an excellent crock pot meal, by the way) – but I confess, I can stand by the stove and eat an entire pot of limp, salty green beans cooked down with a piece of salt pork.

The funny thing is, I don’t remember my mother in law ever saying “Now watch me, Sandy, because I am going to teach you how to make biscuits” although teach me, she did.

The other funny thing is that I can never make biscuits, corn bread and beans, cube steak, green beans  or a kind of New England boiled beef dinner—any of these things, without staring off into space, thinking of Mother and our lives on Biegler Street, before my husband and I moved to California. I know I didn’t appreciate my mother-in-law, the person who taught me all those things, unwittingly, just as I learned from her—albeit unwittingly—my convictions for having a baby bundled up and always something covering their heads, covering their ears.  (I shudder anytime I go into a supermarket—no matter what time of the year it is—and see a small baby with nothing on its legs and arms, just a onesie, and nothing on its head, no blanket, no cap. I have to turn and walk in another direction, to keep from saying something to the child’s mother.

It has taken me a bit of soul searching to figure out how all of those foods, taught to me by my mother in law, came to be comfort foods. It was simply this: when I was a newlywed, working a 9 to 5 job in downtown Cincinnati, I often came home to find my mother in law had dinner prepared. All we had to do was sit down and eat. I enjoyed the food but didn’t really appreciate it until years later when I was raising four sons and cooking three meals a day. Oh, the luxury of having someone else cook your dinner and put it in front of you to eat!

I didn’t make it to my mother in law’s funeral. My son Chris and his wife were about to become parents of Krystal, and I felt I had to be here for the baby’s birth, a conviction passed on to me, no doubt, by my mother in law, who had been here in California to help me when Chris was born.

So, in honor of Bertha Smith, who came from Bluefield West Virginia and settled in Cincinnati Ohio to raise her family, this is how you make corn bread and beans:

Rinse and soak about a pound of pinto beans (you can let these soak overnight). Next day, rinse the beans again and cover them with water. Add a chunk of salt pork (if you can’t find salt pork, a hunk of ham will do—or even some chopped bacon for lack of anything else); cover the pot and let it cook over a low flame all day. Stir it once in a while to make sure the beans aren’t sticking. Whatever you do, NEVER add cold water! (I don’t know why this is, but that was one of mother’s rules). If you absolutely must add  any liquid, make sure it’s hot. The beans should be soupy. When it’s getting close to dinner time, make up a batch of corn bread—just follow the directions on a box of cornmeal and pour it all into a hot, greased cast iron skillet. Bake the cornbread until it’s done. While the cornbread is baking, chop up an onion. What you do is crumble some corn bread on your plate, spoon some of the beans and its liquid over the corn bread, and sprinkle a bit of chopped onion on top.

You will have heartburn all night but oh! The comfort you will know!

What’s your favorite comfort food?

–Sandra Lee Smith

COMFORT FOOD by Rita M. Harris, is available on Amazon.com – new for $3.75 and pre-owned starting at one cent.

COMFORT FOOD by Holly Garrison can be found on Amazon.com starting at one cent for a pre owned copy.

COLD SPAGHETTI AT MIDNIGHT by Maggie Waldron is available at Amazon.com, $3.00 for a new copy and pre-owned copies starting at one cent.

BERT GREENE’S KITCHEN, A BOOK OF MEMORIES AND RECIPES can be found on Amazon.com one cent and up for a pre-owned copy and $6.83 for a new one (hard cover).

FROM MY MOTHER’S KITCHEN by Mimi Sheraton can be bought on Amazon.com from one cent and up for a pre-owned hard bound copy.

MEALS LIKE MOM USED TO MAKE by Karen Brown is available on Amazon.com for fifty cents, pre-owned copy.

COOKING WITH MEMORIES, RECIPES & RECOLLECTIONS by Lora Brody is available on Amazon.com for one cent & up for pre owned copies, or $2.97 for a new one.

COMFORTING FOOD by Judith Olney is available for $3.00 & up for a pre-owned copy.

One final note, and this is regarding STORIES AND RECIPES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION OF THE 1930s – well, it’s been quite a long time since I first wrote this article and when I typed in the above title, with Janet Van Amber Paske, I discovered she has about half a dozen or more titles, volumes 2,3, 4 – I think the one I have is the first in the series. It must have done quite well for itself since she has written so many more books on the subject. If you are interested in this topic, just visit Amazon.com or Alibris.com  and see what they have.

Happy cooking! And Happy Cookbook Collecting!
 

“The Pearls are yellowed now, the rhinestones and silver tarnished and dusty, but when I hold them I can hear her raspy voice, slightly tinged with the Polish accident so prevalent in the working-class Milwaukee neighborhood where she was born” – by Christine May Roblee, from “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE”

Having written about cookbooks and grandmothers in the now defunct Cookbook Collectors Exchange as well as my blog, you would think I would have said all there is to say on the subject. But other books have a way of being discovered after an article appeared in print in the CCE as well as in Sandychatter. This happens so frequently that I’m not sure whether it’s synchronicity or just the fact that there are so many cookbooks being published that we can’t possibly find out about all of them.

Such was the case with a wonderful book titled “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” edited by Ellen Perry Berkeley, published by Fairview Press and published in 2000. “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” wasn’t published in time to be included in my first article “Grandma’s Favorite” but it certainly is worthy of review.  If I could only use one word to describe “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” it would be “charming”.

In the Preface, Ellen Perry Berkeley explains, “Today’s grandmothers are as likely to be playing tennis as baking pies.  Some do both, rinsing away the gray and, in their spare time, holding down a full-time job.  A stereotype? Possibly. But no less a stereotype than the notion that the grandmothers of an earlier time were ample-bosomed, white-haired and homebound.

“AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” gives us a far richer view of the women we have called Grandma, or Gram, or Grossmutter, or Nonna (or Grammy, Nana, Oma). Here we see the substance of their brave and often difficult lives. We see the enormous contributions of these women—to their families and to their communities…”

Berkeley also states, “This is a book about connections..in connecting across the boundaries of time, we can see the concerns of our grandmothers, as not unlike our own…”

“AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” honors a varied group of grandmothers, some children of immigrants and some immigrants themselves, such as my own Grandma Schmidt.  These grandmothers represent different circumstances and different heritages. All are seen through the eyes of their granddaughters. As noted by one of the reviewers, “This remarkable collection is a package of time capsules reflecting the rapid changes experienced by women over the past several generations…”

And yes, it’s a cookbook by Ellen Perry Berkeley (again, in the Preface), ,”Turn to your own handed-down recipes, those worn cards with their long-ago handwriting, their faded type. Whether you were close to your grandmother or not, whether you even knew her, she had a profound influence on your life and your palate…”

“We see,” says Berkeley, “the importance of their relationships with us, their granddaughters, in the lessons they taught us, the values they gave us, the strengths they lent us, and (not least) the foods they served us. It does not demean these women to say that we sometimes evoke them most readily when preparing the dishes they prepared. Indeed, by cooking what they cooked we are in contact again with their lessons and their values, their courage, their comfort, their love…”

Ellen Perry Berkeley explains that “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” owes its existence to her own experience with a treasured recipe. “Some years ago,” she writes, “when my cousin Joan and I were each going through difficult times, we spent a day together: a rare treat. We shared our troubles and then, on a whim, made our grandmother’s borscht. Our own trials were somehow lessened by all of this – by our closeness, surely, but also by the knowledge that our grandmother suffered her own disappointments, savored her own triumphs. Grandma Fish’s borscht is more than a beet soup. It was part of her life, and part of our lives with her…”

And like her grandmother’s borscht, the recipes selected for inclusion in “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” have been handed down for generations The selection of recipes cuts a wide swatch across America’s culinary heritage, from Grandma Fish’s borscht to Mexican Chicken soup, Gaspache  (bread salad) and Leprechaun Salad, to Babkas, Hoecakes and Scottish Oatcakes. There are recipes ranging from Steak and Kidney Pie to Pork and Knadels, and a lot of recipes for desserts—some, I’d venture to guess, that many of us have never heard of before (Rag-a-Muffins? Pussy Feet? Teiglach? (Honey Nut Cookie Squares) Yellow Cat (a popover with Bourbon Hard Sauce) and some may be familiar, such as Biscotti, Persimmon Pudding, Apple Strudel (which my own grandmother often made with apples grown in her own back yard and strudel dough made from scratch).

The women who penned the essays about their grandmothers reads something like a who’s who in the USA – along with artists, teachers photographers, poets, a playwright or two, reporters, columnists, editors—and even a craniosacral therapist—there are a number of published writers as well, the authors of children’s books, adult fiction, travel guides and even—you will be happy to learn—an editor of two cookbooks. Short biographies of all the contributors can be found at the back of the book, including one for the talented lady who edited “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE”, Ellen Perry Berkeley.

Berkeley was a senior editor at the ARCHITECTURAL FORUM and ARCHITECHTURE PLUS and is the author of MAVERICK CATS: ENCOUNTERS WITH FERAL CATS (considered to be the only comprehensive  book on domestic cats gone wild). She taught writing and criticism in leading architecture schools in the 1970s and was one of seven founders of the Women’s School of Planning and Architecture. He essays and articles have appeared in national and regional publications.

“AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” are the personal reminisces of over sixty women, as they recall their legendry grandmothers. Accompanying their essays are wonderful photographs that bring to mind our own mothers and grandmothers and even ourselves. It’s a most remarkable book, one you will treasure forever. I think, after reading it, you will come away with a far greater appreciation for all grandmothers—yours and mine and all of those honored in “AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE”. I love this book. I think you will too.

“AT GRANDMOTHER’S TABLE” is available on Amazon.com starting at $7.96 for a new copy or $2.50 for a pre-owned copy.  It is available on Alibris.com starting at 99c.

Happy cooking! Happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

Southern cookbooks are just about as plentiful as southern hospitality or sweet tea—and I have been blessed with a girlfriend who lives in Michigan and finds southern cookbooks faster than I can read or write about them (that is not a complaint! Just saying.)

I began sorting some of them the other day and laid aside five southern cookbooks to share with you. My first choice is a book written by just one person, Kathleen DeVanna Fish and I don’t think I’ve often come across a cookbook written by one person, aside from famous cookbook authors and chefs. The title of this book is “COOKING SECRETS AMERICA’S SOUTH” and on the cover is a tantalizing beautiful old, Victorian mansion. Little did I know (I must be slipping) this book is part of a series titled “Books of the ‘Secret Series” which includes  another southern cookbook (“Louisiana’s Cooking Secrets”) and several California cookbooks; (“The Great California Cookbook” and “San Francisco’s Cooking Secrets” are just two of the other titles in the series)

For now, let’s just focus on Kathleen DeVanna Fish’s 1997 cookbook which aims to do what I worked at doing years ago, by presenting recipes and background material from each of the southern states, starting with Alabama. What this cookbook does is present to you choice restaurant and inn listings from each of the southern states.

From the Introduction, we learn “Cooking Secrets from America’s South” captures the flavors and spirit of the South. It offers you inside information on the best restaurants and inns—and it reveals the secret recipes of 66 of the region’s greatest chefs.  You probably will recognize some of the cooking stars. And you will meet a new galaxy of master chefs. None of the chefs paid to be included in this book. They—and their restaurants and inns—were hand-selected and invited to participate…”

I was bemused by reading the above – whether you realize it or not, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of restaurants that have compiled cookbooks featuring their recipes, over the years. The list is legendary, perhaps one of the earliest might be Ruth Wakefield’s 1930 “TOLL HOUSE COOK BOOK.”

After the first recipe for chocolate chip cookies appeared in Ruth Wakefield’s TOLL HOUSE COOK BOOK in 1930, “sales of Nestle’ Yellow Label Chocolate, Semi-Sweet, soared in the Boston area, then throughout New England, and Nestle sent a salesman around to see what was up.  In suburban Whitman, Massachusetts, he found Ruth Wakefield and the chocolate chip cookie she had invented.  Impressed, Nestle began scoring its bars of semi-sweet chocolate and packaging them with a little chopper, the easier to break them into chips. (what wouldn’t I give for one of those little choppers!)

Nestle didn’t introduce chocolate morsels until 1939.  That same year, Mrs. Wakefield signed a forty-year contract with Nestle’ allowing them to print her recipe on the back of every package of morsels.  The contract expired in 1979, and for the first time, Nestle updated the recipe, shortening baking times, using unsifted flour, and so forth.  Still, Nestle calls it ‘The Original Toll House Cookie” and has registered its name, meaning no one else can use it without permission.  That’s why these cookies are better known as chocolate chip cookies…”  (From “The American Century Cookbook”, by Jean Anderson, published by Clarkson/Potter/Publishers in 1997.

As for the Wakefields, they sold the Toll House Inn in 1966 after thirty-six years of operating a successful restaurant.   It was bought by a family that tried to turn it into a nightclub, and in 1970, it was purchased by a family who turned it back into its original form.  However, the Toll House burned New Years Eve in 1984.

Ruth Graves Wakefield died on January 10, 1977 after a long illness.  However, the popularity of her cookie creation lives on!

And I apologize for digressing so much but as I began working on COOKING SECETS, AMERICA’S SOUTH” I immediately thought of the Wakefield’s Toll House Inn and felt obligated to share that story with you.  (If you have been reading my blogs posts very long, you know by now that I have a bad habit of digressing.

In the Introduction to COOKNG SECRETS AMERICA’S SOUTH, we learned that Kathleen (or whoever else worked with her on this cookbook – she refers to herself in the plural), stating, “We took the chef’s recipes—165 of them—and adapted them for the home cook. Some of the recipes are simple. Some are more complex. We stayed clear of purely trendy food, preferring to stress dishes that we know are wonderful…”  To make your life easier, they included preparation times and cooking times.

“The 165 kitchen tested recipes feature such enticing dishes as Creole Crab Cakes with Pico de Gallo, Crawfish and Mushroom Gumbo, Goat Cheese and Arugula Salad with Lavender-Vanilla Vinaigrette, Shrimp Creole, Grilled Pork Chops with Green Tomato Relish, Spicy Shrimp, Sausage and Tasso Gravy over Creamy White Grits, and Maple Pecan Tart with chocolate Sorbet. Prepare to be tempted.”

The contents of this cookbook are a departure from most other cookbooks. The recipes have been divided into categories – such as Appetizers – in which you will find the specially selected recipe – such as the Creole Crab Cakes with Pico de Gallo – followed by the name of the restaurant or Inn where it is served, the the page in which you will find the recipe. (Bella Luna, 119). Different – but it works! (I’ve added a yellow post-it to the page featuring Chocolate Sorbet – that is high on my list of recipes to try!) I’ve also discovered (under Georgia, The Pirate’s House), a recipe for what I consider to be the most authentic  recipe for Key Lime Pie, although the recipe simply calls for  fresh lime juice and you know, it ought to be fresh key limes—but perhaps the author didn’t feel this was an ingredient that could be found throughout the USA—that being said, I have been finding key limes in my supermarkets here in California. OK, I won’t quibble about whether ordinary lime juice is better than Key lime juice. No matter – this is quite a fun southern cookbook.

Amazon.com has this cookbook new for $2.50 and pre-owned starting at one cent & up.  Alibris.com has pre-owned copies starting at $1.44.

Spiral bound “MORE COOKING ATLANTA STYLE/Delicious Recipes from Atlanta’s Best Restaurants, by Margaret Norman, also published in 1997 is my next nomination for a southern cookbook.    (And let me make the observation that chefs who were cooking at a particular restaurant fifteen years ago might not still be there today—for that matter, some of these restaurants may not still be in business).

In the foreword to MORE COOKING ATLANTA STYLE, former mayor and President of the Buckhead Coalition makes this comment, after noting some of the restaurants that had been supplanted by newcomers, “They [the older timer restaurants] are all part of history now and have been replaced by multiple dozens of fine food emporiums. Although this book plucks out favorite recipes from as far away as the North Georgia Mountains, one can’t discuss dining around Atlanta without a concentration on Buckhead.  This Community has over two hundred places serving food and beverages, including twenty-nine different ethnic restaurants, twelve of the  top sixteen Metropolitan Atlanta restaurant revenue producers and the Southeast’s only Mobil Five-Star dining room!

What follows is a fine collection of recipes from these various restaurants, possibly some of the very same places you visited when you were in Atlanta. [my last visit to Atlanta was when my niece Leslie got married at Stone Mountain. That was quite a long time ago!]

From Appetizers (one of my favorite categories—I have found myself collecting cookbooks on Appetizers as well) there is from Ursula’s Cooking School and Catering Service her recipe for Artichoke Quiche Squares, Renee’s Café and Wine Bar’s Barbecue Shrimp with a Mango Barbecue Sauce (ok, I HAVE to make this sauce—and I just bought two bags of large frozen shrimp!)

From Vickery’s is a recipe for Black Bean Cakes, which reminds me of my friend Mandy and the Black Bean Cakes she used to make for the two of us to enjoy at lunch, while Pittypat’s Porch offers Black-Eyed Pea Cakes which I’ve never heard of but would like to try!

From Cherokee Town and Country Club is a recipe for Grilled Pork Kabobs that has seedless red grapes as one of the ingredients…my seedless red grapes are almost ready to pick so this might be something to surprise the family with, while the Mansion offers a recipe for Pan-Seared Sea Scallops. I was surprised to find a recipe for Sweet Corn Salsa from 1848 House (it goes with Savannah Rock Shrimp Cakes) – for I thought the creation of corn salsa was more recent. The only difference I can see between theirs and mine is that I like to grill the corn on the cob and have grill marks on it when it’s being cut off the cob, whereas theirs appears to go into the recipe raw, cut from the cob.

This is just a sampling of what you will find in “MORE COOKING ATLANTA STYLE” This cookbook is available at both Alibris.com and Amazon.com starting at $3.15 for a pre-owned copy. This is a spiral bound cookbook packed with great recipes.

Another southern cookbook is DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH STYLE published by the Junior League of Savannah in 1996. It’s sort of a sequel to the Junior League’s earlier cookbook SAVANNAH STYLE, not intended to replace SAVANNAH STYLE, but rather to supplement it.

I wrote about SAVANNAH STYLE previously, but briefly to bring you up to date, SAVANNAH STYLE was published by the Junior League of Savannah, Georgia, in 1997. It was inducted in the McIlhenny Hall of Fame for having sold over 100,000 copies. It was also a Southern Living Hall of Fame award-winner. Savannah Style is available on Amzon.com new, for $15.96 and qualifies for free shipping if you spend over $25.00. It is also available new from private vendors starting at $8.99 or pre-owned starting at $2.59.

That being said, let me return to DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH STYLE. This is a hardcover cookbook with an attractive laminated plastic cover. In the Foreword we learn, “In the months following the announcement of DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH STYLE, league members contributed over 600 recipes which were twice-tested, rated, evaluated, discussed and re-evaluated. The 200 that were selected reflect not only delicious cuisine but also the changing nature of Junior League membership—busy women with volunteer activities, families and careers to work around, who still care greatly about the art of fine food and the pleasure of entertaining.

To illustrate the new book, the League turned to the Savannah College of Art and Design, located in the heart of the city. Art students submitted original work depicting the magnificent details of downtown, the exhibition was juried, and the winners of the illustration art were chosen, along with the color cover.

Each chapter is prefaced with a black and white illustration of a famous downtown Savannah landmark, beginning in appetizers with “Whitaker Lane”.

I can’t describe these illustrations well enough to do them justice—what you are getting, along with a cookbook, is a book of art focused simply on downtown Savannah.

Recipes include such tantalizing dishes such as Black Bean salsa and a recipe called Savannah Sin that I will have to make for my granddaughter, whose name is Savannah. This recipe sounds like a good one to make up for her 18^th birthday, which is only a couple of months away.

Other delectable choices in Appetizers might include Stilton and Walnut Torte (easy recipe with only 5 ingredients!), Black-Eyed Peas, Chiles and Cheese which reminded me a bit of Texas Caviar, Bacon Breadsticks (only three ingredients!) and don’t overlook Party Pinwheel Variations which offers three ways to make this popular party appetizer. Each variation makes about 50 pinwheels—and can be made up in advance. Recipe states to double the recipe for large crowded.  There is a veggie variation, a Mexican variation and a Roast Beef variation. I’d make a lot because guests are going to want to try more than one variation.

I have marked Parmesan-Mustard Chicken Wings with a little post-it to make up the next time I want to do wings.

In the chapter dedicated to soups and salads, one of the first recipes I found and don’t recall seeing elsewhere is a Cream of Brie Soup that sounds spectacular—and easy to make, seven ingredients not counting salt & pepper or an optional chopped chives. I love soups and enjoy experimenting with them – Italian Sausage Soup with Tortellini sounds like something that developed when an inspired cook was wondering what she could do, something different, with a pound of Italian Sausage—which, you may know, has a distinctive flavor of its own. Salads that may catch your eye include a Gorgonzola and Pecan Crunch Salad or Pear and Bleu Cheese Salads.

The chapter on Breads combines sweet with savory—ranging from Lemon tea Bread to Sun-Dried Tomato Bread, The Cloister Corn Bread Muffins or Georgia Peach  Bran Muffins. I look forward to trying Hazelnut Raspberry Muffins and Parmesan Popovers—but there are lots of other recipes from which to choose.

There is a huge selection of Entrees, combining beef, pork, lamb, poultry,  and fish—I’ve stuck post-it notes on  Marinate Flank Steak and a London Broil that I can’t wait to try—you may want to try all of the recipes!

Instead of separate chapters for cakes, pies, cookies—all have been combined under the title of Sweets, which I thought was a clever touch. High on my list of recipes to try is Fig Preserve Cake (because I used to have fig trees and I still have some jars of fig preserves in my jelly cupboard!) but there is a fresh fruit cake, chocolate meringue drops and chocolate truffles—and German chocolate cookies! Who’d have ever imagined German chocolate cookies? Or Macaroon Meringues? And Blueberry Cobbler! I just bought a big container of fresh blueberries today!

And Pear Sorbet! I haven’t seen a recipe for pear sorbet anywhere else – and these are fresh pears, not canned!

These are just a sampling of “Sweets”

DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH STYLE, first printing, published in 1996, is a worthy companion volume to SAVANNAH STYLE.

DOWNTOWN SAVANNAH STYLE is available on Amazon.com for under $10.00 for a new copy, or starting at one cent for a pre-owned copy. Alibris.com has beau coupe copies starting at 99c.

Well, I had I intended to write about three or four southern cookbooks but this post is already over two thousand words long – and I don’t want to overwhelm my readers. Look for more southern cookbooks in the future!

Happy cooking!

Sandy

The inference is, of course, why in the world would anyone want to read a cookbook?

Well, one reason is that I love history. I especially enjoy American history and I am completely enchanted with the combination of the evolution of food and recipes along with American history.

THE MCCLELLANVILLE COAST COOKBOOK” by the McClellanville Arts Council, in McClellanville, South Carolina, provides ample satisfaction to those who also enjoy this combination of food and history.

State the authors, “It was not so long ago that people on the McClellanville Coast made bulrush  baskets to “fan” rice, mortars and pestles to pound it, and trunks and gates to control the flow of water on the rice fields. They operated mills to grind their corn and rice. They wove nets and built the boats they fished with. They butchered hogs and cured the meat, using salt they obtained by evaporating sea water. They cultivated truck farms and home gardens, summer and winter. Ask people and they’ll tell you their happiest memories, recall how all these wonderful local ingredients came together—in good cooking.”

Winner of the prestigious 1993 Tabasco Community Cookbook Award, this cookbook opens with three short “essays” which provide a diverse glimpse into life along this South Carolina coast community. First is “Awash with Food” by Jay Shuler, explaining how he and his family collected food throughout the year—especially crabs, but also oysters and clams, and huckleberries from the swamp woods.  He tells how his father hunted wild turkey and how his parents and grandparents farmed and tended orchards of nuts.

There is an intriguing short story told by John Ackerman, of a family of fifteen—John had two brothers and nine sisters, and how his mama cooked huge pans of biscuits three times a day. He relates how his father, who lived to be 92 years old (‘had all of his teeth, eyes didn’t need no glasses’) ate nothing but  hog meat all his life. He shares with us the experience of hog killing. (“we’d kill six to eight hogs a day”) and provides insight and little known details to harvesting a rice crop—details you and I would never think twice about when we pour a cup of Minute rice into boiling water! But for these people, and their ancestors, it was their livelihood.

Recipes, oral histories, poetry, prose, prints, photographs, and paintings from McClellandville..are magically stirred into this cookbook offering.

Yes, you say, but what about the recipes?  “THE MCCLELLANVILLE COAST COOKBOOK” keeps its promise for good eating. “Find out how to make Mary Scott’s Oyster Casserole, Rose William’s Sweet potato pone, Willie May Kilgore’s Bread Pudding,  Moss Swamp Hot Venison Sausage”…recipes range far and wide from alligator  (page 176—“the hardest  part about cooking alligator is finding a cooperative one”) to Zucchini Pizza (page 95 and sounds delish).

While you and I may not hanker for a plate of alligator meat (besides which, the tail is the best part), rest assured there are dozens and dozens of great recipes in between A and Z. Look for Nana’s Pate, Roasted Rosemary Chicken, Sally’s Corn Salad, Wild Rice and Hazelnut Salad, Sweet Potato Bread, Anyone-can-Do-It-in-two-minutes-flat Quiche Lorraine, Mama’s Funeral Salad, and dozens of others. Or to quote a McClellanville resident, the recipes are “good enough  to make you  kick the dog when they’re all gone”.

It isn’t surprising that this cookbook won the coveted Tabasco Award; it is truly unique and totally fascinating. Good reading and Bon Appetit!

I found the McClellanville Coast Cookbook on both Amazon.com and Alibris.com starting at  $4.39 for a pre-owned copy. New copies are such an outrageous price, I’d be embarrassed to even quote one of them. (if I thought it was really worth that much money, I’d sell my copy!)

Happy cooking and happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

I wrote a letter to Tower Press’ Women’s Circle magazine in 1965 (a magazine for penpals) and mentioned being interested in buying, or trading for church or club cookbooks. Over 200 women responded to my request and I was kept busy for several months, buying cookbooks sight unseen or trading things like S&H Green Stamps – or whatever else the writer wanted. Many of those first cookbooks were remarkably good finds.

The best thing about that letter in Women’s Circle in 1965 was a letter from a woman in Michigan. She was a cookbook collector and she helped me find cookbooks; we became – and remained – friends; our children grew up, married, had children of their own. I went through a divorce and my Michigan friend lost her husband. A few months ago, she began downsizing to move into a smaller place, and has sent me boxes of books – not just cookbooks but other books as well, books about lighthouses (another pet interest of mine) and books about survivors of WW2.  My cup runneth over.

After giving this a great deal of reflection, I thought that the best way I can show my appreciation for all that she has given to me – is by writing about some of these books.

I’m not sure whether I have more California church and club cookbooks or more if those from Michigan.  The problem with counting the Michigan cookbooks is that they aren’t all in the same place – two of my largest bookcases are divided up as “east of the Mississippi” and “west of the Mississippi”. I know, probably sounds dumb but it SEEMED like a fairly good idea when I first came up with it.  I have kept all of my California cookbooks together – currently they fill two bookcases in my bedroom and are double-rowed.  Sometimes I have to take everything off the shelves to find a particular book. Before we moved to this house in 2008, I was in a much larger house and had the California cookbooks divided into two parts – Northern California and Southern California. Now they are all mixed up. (One of these days I’ll get them sorted again).

In a bookcase in our spare bedroom, I have all the southern cookbooks filling up two bookcases on one wall and on the other wall, I have all of my Ohio cookbooks (separate from East of the Mississippi) because I am from Cincinnati, Ohio, and have a separate collection of cookbooks from Cincinnati.  Then I began putting the Michigan cookbooks on a shelf underneath the Ohio ones (although technically speaking, Michigan is ABOVE Ohio, not below it) – sometimes the sizes of books has a lot to do with how you file them on your shelves.

Well, as you can imagine, sometimes it’s hard to keep them all straight. Since I first posted “Battered, Tattered, Stained church and club cookbooks”, I have been going through a lot of my books trying to determine which ones would generate the most interest. Then I thought it would be nice to have a discussion on California cookbooks since they are one of my favorites. (The other favorite are my Cincinnati club and church cookbooks.)

But before I do that, I think I owe it to my friend Betsy to tell you about some of the Michigan cookbooks. In addition to having had a Michigan penpal for over 45 years, I also have a brother who lived in Michigan for several decades, and two of his offspring have chosen to remain in the Wolverine State.

I visited Betsy twice in the 1970s – thanks to her kindhearted husband who drove several hundred miles to Cincinnati to take me and my children to Michigan to spend a week with them-one of the most delightful experiences, back then, was going to the flea markets where you would find all sorts of old cookbooks, often priced for as little as ten cents each. But, my brother and his wife hosted a family reunion there one year, and I have made perhaps half a dozen trips to Michigan over the years; twice to visit my mother who was in a nursing home in Grand Rapids, once for my goddaughter’s high school graduation, once for my sister Becky and I to drive around Lake Michigan, searching for Light Houses. Whenever I am in Michigan, I want to find the book stores. The year that my niece Julie was graduating from high school, her sister Leslie drove me to Ann Arbor – where she had gone to college – and we had a wonderful afternoon searching out  used book stores as well as the ones selling new books – particularly cookbooks.

One of the cookbooks I bought that year, 1994, was “Ann Arbor’s Cookin’ II” published by the Ronald McDonald House with proceeds going to the Ronald McDonald House.  This is a thick spiral-bound cookbook with over 700 prized recipes.  You may find yourself reading recipes for days but one I found outstanding is named  “Sue’s Cheerios Snack”. Considered a great snack for tailgate parties, this is easy to make and would be a great snack for the kiddies too:

Pam cooking spray

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup margarine (or 1 stick solid type margarine or butter

¼ cup light corn syrup

½ tsp salt

½ tsp baking soda

6 cups cheerios* cereal

1 cup Spanish peanuts

1 cup raisins

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Spray a 9×13” pan with Pam. Combine Cheerios, peanuts and raisins in pan. In a saucepan, heat sugar, margarine, corn syrup and salt until bubbly around the edges. Cook 2 minutes more (do not stir). Remove from heat; stir in baking soda . Pour over cereal mixture. Mix well. Bake 20 minutes. Turn immediately onto wax paper. Let Cool.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: When “Ann Arbor’s Cookin’ II” was published in 1994, we only had the one kind of Cheerios. I have been thinking this would be great to try with the chocolate Cheerios or the cinnamon flavored version.  Bon Appétit!

I did some checking on Amazon.com—you can buy Ann Arbor’s Cookin’ II for as little as 59 cents (plus will be charged $3.99 shipping & handling from private vendors; they are also listing 2 new copies for $9.49.   There are numerous other listings you can find on Google for this cookbook. I have been unable to verify whether or not you can still order copies from the Ronald McDonald House in Ann Arbor. Maybe someone will know and enlighten me.   **

One of my favorite Michigan cookbooks was not published by a church, club or any other organization –but it’s such a keeper, it deserves a spot on this post. The title of the cookbook is “WALNUT PICKLES AND WATERMELON CAKE” by Larry B. Massie and Priscilla Massie.

From “Watermelon Pickles and Watermelon Cake we learn that “The Massies are a husband and wife team specializing in Michigan history. Larry co-authored with Peter Schmitt “KALAMAZOO: THE PLACE BEHIND THE PRODUCTS” and “BATTLE CREEK: THE PLACE BEHIND THE PRODUCTS.”  His other publications include “FROM FRONTIER FOLK TO FACTORY SMOKE” “MICHIGANS FIRST CENTURY OF HISTORICAL FICTION”, “VOYAGES INTO MICHIGAN’S PAST” “COPPER TRAILS AND IRON RAILS”, “MORE VOYAGES INTO MICHIGAN’S PAST” and “WARM FRIENDS AND WODE SHOES: A PICTORAL HISTORY OF THE HOLLAND AREA.”

Priscilla was born in Kalamazoo in 1955 and traces her Michigan ancestry to Michel Campau, one of the one hundred Frenchmen who founded Detroit with Cadillac in 1701. Priscilla’s research, photographic, word processing and culinary skills allow the Massies to participate in a wide range of Michigan history projects…”  What wouldn’t I give to visit that century old schoolhouse and see the Massies collections!

I don‘t know HOW many times I’ve reached for this book to check some piece of information It’s been a favorite reference book for many years. Subtitled “A CENTURY OF MICHIGAN COOKING”, this hard-cover with a spill-resistant cover was published  in 1990 by Wayne State University Press in Detroit. And what the two Massies have done is provided recipes from church and club cookbooks dating back in some instances prior to 1900. The book is generously laced with drawings or illustrations of old-timey kitchen utensils – but one of my favorite features, I admit it freely, was the number of rhymed recipes including one my oldest finds for The Kitchen Poets, “Eve’s Pudding” dating from Detroit in 1878.  One I will spare directions for is Perfect Mock Turtle Soup that starts out “Get a calf’s head with the skin on (the fresher the better) and before you say ew, ew, I want to add that an authentic MOCK turtle soup was commonly made with a calf’s head when real turtle was unavailable.

In the introduction, the Massies explain how their interest in old books was cultivated and grew from very early ages. They married and moved into an old one-room schoolhouse located in the midst of the Allegan State Forest. “Crowded within the main part of the structure is our collection of thirty thousand books, thirteen-foot high bookshelves surround all sides of a vast room. More shelves in the center of the room support a loft where Larry studies and writes about Michigan history…”

Priscilla has an attached room with a “Hoosier” cabinet (I had one when I was first married and didn’t have the sense to keep it before we moved to California); her kitchen cabinet was built in 1910 and is flanked on one side by a GE “monitor top” refrigerator made in 1932 and on the other, an electric range of similar vintage.  They love history so much that they have surrounded themselves with period household furnishings. Priscilla has antique kitchen utensils, cast-iron Griswold pots and pans and other domestic artifacts hang everywhere. The Massies have fulfilled the dictate to write about what you know the most about. More than thirteen hundred recipes from Michigan’s past   are in this volume, dating from 1820s through the end of WW2.

“Walnut Pickles & Watermelon Cake” contains SO many recipes – and I think I copied most of the rhymed recipes when I was compiling the Kitchen Poets.

I have gone through this cookbook over and over, trying to decide which recipe to feature.  I chose “Pickled Grapes” because I have seen pickled grape recipes featured on websites and blogs recently – as though a brand-new recipe. I made up a batch and it WAS new to me – but “Walnut Pickles & Watermelon cake have it dated 1899 by a Mrs. McCall in Kalamazoo!

To make Pickled Grapes:

Take grapes fresh from the stems without breaking and put them in a jar. For 7 pounds of grapes, take one quart vinegar, 3 pounds of sugar*, 1 TBSP whole cloves and the same of cinnamon bark. Boil it all together   a few minutes, then let it cool until you can bear your finger in it; pour over the grapes, turn a plate over them; set them in a cool cellar and they are done. Do not cook the grapes nor heat the pickle over. If properly prepared they will keep a year and be as plump and fresh as when picked from the vines.

Well, I don’t have a cellar, and here in the high desert it can be a problem finding a spot cool enough. When I made sauerkraut about a year ago, we kept the crock in the coolest section of our garage which is in Bob’s workshop (attached behind the garage) and that worked – but I was making the kraut in March when it’s still relatively cool in the Antelope Valley.

If you want to make the pickled grapes you can keep them very well if you have a cellar or basement. If not, make them while the weather is still fairly cool.

*Sandy’s cooknote: 2 cups of granulated sugar equal 1 pound, so you would need 6 cups of sugar to equal 3 pounds. 4 cups of vinegar equals one quart.)

If you are interested in purchasing a copy of “Walnut Pickles & Watermelon Cake”, the best prices I have found are on Amazon.com.  They have pre-owned copies starting under $10.00. They have one new copy at $31.99 and 8 used and new from $17.68. I found listings on Alibris.com starting at $7.49 but was stunned to see the prices for a first edition—some of them starting  around $125.00.    **

Another good Michigan cookbook is “OUR BEST TO YOU” compiled by the Junior League of Battle Creek in 1984. This cookbook is in a specially designed 3-ring binder that enables the reader to open the rings in case you want to put the page on the refrigerator door so you can make a recipe. The pages measure just under 6½” wide and just under 9 ½” in length.  I haven’t been able to find any pre-owned copies in the most frequently websites that I visit.  My guess is that it’s out of print and you may have to do some digging to find a copy.  However, you don’t have to search very far for this easy Beef Brisket recipe:

1 4-5 pound beef brisket

Seasoned salt

Pepper

Dried minced garlic

1 medium onion, sliced

2-3 cups of water

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Wash brisket thoroughly and pat dry. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle with garlic. Brown in an open pan (I use a large cast iron skillet for this) for 30 minutes in the oven. Decrease oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast 1 hour. Layer the sliced onion over the meat and continue roasting an additional hour.  Add water and cover, roast 1 hour more. Check for tenderness. Cool slightly and slice.

Note: Brisket may be prepared in advance. Reheat in pan juices before serving

Also published in 1984 and using the same format – the 3-ring binder that measures just under 6½” wide and just under 9 ½” in length is from the Junior League of Lansing, Michigan and bears the title “Temptations.” In its Introduction we learn that the inspiration for the cookbook was based on the bounty of Michigan’s agriculture. The book contains over 500 recipes and here is a simple recipe from “Temptations” that is called Sesame Potato Spears. I love potato recipes that are not fried but are just as good if not better.  This is the recipe for Sesame Potato Spears:

6 to 8 potatoes

¼ cup butter, melted (that would be half of one stick of butter)

1 tsp salt

3 tsp paprika

¼ cup sesame seeds

¼ cup Dijon mustard (optional)

Peel the potatoes and cut into long strips. Melt butter in a loaf baking dish and stir in seasonings. Stir the potatoes to coat. Bake in 400 degree oven for one hour or until tender.

(Sandy’s cooknote: I am inclined to put the melted butter and seasonings into a plastic zip-lock bag and then put the potatoes on a Pam-sprayed baking sheet that you have covered with foil. That is how I make my baked fries.

Note:  Dijon mustard will give it an extra tang.   ~~

“Temptations” is still available on Amazon.com – They have 4 new copies available from $5.43 and 5 used copies starting at $2.87.    ~

A third cookbook compiled in a 3 ring binder just under 6½”wide and just under 9½” in length that is one of my favorite go-to cookbooks is titled “THE HOUSE ON THE HILL” which is a bed and breakfast inn, published in 2002 by Cindy and Tom Tomalka.  The Tomalkas tell us they have had over 3000 couples and singles visit the Inn since April 1997—who have consumed over 14,000 breakfasts.

You won’t believe all the recipes just for making muffins – now muffins are a favorite recipe of mine – and it was a muffin recipe I was following the first time I made muffins using my mother’s big yellow bowl – which I dropped and broke when I was about ten years old. Muffins can be sweet or savory and a simple muffin is ideal for a young child to make when they are cooking for the first time. Here is a recipe for Michigan Maple Syrup Muffins:

2 cups all purpose flour

4 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

1 large egg, room temperature

½ cup buttermilk

½ cp maple syrup

½ cup butter, melted (*1/2 cup butter is one stick)

Sift flour, baking powder and salt together. In a separate bowl, whisk egg, milk, syrup and butter. Gradually pour this egg mixture into a well I the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir quickly. Batter will be lumpy. Do not overbeat or muffins will be tough. Spoon into greased mini-muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees until brown, about 12 minutes. Makes 30 mini-muffins.

The House on the Hill Inn has its own website with information on ordering  a copy of their oh-so-inviting cookbook.  You can write to the Tomalkas at innkeeper@thehouseonthehill.com.

Another spiral bound cookbook published in 1983 is “CULINARY COUNTERPOINT” published by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra Cookbook. This cookbook offers some recipes with unforgettable names, such as Hanky Pankys, Blinking Star, and Strip and go Naked! The recipe for a Ohio culinary treasure is BUCKEYE BALLS. (You will find Buckeye Balls at many sweet shops throughout Ohio – maybe Michigan too). To make Buckeye Balls you will need:

3 1-pound boxes powdered sugar

2  lbs smooth or crunchy peanut butter

1 pound butter, softened

1 12-oz package semi-sweet chocolate morsels

½ stick paraffin

Combine the sugar, peanut butter and butter and beat well. Roll into small balls and refrigerate, covered, overnight.

Melt the chocolate with the paraffin I the top section of a double boiler over hot water.  Stick a toothpick in one of the peanut butter balls, then dip into the chocolate. Place on wax paper to harden. Repeat until all candies have been dipped in the chocolate.  Makes about 60 candies.

Amazon.com has five copies for sale, starting at $5.98.

Another spiral-bound favorite is “Renaissance Cuisine” that went through three printings by the time I found it.  This cookbook was the endeavor of The Fontbonne Auxiliary of St Joseph Hospital. The Fontbonne Auxiliary was founded by the Sisters of S Joseph of Nazareth  in 1947,

I am often stymied when it comes to choosing just one recipe from a church or club cookbook-but the following might be good for company or something to getting cooking when you are home from the office and trying to get something cooking while you make up a salad to go with. Here is Chicken No Peek Casserole:

1 cup rice, uncooked

6 chicken breasts or pieces

1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can water

1 pkg onion soup mix

1 cup sherry

Slivered almonds

Grease a 9×13” pan. Place rice on bottom, place chicken on top of the rice. In a separate container, mix the mushroom soup and water and pour that over the chicken.  Pour Sherry over chicken Sprinkle onion soup and slivered almonds over all. bake at 350 degrees for 2 hours. Do not peek.   A fresh fruit or cranberry mold completes this meal.

(*Sandy’s cooknote: nowhere does the recipe advise you to cover the dish with foil before baking in the oven – but then it tells you note to peek. I would interpret that to mean it needs to be covered with foil. Someone else might interpret to mean not to look into the oven while it’s baking.)

Renaissance Cuisine is available on Amazon.com new or pre-owned starting at $2.99—and 4 new copies starting at $.43; you can’t beat that!

Although I have many more Michigan church and club cookbooks, most are probably not available on the internet. I tried to stick to cookbooks interested readers might have a chance to find.

Happy cooking and Happy Cookbook collecting!

Sandy

This year, 2012, should be the 92^nd anniversary of the L.A. County Fair. This year, the fair begins August 30^th and runs until September 30^th!

From the L.A. County website we learn, “In 1921, a merchants exposition held along the Southern Pacific Railway in downtown Pomona set the stage for things to come…at the time, Los Angeles County did not have a county fair, and local  businessmen saw this as an opportunity to bring recognition to the city of Pomona. A reporter for the Pomona Bulletin overheard two Lions Club members discussing the idea and put it into print. One of those men, was a local music store owner who had been involved with fairs in Iowa. He was asked to present his plans to the Pomona Chamber of Commerce, which then took the idea of a fair to the city council.

Although half a dozen attempts to bring a fair to L.A. County had failed, the board set out to start the first L.A. County Fair. A fair board was formed.  The city of Pomona agreed to purchase a 43-acre beet and barley field from the Ricardo Vejar estate for use as a fairground. Research revealed that the name “L.A. County Fair” was not registered. Afflerbaugh contacted Sacramento and the name was adopted at once.

The inaugural L.A. County Fair opened Oct. 17, 1922, and ran for five days through Oct. 21.  Fair attendance in 1925 topped the 100,000 mark for the first time (102,991). It also marked the first time the Fair was held in September instead of October.  The L.A. County Fair has an illustrious history but it should be noted that the fair closed down in 1942, due to

World War II, and was suspended for six years. The grounds played an important part in the war effort as they were taken over by the U.S. Army. The grounds were converted into a motor base in January, and headquarters were established in the home arts building. ..”

For some years, beginning in the 1980s, Bob and I made a trip to the County Fair in September, spending a night at the wonderful Sheraton Fairplex Hotel after it opened, (which provides a separate no-line-entrance for fairgoers) and in general, just having a ‘really good time’. We spent most of our time in the HomeArtsBuilding, admiring all the beautiful quilts that were on display, the hand-created gowns and dresses, hand-crafted dollhouses and homemade breads, cakes, cookies, jams and jellies.  The theme for 2001, “A Tapestry of Tradition” included a quilt show with more than 250 quilts from “A Tapestry of Tradition” quilt competition, which also included a display of antique quilts.

There are woodcarvers and table top displays, exhibits of hand-decorated Christmas trees, a wide variety of recipe contests which always includes the Weber barbecue contest and homemade beer and wine competitions—and for the past decade or more, a SPAM® recipe contest. One of the recipe contests 2001 was a 1970s type one-dish cooking contest, which was inspired by the 25^th anniversary of the L.A. County Fair cookbook. There was also a spaghetti eating contest and a savory cheesecake contest, a pie eating contest and a butter churning contest.

The Los Angeles Fairgrounds in Pomona has, on site, a huge greenhouse and garden center called the Flower and Garden Pavilion. It offers one of the most spectacular floral exhibits on the west coast and, the fair people say, has delighted fairgoers with its various themes and décor for more than 50 years the many floral displays are always breath-taking beautiful. Behind the greenhouse, there are many vast decorated gardens to explore—or for fairgoers who tire a bit from the crowds and bustle, you can sit on the grass or on a park bench and rest a while under the trees.

There are dozens of carnival rides and a petting zoo, pig races, and more than 250 food concessionaires offering everything from oversize fried onions to a deep fried Snickers bar.

We enjoyed walking around, drinking freshly made lemonade and eating hot dogs, while admiring the many different displays. There are always huge model train displays assembled by a model train club in the area, and thousands of vendors selling everything under the sun, from kitchen utensils to hot tubs. We were both interested in the model train displays so that was always a must-see.

We stayed at the hotel whenever we went to the fair, so that I could return to the room and rest periodically, and that evening, our friends Pat & Stan who lived in Covina would meet us at the hotel and go with us to dinner at the hotel restaurant. It was wonderful and a delightful way to end the evening.

One of the main reasons I always wanted to go to the fair was—to buy a stack of the cookbooks, which I liked to give out as presents at Christmastime.  I became enchanted with the L.A. County fair cookbooks in the late 1980s, at which time I also began entering some of my canned foods and winning some red and blue and pink ribbons.  Then, I began searching for earlier L.A. County Fair cookbooks. I’ve been successful in finding all but one of the early cookbooks and have a few duplicate issues to use as bargaining chips to find what I am missing.

In 1978, the people at the Los Angeles County Fair were besieged with requests for copies of the winning recipes. The people in charge decided it might be a good idea to put together a little cookbook collection.  The woman responsible for compiling that first cookbook was a lady by the name of Nadine Lowery, who was the home arts coordinator for the L.A. County Fair from 1971 to 1986. In an interview for the Los Angeles Daily News (September 3, 2003), Lowery recalled, “…then the requests for the recipes started. Oh, so many people wanted them that we decided to put together a little cookbook collection. I don’t remember the actual size of the first one but it was pretty small…”

I have a copy of the first L.A. County Fair Cookbook and can tell you – published in 1979, the first cookbook proudly boasts, “LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR FIRST EDITION OF AWARD WINNING RECIPES, COMPILED BY THE HOME ARTS DEPARTMENT”. The recipes were a collection of the 1978 prize-winning recipes and the little book, (even though the pages are unnumbered and the recipes un-indexed) reflects the prize winning recipes of the 1970s with a heavy emphasis on home baking – home made breads, pies, cakes, and cookies. (As a yardstick for comparison, the 1978 prize winning cookbook contains 23 winning recipes for preserved foods…the 2002 issue contains over 70 recipes! – and if I were to go back and count, I’m sure I’d find that the cookbooks of the 1990s, which contained first, second, and third place winning recipes, would have a far higher total).

“With our first cookbook” said Nadine Lowery, “we sold out in four or five days. We had no idea back then that this was going to be so popular…”

The 1980 Fair cookbook, titled “Blue Ribbon Recipes” reflected the winning recipes from the 1979 fair and also was a small un-indexed cookbook. By the time the Ls Angeles County Fair Award Winning Recipes published in 1983, reflecting the winning recipes for 1982, the Home Arts Department had produced a much better cookbook and it was indexed. And, a few years later, by the time the Home Arts Department   published “Award Winning Recipes – Discover America – L.A. County Fair September 7-30, 1990 (for the winning 1989 recipes), the cookbook had become a best seller, a big thick cookbook with the price remaining at $10.00.  And by the mid 1980s Bob & I had begun to enter jams and jellies, pickles and other canned items into the L.A. County Fair.

In past cookbooks, the top three winning entries were published in each category, but the collections became too big. (Well, this is what the Fair people say.  I love those big thick fair cookbooks!).  As reflected in the 25^th anniversary edition, only 2002’s first place winners are listed. Even so, the cookbook provides 297 pages of recipes which gives you some idea of the magnitude of the Los Angeles County Fair, considered the largest county fair in the entire USA.

Fair cookbooks are, I think, regional Americana at its finest. I was addicted and began collecting regional fair cookbooks and state cookbooks.  But the L.A. County Fair remains my favorite.

My L.A. County Fair cookbook collection ends with the book published in 2005, offering the winning recipes from the 2004 Fair. Even though only the first place winning recipes are in the book, there are over 300 recipes -  demonstrating how popular our fair cookbook has remained over the years.

You can visit the Los Angeles County Fair’s website at www.lacountyfair.com  If you are interested in collecting fair cookbooks – wherever they are and where ever you are, much can be found just by googling “fair cookbooks”

A few years ago, my younger sister and I were in San Diego for a few days with one of our nieces and we found many San Diego cookbooks at a used cookbook store there. The three of us loaded up on many of our favorites.

I’m hopeful that by NEXT year I will be able to enter some of my prize jellies and jams or pickles in the Antelope Valley fair! I’m also asking myself how well I might be able to make the drive to Pomona from the Antelope Valley.  I miss the Home Arts Department most.

In a 2010 article in the Los Angeles Times, considerable attention was paid to the Home Arts Department. It reads, in part:

“This year, we’ve seen quite an increase in the number of people entering their work,” said Sharon Autry, a spokeswoman for the Fairplex. “Last year, we had more than the year before, but not quite like this.”

“In 2009, 694 contestants entered 1,940 items in the fair. This year, 750 people made 2,248 items to be judged. Crafts contestants ranged in age from 17 to over 90.

“The competition has always been one of the more popular parts of the fair,” Autry said. “But it seems to have really gotten people’s attention this year.”

Maybe it’s the Great Recession that has sent people searching for the comforts of homemade. Perhaps it’s a defiant push back at the netherworld of Facebook and Foursquare and Twitter. Whatever the reason, it’s exhilarating to see, in this digital age, actual digits at work”.

Will I see you at the Los Angeles County Fair this year?

For cookbook collectors who like to collect FAIR cookbooks here is a partial list of the books published by the L.A. County Fair:

Date Published         Title

1979 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR FIRST EDITION OF AWARD

WINNING RECIPES, COMPILED BY THE HOME ARTS DEPARTMENT  FOR 1978 WINNING RECIPES.

1980 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR BLUE RIBBON RECIPES 1989 RECIPES

1981 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 4^TH EDITION

1982 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 5^TH EDITION

1983 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES, 6^TH EDITION

1984 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 7^TH EDITION “STRUTTIN’ AMERICA’S STUFF”

1985 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 8^TH EDITION

1986 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 9^TH EDITION “THE FAIREST OF THEM AL”

1987 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 10^TH EDITION “MAKE TRACKS”

1988 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES11TH      EDITION “AMERICA’S COUNTY FAIR” *

1989 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 12^TH EDITION “DISCOVER AMERICA LA COUNTY FAIR SEPT 7-30, 1990”

1990 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 13^TH EDITION “CAROUSELS CREITTERS & FUN SEPT 6-29 1991

1991 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES14TH EDITION “FUN UP OUR SLEEVE LA COUNTY FAIR 1992

1992 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES15TH EDITION “GOOD TIME JAMBOREE, SEPT 10-OCT 3 1993*

1993 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 16^TH EDITION “THE BIG HOWDY” SEPT 9-OCT 2 1994

*missing 17^th edition

1995 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 18^TH EDITION “AMERICA’S FAIR”

1996 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES19TH EDITION 75TH ANNIVERSARY COMMEMORATIVE EDITION

1997 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 20^TH EDITION “ A COOK’S GARDEN” 1998 AWARD WINNING COOKBOOK

1998 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 21^ST EDTION “A COOK’S GARDEN 1999 AWARD WINNING COOKBOOK

2000 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 22^ND EDITION “A TAPESTRY OF TRADITION;  2001 COUNTY FAIR

2001 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 23^RD EDITION  2002 LA COUNTY FAIR

*missing 24 edition

2002 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 25^TH EDITION “A TAPESTRY OF TRADITION”  from the 2003 county fair

2003 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 26^TH EDITION 2004 COUNTY FAIR “A TAPESTRY OF TRADITION”

2004 LOS ANGELES COUNTY FAIR AWARD WINNING RECIPES 27^TH EDITION “CULINARY STYLES COOKBOOK” printed for 2005 county fair

I do not have anything printed after 2005 country fair. I have several extra copies, like new, of 2001 award winning recipes from the 2002 county fair and one extra copy of the 2002 award winning recipes from  the 2003 county fair.

Happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

 After writing a post about the life and passing of Marion Cunningham, a most distinguished California cookbook author , I found myself wondering more about her.

In 1972, Marion, at age 50, wanted to go to Oregon to attend cooking classes led by famous food writer/cookbook author James Beard. It was her first experience traveling out of the State of California. Talk about a life-changing experience!

James Beard took to the tall, blue-eyed homemaker (perhaps in much the same way that he took to Helen Evans Brown, another California cookbook author) and for the next 11 years Marion was his assistant, helping him establish cooking classes in the Bay Area. The job gave her a ringside seat to a period in American cooking when regional food, organic produce and a new way of cooking and eating were just becoming part of the culinary dialogue.

Marion caught the golden ring on a Merry-Go-Round when James Beard recommended Marion to do the revision of Fannie Farmer’s cookbook to Judith Jones. It was a huge success and she followed up in 1984 with The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. (Please refer to my article “MARION CUNNINGHAM, COOKBOOK AUTHOR” for more information).

I wondered how Marion decided to write something next called THE BREAKFAST BOOK. She tells us in her own words in the Introduction to The Breakfast Book. “As my interest in breakfast intensified over the last few years” she writes, “I became more and more inspired to write this book. I found there are almost no books  on the subject—no tempting recipes and nothing to encourage people to cook breakfast. There are lots of brunch books,” she concedes, “but brunch, with its undefined ingredients and preparation is entirely different from breakfast—it could be any meal. Brunch is almost always a partylike affair, served with wine and liquor, and with an assortment of unrelated dishes…”

Marion notes that “Breakfast, on the other hand, involves no alcohol and usually consists of grains, dairy products, fruits and maybe eggs or a little meat or fish.”

Marion said that she often asked people what they thought of breakfast and most would instantly reply that it was their favorite meal—but when pressed to tell what they eat for breakfast, their answers become vague. She concluded that people liked the idea of breakfast but needed some guidance and recipes        to get them to cook it.

“Breakfast,” Marion wrote, “has remained pure amid all the food trends with their stylish dishes and chic ingredients. The honest simplicity of breakfast is so captivating. The most delicious breakfasts usually derive from the humblest of ingredients…” Money alone does not buy good food, Marion wisely advises.

Then, she writes, “The deeper reason that breakfast inspires me is that we have become so busy maintaining our lives in the working world that we often find ourselves sharing the same house with strangers. The meaning of “home” has disappeared.” [I can’t help but wonder if Marion was talking about her own home and her own life]. She continues, “Surveys report that families no longer sit down together for the evening meal. Eating is a lonely experience for many, and we can be lonely without even knowing it sometimes. Standing up by a microwave oven or refrigerator or in front of the TV, automatically eating, leaves out a precious human element from our lives….” Elsewhere she writes, “if it is true  that d inner is becoming a solitary fast-feed-yourself experience, I’m hoping that breakfast, with its easy, wholesome honesty, will be an opportunity to be with and share oneself with friends and family. There is no greater inducement to conversation than sitting around a table and sharing a good meal…”

Marion also says that her sense of health is that getting a good start with breakfast makes it the most important meal of the day.  She writes, “After the night’s abstinence, it important to break fast and eat a nutritious meal..”

The Breakfast Book begins with Yeast Breads and oh, that’s something I really love to make. She provides us with a wide range of Yeast breads, starting with a Basic American White Bread from which you can also make Cinnamon Swirl Bread.  There is a recipe for Granola Breakfast Bread or Raisin Cinnamon Wheat Bread, Oatmeal Orange Bread   or Mexican Bead. She provides recipes for Glazed Cinnamon rolls as well as Hot Cross Buns, Sticky Buns and Crumpets and English Muffins—these are just a sampling of what you will find in the first chapter of The Breakfast Book. (and I’m heading for Trader Joe’s to see if they have rye flour. I love rye bread (all the Schmidts* do – in my family whenever a group of Schmidts are in a restaurant ordering breakfast, invariably we all ask for rye bread) – and Marion’s recipe for Orange Rye Bread sounds delicious! Then I discovered Marion’s recipe for Chocolate Walnut Butter Bread…that sounds absolutely perfect for a Christmas morning breakfast!

(*Sandy’s note – I didn’t misspell Smith. I was a Schmidt before I married a Smith).                 **

The second chapter is titled TOASTS, FRENCH TOAST, AND BREAKFAST SANDWICHES –Choose from a wide array of recipes – from Melba toast to milk toast, cinnamon toast or French Toast, Breakfast Sandwiches that range from fig and Ham on Rye Bread to Sausage and Melted Cheese, Date and Breakfast Cheese or Ham and Farm Cheese Butter-Fried – or try Mexican Breakfast, which sounds great too.  A breakfast sandwich is a great thing to take along with you in the morning when you are just too pressed for time to sit down at the table and eat. Let’s face it; we can’t all, always sit down and eat a proper breakfast. My son Kelly has become an expert at his own version of a Mexican breakfast – a breakfast burrito that is a tortilla filled with scrambled egg and maybe some bits of bacon or sausage.   And my children grew up on French bread –it was something I could always afford to make because we often didn’t have very much money; I bought day-old bead at the thrift bakery and French bread was always the perfect way to use the bread.

The next chapter in THE BREAKFAST BOOK is QUICK BREADS and there are so many from which to choose – I love making muffins and that has always been a staple recipe in my household when my children were growing up. Marion offers such a range of muffins – raw apple muffins, for instance, or Bran Muffins, Boston Brown Bread Muffins and Fig Muffins, Lemon Yogurt Muffins and Orange walnut muffins, Persimmon muffins and Last Word in Nutmeg Muffins. Other quick breads include Blueberry Cranberry Bread and Date Nut Bread which also offers variations made with figs, or prunes. There is also a Christmas Bread recipe I am looking forward to trying – and you might know, most quick breads can be made in small loaf pans for gift-giving at Christmas—a nice gift with a jar of homemade jam!

There is a chapter on Cereals, both hot and cold—and I have made many hot pots of oatmeal when my children were growing up; Marion also provides recipes for making granola. This is followed by a chapter on Doughnuts and Fritters while Griddling has its own chapter with a wide assortment of pancake and waffle recipes, including the Raised Waffle recipe that became one of Marion’s signature recipes.

Some of the biggest names in food have enjoyed Marion’s waffles,  driving through the hills east of San Francisco to the low-slung house on an acre of land where Cunningham lived for 42 years. They sat at her kitchen table, near a wall of snapshots that told the story of a culinary life: there’s Ruth Reichl holding a baby, a boyishly young Chuck Williams, Edna Lewis sitting in the sun, MFK and Julia, and James Beard goofing off as a teenager.

People journied to Cunningham’s house to eat pepper bacon, gossip, and watch one of America’s most famous cooks pour thin, yeast-leavened batter into a pair of waffle irons. She used an old recipe*, one she discovered when she first revised the “Fannie Farmer Cookbook.”

Going to Marion’s for Waffles became almost a badge of honor for some of the best professional chefs and food writers in the country. But for Cunningham, the informal gatherings are simply an extension of what she has been preaching for much of her cooking career: sharing simple, delicious food around a family table is the most important thing in life.

There, in the Breakfast Book is Marion’s recipe for Raised Waffles. Indeed, there are plenty of other recipes for pancakes and waffles but none will ever be as famous as Marion’s Raised Waffles.

The next chapter is simply titled “EGGS” but the assortment offered is anything but simple. Instructions follow for soft-boiled eggs, coddled eggs, hard boiled eggs, goldenrod eggs, scalloped, scotch, fried, poached, shirred, baked, scrambled, – you name it, it’s all here. And omelets! (I love omelets and fortunately so did Bob for whom I cooked breakfast for several decades. Marion provides recipes for filled omelets: ham, apple, cheese, bacon, herb, mushroom, jelly, smoked salmon, mushroom, Mexican, – on and on. What we discovered about omelets back in the day was this: I could make a fairly substantial omelet and then cut it in half – then one half was cut into two and we had a good size omelet portion for each of us. The uneaten half was refrigerated for another day. It was easy to reheat an omelet; you just have to be careful not over heat it.

At the beginning of this chapter, Marion shares a story about her childhood. She writes, “I grew up in the small rural foothill town of La Crescenta, California, in the twenties. I was an only child and my mother was twenty-seven when I was born (which is like being forty-five today). As a result, she was an anxious mother, always sending away for government pamphlets for advice on how to feed me. One of the things the pamphlets said was that an egg and a glass of goat’s milk were perfect whole foods for a growing child. So, my father had to get a goat to join the chickens we already kept”.

She still liked eggs, Marion wrote. She doesn’t mention the goat’s milk (which, incidentally, my first grandchild lived on the first years of her life, since she was extremely allergic to cow’s milk). But Marion writes, “If I’m going to have one small thing for breakfast, I cook one egg until its almost hard, shell it [peel], and have it with lots of pepper on it…”

Marion advises, “It is easy to cook eggs properly if you follow a couple of basic guidelines. With few exceptions, eggs should be cooked slowly and over low heat, because both egg white and egg yolk coagulate at well below the temperature of boiling water.  When cooking an egg in its shell, if you first pierce       its large end with an egg-piercing gadget or pushpin, it will help keep the shell from cracking as it cooks…”

Sandy’s cooknote: I discovered this method of cooking eggs – whether hardboiled or softboiled, and  now keep a straight pin within reach in the kitchen. A safety pin works, too.

The next chapter is titled FRUIT FIXING and what a treat this is – how to prepare mangoes, apples, dates and figs, oranges and grapefruit, grapes, berries and many other fruits. There are some I wouldn’t have thought of, such as baked bananas and baked pineapple, or cranberry poached apples.

And then there are POTATOES. Some you will be familiar with, such as hash brown potatoes and oven fries—but you may not know about Rough and Ready Potatoes or Raw Potato Pancakes or Potato Bacon Pie.

The next chapter is titled MEAT AND FISH and contains some of my tried-and-true favorites , such as corned beef hash and pork tenderloin with biscuits and gravy. (I’ve used cube steak and sausage as the meat when I am making biscuits and gravy, too. Something that provides a lot of drippings makes a great gravy).

Marion provides recipes  for Ham and Bacon, Ham Loaf, Fresh Fish, Trout Fried with Oatmeal, Fish Hash, Red Flannel Fish Hash and salt cod cakes as well.

A chapter titled CUSTARDS AND PUDDINGS came as a surprise; I wouldn’t have thought of custards and puddings as breakfast fare, but then again – amongst the choices offered by Marion include a Cornflake Pudding, Steamed Persimmon Pudding, Maple Oatmeal Steamed Pudding and lots of other recipes. Included is The Coach House Bread and Butter Pudding recipe. This Coach House is the legendary  New York  Restaurant.

Another surprise is the chapter titled COOKIES, PIES, AND CAKES in which Marion provides recipes for Mother’s Cooies, Cereal Cookies, English Digestives, Oatmeal Bran Breakfast Cookies—of course! I thought. What could be better on a busy morning than a few oatmeal bran breakfast cookies to take along with you to work to have with your coffee?  And most Midwestern farmers and groups such as the Amish are familiar with having pie for breakfast.

“The cookie recipes are not too sweet” Marion advises. And, she adds, “The breakfast cakes in this chapter are meant to be sliced, toasted, and buttered, not frosted.  With good cake the wholesomeness will shine through without the added frill of frosting. Breakfast cakes are wonderful, particularly if you are a sweet and not a savory breakfast person…”

Look for Indian Loaf Cake, Madeira Poppy Seed Cake, Fresh Ginger Cake or Soft Gingerbread—and possibly to become my favorite, Great Coffee Cake which comes with several great variations.

My favorite chapter, I don’t mind admitting – is one titled CONDIMENTS because these recipes are the type I collect and can’t wait to try on family and friends. There is Raw Fresh Fruit Jam and Peach Rose Jam, Strawberry Llump Preserves and Orange Marmalade – and one I’ve never heard of, Beet Marmalade!  There is Lemon Pineapple Apple Relish and Date Raisin Condiment, spice Walnuts and many other recipes, the kind of presentation I love to display for a breakfast or brunch at my house.

There is a chapter  titled Breakfast Beverages in which you will find tea, coffee,  hot chocolate or Mexican Chocolate, Cuban Orange Juice                                          or Airy Eggnog, Garden Tomato Juice or even Malted Milk.

Marion concludes The Breakfast Book with an assortment of Breakfast Menus to inspire you.

I know that Marion was afraid that real breakfasts were being overshadowed and lost in our busy lives, but I have spent years preparing breakfast and it’s still a favorite meal to prepare for family or friends. Sometimes in our busy lives, it’s not possible to prepare breakfast but you could keep some of these things on hand for your family members—and you can always focus on nice breakfasts on the weekends.

THE BREAKFAST BOOK is sure to provide you with a lot of inspiration!

THE BREAKFAST BOOK by Marion Cunningham was published by Alfred A. Knopf, NY, in 1987.  I found THE BREAKFAST BOOK on Amazon.com, new for 15.00 or pre-owned for $7.45. Alibris.com has copies starting at $1.02, pre-owned, with a recommended copy at $1.19.  They have new copies for $12.95.

Happy cooking & happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley, whom we all know as the inspirational creators of the “Best of the Best” state cookbook series, appear to be branching out.

In the preface to the “Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook” the daring duo explain “Where did all these incredible recipes come from? Well, in a word – AMERICA. Its many cultures, many tastes, many cuisines are all represented within the pages of this cookbook. America the Beautiful is also America the delicious!

But more specifically, they continue, “These recipes were chosen from the more than 4,000 dessert recipes in our BEST OF THE BEST STATE COOKBOOK SERIES, each of which was already a chosen favorite from their state…”

Some 2000 cookbooks from around the country who are contributors to their state’s individual  “Best of the Best Cookbook” sent in their selections. Below each printed recipe throughout the book you can see which cookbook and state the recipe represents. At the back of the cookbook you will find a list of the many contributors.

How did the Best of the Best Recipe Hall of Fame Dessert Cookbook come about? Prior to the publication of this cookbook, Quail Ride Press compiled a “Recipe Hall of Fame Cookbook”. When they were putting it together, they7 realized there were so many dessert recipes, the easiest solution would be to compile a book just with dessert recipes.

The new cookbook contains over 300 winning dessert recipes from all over the country. Illustrations of many of our favorite landmarks are also included – from the White House in Washington, D.C. to the Space Needle in Seattle, and from the West Quoddy Lighthouse in Lubec, Maine, to the very old Taos Pueblo in New Mexico (believed to be over a thousand years old). You will also find interesting little sidebars, facts about our wonderful USA.

And recipes? Well, who hasn’t at one time or another wondered what to make for dessert, what to serve the ladies with coffee at a Tupperware party, what to take for a pot luck at work, what to make for a bake sale, to take to a church social, or to serve company at a dinner party?

And there is a familiar theme at my house (sort of like Murphy’s Law) – the recipe you want is the one you can’t find. How does one lose a recipe? It’s like losing a sock in the washer or dryer—it shouldn’t be missing but it is.  Well, RECIPE HALL OF FAME DESSERT COOKBOOK might be the solution! With over three hundred favorite dessert recipes from which to choose, the debate might now be – which one  to make for the ladies luncheon, the church social, the potluck at work.

And another thing. This is the new millennium, by go0lly. I don’t have time to spend hours putting together a dessert where there’s so many other things to do. One of the features I really, really like about the RECIPE HALL OF FAME DESSERT COOKBOOK is the simplicity of most of the recipes.

As noted by McKee and Moseley, “People vote for recipes that are easy to make, that are most often requested, and that they like making over and over again because they enjoy the compliments! We call these recipes ‘unpretentious’ because they may use package mixes and any shortcuts possible to bring    about the quickest, most delicious results…”

I was bemused to find that the very first recipe is one for Red Velvet Cake (It wasn’t so very long ago that I embarked on a lengthy search for a recipe like red velvet cake). There are other all-time favorite cake recipes, everyone’s favorite Mississippi Mud Cake and Caramel Apple Cake. Including also are recipes for Pumpkin Cake in a Jar (which my daughter in law made one year for all her friends and neighbors) and surprise, surprise! Mexico City Earthquake Cake—not very long ago I spent an entire weekend searching for this recipe at the request of my friend, Pat.

Under pies and pastries you will find such all-time favorites as Hershey Kiss Pie, Old Fashioned Lemon Meringue Pie, French Silk chocolate Pie (my son Kelly’s favorite) and Mystery Pecan Pie.

Trifles and Tortes include Death by  Chocolate, Strawberry Tiramisu, and a luscious Black Forest Trifle.

The Cookie Section contains many of my all-time favorites, such as Brownie Meringues, Peanut Butter Blossoms (a Christmas favorite) and some new ones that will surely become favorites, such as “Goof Balls”. There are also sections on brownies and bars, puddings, frozen desserts, candies and “Other” desserts.

And, for those occasions when you want to really impress your guests, check out the recipes for Frangelico White and Dark Chocolate  Mousse, or Pistachio Pineapple Dessert, or something like Bailey’s Irish Cream Turtle Torte (yum!) As for me, the one I want to try the most is called “Twinkle Treat” and it starts out with two boxes of Twinkies!!

RECIPE HALL OF FAME DESSERT COOKBOOK from Quail Ridge Press is sure to become one of your all-time favorite cookbooks.  At the time of publication in October, 2000, it sold for a reasonable $16.95. You can find pre-owned copies on Amazon.com for as little as one cent (remember you will pay $3.99 for shipping and handling whenever you buy something from a private vendor) and Alibris.com has copies for 99c and $1.00.

In 2003, Quail Ridge Press issued RECIPE HALL OF FAME DESSERT COOKBOOK II.  Amazon.com has copies of that  cookbook for as little as 02 cents for a pre-owned copy or $4.84 for a new one.

Happy cooking – and happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

*This  review was originally written for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange and published April, 2001.

THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK by Courtney Taylor and Bonnie Carter Travis is, guess what?  From Quail Ridge Press!  We all readily identify Quail Ridge Press as the publishers of the wonderful “best of the best” cookbook series which have covered all fifty states and then went back and did volume two on some states, such as Texas, which had so much to offer in the way of community cookbooks.

OK, just in case there’s someone out there who doesn’t know what the Best of the Best books are, this is a series of cookbooks compiled and edited by Gwen McKee and Barbara Moseley who embarked on a journey not to just one of the fifty states – but to each and everyone – collecting community cookbooks from each one (To give you a better idea of what a Best of the Best cookbook has to offer, I will provide you will a review from Best of the Best from Washington, for which I provided a review for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange some time ago. But be forewarned – once you start reading one of these cookbooks, you will want ALL of them.)

Meantime – gradually Gwen Moseley and Barbara McKee branched out – with a wealth of other finely selected books such as the Recipe Hall of Fame collection – and THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK.

You may have a bookshelf full of southern cookbooks and if so, might be asking yourself, why do I need another one? Well, because, like the title implies, this is a handbook, a step-by-step guide to old fashioned cooking, with more than 200 traditional recipes. (Don’t be misled by the “southern” in the title – this book is a handy kitchen tool no matter what part of the country you live in).  Immediately, on the inside cover, is a Measure Equivalence Chart followed by cornmeal, flour and sugar equivalents (i.e., 3 cups of cornmeal equals one pound). On the inside of the back cover, you will find a chart of milk, butter, and egg equivalents (how many egg whites to make a cup? 8 to 10!) – along with a “miscellaneous equivalent chart which lists such things as bacon, cheese, pecans, lemon and oranges (how many oranges to make 1/3 cup juice or 2 tablespoons rind? One medium). And that’s just basic information inside the covers.

Authors Courtney Taylor and bonnie Carter Travis tell us, “Our love of Southern cooking has as much to do with our memories of the people who taught us as it does with getting the pastry on a peach cobbler to turn out just right. In our mothers’ kitchens, family cooks took us by the hand and showed us how to judge good pastry by the way it feels when it’s raw and hot to get it to bake flaky, sweet, and tender all at the same time….”

“In our own kitchens,” they recall, “every now and then, an imagine of a favorite old cook will arise with the steam escaping form a bubbling cobbler, and we’ll hear her voice telling us to chose the oven door and have a little patience…”

With THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK, they tell us, “we want to take you by the hand and bring that voice to you…”

As for the recipes, Taylor and Travis reflect, “Among people who love to cook, almost every conversation eventually turns to food. Mention down home cooking and invariably someone will say ‘Oh, let me tell you how my grandmother made biscuits’ or ‘My brother has the best way to cook shrimp…’”

“For decades,” they continue “We have listened and learned not only from our families but also from neighbors, gardeners, vegetable vendors, lawyers, doctors, county sheriffs, strangers on airplanes and countless others who generously shared their wisdom. We’ve copied down their recipes on everything from cocktail napkins to parking tickets and the hems of aprons. We’ve tested them, fiddled with them, combined the, andbeen inspired to invent new versions…”

THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK covers a wealth of basic information, beginning with kitchen equipment, providing definitions for everything from Dutch ovens (what my old friend Marvin used to call a Murphy Pot) to skillets, roasters, casseroles and baking equipment. They provide detailed instructions for “curing” your iron cookware which reminded me of a funny story. Years ago, I had a girlfriend named Rosalia. (pronounced Row-ZAIL-ya).  She gave me all her cast-iron cookware because, she said, “it always gets rusty”.  Well, yesss, because you have to cure cast iron cookware. We never put our cast iron cookware into soapy water. Taylor and Travis provide simple detailed instructions for “curing” and taking care of all your cookware.

Along with lots of recipes, THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK provides a glossary of seasonal produce (even instructions for blanching and freezing vegetables!), a chapter on making stock (I have written about stock before  and how easy it is to make it and keep it on hand). There is a chapter for making gravy and cream sauces (I don’t know how many times I’ve tried to explain to someone how I make gravy. THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK takes all the guesswork out of gravy-making.

There are chapters on frying foods, barbequing and grilling, (along with time and temperature guides for grilling and barbequing) chapters devoted to making cornbread, biscuits, pie crust, yeast dough and cakes.

Recipes in THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK covers everything from making eggnog for a crowd to pecan divinity with a plethora of southern favorites in-between. This cookbook would be absolutely idea for any young cook who wants to learn how and doesn’t know where to start (or even might feel intimidated to ask a seasoned cook). And for those of us who are familiar with the kitchen but aren’t always sure what the difference is between thin, flaky biscuits or drop biscuits, or gumbo or Jambalaya, this book is for you. There is even a comprehensive glossary of cooking terms which you will find useful and handy.

As the people at Quail Ridge Press so aptly put it, “THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK is a how-to manual, a primer for the new cook, as well as a refresher course for the old hand”.

You can find this book at Amazon.com starting at 5.11 for a pre-owned copy or $15.95 for a new copy.  But check Alibris.com – they have copies for 99c (pre owned) but there are a lot of copies available and I am sure you can find a copy that is in good condition. If you want to buy one for someone else, look for something “like new” or invest in a new copy. I was unable to find a listing at Quail Ridge Press, but this book was published in 2001 so – you may have to find a pre-owned or like new edition.

As promised, I have updated a review of a Best of the Best cookbooks—this one is about Washington and will be posted immediately after this blog post THE SOUTHERN COOK’S HANDBOOK.

Happy cooking and happier cookbook collecting!  And look for more southern cookbook reviews – a lot of new/old southern cookbooks have found their way into my bookshelves recently and I am looking forward to writing reviews of them for you. I know that many of you are as keenly interested in southern cooking as I am!

Sandy

I first learned the sad news from one of my blog subscribers, who wrote asking had I heard? And would I be writing something about Marion Cunningham?  “No, I hadn’t heard,” I responded and added “Good idea to write something about her –let me see how many of her cookbooks are on my shelves…”

I didn’t have her books shelved together with favorite authors but rather – filed according to content. I knew, for instance, that The Breakfast Book was in the garage library with other breakfast/brunch cookbooks.  I knew LOST RECIPES and THE SUPPER BOOK were on a shelf in my bedroom, along with other comfort food and often thumbed-through cookbooks.  All of the Fannie Farmer cookbooks in my possession are on a shelf in the garage library. Then I realized I didn’t have ALL of her books and remedied this by placing an order with Alibris.com. That being said, I find I have eight different editions of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, neither of which was #12 or #13, the two that Marion worked on. I’ve ordered one of these from Alibris.com. (Kind of reminded me of all the work I have put in, back in the day, collecting the Congressional Club cookbooks.)

Marion Cunningham passed away Wednesday, July 11, 2012, at the John Muir Medical Center in Northern California, where she had been admitted on Tuesday with respiratory problems. Family friend, John Carroll, confirmed her death. Marion had been living at an assisted-care home in Walnut Creek, the small San Francisco Bay Area city where she had raised her family. She was 90 years old. I was shocked to learn she had Alzheimer’s disease, which took my own mother’s life in September, 2000.                        **

Marion Enwright was born in Los Angeles on February 11, 1922, to Joseph and Maryann (Spelta) Enright. She grew up as a Southern California beach girl, tall, blonde, and elegant and graduated from high school in Los Angeles. (In her own words she admitted, “I barely made it out of high school. I never paid attention to my teachers…”  That comment is debatable, considering what she produced, once she started writing. )

In one of the columns she wrote for the L.A. Times that can still be found in the Times archives, she wrote for the food section about her southern California childhood: “In the small foothill town of La Crescenta where I grew up,” she wrote, “We spent long summer evenings, after breathlessly hot days, swinging in the hammock…Around 8 each evening, it seemed that everyone in town walked down to Watson’s drugstore to buy a quart of ice cream..(our neighbors) the Merricks made root beer with great success except for the first summer when they couldn’t afford a bottle-capper. They made their first batch corked it and put it in the attic to ferment. In a day or two, all the corks flew out of the bottles, making a colossal mess.”

I laughed over a comment of Marion’s about her mother’s cooking: “My mother followed the government pamphlets on nutrition that she sent away for, and paid no attention to taste” – I have written on my blog a number of times about my own mother’s terrible cooking. We were kindred spirits in more ways than one.

In 1942 Marion married Robert Cunningham, a medical malpractice lawyer, whom she had known since kindergarten. He was a lawyer with a taste for canned pork and beans and well-done red meat. She once summed up his culinary range this way: “He doesn’t like homemade bread and he doesn’t like vegetables. The only green thing he says he likes is money.” (I am struck by the similarities between Marion’s marriage and my own, except mine finally ended in divorce in 1986.)

The newly-wed Cunninghams moved to San Diego, where he was serving in the Marines. During WW2,   a time when men were in short supply for many civilian jobs, Marion worked in a gas station for a while. “I always used to think I would own my own station,” she said in a 1991 interview with the New York Times. “I know more than most women about cars.”

“During the five years we lived in Laguna,” she wrote in an article about home entertaining for The Times in 1990, “every friend we knew from our school days arrived to visit (and often to stay). In order to feed this steady stream, I made casseroles, stews, soups and big hearty salads with thick creamy dressings. All good to eat and cheap to make. (Another parallel to my own life and marriage where I usually had a steady stream of visitors—either friends of my four sons or my husband. I served dinner at 6 pm every night and everyone knew if they showed up they would be fed.)

Marion and Robert eventually settled in Walnut Creek, outside Oakland, in northern California. Robert Cunningham died in 1987 from lung cancer.

Marion spent the first half of her adult life raising her children, Mark and Catherine, who survive her, and tending to the family’s ranch home in Walnut Creek.  And for much of that time she struggled with agoraphobia, a fear of open and public places. It was so intense at times that she could barely cross the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. She had also developed a problem with alcohol.

In 1972, Marion, at age 50, wanted to go to Oregon to attend cooking classes led by famous food writer/cookbook author James Beard. She stopped drinking, cold-turkey, and faced her phobias. To prepare for the trip she bought three airline tickets to Los Angeles and took two friends to sit on either side of her. They had lunch and flew back. She overcame her fears and attended the class. It was her first experience traveling out of the State of California. Talk about a life-changing experience!

James Beard took to the tall, blue-eyed homemaker (perhaps in much the same way that he took to Helen Evans Brown, another California cookbook author) and for the next 11 years Marion was his assistant, helping him establish cooking classes in the Bay Area. The job gave her a ringside seat to a period in American cooking when regional food, organic produce and a new way of cooking and eating were just becoming part of the culinary dialogue.

That trip, which Mrs. Cunningham said was the first time she felt a sense of power and hope in many years, was the beginning of a journey that would change not only her life but the Bay Area culinary community.

Author/editor Ruth Reichl described the relationship between Beard and Cunningham as “One of the great odd marriages in this food world. Cunningham took care of Beard and he took care of her. Their relationship was so sweet and so protective. It really was a kind of mutual support thing.”

Marion’s association with Beard also gave her the big break of her career, in the late 1970s when he passed her name to Judith Jones, a well-known New York culinary editor, who was looking for someone to rewrite The Fannie Farmer Cookbook. (The original Boston Cooking School cookbook, published in 1896 had undergone a number of revisions since Fannie first wrote her cookbook. The update Marion would write was the 12^th revision. She would also do a 13^th revision.  Revision #11 was done by Wilma Lord Perkins).

“Marion Cunningham epitomized good American food,” Judith Jones, who became her longtime editor at Knopf, said in a statement Wednesday. “She was someone who had an ability to take a dish, savor it in her mouth and give it new life. At a time when Americans were embracing all kinds of foreign cuisine, Marion Cunningham’s love and respect for American food helped ‘The Fannie Farmer Cookbook’ once again earn a place in kitchens across America.”

“It was really a gift out of the blue,” Cunningham said. The only problem was, she didn’t think she had a bit of skill. Oh, she could cook. Cooking had always been something that comforted her. She learned it early on, first watching her father and Italian immigrant mother and grandmother struggle to feed a family during the depression, later trying to make a home from the small salary her Marine Corps husband brought in , and finally, as a mother of two. Initially, she balked saying “I barely made it out of high school. I never paid attention to my teachers. I don’t know where to put periods or commas. How can I do a book?”

But she did, and the 12th revision of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, one of the best selling cookbooks in America, was published in 1979.  Cunningham was 57.

Former Gourmet Editor Ruth Reichl later mused that Mrs. Cunningham had completely reinvented herself at midlife and never thought it even remotely remarkable. Reichl also commented that not only did Cunningham know everyone and everything, she was the person you called when you had a triumph or when things weren’t going so well.

The  revision of the Fannie Farmer cookbook led to seven more cookbooks; her own television show, Cunningham & Company, which ran for more than 70 episodes, sometimes on the Food Network; and a longstanding cooking column for the Chronicle.

In 1989 Cunningham and a friend started the Baker’s Dozen, an informal group of San Francisco bakers. It grew to more than 200 members and led to another cookbook, The Baker’s Dozen Cookbook, written/edited by Rick Rodgers.

In 1993, Marion received the Grand Dame award from Les Dames d’Escoffier “in recognition and appreciation of her extraordinary achievement and contribution to the culinary arts.” In 1994, she was named Scholar-in-Residence by the International Association of Culinary Professionals.

In 1999, Marion published a book titled Learning to Cook with Marion (Alfred A. Knoof. Inc.), written for adults who know nothing about home cooking, but would like to learn.

Michael Bauer, the Executive food editor of the San Francisco Chronicle said that more than anyone else, Marion Cunningham gave legitimacy to home cooking. She took what many people would say was housewife food and really gave it respect by force of her own personality.”

Cunningham’s most enduring trait may have been her ability to make even novice cooks feel as if they could accomplish something in the kitchen.

Indeed, she took many of them under her wing and drew from them for her popular book “Learning to Cook”.”She made it her life’s work to champion home cooking and preserve the family supper table. It was a theme she focused on in the preface to “The Fannie Farmer Cookbook”, the classic American volume that she was hired to revise in the late 1970s. Like many others, Ruth Reichl, the author and former restaurant critic for The New York Times (and editor of Gourmet magazine before it folded in 2009) came to regard Cunningham as a mother figure.

She was the glue that held the nascent food movement together, Reichl said, the touchstone, the person you checked in with to find out who was doing what all over the country.”

Ruth Reichl also wrote, in The Times in 1992, when she was the newspaper’s food editor “If Beard was the father of American cooking, Cunningham became its mother.”

Marion loved to go to the supermarket and look into the shopping carts of total strangers, whom she would then interview about their cooking skills. She made it her life’s work to champion home cooking and preserve the family supper table.

All traits I can readily identify with; I love going into supermarkets in other cities, just to see what they have on their shelves that I don’t find on the shelves in MY supermarkets. (I have been known to buy condiments, like unusual mustards, in stores in Ohio or Florida, to bring home for us to try).  I also collect recipe cards (given away free in supermarkets) to exchange with some of my penpals). And I grew up in a home where dinner was on the table at 6 pm—every night. Consequently, throughout the years of raising my sons, they had a home cooked meal every night. We also had unexpected visitors for dinner at night, friends my sons or husband brought home—everyone knew that I always cooked dinner—so I made a lot.

Marion, I think, would have approved of my home cooking. She wrote that “too many families seldom sit down together; it’s gobble and go”. In an interview in 2002 she said “No one is cooking at home anymore, so we are losing all the wonderful lessons we learn at the dinner table…”  She became a champion for family meals.

Ms. Cunningham bought a Jaguar with her first royalty check from “THE BREAKFAST BOOK”; the Jaguar became identified with her and she would drive it to a different Bay Area restaurant almost every night, sometimes logging 2,500 miles a month.

Along the way, Marion collected a passel of friends who changed how America cooked and ate, including her close friend Chuck Williams, whose kitchenware company, Williams-Sonoma, was just getting started.

One of the people she discovered was a young Alice Waters, who co-founded Chez Panisse in 1971 with film producer Paul Aratow. Alice was cooking organic and local food at her little restaurant in Berkeley California.  Marion took James Beard to the restaurant in 1974 and he put it on the culinary map, marking the beginnings of California cuisine and the modern organic movement.

“She was always my biggest cheerleader,” Ms. Waters once said in an interview. “I just can see her even now with her coffee and coffeecake. That’s kind of where she liked to live.”

Waters also said “I always felt like Marion was a best friend of mine, but I’m sure I’m not alone. Her empathy, charm and humor inspired deep friendships; she was always ready to listen if one needed to talk—one could call her day or night. It’s true we didn’t agree on iceberg lettuce but we did agree on a few other things—including the uselessness of the microwave. Marion never thought cooking was a lofty activity; she was a home cook, someone who loved and knew the importance of eating together at the table with family and friends.”

Cunningham, like her good friend Alice Waters and Julia Child, was a celebrity chef long before it was a household term.  In addition to her cookbooks, she wrote articles for Bon appétit and Gourmet magazines, as well as the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle, and Los Angeles Times. (On reflection, I decided that my earliest knowledge about Marion Cunningham stemmed from recipes/articles published in the Los Angeles Times over the years. I collected the S.O.S. food column recipes for several decades, until the newspaper changed the format and the column no longer appealed to me).

Russ Parsons, who writes a food column in the Los Angeles Times wrote a tribute to Marion, explaining that he worked with her for several years before he actually met her. In the 1990s he was one of her editors—she had a column in the L.A. Times called The Home Cook—but their conversations were mostly over the telephone since she lived in the Bay Area and he in southern California. Eventually, he writes, on a trip to San Francisco and the two finally met in person. Parsons writes, “Up pulled a long gold Jaguar, and out of it climbed one of the most stylish, older women I’d ever seen. Not fashionable—nothing flashy—but tall and slim and dressed just so, her silver hair tied close. There was certainly nothing old-fashioned or matronly about her.”

“We walked into the restaurant”, Parsons continued “where Marion greeted half of the wait staff and all of the chefs by name. That was Marion Cunningham, one part America’s grandma, one part culinary godfather…”

He goes on to comment that it might seem odd that she had two sides, the dining sophisticate and the cooking traditionalist, who could coexist so seamlessly, but they did. “American home cooking had no fiercer advocate than Cunningham. She loved iceberg lettuce beyond all reason. A good bowl of vegetable soup could send her into rhapsodies. Sure, she might dine out every night in some of the most glamorous restaurants in the world, but she also knew the value of a well-prepared biscuit…”  (The title of Parsons’ tribute to Marion was titled “AN APPRECIATION: MARION CUNNINGHAM WAS FANNIE FARMER, BUT WITH A DELICIOUS FLAIR” and appeared in the July 14, 2012 edition of the L.A. Times)

The James Beard Foundation provided a profile of Marion Cunningham that everyone will read and “wish they were there” This was written when Marion was 81 years old and focused on Marion in her home.

“Have you ever had a waffle in Marion Cunningham’s kitchen? Some of the biggest names in food have, driving through the hills east of San Francisco to the low-slung house on an acre of land where Cunningham has lived for 42 years. They sit at her kitchen table, near a wall of snapshots that tell the story of a culinary life: there’s Ruth Reichl holding a baby, a boyishly young Chuck Williams, Edna Lewis sitting in the sun, MFK and Julia, and James Beard goofing off as a teenager.

People journey to Cunningham’s house to eat pepper bacon, gossip, and watch one of America’s most famous cooks pour thin, yeast-leavened batter into a pair of waffle irons. She uses an old recipe*, one she discovered when she first revised the “Fannie Farmer Cookbook.”

Going to Marion’s for Waffles has become almost a badge of honor for some of the best professional chefs and food writers in the country. But for Cunningham, the informal gatherings are simply an extension of what she has been preaching for much of her cooking career: sharing simple, delicious food around a family table is the most important thing in life.

She fills her table with neighbors, old friends, and young people who are hungry to learn to cook. It is not a stretch to imagine that James Beard, with whom Cunningham worked side by side for 11 years and who ate those waffles, would be pleased…”

“Cunningham, who keeps current on food trends by driving into San Francisco five nights a week, has a natural media presence. She had her own television show for a time, and shows up regularly in food articles and at seminars. She goes to the local supermarket every day just to see how people are shopping. Through classes and books like “COOKING WITH CHILDREN” and “LEARNING TO COOK WITH MARION CUNNINGHAM,” she has introduced countless people to the kitchen with her patient and folksy, but determined, approach.

Cunningham viewed the dinner table as the modern tribal fire—the place where stories are shared, families are created, and culture is passed on. And she’s fought to protect it as fewer and fewer families eat together.

‘Today, strangers cook most of the food we eat’ she said. ‘If you stop to think about it, people are living like they are in motels. They get fast food, take it home and turn on the TV. We need to sit, facing people, with great regularity, so we are making an exchange and are civilized. We learn such simple, basic life lessons at the dinner table. If you’re handed a platter and take everything off, you are not leaving anything for others.’…”

“She has been one of the hearts of this whole food revolution,” says Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl who in her memoir, ‘TENDER AT THE BONE’ writes lovingly about how Cunningham served as both a personal and professional guide when Reichl was a new food writer. “She’s like the den mother of the food movement. She’s the way we all keep connected to each other.” [All of the above from the Beard Foundation was written 9 years ago, when Cunningham was a mere 81 years old—there is a great deal more to the article which a penpal found for me on the Internet].

Michael Bauer, editor of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote: “Marion also captured friends with her self-effacing ways and her razor-sharp analysis that was always on point but never mean-spirited. She always started her criticisms with, “Well, dear, don’t you think …”

She claimed to have barely finished high school. Yet when she thought her equally gifted lawyer husband was lauding his intelligence over her, she secretly took the Mensa test and qualified for membership. She never joined because she had proved her point.

That same titanium spirit propelled her through her last work, when the first hints of disease started to appear. It was a challenge, but she wanted to record recipes that she felt were falling into oblivion, like cream of celery soup, Country Captain and Lazy Daisy cake. (All of which did find their way into LOST RECIPES).

It was shortly after the book (LOST RECIPES) was published in 2003 that she received the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. After a long, heartfelt standing ovation, she told the adoring crowd of the country’s top chefs and cookbook authors that if her life ended now she would be happy.

Soon after, the Alzheimer’s fog began to descend more rapidly. She covered up her momentary forgetfulness by saying “my files are full” when she showed up late for a dinner reservation or called in a panic because she went to the wrong restaurant. Her decline, until the last five years or so when she was isolated in a residential care facility, was as elegant as her ascent.

When she gave up driving, she continued to invite friends to her home in Walnut Creek. After she was forced to leave her home and could no longer cook, she dreamed of her favorite pastimes. During sleep she would make the motion of stirring a pot, as if teaching a cooking class; at other times, she appeared to be talking on the telephone.

We tend to immortalize those who pass on and gloss over their less-attractive quirks, but Marion Cunningham was a special person. She had a temper, and if you were the rare person who ended up on her bad side, everyone would know it. But for the most part, her quick sense of humor and caring nature drew her to the top minds in the food world…”

Since I can’t finish this post without a recipe or two of Marion Cunningham’s, I chose Raised Raffles which appears in The Fannie Farmer Cook Book published in 1896 but was reprinted – at least – in the 1922 edition of the Boston Cooking-School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer. It is also in the Eleventh Edition of the Fannie Farmer cookbook, published in 1965.

The recipe for Raised Waffles was also contributed by Marion in the San Francisco Chronicle Cookbook, for which she was a contributor in1997, as well as The Breakfast Book and Lost Recipes.  In Lost Recipes, Marion notes “This recipe comes from the 1896 Fannie Farmer cookbooks. The Raised Waffle recipe alone could have sold a million copies. Another food writer commented “Being asked to come over for waffles and bacon at Marion Cunningham’s Walnut Creek ranch house was akin to winning a James Beard award. No invitation was as coveted in the food world since MFK Fisher, who died in 1992, would hold court in her Glen Ellen home”.

*Marion Cunningham’s Raised Waffles

Serves 8

The batter is prepared the night before, so all you have to do the next morning is cook them. Serve them hot with room temperature butter and warmed maple syrup. A note of warning: These do not bake up well in a Belgian waffle iron.

• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1 package active dry yeast
• 2 cups milk, warmed
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

Instructions: Use a large mixing bowl – the batter will rise to double its original volume. Put the water in the mixing bowl and sprinkle in the yeast. Let stand for 5 minutes, until yeast dissolves. Add the milk, butter, salt, sugar and flour to the yeast and beat until smooth and blended. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let stand overnight at room temperature.

Just before cooking the waffles, beat in the eggs, add the baking soda and stir until well mixed. The batter will be very thin. Cook on a very hot waffle iron (use about 1/3 cup batter per grid). Bake until the waffles are golden and crisp to the touch.

Note: If there is any leftover batter, store in a covered container in the refrigerator. It will keep for several days.

Per waffle: 265 calories, 7 g protein, 26 g carbohydrate, 15 g fat (9 g saturated), 92 mg cholesterol, 421 mg sodium, 1 g fiber.

Sandy’s cooknote: If you keep dry yeast in your pantry (or refrigerator), this recipe is one for which you would most likely have all the ingredients on hand and could prepare, in part, the night before. Waffles and pancakes were two of Bob’s favorite foods so I made them frequently. I think it was his favorite meal.

**I could read Marion’s books and type up her recipes for hours on end; it’s like sitting in the kitchen of a good friend and being allowed to copy some of her recipes (which I have been known to do in the homes of girlfriends) –I Just couldn’t resist sharing one more recipe of Marion’s that provides a bit more insight to the woman—and might be the coffee cake her friend Alice Waters has referred to:

Marion Cunningham’s Coffee Cake 

Yield: Makes one 10-inch tube cake

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup sour cream
• 5 teaspoons vanilla extract

To make this cake:

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or Bundt pan.

Put the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat for several seconds. Add the sugar and beat until smooth. Add the eggs and beat for 2 minutes, or until light and creamy. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl and stir with a fork to blend well. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until smooth. Add the sour cream and vanilla and mix well.

Spoon the batter into the pan. Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a straw comes out clean when inserted into the center. Remove from the oven and let rest for 5 minutes in the pan. Invert onto a rack and cool a little bit before slicing. Serve warm.

BIBLIOGRAPHY OF MARION CUNNINGHAM’S COOKBOOKS:

THE FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK*, Twelfth edition with Jeri  Laber published in 1979

THE FANNIE FARMER BAKING COOKBOOK, Alfred A. Knopf, 1984

THE BREAKFAST BOOK published by Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 1987

THE SUPPER BOOK, Alfred a. Knopf, 1992

COOKING WITH CHILDREN, 1995

THE FANNIE FARMER COOKBOOK, Thirteenth edition, published in September, 1996

LEARNING TO COOK WITH MARION CUNNINGHAM, published 1999

GOOD EATING, a combination of THE BREAKFAST BOOK AND THE SUPPER BOOK, published 1999.

LOST RECIPES, published by Alfred A. Knopf, NY, 2003

Refer also:

COMPLIMENTS OF THE CHEF 100 Great Recipes from the Innovating Restaurants & Cafes of Berkeley, California, foreword by Marion Cunningham, compiled by the Sisterhood of Congregation Beth El, with Paul T. Johnston, Aris Books, 1985

THE GREENS COOKBOOK (multiple authors) 1987

CALIFORNIA WALNUTS/TALK OF THE TOWN –published by the California Walnut Marketing Board, foreword by Marion Cunningham, published 1984, contains some of her own recipes.

MAPLE SYRUP COOKBOOK (Author is Ken Haedrich; a charming foreword was written by Marion Cunningham, who was a friend of his for many years), 2001

*Sandy’s Cooknote: Regarding the Fannie Farmer cookbook which has been published in various sizes and, at last count, 13 editions, two of which were edited by Marion Cunningham. There were at least two facsimile editions; one has a green dust jacket and was published by Weathervane Books; the second has a yellow dust jacket with blue print and was also published by Weathervane Books. The only date indicated on both books is 1896, for the original publishing of the cookbook. More recent editions are referred to simply as “the Fannie Farmer cookbook” but the original – and some later editions – carried the title of the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Fannie Merritt Farmer. I had thought to write an article about Fannie Farmer about a year ago but got sidetracked when Bob became so ill. And the lady had a most interesting life—perhaps now I can get the article about Fannie Farmer finished for you!

To summarize—if one can truly summarize a life as challenging and inspiring as Marion Cunningham’s—you only have to Google her life to find story after story, written by those who knew her. (Fannie Farmer, like Marion, had serious obstacles to overcome and I am willing to bet that Marion was inspired by the similarities in their respective lives.

Columnist Russ Parsons also offers a comment that might explain something about Marion Cunningham, in which he states, “Maybe because her own family was somewhat chaotic—she was quite open about having been an alcoholic into her 50s—she would argue all the more passionately the necessity of breaking bread together…”

I wish I could have known Marion Cunningham. I wish I could have sat at her kitchen table and watch her make raised waffles. I am saddened that Alzheimer’s robbed her of the last years of her creative life just as the disease robbed my mother of the last years of her life.

I am also left with many questions about Marion, a woman who championed family meals and family values. In article after article written about her passing, there is only a passing reference to her husband, Robert and two children, Mark and Catherine. Nowhere, in all the articles I have found about her preparing waffles and bacon for friends, have I finally found references to son Mark, or daughter Catherine being present. I finally found an obit reference to Robert Cunningham, stating that he died  in 1987 of lung cancer.

Rest in peace, Marion Cunningham.

—Sandra Lee Smith, July, 2012

And so, although I am not really “southern”, I love so very much about the South, but especially the food.  What’s not to like?  In the three years that my then-husband and sons lived in North Miami Beach, I began a diligent quest for recipes and cookbooks about southern cuisine. This search began in the late 70s, early 80s, and it wasn’t nearly as easy to find cookbooks as it is now.  For one thing, we didn’t have the Internet. I clipped all the recipes I could find from the Miami Herald while we lived there, and occasionally did find a community cookbook. Now my collection of southern cookbooks fill three bookcases and you might say I have enough books on the subject.

But, to paraphrase the former Duchess of Windsor, Wallace Simpson, (stop me if you’ve heard this story before) who, in the 1930s, married the Duke of Windsor (King Edward VIII before he abdicated), you can’t be too rich or too thin…or have too many cookbooks. Well, she did make the comment about being too rich or too thin, but maybe not about the cookbooks even though she, herself, wrote one. Wallace Simpson was from the South.

(As an aside—and I don’t think I’ve told this story before), it’s because of  Wallace Simpson that Queen Elizabeth II is on the throne today. Wallace Simpson was a divorcee. When the Duke decided he was going to marry her, there was such an uproar  in the British kingdom that the Duke abdicated the throne for the woman he loved, thereby turning the reins (reighns?) of the kingdom over to his younger brother, George VI, who was Elizabeth’s father. When King George died in 1952, Elizabeth became Queen. Such is the way crowns are gained or lost (and oh, my, haven’t the times changed?)

Well, the bottom line to all of this is that you can’t have too many southern cookbooks either. One good reason for this is there are always so many good new, innovative southern cooks.  I am constantly amazed with the new southern cookbooks appeared in our bookstores (or on bookstore websites).

One good example (you knew I’d get to this eventually, didn’t you?) is a book
titled SOUTHERN HEIRLOOM COOKING by Norma Jean McQueen Haydel and Horace McQueen.

Norma Jean and her brother Horace’s story could stand as an inspiration to any of us, young and not-so-young, who have ever dreamed of writing a cookbook.

Norma Jean McQueen began cooking at an early age and, we are told, after a few years, could create a meal that would rival her mother’s. Norma Jean and her husband, Joe, raised three sons. She then pursued a career in banking and retired as vice-president [of a bank]. Norma Jean and her husband lived in Natchez, Mississippi.  Norma related, “For years, my husband, three sons and grandsons have asked me to write down my favorite recipes so that they can make their favorite foods, and have the recipes to pass along to the next generation…” Norma says it wasn’t easy to do because she doesn’t cook a dish the same way every time she makes it (I can relate! This is how I cook too!)

Norma tells a story similar to my own, when as a child, her mother allowed her to cook lunch one day, all by herself. She says she never forgot the experience. After Norma married Joe and started her family, she was able to stay home for a few years while her children were growing up. She used  recipes  given to her by her mother, grandmother and aunts, as well as her husband’s family. “While my family ate traditional southern food,” Norma recalls, “Joe’s family cooked with a Louisiana Cajun flavor…”

Norma explains that Joe’s mother was raised on a sugar cane plantation, and was a very good cook. Now, Norma’s sons are all grown up and married, and Norma has learned more dishes from her daughters-in-law. “In fact,” she says, “some of the recipes in this collection are ones that we’ve all learned to love from my daughters-in-law…”

Norma Jean says that although she is 68 years old (at the time this cookbook was published, in 2002) she still enjoys experimenting with food.

Horace McQueen is Norma Jean’s youngest sibling and has tended his fruit trees, vegetable and herb gardens for many years. He en joys cooking and collecting Southern recipes for family and friends.

Horace recalled that when he was a teenager, he worked with his oldest brother on a charter fishing boat in Biloxi, Mississippi.  He says that his brother was a whiz at cooking the seafood he brought home from those fishing trips. His brother allowed him to experiment and consequently, Horace learned a lot about cooking from his brother. Horace says that when he and his wife were first married, neither   of them had much experience with cooking. But wife Carleen came from a farming family in east Texas and also grew up eating southern country cooking.  They learned from the recipes given to them by family and friends.

As a publisher’s  representative for many years, Horace sold many cookbooks and wanted to create a book that could be read and used.

What an inspiring story! And you’ll find Norma Jean’s and Horace’s recipes inspiring too!

Recipes range from Appetizers (Cowboy Caviar, Hot Crabmeat Dip, Tomatillo Guacamole, Pecan Dip) to a wonderful section devoted to James, Jellies, Pickles and Relishes (Christmas Jam, Hot Pepper Jelly, Pickled Pears, Watermelon Rind Pickles) with a wealth of sandwiched in-between.

Other recipes that caught my attention included Tamale Beef Squares (which I think would be excellent for a party or potluck dish), Lemon Extract Cake, Five-Flavor Pound Cake, Country Scrapple, Seafood Gumbo, Sweet Potato Casserole (trust me, much better than sweet potatoes topped with marshmallows) and much, much, more.

SOUTHERN HEIRLOOM COOKING is a nice large soft-cover cookbook that originally cost $14.95 when it was published in 2002. It has maintained its value, selling for $14.95 on Amazon.com (or pre-owned starting at $4.53) or   on Alibris.com, starting at $2.46 for a pre-owned copy.

This review was originally written for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange in 2002.

Happy cooking and happier cookbook collecting!

Sandy

Not so anymore.  FOOD is what we were born to eat.  How do we know what that is, exactly?  Let’s look to our ancestors.  Our ancestors did not have the Dairy Council touting milk and paying lobbyists to have the federal government include dairy on its pyramid.  Our ancestors ate what they evolved to eat – as does every other species on the planet when our society does not interfere with them.

I’ve read through Loren Cordain’s The Paleo Answer and he persuaded me that Paleo is, indeed, the answer.  If you don’t mind being blinded with science I’d recommend you read it too.

It never crossed my mind, as we approached the new millennium in 1999 that many cookbook writers would be working fast and furious to complete books about American cuisine of the past 100 years. I think I was busier worrying about Y2K to give new cookbook trends more than a passing thought. I was also busy doing a lot of writing for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange at the time.

A comment made by cookbook author Jean Anderson in the forward to one of these cookbooks set me straight, however, and also sent me in search of “my” kind of cookbook on bookstore shelves. I am partial to a lot of different types of cookbooks but especially those dedicated to what we loosely define as “American” cooking.

As many other cookbook authors have illustrated, different types of cuisine make up what we consider “typically” American food.  This is because our country was settled by immigrants from many different countries throughout Europe and South American, people who brought their food traditions to the New world with them, often finding ways to adapt their recipes to the unfamiliar fruits and vegetables discovered in North America.

Several entire bookcases in my house are devoted entirely to cookbooks of this genre—primarily books with “American” in the title, but including any and all that fall into what I call my Americana category.  “AMERICAN HOME COOKING” by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison really stood out     on the shelves of one of my favorite bookstores.

Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison are the authors of numerous travel guides and cookbooks, including, I discovered while doing a name search on the Internet, “The Border Cookbook” which was a James Beard Award winner in 1996.  In 1995, their cookbook “SMOKE AND SPICE” was a 1995 James Beard Award winner.

To compile AMERICAN HOME COOKING, the Jamisons visited family cheese crafters in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania Dutch farmers between market days, and learned techniques for frying catfish from the first African American catfish farmer in Mississippi.

The publishers coax, “In a lively and lucid style that appeals to both novice and experienced cooks, the Jamisons invite you to sample a coast-to-coast feast of more than 300 recipes straight from the heart of America’s   own home cooking tradition…”

Hefting this fairly weighty cookbook, you would think there were more than 300 recipes—but this volume is packed with other goodies as well, the very kind of background information that those of us who “read cookbooks like novels” are so partial to. (Show me a cookbook collector and I’ll show you someone who has stacks of cookbooks on their nightstand and piled up next to the bed—cookbook readers like to read cookbooks in bed).

AMERICAN HOME COOKING is just such a cookbook. Possibly the most difficult decision you will have to make is how to read it – page by page devouring the entire contents in one fell swoop, or  the first the recipes and backing up to enjoy the wealth of historical information contained in numerous sidebars. (Sort of reminds me of the best way to eat an Oreo cookie).

The Jamisons note, “An extraordinary wealth of books exists on American home cooking. From just our familiar collection and two more extensive and professional collections at the Schlesinger Library of Radcliffe College, and Texas Woman’s University, we amassed a bibliography that runs on for fifty one single spaced pages, and that includes only the works that inspired us to take notes.  We cut that list severely to produce this selection, honed to the books we used the most and would recommend to others interested in a deeper immersion in the subject….”

The Jamisons also included culinary essays and historical tomes as well as cookbooks. For readers who enjoy reading the bibliography as well as the book itself (and I know you are out there), you will enjoy this portion too. Kind of like a double serving of dessert after a fantastic dinner.

Recipes? Whether Oregon Hot Crab and Cheddar Sandwich, or Pico de Gallo, Prairie Fire Dip, or Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab Cakes, whether Main Steamed Lobster or Mississippi Barbecued Chicken, or Kansas City Sugar-and-Spice Spareribs, AMERICAN HOME COOKING criss-crosses the United States from East to West and from North to South, presenting with obvious forethought the selections chosen for us by the Jamisons.

There are recipes I have not seen or heard of elsewhere, such as “The Gardener’s Wife Salad”, “Maque Choux” and “Honolulu Poke” but many others are familiar traditionally American choices, such as Hoppin’ John, Virginia Country Ham, and new England Boiled Dinner (one of my favorites; my mother-in-law used to make something similar to this—but she was from West Virginia, not New England).

One special feature of AMERICAN HOME COOKING that you will absolutely love are sidebars—interesting food related quotes from many of our favorite cookbook authors of the past century or two, such as current writers James Villas and John Egerton, but including quotes from M.F.K. Fisher, Sarah Tyson Rorer, James Beard and Irma Rombauer. There is even a rhymed recipe from one of the Brown’s cookbooks, AMERICA COOKS, a great favorite of mine.

I  especially like a quotation credited to Laurie Colwin in Gourmet Magazine    in May, 1990, in which she stated “Anyone who spends any time in the kitchen eventually comes to  realize that what she or he is looking for is the perfect chocolate cake”.

Another delight was from George Rector, author of DINE AT HOME WITH RECTOR (1934) in which he sang the praises of pie, stating “A  nation with its heart in the right place would long since have erected a monument as tall as the State of Liberty to the unknown heroine who baked the first American pie—its unworthy ancestors abroad can be discarded. The pedestal should be round and divided into six pieces and the figure should be holding up a pie the size of those in Paul Bunyan’s lumber camps..On the pedestal should be inscribed what  might be a quotation from Walt Whitman’s ‘O Pioneers!’”

Some years ago, a columnist from the Los Angeles times asked me, if I could only choose five cookbooks, which five would they be?  I was hard-pressed at the time to choose just five.  But I have to say, now, that AMERICAN HOME COOKING would be my number one choice.

AMERICAN HOME COOKING by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison, was published by Broadway Books, NY, in 1999. It originally sold for $35.00.

You can find it on Amazon.com—a new softcover copy is $9.38 but hardcover copies are available – new – for 45.89 or pre-owned starting at ONE CENT. (shipping and handling will cost you $3.99 – but you can get a good copy for $4,.00).  Alibris.com has copies started at $7.99 and lists a very good copy for $8.22.

This is a worthy addition to any cookbook collector’s collection.

Review by Sandra Lee Smith

Want to know more about America-themed cookbooks?  If enough readers are interested, I will compile a list of titles for you.

This is the most amazing and complete book ever!!! It tells you how to make everything from scratch including, Brown sugar, vanilla extract, ketchup, sauces, pop tarts, and tons more!!!!! I am IN LOVE!!!!!!!!

Pint-size cookbooks (not including paperbacks) have actually been around for a very long time, so the concept isn’t new. One of the oldest “sets” of small cookbooks in my personal collection is a series of 365 recipes –“365 Tasty Dishes”, “365 Dinner Dishes”,  and “365 Foreign Dishes” (there may have been more than three books to the series but three are all that I have ever found. These were published between 1903 and 1908 by George W. Jacobs & Company and do not credit a particular author. (Another interesting thing about them is that the idea of 365 recipes in one cookbook has come and gone a few times, too).

Another old set of small cookbooks that I have are a small boxed set by Helen Evans Brown, first published in 1950. There’s a Chafing Dish Book, Patio Cook Book and A Book of Appetizers. The three little books came in a green box.

Some cookbook researchers think these little cookbooks were a forerunner of the free pamphlets and booklets that we now pay several dollars for. When I was a child in the early 1950s, these booklets were generally advertised on the backs of boxes of cocoa or baking soda, corn starch or oatmeal. You could get one completely free of charge by sending in a post card with your name and address on it. Post cards were a penny—so, if I had ten cents I could get ten post cards and end up with ten recipe booklets. I guess you could tell which way the wind was blowing even when I was a little girl. By the time I reached my ‘teens, I already had a cardboard box full of those booklets and pamphlets. One such booklet is an early Watkins Cook Book published in 1925 (presumably, you have to use all Watkins products for the recipes to come out exactly right) while another small book was one written by Ida Bailey Allen in 1927,  which expounded the uses of Karo Syrup, Argo or Kingsford’s Cornstarch and Mazola corn oil. (I was surprised to discover that Mazola corn oil has been around so long!)

I have several small spiral bound cookbooks by Ruth Chier Rosen and Ruth and Richard Rosen; there is one called “The Chefs’ Tour/a visit into foreign kitchens”, another called “Tooth Sweet”, one called “Cyrano de Casserole” and yet another called “A Tomato Well Dressed/the Art of Salad Making”. These were published by Handy Aid Books by Richards Rosen Associates so I assume this was a family enterprise. (I discovered, on the back covers, additional titles of “Epicurean Guide”, “Terrace Chef” “A Guide to Pink Elephants” and “The Big Spread”! These little books, published in the 1950s, measure a mere 3 1/2×5”- are cute as the dickens, nicely indexed, and filled with great recipes!)

Some of my other wee favorites include “Make Mine Vanilla” by Lee Edwards Benning and – my all-time favorite little cookbook, “Favorite Fruitcakes” by Moira Hodgson which I have written about previously in the CCE.

More recently, even Mary Engelbreit has published some of these pint-size cookbooks. Tiny cookbooks are usually reasonably priced and make nice little gifts (or even stocking stuffers), when you want to give someone something but not spend a whole lot of money. Often, you can find some of these little books near the cash register of your favorite bookstore or Hallmark card shop. They can also be found in some gourmet shops.

“POTATOES & VEGETABLES” might be small in size (actually measures only 4”x5”—but, it’s almost 2 inches thick and contains a whopping 240 recipes with beautiful full-color illustrations of each recipe (I love knowing what the dish ought to look like when it’s finished, don’t you?). Unquestionably, we are a society where visual impact is vitally important to us. If you look at a recipe and the illustration that goes with it looks like something the dog dragged around the back yard, how inclined would you be to give it a try?

Not only does “POTATOES & VEGETABLES” offer full color illustrations of the recipes, there are, additionally, smaller scale photographs of the dish being prepared, and an assortment of variations and extra tips given with each of the recipes.

Although this is a potato and vegetable cookbook, you will find, within its pages, recipes for soups (Indian Potato & Pea Soup, Broccoli & Potato Soup, Potato& Dried Mushroom Soup—and, my favorite, Tomato & Red Bell Pepper Soup); recipes for salads (think: Mexican potato salad, Sweet Potato & Nut Salad, Red Cabbage & Pear Salad). There is a chapter dedicated to Snacks & Light Meals (Thai Potato Crab Cakes, Potato, Cheese & Onion Rosti, Hash Browns with Tomato Sauce, Vegetable Crepes) followed by a chapter devoted entirely to Side Dishes (Potatoes & Mushrooms in Red Wine, Spicy Potato Fries, Steamed Vegetables with Vermouth). Next is a chapter called “Main Meals” followed by one called “Pies & Bakes”

Many of the recipes in both Main Meals and Pies and Bakes could be considered one-dish meals, such as Red Onion Tart Tatin and Lentil & Red Bell Pepper Flan. Sort of what I think of as a quiche. However, Main Meals offers Spaghetti with Pear & Walnut Sauce—which I think would make a wonderful company dish—and recipes such as Garbanzo Bean & Vegetable Casserole and Pan Potato Bake. “Pies & Bakes” offers recipes such as Potato & Meat Phyllo Parcels and Carrot-Topped Beef Pie but there are also recipes for Sweet Potato Bread, Cheese & Potato Plait (a bread), Potato & Nutmeg Scones and Potato Muffins. There are also recipes for Fruity Potato Cake, Pumpkin Loaf, Chili Corn Bread, and Cheese & Potato Bread. All of which just goes to prove – you can eat your veggies in many different ways, even for dessert!

This is a dandy little book with the most beautiful color photography illustrations.

“POTATOES & VEGETABLES” is from Paragon Publishing in Great Britain but it had been designed with American readers in mind (i.e., cup measurements, for instance, are for the American measuring cup of 8 ounces equals one cup).  It was published in 2003 – and best of all, priced at less than $5.00 ($4.69 at Costco).

I am sorry to report that I have been unable to find “POTATOES & VEGETABLES” in either Amazon.com or Alibris.com websites – what did amaze me were the vast number of cookbooks devoted just to the subject of potatoes—but I’m willing to bet that not many of them can compare with this “POTATOES & VEGETABLES” cookbook.  Maybe someone will come across a copy and write to tell us where to find it.

HAPPY COOKBOOK COLLECTING!

It was the greatest delight to discover “FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” in a recent cookbook catalog—the title and the author’s name, Becky Mercuri, jumped right off the page—for I knew that this was our very own Becky Mercuri, with whom I have occasionally corresponded and talked with on the telephone. (Becky used to be a columnist for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange, for which I also wrote articles and did cookbook review).

I had known for quite some time that Becky was writing “FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” –food festivals interest me, also, so it was doubly delightful to have Becky’s brand-new cookbook to read and write about.  For, of course, this is a combination cookbook and food festival directory. There are, in “FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” 250 “Red, White & Blue Ribbon Recipes from all 50 States”.  As a Californian, I turned first to the section devoted to the Pacific, to see which California food festivals had caught Becky’s attention.  The choices are good ones, ranging from Mendocino California’s Abalone Festival to Castroville’s Artichoke Festival. Also included is the Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, California, which I have attended; Oxnard is just a short drive up the 101 freeway and attracts a great deal of attention in the local press every year.  When we drive to Ventura for a weekend getaway, we drive through the backroads that lead to Oxnard and Ventura, through vast farmlands that include the strawberry fields.  Becky notes, in “FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” that “Over 148,000 tons, or  about 20 percent of California’s strawberries, are produced in the Oxnard area.  The annual Strawberry Festival pays tribute to the industry while providing affordance entertainment, great food, and support for a host of local charities…”

This year, when my aunt was visiting from Florida, we took her on a day trip to Ventura, stopping at an Oxnard produce stand on our way home to buy a flat of strawberries, which I converted into preserves.  The strawberry festival in Oxnard, Becky observes, “features more than 270 arts and craft booths, three concert stages, Strawberryland for Kids and wacky contests (such as the Strawberry Shortcake Eating Contest).

And, although I knew about the Gilroy Garlic Festival which Becky Mercuri notes is world-renowned, I confess I didn’t know about The Borrego Springs Grapefruit Festival, the California Dried Plum Festival in Yuba City, the California Dry Bean Festival in Tracy, California, or the Goleta Lemon Festival in Goleta, California.  And that’s not all!  There’s a Carrot Festival in Holtville, California, and the Indio International Tamale Festival, in Indio, California—there is even an Eggplant Festival in Loomis, California!

I think it might be fun, if money and time were no object, to travel the width and breadth of the United States, just to attend some of these festivals.  Who wouldn’t want to check out Louisiana’s Sugarcane Festival, Crab Days and Oysterfest in St. Michael’s, Maryland, or the World Catfish Festival, in Belzoni, Mississippi?  Vidalia onion lovers might want to head for the Vidalia Onion Festival in Vidalia, Georgia, while New Yorkers might be interested in the Phelps Sauerkraut Festival in Phelps, New York, or their own Hudson Valley Garlic Festival in Saugerties, New York.

As one might expect, there is a Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland, Maine, every year (that would surely be a great festival to attend!) – and while one might expect  blueberry and maple syrup festivals on the East Coast, would you be surprised to discover the Marshall County Blueberry Festival in Plymouth, Indiana, or the Parke County Maple Syrup Festival in Rockville, Indiana? And although I was born and raised in Ohio and knew about the Circleville Pumpkin Show in Circleville, Ohio, I was astonished to learn about an Asian Festival held in Columbus, Ohio, and a chocolate festival in Lorain, Ohio! (There’s also a Chocolate Fest in Burlington, Wisconsin.

Becky Mercuri has done her homework well for, along with an intriguing assortment of recipes which range from Double Chocolate Raspberry Marble Cheesecake (Central Maine Egg Festival) to Best Restaurant Manhattan Clam Chowder (Santa Cruz Clam Chowder Cook-Off and Festival, Santa Cruz, California), you will also find well-written, interesting capsule descriptions of each festival

In the Introduction, Becky writes, “Street food, carnival food, festival food—by whatever name, this is food that draws Americans together.  Thousands of food festivals are held annually throughout the United States, attracting millions of visitors…”

John T. Edge, who wrote the Foreword to “FOOD FESTIVALS, U.S.A.” notes, “In FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A., Becky Mercuri sings a paean to the diversity of America’s food heritage.  Along the way, she manages to convey a few lessons in culinary history.  So dive in. By the time you hit page 320, you’ll be out the door, stomach rumbling, car keys in hand, hell-bent for the Prairie Dog Chili Cook Off and World Championship Pickled Quail Egg Eating….”   John says “Look for me. I’ll be there, too.  I’ll be the guy surrounded by spent chili bowls, napping under the bough of an oak…”

Becky says that, in writing this book she had the opportunity to speak with hundreds of Americans who work hard to produce the food festivals and ethnic celebrations that make up such a rich part of our collective culture.  She quotes food writer Ronni Lundi, who she interviewed a few years ago, who told her “Music and cooking are my passions.  They provide windows to look at culture.”  Becky adds, “Indeed.  Nearly every festival in this book boasts of that same basic combination of music and food and gives us a peek into the very essence of life in a particular region or ethnic group….”  And perhaps that explains why, after collecting “regional” cookbooks for over thirty years, I find food festivals equally fascinating.  And a cookbook about food festivals?  My cup runneth over!

If you find the food history of the United States as fascinating as I do, I think you will enjoy “FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” – you may want to take it along with you on your next vacation, and search out some of these absolutely unique regional tributes to our culinary heritage. There is even a Directory of Festivals by Month, and a Directory of Festivals by State.  Amusing illustrations have been provided by artist Tom Klare.

Becky Mercuri began collecting recipes at the same age as I, (nine years old) and her cookbook collection contains over 7,000 volumes (quite a few more than mine, I think, although we quit counting at 3,000 books over ten years ago).  We also share an interest in cookie cutters but while Becky has over 3,000 cookie cutters and molds, I have no idea how many I’ve accumulated over the years—I can only tell you, they fill 3 large boxes packed in a closet. She has three dogs and a dozen cats, and is donating a portion of the proceeds of this book to the cause of animal welfare.  Along with writing for the CCE, Becky was food editor of the Wellsville Daily Reporter for three years.  She is also currently working on a comprehensive bibliography of all English language cookbooks published between 1940 and 1949.

I’ve been out of touch with Becky Mercuri, every so often attempting to find her through the internet.

“FOOD FESTIVAL, U.S.A.” by Becky Mercuri, was originally priced at   $24.95 when published in 2002. Amazon.com has copies, 3.67 for a new copy or a pre-owned copy from 05 cents.  Alibris.com has copies for 99c or new at $3.66.

Becky Mercuri is also the author of the Great American Hot Dog Book, published in 2007. American Sandwich published in 2004, and Sandwiches You will Like, in 2002.

Other suggested reading: The Festival Cookbok by Phyllis Pellman Good,  A Feast of Festivals BY Joann Taylor Hane and Catherine L. Holshouser,  California Festivals, Carl Landau and Katie Landau with Kathy Kincade, THE FESTIVAL COOKBOOK by Phyllis Pellman Good, FOOD FESTIVAL, by Alice M. Geffer and Carole Berglie, FOODS FROM HARVEST FESTIVALS AND FOLK FAIRS.

Review by Sandra Lee Smith

Happy cooking and happy cookbook collecting!

The Hollywood Bowl is one of the largest natural amphitheaters in the world, (and the largest natural amphitheater in the United States) celebrating, in the year 2012, ninety years of existence.

According to a souvenir book about the Hollywood Bowl, the Hollywood Bowl was built by a group of civic-minded women and men who were active in the area’s artistic and business communities. They wanted to establish an outdoor park and art center to entertain and educate a large and diverse audience.  Only about 5,000 people lived in Hollywood in 1910. The population grew, by 1920, to nearly 50,000 thanks to the movie industry, which had turned the community into a boomtown.

A search for the perfect place resulted, in 1919, in a spot east of Cahuenga Pass—a valley completely surrounded by hills, called Daisy Dell. More exactly, the Bowl is located in Bolton Canyon, one-half mile north of Hollywood Blvd., directly off the Cahuenga Pass, the site of El Camino Real, the original route connecting California’s missions.

The Theatre Arts Alliance bought 59 acres in the area.  (The Alliance disbanded because of disagreements among its members about the type of events to be produced at the outdoor theatre. It was reorganized in 1920 as the Community Park and Art Association). Prior to the first official Hollywood Bowl season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 1922, the site was used for presentations of choral programs, pageants, plays and band concerts.  Hugo Kirchhofer, choral director of the Hollywood Community Sing, is said to have looked over the park and named it “The Bowl”.

Another tidbit of history has to do with the Bowl’s first concert season in 1922. It was a community effort; cardboard banks were distributed every where to raise “pennies for the bowl”.  However, students at Hollywood High School donated the money from their performance of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to purchase an electrical switchboard for lighting.  In appreciation, the school was invited to hold its graduation ceremonies at Hollywood Bowl, a tradition that continues to this day. The cost of admission in 1922 was twenty-five cents!

Possibly the most fascinating bit of trivia surrounding the Hollywood Bowl is the history of Peppertree Lane, the main pedestrian access from Highland Avenue to the Hollywood Bowl’s Entrance Plaza. It was named for the pepper trees that once lined the walkway. Early in Hollywood Bowl’s history, a fence was built along the lane, and in a few years, the fence posts took root and grew into pepper trees!  However, nearly all of the trees died during the 1950s.  Only one of the original trees still stands, just below the Hollywood Bowl Museum, but new pepper trees were planted along the lane in 1997.

The Hollywood Bowl has undergone numerous transformations in its 90-year-old history.  The first stage, in 1922, was a simple wooden platform with a canvas top. Patrons sat on moveable wooden benches.  The following year, the first 150 boxes were built in the front seating section.

In 1927, Frank Lloyd Wright designed a shell for the Hollywood Bowl that was made from lumber and clapboard from the movie set ROBIN HOOD with Douglas Fairbanks. It was considered by many to be the most acoustically perfect of all the Bowl’s many shells, but was only used for one season. Fittingly, the 1927 season’s opening production was De Koven’s operetta Robin Hood.

Other transformations took place as years went by. The following year, Lloyd Wright, the oldest son of Frank Lloyd Wright, designed two shells for the Hollywood Bowl. The 1928 shell consisted of nine concentric segmental arches, which could be “tuned” panel by panel.

In 1929, the engineering firm of Elliott, Bowen and Walz designed the shell that we recognized for so many decades.  The Hollywood Bowl souvenir book notes that Allied Architects constructed this shell, which preserved the visual essence of Lloyd Wright’s 1928 design.

In 1940. artist George Stanley was commissioned to create a sculpture for the entrance to the Hollywood Bowl. Granite for this sculpture marking the entry into the Hollywood Bowl was brought from Victorville. Cost of the project came to $100,000.  The 15-foot high granite figure, “The Muse of Music” (still standing at the entrance today) was built by the County of Los Angeles Engineer’s Department in cooperation with the WPA (Works Progress Administration) and the Southern California Arts Project.  The “Muse of Music” was dedicated on July 8, 1940, and remains an impressive sight to this day, especially when illuminated at night.

The Hollywood Bowl was slated for yet another renovation again in more recent years. According to an article that appeared in the August 26, 2000, edition of the Los Angeles Times, the proposed changes would expand the shell interior up to 118 feet wide, 66 feet deep and 56 feet tall, allowing the entire orchestra to fit inside the shell. Previously, as many as one third of the performers were positioned outside the shell where, sometimes, they couldn’t hear the other performers.  The new look was a streamline modern style reminiscent of the 1930s. Many people protested the changes, perhaps not realizing that the Hollywood Bowl has undergone numerous changes in its 90-year-old history.

After nine months of construction, the brand new shell and acoustic canopy made their debut in 2004, with a new and improved stage making the concert experience better for both musicians and audiences. Also added were 4 screens, two at stage level and two in bench seating, to bring the concert action closer to audiences.

Bob and I were “regulars” for about a decade at the Hollywood Bowl. We have been thrilled with John Mauceri conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, performing Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake (complete with a performance by the San Francisco Ballet), followed by the Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and culminating in a spectacular 1812 Overture, complete with cannons and fireworks.  Mauceri was an impressive conductor; we appreciated his dry wit and ability to captivate the audience with side bars of classical music history.

Mauceri is well known throughout the world as the Director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra in Los Angeles, which was created for him in 1991 by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. At the Hollywood Bowl, he conducted over 300 concerts over 16 seasons. He now has the title of founding director of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, and recently returned to the Bowl Orchestra to make his debut at Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA.

The Hollywood Bowl features a wide range of performers every season and there is truly “something for everybody”.  One of our summer concerts featured California Western music, led by John Mauceri, with a delightful program by Riders in the Sky, a group reminiscent of the Sons of the Pioneers.  Another evening we enjoyed a concert with the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra, featuring the Dave Brubeck Quartet.  Mr. Brubeck, then in his 80s, brought the house down and charmed the entire audience.

Other recent Bowl performers  have included Tony Bennett, Rosemary Clooney, Michael Feinstein, Marvin Hamlisch and country singer Randy Travis!  Although the Hollywood Bowl, while well known for its classical music concerts, over the decades it has drawn artists as noteworthy as the Beatles, Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Nelson Eddy, Beverly Sills, Mario Lanza, Lily Pons, Placido Domingo. Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Ray Charles, Nat King Cole, the Beach Boys—and in recent years, Whitney Houston, Aerosmith, Garth Brooks, Madonna, Bonnie Raitt, and Sting!

Need I continue? How about Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Stevie Wonder, Rod Stewart, Andy Williams, Shania Twain, or Barbra Sreisand?

This impressive roster of performers included a performance in 1961 by Judy Garland – who kept an audience captivated in the midst of pouring rain! (Incidentally, in its 80 year history, rain has interrupted concerts at the Bowl only a few times—the “season” running from June to September, is normally Southern California’s driest time of the year.

Just about everybody who’s anybody has performed at the Hollywood Bowl.  One year, we were privileged to see Charlotte Church (just before I had surgery and had to give away our other season tickets).  Earlier that summer, we heard a Midsummer’s night Dream, featuring actor Michael York who read selections from ROMEO AND JULIET, JULIUS CAESAR, HENRY IV, PART II, AND A MIDSUMMER NIHT’S DREAM. Later, we saw a performance by the Pacific Northwest Ballet.

Classical music not your style, you say? One of the featured artists one summer was B.B. King.  One Friday night in September, we were treated to “The Big Picture – 75 years of Oscar”—music from Oscar movies, with film clips on a big screen.  Still not your style, you say?

Here’s a sampling of performers who have given concerts at the Hollywood Bowl:  Benny Goodman (1939) while back in 1934, Olivia de Haviland and Mickey Rooney performed in a Midsummer’s Night Dream as Hermia and Puck. In 1936, soprano Lily Pons performed, holding the Bowl’s all-time record performance of 26,410. In 1943, a sensational new singer named Frank Sinatra made an appearance at the Bowl—while a few years later, in 1947, Margaret Truman, the daughter of President Harry Truman, starred in a Bowl performance. (Margaret, in case you are too young to remember, like her father, played the piano).  Peggy Lee made her debut at the Bowl in 1953 and returned many times, her final performance taking place in 1995.  Van Cliburn performed at the Hollywood Bowl in 1958, just before he won the Tchaikovsky International Competition Aware in Moscow, while jazz greats such as Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, George Shearing and Sarah Vaughan also made appearances.

In 1964, the Beatles appeared at the Bowl; with a single ad and one blurb on a teenager TV station, 18000 tickets were sold (noise from the screaming overpowered any sound coming from the stage). In 1973, a young Pavarotti made his first local appearance at the Bowl—stealing, we are told, the show, while in 1979, the first Jazz Festival was presented at the bowl and featured such artists as Mel Torme, Carmen McRae and Joe Williams.

However, there is a lot more to “going to the Bowl” than sitting under the stars, listening to your favorite performer.

In the 1950s, the Hollywood Bowl suffered from a financial crisis. According to an article written by mystery writer April Smith (author of “NORTH OF MONTANA”) and published in the Hollywood Bowl magazine, “What rescued the Bowl was wine and cheese”.

“Along with a facelift,” writes Smith, “And Dorothy Buffum Chandler, who headed the ‘Save the Bowl’ campaign with such focus it was back in business before the end of that summer. One of her innovations was to remove the stern “No Food” signs and capitalize on the park-like grounds by encouraging the art of competitive picnicking. Contests were held for the best-decorated picnic baskets, and the leisurely experience of outdoor pre-concert dining attracted a new audience…”

Since then, picnicking at the Hollywood Bowl, prior to the concert, is as much a part of the ambiance as the concert itself.

For our picnic suppers one summer, Bob and I enjoyed shrimp cocktail, cubes of cantaloupe and honey dew melon, crackers and cheese, grapes, salami, and White Zinfandel wine. We generally parked our car in a parking lot where buses came to pick up Hollywood Bowl-goers. It was far easier than driving into Hollywood and dealing with the heavy traffic.  The cost was something like $6.00 roundtrip per person. Everyone you see climbing onto the bus is carrying picnic baskets or blankets or other comfy objects. (Whenever we were leaving, boarding the bus, people were cheery and humming the music we had just heard).

When you enter the Bowl grounds, the first thing you will notice are the picnicking concert-goers—they are spread out on every patch of grass and alongside both sides of the walkway into the amphitheater.  They have laid down tablecloths and have vases of flowers and candlelight to enhance their picnic suppers that range from hamburgers from Burger King to Sushi, elegant suppers from Gelson’s (a local up-scale market) to gourmet picnic dinners that (if you are lucky enough to have box seats) can be delivered directly to you. Gourmet suppers can be ordered and picked up, as well, and if you don’t feel like packing your own meal, you can order a variety of appetizers, main course salads and pastas, rotisserie chicken—and even poached salmon—from refreshment stands located throughout the Bowl grounds.

But, if you are interested in preparing your own picnic supper, as I do, you might be interested in the latest cookbook, titled “THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL COOKBOOK/PICNICS UNDER THE STARS”.

You don’t have to attend the Hollywood Bowl to enjoy this spectacular cookbook, which features a wide range of recipes particularly suitable for picnics and pot lucks.  Appetizer recipes include such finger-licking good treats as spicy Italian Chicken fingers, Cocktail shrimp with Mango Chutney, Chicken Pate, Blueberry Ketchup, Spinach Dip in Red Cabbage Bowl and Salmon Log.

There are soup recipes (yes, indeed—bowl patrons bring hot or chilled soups in thermos jugs) so you can enjoy recipes such as Chilled Cream of Cucumber Soup with Curry or tomato, Crab and Avocado Gazpacho.

Enjoy Rosemary Clooney’s recipe for Corn Chowder or Spicy Black Bean Soup. There are inspiring sandwich recipes such as Wrap Sandwiches or Patafla Sandwich, which is a favorite Hollywood Bowl picnic dish that can be prepared a day in advance so the flavors can blend; choose from a very wide assortment of salad recipes which range from Armenian Cabbage Slaw to Summer Salad with Pecans and Pears—or perhaps Bleu Cheese Potato Salad or Cucumber and Jicama Salad!

“The Hollywood Bowl Cookbook: Picnics Under the Stars” was published by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Affiliates of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association in 2002.  It features a cover photograph taken by Otto Rothschild.  Because the Los Angeles Philharmonic Affiliates believe that “music matters” in the lives of young people, proceeds from the cookbook will be used for music education projects they sponsor in the community and for the support of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. The cost of that cookbook in 2002 was $19.95. I am unable to find any listings for it under either Amazon.com or Alibris.com., POSSIBLY because another book was published in 2003 (same title) and the list price of THAT cookbook, same title, is $39.95.  However, that being said – I am unable to find any available copies for that one either.

To add to my bafflement, I removed from my own bookshelves not one but two copies of THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL COOKBOOK published in 1985. I will attempt to scan this cookbook since it does not appear any copies are available at this time. Perhaps I can also scan THE HOLLYWOOD BOWL COOKBOOK/PICNIC UNDER THE STARS which is the edition I received to review in 2002.

If you ever happen to find yourself in my neck of the woods, you might want to visit the Hollywood Bowl. Visitors can park free daily until 4:30 p.m. to shop at the Bowl Store, visit the museum or explore the grounds.

The Bowl Store offers a fascinating collection of books, music, clothing, games and toys.

From the Hollywood (101) freeway, exit at Highland Avenue.

The Hollywood Bowl is located at 2301 North Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 90068.

You can also visit the Hollywood Bowl via the Internet – at www.hollywoodbowl.org.

Maybe, someday, we’ll see you at the Hollywood Bowl!

Review by
sandy@sandychatter.

You may recognize the name of Phyllis Pellman Good; I have reviewed her books previously on the pages of the Cookbook Collectors Exchange. She is the author of THE BEST OF AMISH COOKING and THE FESTIVAL COOKBOOK. Phyllis co-authored several cookbooks, including RECIPES FROM CENTRAL MARKET, FAVORITE RECIPES WITH HERBS, THE BEST OF MENNOITE FELLOWSHIP MEALS and FROM AMISH AND MENNONITE KITCHENS.  Phyllis and her husband, Merle, reside in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and are co-directors of The People’s Place, a heritage interpretation center in the Lancaster County village of Intercourse, Pennsylvania. (I’d love to visit it!).

You may also recognize the name of Dawn Ranck. She is the co-author of A QUILTERS CHRISTMAS COOKBOOK and FAVORITE RECIPES WITH HERBS.

It may surprise you to learn that the concept of a slow-cooker really isn’t  new.  In fact, while researching some years ago for an article I titled  “KITCHENS WEST” for the CCE, I learned about something called a Hay Box, surely a predecessor of the slow-cooker we are all familiar with today. The Hay Box dates back to pioneer times, when pioneer women and men were trekking across the plains. Hay box Cooking was practiced extensively by pioneer women in their covered wagons, as well as by ranch cooks on the trail.

A suitable wooden box was prepared by lining it with straw; pioneer women often used flannel and shavings. A nest was left for the receptacle, which was usually an earthenware pot. A stew was partially cooked at breakfast, and as soon as the wagons began to move, the stew was poured into the earthenware pot, and put into the hay box, and covered with the remainder of hay or flannel.  The meat continued to cook in the insulated box, and at the end of the day a hot meal was ready for immediate serving.

Various detailed descriptions of preparing meals without fuel can be found other books.  During World War I and again during World War II, when rationing was in effect and it was necessary to conserve fuel as well, our grandmothers and great-grandmothers used the hay box method with much success. The primitive hay box evolved into the “asbestos box” and the “copper double-tank cooker”.

The author of one cookbook offering a recipe for a Dutch Oven roast also suggests burying a Dutch oven as a great way to slow cook a dish, claiming it will tenderize the toughest game or beans.  The authors tell us never soak or scour your Dutch oven as it will rust (true) and “never blame anyone but yourself if you can’t remember where you buried dinner”.  (that’s one problem I’ve never encountered).

“Hay Boxes” were the forerunner of the Fireless cooker, actually a very similar device, which enjoyed a spurt of popularity during World War One and Two, especially in Great Britain and places where fuel was strictly rationed.

The Browns (Rose, Cora & Bob Brown) wrote about the fireless cooker in their book “MOST FOR YOUR MONEY” published in 1938, and M.F.K. writes about the Hay Box in her book “HOW TO COOK A WOLF” first published in 1942.

Under a chapter titled “Handy Hints”, the Browns wrote, “We seldom hear of fireless cookers these days, but at one time no so long ago, they were a part of regulation kitchen equipment, and they cut dollars off the yearly fuel bills.  World War propaganda further popularized them, for then all housewives were urged to save coal, not so much for their own account as for the dear Allies…Metals, which are wasted in peace times on all sorts of useless contraptions, had to be conserved to death-dealing ends. So the press carried instructions for making fireless cookers at home. All one needed was a wooden box or paper carton, and a lot of old newspapers to insulate it, layers of paper fitted into the bottom of the box and around the sides, with a cylindrical hole left in the center to receive a boiling pot of soup or stew then wads of paper on top to hold in all the heat for hours. An excellent device for long, slow cooking of cheap foods.  Dried beans, peas, and lentils, tendered in their unbroken skins, and cereals, started the night before, are still hot at breakfast time and have attained a jelly-like and delicate consistency which only many hours of low heat can give…”

M.F.K. Fisher, in “HOW TO COOK A WOLF”, observes, “Hayboxes are very simple. They are simply strong wooden boxes, one inside another with hay packed between, and if possible, a stout covering of linoleum or oilcloth on the outside. You bring whatever food you want to a sturdy boil, put it tightly covered on a layer of hay in the inside box, pack hay all around it, and cover the box securely. Then you count twice as long as your stew or porridge or vegetables would have taken to cook normally, open the haybox, and the food is done….”

So, you see, what goes around comes around and there is very little new under the sun. Fast forward, and it’s August, 1970, when the Rival Company acquired the assets of Naxon Utilities  Corp. This acquisition provided Rival with an old fashioned looking appliance called “The Beanery”.  The Beanery was a simple bean cooker, with a blazed brown crock liner.  The people at Rival experimented with this kitchen appliance, making bean dishes and other recipes with meat and vegetables.  They were pleasantly surprised to discover that the meat turned out better than beans.  They did some work on the little bean pot and an initial order of 25,000 units was produced.  By associating the crockery liners with its pot-like shape, the people at Rival came up with the name of Crock-Pot®.  It wasn’t long before the Crock-Pot became our favorite slow cooker. And for many of us, the name of Crock-Pot is synonymous with slow-cooker.  According to Rival, more than 80 million Crock Pot® Slow Cookers have been sold since 1971.  (Some of us even have more than one; I have two oval-shaped 5½ quart slow cookers. We had two others before that, smaller ones that I gave away—which I regret now, when I am no longer cooking for two. And yes, I use them quite a lot).

For many years, the only recipes you would find for slow cooker recipes would be those that came with the appliance (I must have several dozen of these pamphlets). However, in recent decades, as we became busier and busier, juggling careers and raising children, PTA and Little League, the Slow Cooker became more popular than ever.

In “FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT COOKBOOK”, Dawn Ranck and Phyllis Pellman Good provide more than EIGHT HUNDRED slow cooker recipes, apparently collected from numerous contributors (the authors don’t explain how they went about collecting the recipes. However, there are eough to keep you cooking over two years, by my estimation. “FIX-IT and FORGET-IT COOKBOOK” provides recipes for a lot more than chicken and condensed mushroom soup!  And yes, Slow Cooker cookbooks have come a long way since those 70s pamphlets. Who knew?

Dawn and Phyllis provide us with a great wealth of Slow Cooker recipes, recips for appetizers, snacks and spreads, breads, soups and stews, main dishes (many!) and a lot of desserts.  I’m sure you know you can make applesauce and puddings with your slow cooker, but did you know you can also make lemon pudding cake? Apple cake? Hot fudge cake? Harvey Wallbanger Cake? Chocolate fondue? Seven Layer Bars?  (yes! in your slow cooker!).  There are a wealth of main dish recipes in “FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT COOKBOOK”.

Understandably, main dish recipe is our all-time favorite way of using this kitchen appliance.  Look for Paul’s Beef Bourguignon, Beef Burgundy or Chinese Pot Roast, Eleanor’s Corned Beef and Cabbage or Cranberry Pork Roast.  You won’t believe all the selections – and they all sound delicious!

“FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT COOKBOOK” is a wonderful addition to our kitchen cookbook favorites. It’s become one of my favorites. I think it will be one of your favorites too!

“FIX-IT AND FORGET-IT COOKBOOK” published in 2001 was a soft-covered cookbook, selling for a reasonable $13.95 when new.  Now, here is a curious update – the book was republished in 2005 (Alibris has the best price for the 2005 edition @ 99c); it was reprinted in 2008 and a preowned copy on Amazon.com is $9.74.  It was reprinted  yet again in 2010; a new copy on Amazon is $8.49, pre-owned $7.85.  And oddly enough, Amazon is listing a Fix it and Forget 5 INGREDIENT COOKBOOK for sale pre-owned at $3.39.  And apparently, there are plenty of copies to go around.

Happy cooking and happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

POST SCRIPT TO 1001 4-INGREDIENT COOKBOOK

For those who expressed an interest in this topic, here are a few of the “X ingredient cookbooks in my collection:

THE 2 INGREDIENT COOK BOOK – ADELINE ROSEMIRE (1996) signed copy

COOKING WITH THREE INGREDIENTS – Andrew Schloss (1996)

ROZANNE GOLD RECIPES 1-2-3 (1996) hard cover

THE BEST OF COOKING WITH 3 INGREDIENTS – Ruthie Wornall  (2002)

THE FOUR INGREDIENT COOKBOOKS AS EASY A 1 2 3 4 – Linda Coffee and Emily Cake (really? Cake and coffee?) (spiral bound)

4 INGREDIENT RECIPES FOR 30 MINUTE MEALS – Barbara C. Jones (2005)

FAVORITE BRAND NAME 100 BEST 4 INGREDIENT RECIPES –(spiral binding) 2003

BETTY CROCKER 4-INGREDIENT DINNERS – (2005) hardcover

The 5 in 10 APPETIZER COOKBOOK 5 INGREDIENTS IN 10 MINUTES OR LESS – Paula Hamilton (1994)

The 5 in 10 PASTA AND NOODLE COOKBOOK  5 INGREDIENTS IN 10 MINUTES OR LESS – Nancie McDermott (1994)

The 5 in 10 CHICKEN BREAST COOKBOOK – 5 INGREDIENTS IN 10 MINUTES OR LESS – Melanie Barnard and Brooke Dojny (1993)

GOURMET COOKING WITH 5 INGREDIENTS –Deborah Anderson (spiral binding) (2002)

SIX INGREDIENTS OR LESS – Carlean Johnson (1982) (spiral binding)

SIX INGREDIENTS OR LESS PASTA & CASEROLES – Carlean Johnson (1996)

You can only judge for yourself how useful these books are to you. I like them!

Happy Cooking!

Sandy

WOK PRESENCE

Or

Culinary Alchemy

or

THE COOK’S THUMBPRINT

For maybe over five years—maybe more like seven or eight now–I have been searching for a quote – a particular food quote. I KNOW you will forgive me for rehashing this topic once again but one of these days SOMEBODY is going to know the exact quote.

I searched high and low and far and wide, somewhat under the impression that it was something that perhaps M.F.K. Fisher or Elizabeth David had written. Needless to say I didn’t find it in either of their books that I have on my shelves. I searched through three books of food related quotes and did an extensive search on Google without having any success.

What the quote related to is the name of that “thing” – the subtle changes that occur when cooks trained in the same kitchen making the same dish, following the same recipe–end up with different results.

Also got to thinking one day as I was watching “Chopped” on the Food Network – that what they are doing is a take-off on this quote I am searching for. On Chopped, the contestants are given 3 or 4 of the same ingredients and in a specific amount of time, have to create a dish–appetizer or an entrée or a dessert. They present their dish to the judges who decide which dish is the best and one contestant at a time is “chopped” or eliminated from the competition until finally one chef is declared the winner. You all are probably familiar with this show so perhaps I am unnecessarily digressing.  But what they are actually doing is WOK PRESENCE.

I accidentally found a quote while searching for something else. It was something Karen Hess wrote about in her outstanding book “THE CAROLINA RICE KITCHEN….THE AFRICAN CONNECTION”. Ms. Hess was referring specifically to African American women who, during the times of slavery, left their thumbprint on everything they cooked. They were a part of the south but they brought with them African influences which eventually changed the palate of southerners. Ms. Hess writes that the Chinese have a name for this, those subtle changes, and they call it Wok Presence.

(*I wrote an article for the Cookbook Collectors Exchange years ago, titled “OUR AFRICAN HERITAGE” which appeared in the Feb/March 1996 issue of the CCE – which was how I was led to The Carolina Rice Connection by Ms. Hess).

Another cookbook author, Rosa Lewis had a somewhat different take on the same concept and wrote, “Some people’s food always tastes better than others, even if they are cooking the same dish at the same dinner. Now I will tell you why–because one person has more life in them–more fire, more vitality, more guts–than others. A person without these things can never make food taste right, no matter what materials you give them, it is not use Turn in the whole cow full of cream instead of milk, and all the fresh butter and ingredients in the world, and still the cooking will taste dull and flabby–just because they have nothing in themselves to give.  You have got to throw feeling into cooking.” – and no, this is not the quote I have been looking for.

I have been aware of these subtle changes for most of my adult life. It’s why a recipe can be published in a cookbook with exact directions and measurements and my results may not be the same as your results. And there may be a dozen reasons why not.

In the early 1980s, when I was living in Florida, I became even more acutely aware of this difference as I tried to share some favorite recipes with my next door neighbor. She would come crying to me “My cookies burn! They don’t turn out like yours!” – I was baffled – after all, it was the famous Toll House cookie recipe on the back of every package of Nestle’s semi sweet morsels. How could it be different?  I went over to her house to watch her bake the cookies and discovered that she would put two cookie trays, side by side – wedged in really, on a rack. The air couldn’t flow; the bottoms of the cookies burned.

I have been a great proponent, ever since, for baking two trays of cookies on two separate racks and switching them, top to bottom, bottom to top half way through baking to assure even baking, so the hot air circulates.  And when I am baking and time is not an issue, I bake one tray of cookies at a time. I have a very old stove so I pamper it a lot.

But “Wok Presence” can affect us in many other different ways. For instance – a girlfriend of mine says my ranch dressing tastes better than hers. I discovered she uses Kraft Miracle Whip salad dressing. I use Best Foods Mayonnaise (Hellman’s if you are East of the Mississippi).  Another time I discovered that a friend used a Polish Kolbasz for the Hungarian Layered potato recipe. You really need Hungarian Kolbasz to make an authentic Hungarian Layered potato casserole. That’s not to say that your dish won’t taste good. It just won’t taste AS good. It’s like – the difference you will get if you use margarine instead of real butter in a recipe. It will be ok. It just won’t be great.

Wok presence can be affected by the type of baking pans you use and the length of time something, such as a drop cookie, remains in the oven. I had this girlfriend at work who made such wonderful chocolate chip cookies. I asked her what the secret was. She replied that she under- baked the cookies; she would take them out of the oven a few minutes early and let them stand on the cookie sheet on a counter until they were cool enough to remove.

Such a small change but it made the difference between soft and chewy – and crisp.

I adopted her under-baking rule with most butter cut out cookies that I make – when they are brown around the edges yet firm enough – I take them out and let them stand on the cookie sheets for a while before transferring to wire racks to finish cooling. And cookie sheets! The kind of cookie sheets you use can make all the difference in the world with your finished product.  Now I replace cookie sheets every few years – and I use parchment paper on all of them, all of the time. It works better than the aluminum foil I used on the cookie sheets for years.

The more I think about this – the more certain I am that someone else, a famous cookbook author (and I am still leaning heavily towards Elizabeth David) said that the FRENCH have a name for it, those subtle differences that take place when two chefs – cook the same recipe, with the same ingredients – but each will turn out differently. There is a NAME for this and I am going crazy trying to pin it down.

My curiosity was piqued when someone sent me a food section from the San Jose Mercury News, published in September, 1994.  The story was written by Kathie Jenkins of the Los Angeles Times, whose name I recognized. Jenkins opens the article, titled “IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S THE RECIPE” by relating the story of a lady whose hobby is trying recipes until she finds the perfect one. In her quest for the perfect crab cake, this cook tried many different versions including several provided by notable cookbook authors. “They were soggy little balls of yuck,” she reported.  “Even my husband wouldn’t touch them, which is really amazing. They were too disgusting.”

All of this came as no surprise, Jenkins reports, “to the owner of the Cook’s Library, Los Angeles’ only all-cookbook shop. “More than half the books in my store have at least one recipe that doesn’t work” reported the storeowner.  And John Taylor, who owns a culinary bookstore in South Carolina and is the author of “Hoppin’ John’s Low Country Cooking” observed that, if he only sold books where the recipes worked, he wouldn’t have any books on his shelves.

The trouble is, writes Kathie Jenkins, that recipe testing is nearly always left to authors who must do it or pay for it.  “For cookbook authors,” Jenkins notes, “slaving over a test kitchen stove can pay big dividends. The most popular personalities can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars. Added to this are revenues from product endorsements, consultant fees, sponsorships, television shows, and video cassettes.”

Or,” she continues, “in the case of style czarina Martha Stewart, your very own magazine. She started out as a Connecticut caterer, wrote the book, “Entertaining,” and parlayed that into a reported $2 million empire – plus a stream of royalties from television shows, videos, CDs and all those Martha Stewart products sold at Kmart…” (now Home Depot?)

Jenkins notes that a famous name is no guarantee that the recipes work, however.  Hoppin’ John Taylor commented, “Nobody in their right mind buys a Martha Stewart Book for a recipe.  They buy them for her ideas and great pictures. If a recipe works in a Martha Stewart book, it’s somebody else’s.”

In defense of Martha Stewart and apologies to any Martha Stewart fans, a spokesperson for Martha Stewart commented, “That quote sounds like somebody in the cookbook business who wrote a book and it didn’t sell. I think those are just sour grapes.”

Whether it’s sour grapes or not, I’ll leave that for all of you to decide. What is relevant to the subject at hand is that cookbook publishers have no test kitchens. Most newspapers don’t either and consequently, they can’t test every recipe they print from a cookbook. Most recipes are printed as they appear in cookbooks or from wire services. For what it’s worth, the Los Angeles Times does have a test kitchen and a staff to cook in it.  All of the recipes in the “Best of the Best” cookbooks published by Quail Ridge Press are pre-tested.  You can generally expect a well-prepared Junior League cookbook to have tested recipes and they will often tell you so in their book by thanking the committee of testers who worked on the recipes (sometimes testing recipes three or four times).  Jenkins notes that, unlike newspapers, which can correct a recipe the following week, if necessary, cookbook publishers can’t correct even the mistakes they’ll admit to, short of a recall or waiting until the next printing. And while cookbook publishers claim to care about accuracy in recipes, Jenkins notes, most are unwilling to spend the money to make sure the recipes actually work. In a standard publishing contract, the responsibility of recipe testing is left up to the writers.

Added to the mistakes that may be made somewhere between the writing of the cookbook and its publication, there is another important element to all of this.  It translates to the difference between the kitchen of the cookbook author and the kitchen of the person who purchased the cookbook.

Author Paul Reidinger has written, “But the curious truth about recipes is that they often produce dramatically different results in different hands in different kitchens. Many times over the years I’ve told interested parties how I roast my chickens and make my salsa, and I am always convinced that my methods are simple and bulletproof – until I am advised that somebody else used one of my recipes exactly and still ended up with a mess.  These admonishments remind me that recipes are only partly science; following a recipe is not like solving a quadratic equation.  There is play involved, wiggle room, variance, uncertainty, and the person in charge has to know how to adjust.”

It’s also fairly well known that famed cookbook author Elizabeth David disliked giving exact measurements in her recipes. John Thorne, editor of a cooking newsletter called Simple Cooking, in writing about Elizabeth David, commented, “This – although contemporary food writers (or at least their editors) consider it (i.e., David’s distaste for exact measurements) an inexplicable even reader-hostile failing – expresses a direct truth. The responsibility for a dish must finally lie not with the writer but with the cook.  Too much instruction muddles the reality of his responsibility.  Cookbooks cannot hold hands; their task is to make the reader think. In Elizabeth David’s books, reader and writer face this fact across the page….”

And, not to run this subject to the ground, there are so many variables when it comes to cooking. The cookbook author’s oven is probably not the same as yours (and do you even know if your oven temperature is completely accurate? Have you ever tested it with an oven thermometer?). Are you using the right size pan? You are probably not using the same kind of flour or baking powder as the cookbook author used. Most recipes don’t specifically state what brand of flour is used, and a lot of people are unaware that baking powder has a limited shelf life. The same goes for spices and herbs.  A lot of people don’t know that herbs and spices should be stored in a cool place, away from the stove. I was horrified to see, in a nationally circulated, well- known magazine, the photograph of a kitchen with a spice rack built right over the stove. I wrote to them to complain – that’s the worst place to put a spice rack. They did not respond to my letter.   If your herbs and spices have been languishing on a shelf near the stove for a year or two, chances are they’ll have very little potency. That could affect your recipe.

Recently, my granddaughter Savannah and I flew to Sioux Falls South Dakota where we spent a week visiting my son and his wife. One day I baked chocolate chip cookies for him. I used a Silpat sheet on the cookie sheet (at home I use parchment paper) and within a day they were rock-hard even though I under baked them. Another day I baked two cakes – one a chocolate cake, from a mix, in a Bundt pan. The other cake was an angel food cake in a new pan that did NOT come out of the Teflon coated pan easily. I covered my mistakes with chocolate glaze. I have no explanation for the difficulties I encountered using their kitchen—I would blame it on the stove but it’s a very expensive stove that they bought only a year ago. I don’t think Sioux Falls is at any elevation different from Ohio (correct me if I’m wrong). The chocolate cake did not rise as much as it should have. I felt like a failure even though I recognize that the problem was not having my own kitchen to bake in.

Consequently, the skill and expertise of the cook is an important factor to the outcome of recipes.   And what do you blame it on if it’s a recipe you have been baking in your home for over forty years?  I would undoubtedly be a disaster in one of those Pillsbury Bake-Off kitchens.

But, as Kathie Jenkins reported in her newspaper article, there are a lot of bad recipes that have appeared in cookbooks. The test crew at the Los Angeles Times did a lot of research on their own and discovered there were some real losers (including two lemon pies from Martha Stewart’s “Pies and Tarts” cookbook).  Says Jenkins, “Many of the reportedly faulty recipes not only worked but tasted wonderful.  One award-winning cookbook author griped that he could never get Rose Levy Beranbaum’s genoise to work. We did. Another complained of far too much chile oil in the spicy soba noodles in Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger’s ‘City Cuisine’. The noodles were delicious. And Marion Cunningham’s gingerbread did not run all over the oven the way one authority claimed it would.”

“So many things,” Jenkins notes, “affect how well a recipe works—equipment, weather, ingredients, personal taste. So what’s a cookbook author to do?  Vigilance and thorough working knowledge of one’s recipes are probably the best insurance..”

Jenkins comment on weather struck a chord. When we lived in Florida for three years, I discovered that some of my favorite recipes were simply impossible to make. The Stained Glass Window cookies simply dripped all the “stained glass” after a day or two and when I couldn’t get melted sugar to set up for the kids’ graham cracker houses, I put them into the oven thinking they would dry out. I set the oven on fire.  You simply couldn’t make any kind of meringue cookie, due to the humidity–and I discovered that the beet sugar in Florida was much grainier than the Hawaiian sugar cane sugar we were so accustomed to using. For about two years, I had a girlfriend shipping me bags of C&H sugar from California. (This is probably not a major problem for someone who has central air conditioning in their home but that was a luxury we didn’t have, at the time.    I was so happy when we moved back to

 California where—despite the intense heat of summers—we seldom have humidity to deal with.

 “Good cooking”, wrote Yuan Mei, “does not depend on whether the dish is large or small, expensive or economical. If one has the art, then a piece of celery or salted cabbage can be made into a marvelous delicacy whereas if one has not the art, not all the greatest delicate rarities of land, sea or sky are of any avail.”

 Since wok presence is boiled down to leaving your thumbprint – it seems logical to share a thumbprint cookie recipe with you:

 Cranberry thumbprints (From the LA TIMES COOKIE CONTEST)

Total time: 1½ hours, plus cooling and chilling times

Servings: Makes about 6 dozen cookies.

Note: Adapted from a recipe by Kim Gerber.

Cranberry jam

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons water, divided

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon orange zest

1 (10-ounce) package frozen cranberries

1 (1-inch) piece cinnamon stick

2 tablespoons corn starch

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together one-fourth cup of water, the sugar and orange zest. Stir in the cranberries and cinnamon stick and bring to a low boil over medium heat. Reduce the heat to medium-low and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the remaining 2 tablespoons of water with the cornstarch to form a slurry. Thoroughly stir the slurry in with the cranberry mixture and continue to cook for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly, to thicken. Remove from heat and set aside to cool. This makes a scant 1½ cups jam, more than is needed for the remainder of the recipe. The jam will keep, covered and refrigerated, for up to 2 weeks.

Cookies and assembly

2 cups whole-wheat pastry flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons ground flax meal

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1 egg

1 teaspoon orange zest

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup coarse raw sugar (for rolling)

About 3/4 cup cranberry jam

Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together the whole-wheat pastry flour and the all-purpose flour, along with the flax meal and salt.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl using a hand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then the orange zest and juice. Reduce the speed of the mixer and slowly add the flour mixture until thoroughly combined to form a dough.

3. Roll about 1½ teaspoons of dough into balls. Roll each ball in the raw sugar, then place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing about 2½ inches apart. Press an indentation into the center of each ball using your thumb or finger.

4. Refrigerate the sheets until the dough is hardened, 20 to 30 minutes. Meanwhile, heat the oven to 350 degrees.

5. Bake each sheet of cookies for 7 minutes. Remove each sheet, and quickly re-press the indentation in the center of each cookie using the handle of a wooden spoon. Continue baking the cookies until set and golden, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and cool on wire racks.

6. To assemble the cookies, place a small dollop (about one-half teaspoon) of the jam in the indentation of each cookie. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies, if desired, before serving.

Each of 6 dozen cookies: 62 calories; 1 gram protein; 9 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram fiber; 3 grams fat; 2 grams saturated fat; 9 mg cholesterol; 5 grams sugar; 13 mg sodium.

Happy Cooking & Happy cookbook collecting! – Sandy

My love affair with diners dates back to my early childhood, where, in South Fairmount in Cincinnati, Ohio, there once was a place on the corner of Queen City Avenue and Beekman Streets, called the Twin Trolley Diner.  I loved that restaurant. It was a favorite place to stop and have a bite to eat after going to the movies at the West Hills Theater in South Fairmount.  We lived in North Fairmount and everyone either walked or took the streetcars, also known as trolley cars, to get where they were going. Buses replaced streetcars while I was still very young. Even so, children walked everywhere. To have an adult drive you someplace was simply unheard of.  We walked to and from school, the library, movie theaters, the Dairy Queen, bakery, drug store, or the corner mom & pop grocery stores – unless you were going “Downtown”; then you took a streetcar or the bus.  The Twin Trolley Diner was also right on the street car/bus line. (It might surprise you to learn, too, that when women or girls went Downtown, they wore high heels, hats, gloves, and stockings—the works!  People didn’t go Downtown in casual attire, even if it meant walking all around Downtown in uncomfortable high-heeled shoes!).

*One of the bonuses of Richard Gutman’s “AMERICAN DINER, THEN & NOW” is a directory of diners still in existence at the time the book went to press. Gutman suggests, “Once you’ve found a diner you like, ask the owner where there are others like it. Chancs are he’ll tell you about one, which might not be on the list. And by all means, if you find a good one I’ve missed, let me know.”

Happy cooking! Happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

A type of cookbook that I am greatly enamored with is the trend of cookbooks that offer recipes using as little as seven or eight ingredients – or even as few as two or three. Obviously, I’m not the only one who appreciates and enjoys using this type of cookbook – even many famous chefs, such as Rozanne Gold, have latched onto the ease of these recipes. (One chef pointed out—why spend the time putting together something like a salsa to add to a recipe, when so many really good salsas can be found in the supermarket?).

One of the cookbooks in this genre is something called “1001 4-INGREDIENT RECIPES” by Gregg R. Gillespie, published in 2001 by Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, but distributed by Workman Publishing Company.

In its Introduction, Gregg explains, “I love cooking and eating great food but, like everyone else, I don’t have the time to juggle complex, multi-ingredient recipes on a daily basis…”

Gregg decided he could have his cake and eat it too, so to speak, and the quick and easy way of cooking would be using a minimum amount of ingredients. He writes, “One day, I went into the kitchen and didn’t come out until I’d devised the absolutely simplest way to prepare great homemade foods,. I stood at the counter, tossing and turning chickens, potatoes, pasta, pork, and any of the basics I could get my hands on, along with wonderfully prepared (store-bought and homemade) sauces and seasonings. Fewer ingredients mean more time at home and less time at the market; more time with family and friends and less time washing, peeling, cutting, chopping, slicing, and dicing….”

In the end, Gregg created more than a thousand dishes, using only four ingredients—and not sacrificing any flavor.

“How can such great food be made with only four ingredients?” he asks. “Easy. Cooking great food is never dependent on the quantity of ingredients you use. In fact, the simpler the cooking, the better the food. The main ingredient in simple and quick cooking is knowing the basics abut how to create flavor and texture….”

Gregg believes that once you realize how well garlic imparts great taste and bacon adds moisture, once you understand the versatility of poultry, and how olive oil yields more taste than vegetable oil, how vinegar and lemon can perk up a sauce and how flour thickens it, you will be able to cook with less because you know how each ingredient contributes to making a balanced recipe.

Gregg points out what I’ve discovered, what other famous chefs have noted -–our grocery stores and supermarkets stock an enormous variety of quality dressings, easy to use canned beans, zesty salsas and sauces.

Gregg goes a step further with the 4-ingredient pantry and provides lists of what he calls the Basic Pantry and the Optional Pantry. The Basic Pantry contains such products as sugar, salt, dried herbs, seasonings, soy sauce and a few other non-perishables; foods you should try to keep in stock at all times to simplify your cooking life so that you don’t have o run to the store every time you cook a meal. These pantry items are not counted as any of the four ingredients, however; they’re items you should always have readily available. Water is not listed as an ingredient; it is indicated in the directions.

However, the Optional Pantry lists items which would be convenient to keep on hand but not necessary to have around at all times, such as canned beans, bottled salsas, seasoning blends. Gregg says that, if your local store doesn’t carry something like a Honey Soy Sauce or Ginger Dressing, with this list in mind you will be alert to picking up these items whenever you do come across them.

Your Basic Pantry contains everyday essentials such as butter, milk, mayonnaise, ketchup, soy sauce, honey and garlic; vinegars such as distilled white vinegar, red or white wine vinegars. Your Optional Pantry will have a selected of beans which includes chickpeas, black beans and white beans, an assortment of dressings, sauces such as barbecue and chili sauce, chutney and pepper jelly, staples such as rice and various types of pastas. Gregg also lists a variety of seasoning mixes with recipes so that you an put together your own All-purpose seasoning mix or Cajun Seasoning Mix. He offers recipes for mixing together your own curry powder, fine herbs, herb blend seasoning mix and five spice Powder, Oriental Spice Mix and Poultry Seasoning Mix.

(And, while Gregg doesn’t say this, I’ve found that you can save up a wide variety of little jars and bottles when you use up the last of a seasoning or a bottle of dressing; scrub the bottles and jars, remove the old labels and you will have the perfect containers to store your homemade seasoning mixes. Lacking this, I’d suggest buying a box of half-pint-size canning jars to store your homemade seasoning mixes).

One of the greatest features of “1001 4-INGREDIENT RECIPES” is that every single recipe is accompanied by a photograph of the finished product. Say what you want—I consider myself a pretty good cook—but I like to see a picture of the finished dish.

What a fabulous cookbook! You can make dishes as elegant as chicken breasts wrapped in bacon, Chinese Style Stew, or Chinese Pot Roast, Orange-Glazed Corned Beef or Hawaiian Roast Pork. You can put together Huevos Rancheros or Eggs Baked in Sour Cream, Eggs Florentine or Hawaiian Ice Salmon – four ingredients! Imagine – Zucchini Pie, Stir-Fried Celery or Tiny Corn Casserole – four ingredients! As a matter of fact, “1001 4-INGREDIENT RECIPES” has a complete table of contents, ranging from Appetizers and Snacks to Eggs and Dairy, Salads, soups, Poultry, Meat, Pasta, Vegetables and Desserts – plus more. As an added bonus, Gregg has even included a chapter devoted to Sauces, Dips, Condiments and Dressings—this section alone would be worth the price of the cookbook. You can learn how to make all sorts of basic dipping sauces, relishes, your very own Chinese Mustard, Cilantro Pesto, Homemade Zucchini-Pineapple Preserves, Parmesan Cheese Sauce, Mushroom Sauce or Mornay Sauce – not one recipe takes more than four ingredients. I’m impressed.

Gregg Gillespie, the mastermind behind the successful 1001 series of cookbooks, has owned, operated, and managed retail and commercial baking establishments in New England and California. He lives, cooks, and collects recipes in Reno Nevada

We found this copy of “1001 4-ingredient Recipes” at a Costco Store where it was on sale (at the time) for only $12.79.

However, that was over a decade ago and as you and I both know, cookbooks can now be found for a fraction of the original cost (most of the time—except when you are searching, as I was recently, for the Vegetable cookbook by the Browns and the only one available was $25.00. Yes, I bought it—it completed my collection of their cookbooks).

You can buy 1001 4-INGREDIENT RECIPES at Amazon.com for $7.20 new and starting at 84 cents pre-owned. Alibris has copies starting at 99c.

Once you get hooked on these “X number of ingredient cookbooks, you won’t want to stop. I have an entire shelf of them now.  If you enjoyed reading about this one, let me know & I will share more of this genre with you!

Happy cooking! Happy cookbook collecting!

Sandy

THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION
(Written in 2003)

When I was writing in 2003, my focus at that time was on Pierre, south Dakota, where my oldest grandson resides. In the future, I would like to share with you impressions of Sioux Falls, several hours south of Pierre. – sls

Having written about my travels to Pierre, South Dakota over the past few years, and discovering—firsthand–the importance and impact of the Lewis & Clark Expedition, I was thrilled to learn of a cookbook on this subject. Everywhere you go throughout South Dakota, and especially in Pierre, the State Capitol, pioneer history is alive and this is especially evident with regard to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

“THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION” by Mary Gunderson is a brand-new (published 2003) cookbook from History Cooks Publishers.

Author Mary Gunderson explains, “Much of my life, I have lived near a portion of the Lewis and Clark Trail in what is now South Dakota. My great-grandparents settled along the Missouri River sixty years after the Expedition passed this way. Several of the Expedition landmarks are among my geographic touchstones, including Spirit Mound, near present-day Vermillion, South Dakota, and Calumet Bluff, near Yankton, South Dakota. …” (The first thing I had to do was get out my map of South Dakota and look for Yankton and Spirit Mound. Both places are considerably south-east of Pierre, near Sioux City).

“I am,” Mary Gunderson tells us, “one of thousands of people for whom the Lewis and Clark Expedition is as much personal history as American history…”

When Mary first began to think about writing about the foods of the Lewis and Clark Expedition seven years ago, she wondered if the food tasted good. She had to determine, she recalls, if it made sense to recreate Expedition foods for modern people and sensibilities. While Mary was reading the Lewis and Clark journals and letters, she discovered that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark wrote about food almost every day. “The more startling entries,” she writes, “eating several pounds of meat or dining on tainted meat”—are offset by the countless other details of gustatory satisfaction…

Mary says, “A picture of daily life across early nineteenth-century North America begins to emerge, starting with the culinary pursuits of the Expedition’s originator, Thomas Jefferson, with the dynamic culinary climate in Philadelphia where Lewis made journey preparations, and through the food wisdom and practices of the people in each American Indian tribe who made contact with the Expedition….”

“We know,” Mary explains, “when the explorers ate the last of their butter and when they first tasted buffalo. Lewis delighted in Toussaint Charbonneau’s* boudin blanc.” (Toussaint Charbonneau was Sacagawea’s husband. Boudin Blanc was a mild sausage made of buffalo).

Mary continues, “John Ordway, one of the sergeants, praised the Mandan and Hidatsa women who prepared corn, beans, and squash for the visitors during the winter of 1804 to 1805. Both Lewis and Ordway recorded the day, 4 July 1805, when the Corps of Discovery drank their last whiskey rations. After the harrowing seventeen days spent crossing the Bitterroot Mountains, the command, near starvation, gratefully received hospitality from the Nez Perce, who offered food from their abundant stores of roots, berries, nuts, and fish. Sacagawea saved wheat flour and made a kind of biscuit for her son, Jean Baptiste, and shared some with William Clark during the winter at Fort Clatsop…”

Mary explains that, in seeking to understand the Lewis and Clark Expedition in terms of food, she “traveled across time and cultures…”
She combed the journals the travelers kept and relied on a wide range of research about the Expedition and its members, as well as information about everyday lives across the continent in the early 1800s. Mary says that her key written sources have been the words of Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, Thomas Jefferson and others, especially as found in “The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition…Besides dozens of other written sources, including cookbooks and recipes from the early 1800s…” Mary also talked with experts about such subjects as sausage making, grape varieties, basketry, corn parching, Latin names of plants and animals, and applied these facts and inquiries to what she calls “paleocuisineology” ®–“bringing,” she says, history alive through cooking—to make a history book with recipes….”
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I was enormously excited when I first learned about “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION”, for the subject matter is one near and dear to my heart on several levels. I have been curious and interested in pioneer food most of my adult life. I really began to think about the enormity of the Lewis & Clark Expedition when I first visited Pierre, South Dakota, to visit my grandson, Nathanael, a few years ago and I’ve shared some of these experiences previously in the now-defunct Cookbook Collectors
Exchange. I also wrote “Kitchens West” for the CCE, also as part of a never-ending curiosity about American food history (in the 1999 issues of the CCE).
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Didn’t we all learn, in history class, when we were children, of Thomas Jefferson’s 15-million dollar purchase of the “Louisiana Territory” from France? This was a real-estate deal that doubted the size of the nation. Jefferson then sent a crew, led by Lewis and Clark, on a historic journey to explore the new frontier. For the $15 million, Napoleon sold to us the Missouri River and all lands drained by it.

President Jefferson, a man of great vision, wanted, Mary Gunderson explains, “accurate maps and careful field notes to detail the landscape and all animals, plants, and natural formations.”

Lewis and Clark assembled their crew of nearly four dozen men and began a two year 8,000 mile trek which began on May 14, 1804, at the mouth of the Missouri River near St. Louis. The Expedition traveled by keelboat and two pirogues, (dugout canoes). Most importantly to us, two hundred years later, is that Meriwether Lewis and William Clark were prolific journal-keepers. Prior to embarking on their epic Expedition, which one writer has likened to our traveling in space, today, Lewis met with a number of prominent men and began to obtain the provisions they would need. One of the largest single food provisions that Lewis purchased was portable soup, a kind of forerunner of today’s bouillon cubes, for which Mary Gunderson provides a recipe. She notes that Lewis also purchased “brass kettles, tin tumblers and metal spoons, as well as beads, especially China blues (to trade for food with tribal communities), cloth, writing materials, and equipment for hunting and fishing,” and she provides us with partial lists of the provisions.

When the provisions had been purchased, Lewis hired a horse and driver to carry the 3,500 pounds of supplies to Pittsburgh. During the summer of 1803, Lewis returned to Pittsburgh and watched while their keelboat was completed. Then he and the crew started down the Ohio River on August 31, 1803. In Louisville, Kentucky, Lewis stopped to pick up his partner, William Clark, and ten young men including Clark’s slave. The Expedition departed on October 26, 1803. They spent the winter on the eastern side of the Mississippi River from St. Louis.

Most of the pioneer-related cookbooks I have acquired over the years are presented to us “as is” – by this, I mean, recipes (or receipts, as they were usually called) are published exactly as they were printed a hundred – or even two hundred – years ago. What interests me most about “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION” is that author Mary Gunderson has provided updated recipes that can be prepared in today’s kitchen. Her book is replete with many fascinating facts and sidebars about the Expedition and each of the recipes included in her book is accompanied by a bit of historical information. So, along with a recipe for Hoe Cakes is an explanation for its name. Included with a recipe for Grill-Roasted Turkey with Sausage Stuffing, we learn from Mary that, “Lewis first noted a turkey shot on 1 September 1803. The hunter brought in turkey again for Christmas. Plump domestic twenty-first century turkeys,” Mary notes, “do not resemble wild turkeys, either those of 1803 or of the present. Wild animals choose their own diet, unlike farm-raised animals that eat what they are offered…”

You will be pleasantly surprised with the recipes in “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION”—it is filled with mouth-watering, tempting recipes such as Chicken Fricassee and Pepperpot, (a kind of soup with African and Spanish origins), Hazelnut Cornmeal Pancakes, Fort Clatsop Salmon Chowder and Duck Breast with Dried Fruit Sauce. There is an early-American recipe for Scrapple, another for Scrambled Eggs with Smoked Salmon, White Catfish with Bacon, Cornish Hens with Sweet Potato Stuffing—and much more. You’ll also find unusual recipes for Deep-Fried Venison and directions for cooking a bear (one would expect it to start out with instructions to “first catch your bear”) as well as Braised Elk Brisket. There are numerous recipes (over ninety) in “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION” and a history lesson on every page.

Few cookbooks provide an Epilogue. Mary suggests, “Cookbooks rarely have conclusions, perhaps because a cookbook author accepts that a recipe is a fluid thing, subject to the whims and mood of the cook.”

However, she says, history books require a summation. “We know,” she writes, “the rest of the Lewis and Clark story. The Expedition forms an important piece of Thomas Jefferson’s Presidential legacy…..”

She notes that Meriwether Lewis adjusted poorly to a more settled life and died by his own hand on October 11, 1809.

Clark moved to St. Louis with his first wife, was twice widowed and saw three of his seven children grow to adulthood. Clark served as Chief Indian Agent and as Governor of the Missouri Territory and lived an active, full life. William Clark died September 1, 1838, in St. Louis.

Sacagawea sent her son Jean Baptiste to study in St. Louis under the wing of the Clark family. She is believed to have died in 1812 in what is now South Dakota.
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Mary Gunderson is a nationally-noted food writer and culinary historian who wrote the first book about Expedition food, “COOKING ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION” as well as “Today’s Herbal Kitchen” with the Memphis Herb Society, “Pioneer Farm Cooking”, “Cowboy Cooking”, “Oregon Trail Cooking”, “Southern Plantation Cooking” and “American Indian Cooking Before 1500”.

Mary says, “I don’t remember a time I didn’t like to cook. In fifth grade, I started baking and eased my way into contributing to family meals. I started to read cookbooks in high school and organized an international food fair.”

Mary learned more about international foods as an exchange student in Chile, where she first tasted pesto and lasagna and many other native Italian-Chilean dishes. When it was time to go to college, she chose Iowa State because she wanted to study home economics with an emphasis on food and nutrition. During Mary’s freshman year she began writing for the Iowa State Daily. By the time she graduated in 1977 with a degree in Home economics, she knew she would be a food writer.

In 1982, she took a trip that changed her life. Not being married or having any children, with nothing to tie her down, Mary took a trip around the world, starting in Asia and coming back through Europe. That trip was, she says, “just the beginning of the rest of my life.”

Mary returned to the Midwest but was restless and wanted new challenges. She knew that being a food writer was not enough. She began to research food and culture. Then, one day, she got an idea. Drawing from her childhood, Mary began to research the Missouri River and discovered that not much had been written about it. An idea was born. Mary was approached by Capstone Publishing to produce a set of children’s books that combined history and cooking. She recalls that they wanted a book about the Revolutionary War but she convinced them that they needed to do Lewis and Clark. A book about food and the Missouri River was born. Mary wrote “COOKING ON THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION and five other books in the series, “Exploring History Through Simple Recipes” and discovered that this was what she always wanted to do, combining the two things she loved most – food and history. “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION” consequently, is the adult version of what started out as a children’s book.
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I would be remiss not to mention that, for readers who are interested in bibliographies, there is a comprehensive bibliography and list of further reading at the end of “THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION.” In addition, you will find a list of websites such as:
http://www.lewisandclark200.org
http://www.lcarchive.org
http://www.lewisandclarktrail.com
http://www.gastronomica.org

There is also a list of mail order sources

Mary lives today in Yankton, South Dakota, on the Missouri River, where her company, History cooks ® has its headquarters. The company published innovative culinary history books and offers presentations across the United States for many audiences, for radio and television, in regional and national publications and on the website http://www.historycooks.com.

Mary Gunderson is a graduate of Iowa State University, where she majored in journalism with an emphasis in food and nutrition. She covered the food and culture beats as staff writer for the Minneapolis STAR and as a food editor for BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS. She has worked as a consultant for clients that include General Mils, Pillsbury, Land O’ Lakes, and Meredith Corp. Mary has also written for HOME, MIDWEST LIVING as well as other publications.
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“THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION” which has been designated the official cookbook for the National Council of the Lewis & Clark Bicentennial is a beautiful cookbook.

The Lewis and Clark Visitor Center at Gavins Point Dam provides a hands-on introduction to the Expedition. Exhibits cover the history of the Missouri, the tribes who lived along the river, and Lewis and Clark as trailblazers. The Center is located on the Nebraska side of Gavins Point Dam at Yankton. 2004 celebrated the Bicentennial year of the Lewis & Clark Expedition and would have been a wonderful time to visit many of these places.
I checked three sources for obtaining a copy of THE FOOD JOURNAL OF LEWIS & CLARK/RECIPES FOR AN EXPEDITION.

It is available on Alibris.com starting at $2.44 and they have many copies. Amazon.com has copies of the book starting at 66 cents for pre-owned copies or $9.95 new.

I also check Barnes & Noble’s website and they have copies at $2.49 and up.

This is a valuable research tool for anyone wanting to learn more about our pioneer history.

Happy cooking and happy cookbook collecting!
Sandy