The weather has not been brilliant today , sunny patches with cloud. So foregoing the garden, I thought it was time I sorted out my Recipe books. These are from just one shelf. There are more.
They range from healthy eating (Terri) to practical, sensible, Mary Berry, Delia Smith and Good Housekeeping, a book which I often dive into (perfect scone recipe)
to a more eclectic selection of recipes from Canada, America, France and Italy. The photos in Frances Mayes (Tuscan Sun) book are enough to take me straight to the Italian garden where the table is laid for lunch. Can't you just feel the warmth of the sun, taste the wine, and imagine the chatter of the family as they sit round to eat together.
Tattered and torn these old books may be, but they are precious, one dating from my first forays into cooking, many years ago. They will always have a place on my shelf. One lacks a cover, one is burnt (!) and the most loved is my grandmother's book with her lovely writing.
My first buys as a new cook were Elizabeth David's books. They have such a flavour of the Continent, and I remember feeling very grown up if I managed to follow a recipe to produce a tasty dish.
But my favourite, though little used, remains my Grandma's Mrs Beeton. What an amazing well of knowledge for the young wife starting her first home.
There is something so evocative about the books, so many memories, recipes from friends, meaningful scribbles, torn pages, little reminder notes to myself. They will all go back on the shelf. I couldn't bear to get rid of any.
I could just settle down for an afternoon's recipe reading!
12 comments:
They are special, my oldest book I won in a cookery competition at school, I was 13 and made a cherry cake, the only one where the cherries did not sink, its falling to bits, but I will never get rid of it. Marlene, Poppypatchwork
Just recently, I gave away a cookbook that was American recipes written up by a Brit. I bought it in England in 1985. I looked the author up, she was a former ballerina! I am regretting giving it away already! Hang on to those cookbooks!
This is very inspiring.I am delighted to hear that you will keep them! It is wonderful to just sit and read cookbooks! God bless!
I like the word cookery in the book's title. I suppose it's an old term, but it sounds like good cooking!
Looking through your collection of cook books is a lovely way to pass an afternoon. The handwritten one that was your grandmother's is a true treasure.
I love looking through cook books and that picture you've shown of the table in Italy had me drooling, sun, warmth pasta and chatter, a perfect midday meal.
How wonderful to have one in your grandmother's hand. I do love to look through cookbooks. Happy July to you!
Thank you for purchasing my cookbook, Barbara! I love cookbooks and enjoy looking through them.
How lovely 😍 I love my cookbooks too! They hold so many treasured memories!
I love cookbooks and I have some from the countries I visited.
The recipes are most of the times better than on the net.
I like to write in cookery books - all sorts of notes and changes that it helps remember next time... and lists too. I have my mother's and grandmother's books as well - they are full of the same and all the better for it.
I have whittled through my cookbook collection a couple of times in recent years. I will pull cookbooks off the shelf to peruse them as readily as I would an entertaining piece of fiction. Those wonderful old beauties that show the evidence of being well loved would stay in my collection, too.
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