Wednesday, June 22, 2011

My First Cookbook


This was my very first cookbook - I've had it for exactly 26 years. It was a wedding gift to us from Mr. M's former neighbour Sarah.

"May God bless you on this your wedding day
and the rest of your lives together.

Here is to good cooking and good eating."

In a time before the Internet was available with instant information on the science and art of cookery, this book was an education to me. After growing up with my mom's classic Betty Crocker mostly-text cookbook, it was so exciting to own a cookbook with PICTURES - every recipe photographed, and lots of helpful sketches throughout.  Picky eater that I was, it took me years to fully appreciate the range of recipes in this book.

Sarah died of cancer years ago, but her gift to us lives on. We've shared many a good meal from this book.

Thank you, Sarah (and Bob).  26 years later, we're still using your gift.

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5 comments:

  1. Happy Anniversary?!
    I must admit to liking cook books with pictures too. It can be argued that some modern ones have too many photos (espcially of certain celebrity chefs) but for me they do usually improve a book. Having said that, two of my most useful cook books have almost no pictures at all, and would be far too big were pictures included, so maybe I'm just talking a load of rubbish (as usual!)
    Glad you're enjoying N&S...

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  2. Thanks Anne! Yes, this is the big day. The GH cookbook does have pictures of every finished recipe, but they're in a photo index at the front. Many of the recipes have sketches to show technique. The most useful and interesting cookbook I own has no pictures at all, like yours. I have to admit I cook mostly out of my head these days but I do still consult cookbooks to get an idea of ingredient proportions.

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  3. There are many cookbooks in my shelf, however I only use two of them regularly. The first one has no pictures at all. It's a school book from the Canton Bern we used in college. There are wonderful recipes of "old" stuff in it. The other on is the one we use in school now. It is basic but lets a lot of room for experiments, the recipes are really tasty. Yesterday a colleage said to me that the Tiptopf (the name of the book) is the most useful school book. He still has his.

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  4. Happy, happy anniversary!!! What a tremendous milestone! And what a lovely and lasting gift...

    I'm like you; most of my cooking is from my head these days, but I have Epicurious on my phone, and I LOVE looking up specific ingredients to find ideas!

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  5. Regula - what a great name for a cookbook! It probably means something basic in German, but it sounds like the English word "Tip-top" which is used to indicate something very good. I have several cookbooks too but use just one or two of them, like you.

    Thanks Deb!

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