Cookbook Collection


This blog actually started out (almost five years ago!) as a paean to cookbooks and a document of my obsession with them. After a while, it turned a corner and became more about food: what I was cooking, eating or feeding to others. I think it has a bit of a slant towards entertaining, but that's because I really enjoy and sharing tips and tricks with my readers. But, I think whether we are talking about eating, cooking, shopping, feeding or entertaining, the flowering of my thoughts still stems from cookbooks.

As mentioned before, one reason I pick-up a vintage cookbook is for the illustrations. Drool-worthy photography seems so integral to cookbooks today, but I think it's much more interesting to see how publishers made their tomes visually interesting without the ability to add a giant, color photograph to each page. That said, I have stacks and stacks of cookbooks, so I have to be careful about my choices. Right? But, when thrifting at the St. Vincent de Paul in Madison, I couldn't resist picking up a few treasures.

Next time you're over, we can thumb through a couple of my favorites and I'll show you the best of my collection.

Betty Crocker's Cooking Calendar

Sunday afternoon I went to St. Mary-of-the-Woods for their annual book sale. I couldn't resist! There wasn't a lot I wanted, but I did find a copy of Betty Crocker's Cooking Calendar: A Year-Round Guide to Meal Planning with Recipes and Menus. It has a letter from Betty at the beginning (You know she's Santa Claus' half-sister, don't you?) and was illustrated by Gloria Kamen and Alice Golden.

I don't own a copy of this book and don't remember seeing one before. But, it has what I love most in a cookbook:
1. Amazing, delicious recipes?
2. A celebrity chef?
3. Kitchen tips and hints?

Oh, it has all of those things, but more importantly it has delightful illustrations. I could not resist. Each month, every day there are ideas and recipes, plus drawings which are so assuring. They simply say, "your family will love this and love you for preparing it." And isn't that what cooking is all about?

Mangez!