I've always loved cookbooks.
I read them like novels, and have been known to
go to bed with a new cookbook to read.
This love, of course, led to a habit of collecting cookbooks.
As my collection grew I drug them all over Asia (for 35 years) adding more
as we went along.
When we retired, I unpacked them, pulling out the most important ones.
And continued to collect.
I stuffed them into a neat, little rattan book case at the end of the bar between
kitchen and dining room.
Eventually,
I realized I was only using the books on the top shelf.
All the rest were simply "stored" on the bottom two shelves.
Hmmmm......
Time to clean that out and make better use of the space.
Johnny was teaching a seminar on this particular Saturday morning, so I decided to tackle this job.
Out came everything in the shelves.
How the memories began to flood into my mind.
Like finding these two cookbooks, the ones I began our marriage on.
The title of the one on the left grabbed my attention
and I perfected the Tuna Puff Casserole therein during
our years in Seminary.
And then we went overseas.
These two cookbooks were great resources, and I used them for
years, as is testified by the worn covers and damaged/repaired spines
(result of usage and a leaking kitchen ceiling during monsoon season in Indonesia).
Learning to cook from scratch, with no available convenience foods to be had,
I had to re-learn how to cook. So I bought blank books and started pasting in
recipes I came across, or writing down shared recipes
from friends and fellow expats overseas.
One of the most important recipes is this Nasi Goreng (fried rice),
dictated to me in Indonesia from Sophia, a dear friend and our cook for 15 years.
During a 3 1/2 year period of our career, we were blessed to be the dorm
parents for the So. Baptist missionary high school kids who were attending Faith Academy in Manila, Philippines.
What did I know about overseeing the well-fare and stomachs of 15 hungry
highschoolers? How do you do that? And kids do not like the "same old thing"
served day after day.
I had plenty of cookbooks by now, but how can I organize
and get at those recipes easily?
Then I read this nifty idea in a Christian women's magazine:
Get a 3 ring notebook and list your favorite cookbooks there, putting
an abbreviation by each title.
Make dividers that pertain to your needs. For us, it was: Main dishes, Starches, Vegetables, Salads, Bread, Sandwishes, Breakfast, Crock pot, Desserts,
Unexpected guests.
Then list the recipes (no need to copy them) and where to find them (book title and page number), under each label. This made meal planning for me easy.
I haven't used this method with our family, but it was extremely useful during those busy years of being the dorm parents to so many kids.
I was amazed at how many church cookbooks I had gathered or
were sent to me over the years.
Here are a few of them. My favorite one is the yellow one on the right. It is from
my home church, Hampton Place Baptist Church, in Dallas, Texas. My
Mom helped put this together, and of course, I know the women who submitted
their favorite recipes.
And also there were quite a few cookbooks put together by missionaries on the field,
From Afghanistan, to North Africa, to Asia.
Oops - our church's newest cookbook seems to want to be included here
(top right).
And then there were files upon files.
Entitled: Food, Recipes, Light Cooking, Bread, Chinese, Mexican, Breakfast,
Sweets, and Christmas etc.
Currently, my favorite cookbook is this one.
Because I like it easy and good and with only a few incredients.
This is for the crockpot, and I use it often for family, guests, small groups and large.
I love this little book, bought on a trip through Tennessee and Kentucky.
ANY IDIOT CAN COOK
Tends to give me hope!
One of my most practical cookbooks. This little tome was published by
Broadman Press in 1969.
It was written ".... for those women who dash in from church each Sunday,
hat leaning precariously, Bible and purse in hand, to answer the question, 'Mother, what are we having for dinner today?'"
A great little book with great homecooking recipes.
And my newest cookbook:
SPICE OF LIFE (from the spice islands of Indonesia)
subtitle: Home Cookin' in a Hot Kitchen.
Our daughter, Jana, pulled this book together for the folks serving in Indonesia.
What a treat it will be to discover new dishes from friends and colleagues of
our daughter's.
How sweet are the memories of these various cookbooks, taking me back to
the years of my early marriage (when I wasn't a very good cook); through
the years of learning how to cook real food out of the market, rather than
out of a can or box or neatly wrapped package from the meat department of my
super market; and on to the years of running a highschool dorm full of
starving teens; and through years of intertaining collegues and friends; and
now into our retirement years, when we find ourselves still
intertaining many who come into our home and put their feet under our table.
This is one segment of my history.
Maybe someday, one of my descendents will come across
the container in our attic marked "cookbooks" and be interested
in the old books and handwritten notes found inside.
But best of all, are the stories that go with each book, even each recipe.
If no one else should ever find this container,
still today has been a wonderful day for me
to remember and be thankful.
