Cookbooks We Love

Josie just handed me my breakfast, a bowl of "Easy Oatmeal Surprise" from the kids' cookbook "Pretend Soup." I think I'm going to like having older kids, because this is delicious. I'm eating spoonfuls between sentences.

Josie turns 9 on Saturday. She came downstairs today, very chic in a pink denim skirt, faux layered top in two pink prints, powder blue socks and matching Chuck Taylors, and a bright pink scrunchie in her hair. She looked about 22 years old to me, and I immediately began googling area convent schools and shotgun retailers.

I was reading a book this morning with lots of Victorian illustrations of chubby little children, and I realized with a pang that I have no little children in the house any more, really, at least not chubby ones. Louisa has lost the last of her baby "chubbuss" as we call it. No more little rolls here and there or round cheeks. A couple of days ago I was looking at her legs as they were thrown across my lap and I was stunned: They were as skinny as her sister's! At first I was worried she was unwell but then I realized she's just sprouted an inch or more lately.

There's certainly nothing wrong with her lungs. She's outside wailing that she doesn't like the breakfast sister cooked...

I cannot say enough good things about the Mennonite Central Committee's World Community Cookbooks--More-With-Less, Extending the Table, and Simply in Season. I grew up on recipes from More-With-Less, and, when I married, received my own copy from my mother.--read more

Hope no one minds a new post here--the others looked older and I did want to chime in.

I seem to be a cookbook collector. I just can't help buying them off of the bargain rack at Borders and I've got a whole bookshelf full at this point. Still, there are a few I turn to time and again: --read more

I have organized all my recipes down to one large pile! I have a notebook, and want to organize using my computer. I have searched a bit on line. There is one called Cook'n Recipe, it looks like it might fit the bill.--read more

hmm, i just selected every single category that has to do with my life, but perhaps that was overdoing it. Yet all these subjects came up today:

Teens, Education, Homeschooling: my homeschooler is trying to crash a class at the local public high school, and although we have every right as "taxpayers" for her to attend, all the b.s. that goes along with their bureaucracy makes you have second thoughts! She thinks it's so funny that the teacher admonishes the kids to be quiet and keep their hands to themselves, stay in their chairs, etc. She's been going to independent classes and community college classes for a year now, and no one ever talks like that. Yet this class is supposed to be this really creative interdisciplinary math class that people vie to get into... had to do an "audition" like it was a broadway show! Maybe it will turn out to be inventive and cool... right now she's just mesmerized by the social scene. They also gave her three hours of homework last night...what on earth? If they spent more time in class doing math instead of worrying about the baby stuff...--read more

I ordered this having read favourable reviews. It arrived today, and I'm hoping it will reduce my waistline, save me some money and help us eat more healthily.

I wondered if anyone here has it? Has it helped you? Any favourite recipes from it?--read more

The scent of lemon is still on my fingers as I type. I'm letting the unbaked crust of my lemon bars chill, and the filling is made. I had to zest 2 lemons and juice 4 for the filling, and the smell is so fantastic I don't even want to wash my hands.--read more

I just got the cookbook A Soothing Broth in the mail. (I got my copy on eBay; the info here is from Amazon and the book is out of print but well worth scrounging up. Amazon often can get out-of-print or used items, and I don't display that information on the reviews pages.) It's filled with "invalid" recipes, mainly culled from old cookbooks--things we've forgotten how to do in our obsession with quick fixes (Dayquil anyone? or, my alternative: GO TO BED!). --read more