I have been getting the Betty Crocker e-mails for a few years, and I'm not sure why because I usually delete them. The recipes almost always require some convenience product that I just do not buy. I guess they serve as a reminder that I do need to be thinking about cooking sooner or later.

I have my mom's Betty Crocker Cookbook from the early 1950's, and it was nothing like the website recipes. For basic, reliable recipes I use a more recent Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It's much more health conscious than the earlier ones of any sort. However, these days I'm much more likely to look for any recipe I want online, especially at allrecipes.com which has user ratings. But be careful because usually if a recipe is very, very popular it will be loaded with sugar and fat. It's just human nature, I guess.

If you want to take your cooking up a notch, check out Cook's Illustrated magazine and Cook's Illustrated Cookbooks (some are available at Costco).

Cook's Illustrated runs a test kitchen where they literally develop and test recipes dozens of times to find the perfect/foolproof recipe. Cooking/baking is nothing less than CHEMISTRY, so a different amount of an ingredient or a different ingredient altogether really can make a difference. For example, they will tell you why in a given recipe butter works better than margarine, or why changing the temperature will give you better results.

Their recipes are not for the busy Mom that gets home from work at 6:00 and needs dinner on the table by 6:30.

But if you have some time, or on a weekend you have the time to prepare a special meal, you can't go wrong with their recipes.

At the risk of being immodest, I will say that my cooking skills have improved dramatically, and the gourmet meals I prepare rival some very fine restaurants I have visited. The thing is though....it isn't ROCKET SCIENCE...with a little time and experience anyone can do this, and do it well.

Here is a cardinal rule: Do not substitute canned for fresh, or dried spices for fresh herbs. If you make an effort to use only fresh ingredients, I guarantee you will taste a difference.

All this cookbook talk has made me remember a pretty neat internet site. It's called Supercook; the link is http://www.supercook.com/index.asp. The neat part about it is it will find recipes for the ingredients you already have on hand. Just enter in one (or more), and it will find a match for you. It's fun to see what they come up with. and, some of the recipes are actually good!

google betty crocker cookbook 1969 and several sites - including Amazon - come up for places to purchase -

YEP! :roll:

I agree! I joined the same web site, which is very well laid out and very user friendly, but the wonderful looking recipes with chicken usually call for some sort of cream soup. I try to fix chicken to be healthy and the cream soup kind of blows that out of the water!

:roll:

Because we spent time at the Lake, I appreciate using mixes for starters. Saves having a lot of ingredients on hand. Also since it is just my spouse and I, I don't keep a lot of ingredients on hand as they can get stale. I have been known to say that I don't have enough flour on hand to make a white sauce.!!!

Thanks for the heads up on http://www.supercook.com/index.asp It is a great site!

just go to Food Network - there's so much there,and I prefer that over the Betty Crocker website

I have a problem with the preservatives and artificial stuff in the mixes. I always use "Fanny Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook," which, believe it or not, is classified as a textbook in Barnes & Noble. "Fanny" has BC beat hands down IMHO.