Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Cookbook Junkie Roadtrip


It's probably intuitively obvious that I'm a cookbook junkie, especially those little pamphlet ones printed by church groups in really small towns.

So recently on an out of town trip, I ran across an antique shop (aka junk shop) with a treasure trove of old recipe books. This was also just after I re-organized all my cookbooks and said I wouldn't buy anymore. Well that was a resolution that didn't have a long life because there are some cookbooks that I just can't resist.

Cookbooks on canning and preserving are special favorites of mine. When I ran across this Ball Cookbook, it had to come home with me to add to the five other Ball Cookbooks that I already had. But the cover is so pretty.

I'm also a sucker for Culinary Arts Institute Cookbooks. And this one had such a cheerful cover! It was $1.50 more than my 50-cent price target for these little booklets, but on the back cover there is a sweet little black cat sitting in front of a big stone fireplace and I'm a sucker for black cats too.

The recipes probably aren't "masterpieces of Italian cookery, " but they are interesting to read. Each recipe has it name in English and in Italian so I get to practice my Italian pronunciation.

Then I found a book with handwritten recipes. The book was divided into recipe sections with about 50 blank pages in each section. It was apparently a gift to someone and the person giving the gift had written a recipe on the first page of each section. The person receiving the book had added a few but not many. If you are into making books, this would be a great gift idea.

I also joined the Foodie Blogroll. You will find the Foodie Blogroll links on the right. If you like reading foodie blogs, then you will love this blogroll. Lots of interesting foodie blog.

I've got some new recipe requests that I will be searching for this week. If I can't find them, I'll be asking for help. I did find and post a recipe for Tomato Soup Cake. The request was from a friend. I found quite a few recipes, but they were all about the same. The major difference was in the spices added. Some added Allspice and some didn't.

We welcome your recipes and their memories on our Heritage Recipe site, so please share. The holidays are fast approaching and that is the busiest season for our website. Everyone is looking for those favorite recipes that their moms and grandmas made -- so share your old family favorites!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Saw your newest book "Italian Cooking". My neighbor found the entire set of those about 2 years ago and purchased them all for less than $5 and gave them to me as a bday gift. I love them!

Holly said...

GOsh, that was a lucky find! I've been building my library of these booklets one junk store are a time!

~~louise~~ said...

Hi Holly, what a wonderful idea. I just found you at the Foodie Blog, I just joined and am awaiting my login info. I will certainly be back, I just added you to my link list. Hopefully, once I get organized, I might be able to help with recipe searches. Really cool, I also collect cookbooks. GREAT!!! Louise
@ Months of Edible Celebrations

Anonymous said...

I was recently traveling in the southern Missouri, northern Arkansas area, and that part of the country is full of these type of shops. There were so many flea markets as they are called there I almost went broke buying old books, furniture, etc.
It was a fun trip for sure!

Lidian said...

Oh, I love these cookbooks and pamphlets too! I am drooling slightly (but in a very polite tidy way) at the thought of a thrift shop full of them...I love the Culinary Arts Institute cookbooks SO much.

I have put you in my Google Reader - found you on Foodie Blogroll.

I'm at http://kitchenretro.wordpress.com, where I have lots of fun with the cookbooks I have found and continue to find!

Anonymous said...

You are so lucky to have such a wonderful collection of these old cookbooks. I just love them myself and with no kids and only 3 nieces, none of which enjoy cooking, I fear that when I'm going, they're wonderful posterity will be lost. These older books have the best recipes and love to read the comments! Thanks for sharing a peek into yours!

Holly said...

Thanks -- I have the same issues so I have arranged for my collection to go the Culinary History Library at Virginia Tech. There are other culinary history libraries around so you might want to check them out.