ibex94

There are a couple here I've never run across. Time to search for them. Here are cookbooks that I believe no kitchen should be without:

Joy of Cooking to learn the basics
Escoffier Cook book to learn how to perfect French sauces (and all French recipies)
Clarita's Cocina to learn how to make Spanish food
Moosewood Cookbook to learn how to make vegetarian dishes

tropit

I know that this is a quilt along weekend and I am not quilting right now. I got mesmerized by cookbook collecting. Some of the cookbooks that I have found, but not necessarily bought are:

(Generally speaking)

Martha Stewart Cookbooks, including her first book, Entertaining, signed, first ed, first print
Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook,1948
Mastering The Art Of French Cooking Julia Child 1961 First Book Club Edition (No signed, signed is astronimical)
McCall's Cook Book Hardback 1963
Various Alice Waters' cookbooks
The Galloping Gourmet, Graham Kerr, (Remember him on TV? He was always 'drunk")
Boston School of Cooking, Fanny Farmer, (I already have a very old edition of this book that I've mentioned on this forum)
Betty Crocker, New Picture Cookbook, 1st ed. (Didn't everyone's mother have this cookbook?)

mjkgquilt

Better Homes & Garden Cookbook -- any edition. Bought my first one in 1964. Bought several other editions since.

SusieQOH

Betty Crocker for sure. My Mom had one and bought me one when I got married. She wouldn't teach us to cook but my husband showed me haha.

tropit

Thanks everyone. I did purchase a couple of your cookbook suggestions. I got an unexpected, fat, tax refund check the other day, so I've been Christmas shopping. I love feeling rich! I also bought myself a couple of new, All-Clad pans. Most of my current cookware is from the early 70s and there are tiny holes starting to develop in the bottoms of some of the sauce pans. I kept waiting for the DH to "surprise" me with new cookware for my Bday, or under the tree, but no such luck. "Husband buying me cookware"...what a romantic notion I had...LOL.

bearisgray

I finally learned to be very specific -

"Honey, I would love to have some cookware like this - brand, price, part numbers, where able to purchase " -

I used to think that "if he loves me, he should know that I want . . . . " -

After thinking about turn-about - I would have no idea of what he might want, like, or need for his golfing stuff.

tropit

Oh, Bearisgray, I've tried that. Trust me, I've been married for almost 40 years. Thanks for the suggestion though. He doesn't shop, unless it is for a tool, or ice cream.

bearisgray

Mine has - sometimes - just said - "go get what you want - here's the checkbook" -

He does not like to shop, either. We are almost at the point where it is very difficult to get gifts for each other. I love to shop at yard/garage sales and thrift shops. Not so much anywhere else.

We've simplified holidays - no gift exchanges (well, sometimes - but not necessary) . It's made life easier for all of us!

One of the recent things that I wanted - not available at the local drugstore at midnight - was a Hiker brand hand grommet press. Well - how would he know I wanted one of them unless I told him about it? (Repeatedly)

The most recent thing we bought was a new vacuum cleaner. I'm working on getting a carpet cleaning machine.

I bought "better" underwear for him this summer.

But - back to cookbooks - I've found a lot of them at yard sales and library sales. But - with this covid-19 thing - are there any yard sales around where you live? Or library sales?

I also like the church/organization cookbooks.

Another suggestion - I bought ring binders for 8-1/2 x 5-1/2 sheets of paper - and plastic sheet protectors to fit the ring binders -
and typed up my "family favorites" - and also included the things i always had to look up - how much salt to add to the white sauce, how long to cook hard-boiled eggs, my version of spaghetti sauce - etc. Also mundane things like "how to make gravy with a roux (fat/grease base} and how to make gravy from liquids with none or only small amount of fat in them.

I also added extra blank sheets and page protectors for them to add their own favorites to the book.

I gave each of my kids and ollder grandchildren a copy, - and kept a "spare"

It is kind of convenient to be able to take out the plastic protected recipe and just have that on the counter when making something.

After a few years, I now have two binders going - one for "sweet stuff" - like cookies, cakes, desserts - and one for "not sweet stuff" - like macaroni and cheese, spaghetti sauce, shrimp with pasta, etc.

GingerK

I also still have my first copy of the Purity cookbook. My Mom gave me my very own copy as a shower present 48 years ago and I still use it. You can tell the favourite recipes by how stained the pages are. Some of my favourites--lemon pie filling from scratch, Hermits cookies and dumplings for stew.

Cheshirepat

Moosewood, and Sundays at Moosewood
When I was in school, I picked up a few in the series of "Sunset" cookbooks (soft covers at the time) and found them really good! If you ever run into them in a used book store, maybe grab one! I especially loved the one on Bread (step by step techniques), and another for Vegetarian cooking. I still make some of these every year.

Tropit, I used to watch a lot of cooking shows on TV with my mom - The Galloping Gourmet was always amusing. I loved Julia Child, and love Jacques Pepin's shows (especially when he cooks with his daughter).