Three Days -

[kyburg]

I've been trying to do this post for three days. I'm going to do it, then go home.

I unpacked a box of cookbooks Monday afternoon. In it were three of my favorites.

I'll try to find links to Amazon.com if you want to get one of your own, but at least one of them is likely to be a no-show.

1966, first edition - "A Cookbook For Poor Poet and Others" by Ann Rogers. I think I picked this up in a used book store in Claremont when I first moved there to to go school, oh mumbletypeg -twenty- or so years ago. It certainly sounded like me - back in those days, the food budget was $40 a month (oh yes, I remember) and yes, I lived on that. I was also under 120 lbs. and sometimes, MUCH under that.

"Poets are often out of funds. Many times they try to keep body and soul together by eating candy bars, apples, doughnuts, and an occasional hamburger, usually standing up. This is a mistake. Meals should be eaten sitting down. This book will be devoted to sitting-down meals, however humble."

This is 1966. And it is a good, sturdy resource book for cooking cheap, tasty and varied:

POCKET-POOR

2 1/2 lbs. sweet onions
1 1/2 lbs. potatoes
3/4 cup rice
1/2 lb. smoked sausages
salt, cracked pepper and cider vinegar to taste

Peel potatoes, slice thick, and bring to a boil in water just to cover. Add the onions, which are also in thick slices, rice and cut-up sausages. Season with a little salt, cover, and simmer slowly for about 30 minutes. Just before serving, sprinkle a little cider vinegar and freshly cracked pepper over the dish. A vegetable salad with a mild sour cream or yogurt dressing goes well, as does rye or pumpernickle bread with lots of butter.

Stuff like that. I've had it for years. Whoever sold it to me, put the original dustjacket into a protector - very simple stuff. Two color line art, the works.

Then something caught my eye. Holy crap - the pages are printed on watermarked paper. Good, thick cotton rag and if I don't miss my guess, handsewn pages.

No, I don't think you'll find this at Amazon.

The second one, Serve It Forth: Cooking With Anne McCaffrey is one of my favorite kinds of cookbooks - a charity sold, collaborative effort. Want to know how your favorite author cooks (or what they think is tasty)? But this is my last post before going home and this is largely by command performance - unclejimbo just about fell out of his chair when I read this to him last night -

FOOD 2
Larry Dixon

1. Announce hunger.
2. Go to car.
3. Drive to fast-food restaurant.
4. Make Selection.
5. Eat.

*laughs*

The Storybook Cookbook by Carol MacGregor, I remember checking out of the library when I was in third grade. Copyright is 1967 - yup, that's about right. Recipes from my books (at the time) - but the real prize of the book is the recipe for doughnuts after the tale told in Homer Price (Puffin). Touted as being the "best doughtnuts in the world" (but the recipe made too much for the automated donut maker to handle - with hilarious results) - it's priceless.

I've made the donuts many times - they are good. REAL good. Cake donuts with cinnamon & nutmeg. Too long to type up here, sadly. Go get the book - it also includes things like Captain Hook's Poison Cake and the Christmas Pudding from A Christmas Carol -

Now, if LJ doesn't eat this alive - I can go home now.

Comments

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

You might also enjoy the _I Hate to Cook Book_, by Peg Bracken, vintage either late fifties or early sixties. A lot of the info is dated thanks to the microwave and so on, but just reading the book is a pick-me-up.

[joggingguy.livejournal.com]

> FOOD 2

I got a good laugh out of that too.

> Now, if LJ doesn't eat this alive - I can go home now.

Punny ;-)