I don’t know if I should be telling you my new obsession since you might become a direct competitor of this sport: hunting for vintage cookbooks.
It all began with me giving the eye to recipes found on all the great chain grocery stores I frequent: www.wholefoods.com, www.kowalskis.com (online pdfs of past magazines as well!) and www.lundsandbyerlys.com. Oh how I love the glorious color photos of the gorgeous meals their professional chefs prepare. If only I had the patience to try more recipes instead of defaulting to what’s easy when I’m hungry. From there, I started flirting with cookbooks from the library. Everything from Cooking Light’s Annual Recipes books to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Cookbook (which btw, is an awesome iphone app.) But I could never commit …so I kept going on evening dates with them until they had to be returned to their respective shelves.
Recently, I discovered the likes of thrift stores. For under $3.99 a cookbook, I can have something to call my own. Something to hold. Something to love. And the frosting to the cupcake? Well, I have since come to a realization that vintage cookbooks are really what tickles my imagination.
To date I have found three exceptionally potent musty smelling cookbooks, but I’m only going to tease you with one. The Gourmet Cooking School Cookbook by Dione Lucas (circa 1965). Who is she? Go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dione_Lucas for I am not going to repeat what others have already done. At first, I thought I bought a book with someone’s handwritten notes in it (always a special touch), but really that was part of the cookbook. The print of the ingredients required is in a handwriting print. Pretty cool. She says it’s not just a cookbook, but voila – a cooking guide that all her students have learned by going through each of the recipes she had listed in the book.
I’m excited to try some of them…although these recipes…are time consuming. Not meant for the busy woman with a career these days. For starters, she doesn’t even list the time it takes to prepare each meal. You’re not supposed to care. And she has specific instructions on how you’re not supposed to eat the meal you prepared out of her book on your lap in front of the TV.
Oh so nostalgic of a less crazy time.
| Neighborhood Notes are updates about what’s happening in Twin Cities neighborhoods, submitted by our volunteer neighborhood correspondents (and neighborhood residents), and not edited by the TC Daily Planet. Click to learn more about our neighborhood correspondents, or about becoming a neighborhood correspondent. |
Comment