This past weekend, Kathy and I engaged in some major projects around the house, including the dismantling and storage of our 9-foot Christmas tree and the “un-decking” of the halls. Interestingly enough, what was more important than all of that for Kathy was the time we took to tidy up our laundry room …. which meant reorganizing two junk drawers, our cabinet full of zip lock containers, and – perhaps most daunting of all – purging our overflowing cabinet of cookbooks. Actually, that was quite easy from a logistical point of view, but I found it to be emotionally distressing. And I’m Not Even The Cook around here!
Maybe part of the reason is that so many of those cookbooks packed into that cabinet were there because of me. Some were sent to me at the radio station so I could interview the author or editor – and that has allowed me to interview some fairly major people, including TV personalities like Eric Ripert, the grand niece of Chef Boiardi (or Boy-ar-dee as it appears on the label), the current owner of Chicago’s famous Bergdorf Restaurant, and teachers at the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America.) I was also responsible for adding at least fifty of those small, paperback cookbooks one sees at the checkout lane at the grocery store- touting “50 Delicious Recipes with Bisquick!” or “75 Warm-Hearted Soups!” Just what has been the trigger that compelled me to buy those in such staggering quantity I can’t quite fathom – but confronting that particular mountain of booklets certainly brought the word “hoarder” to mind.
So it was finally this past weekend that Kathy took the bull by the horns – meaning me – and insisted that this collection be culled to something a little more reasonable …. and that’s exactly what we did. There was nothing particularly scientific or systematic about it- we basically just put into one (gigantic) pile all of the books that we have scarcely opened or even thought about opening. From that pile, I plucked a few from which I simply could not be parted. But all the rest I released to the good folks at Good Will.
So to what cookbooks did we bid farewell? One of the toughest for me was a book about fancy cupcakes- exactly the kind of book that is amusing and perhaps even inspiring to look at – but one that is of absolutely no use to people as busy as Kathy and me. What does a book like “Hello, Cupcake?” represent for me? I suppose it represents the fantasy of having a life where there would actually be enough time for us to spend hours upon hours in the kitchen, creating whimsical cupcake works of art ….. plus the skill to carry out even the simplest of these recipes!
So this is one of those books where its practical use for us was pretty much nil- a book that would serve mostly as a coffee table conversation-starter …. except that we have dozens upon dozens of such books already! And moreover, it’s the kind of book that probably generates a low-grade sense of frustration that our life is almost certainly not going to ever allow for the creation of such cupcakes. But I’m glad that somebody somewhere has the time and inclination to do this.
(This book reminds me of an episode of Julia Child’s final TV series, “Baking with Julia” in which she would welcome a noteworthy chef into her kitchen to bake something. The infamous Martha Stewart was the only guest whose visit required two episodes because the cake in question took that long to prepare – from the complicated batter to the i astonishingly detailed flower petals made out of frosting. I cannot imagine anyone in their right mind even thinking about making such a cake!)
In some ways, the other end of the spectrum of discarded cookbooks was a book published 43 years ago, which isn’t quite old enough to make it an antique – but rather just an old book that long ago outlived whatever usefulness it might have had. But it sure is fun to think about a time when there was anything fresh and revelatory about “The New Joys of Jell-O” ….or a time when someone would find a recipe for “prune whip” intriguing or even enticing …. or who would have been bedazzled by these full color photographs (which now don’t look even a little bit vibrant) …. or who would have looked at that image of people at a posh party, eating jello, and believed it without hesitation.
By the way, we were not so rash as to discard every old cookbook – because if we had done so, it would have meant losing something as wonderful as this delightful old gem….. which retains a special place on our shelf. And I have to say that one of my favorite things in this particular book is the simplicity of the recipes, which makes sense when one is designing them for children. And in stark contrast to the spectacular cupcakes in the aforementioned book, there is something so charming about the cupcake creations pictured here.
We also decided to discard The Biggest Loser Cookbook, even though it as exactly the kind of recipes that we should be making on a regular basis. But to me, any usefulness of the recipes is more than offset by the obnoxious stupidity of the TV program of the same name. I’m sorry, but how can a show that supposedly exists to help people lose weight be set up where people get voted off the program by their own teammates?!? And the stupid games and challenges are nothing but a mindless distraction from what should be the show’s main mission. It’s madness – and it’s maddening. And if we are going to limit ourselves to one shelf’s worth of cookbooks …. then goodbye Biggest Loser.
But fear not. Even after discarding half of our cookbooks, we still have plenty on hand- including the “Cobbler Cookbook” that has the recipe for “our” famous Chicken Dijon Cobbler …. “Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs” with our favorite meat loaf recipe …. and maybe our most indispensable cookbook of them all- the one from Holy Communion Lutheran Church, put together to help our congregation celebrate its 100th anniversary back in 1998. Church cookbooks are often wonderful, but this one was especially well edited by a blue-ribbon committee. (Just the fact that our good friend Elsa Windh was on the case helped ensure that this would be the cadillac of church cookbooks.) And to flip through its pages is to encounter not only wonderful recipes- but also the names of dear friends, including some no longer with us. (Joan Anderson, Joe Cuccio, Frances Ziemann, Dawn Barootian, Ellen Johnson, Tootie Schultz, Ruth Fergus, Shirley Zickert, Marge Anderson, Josie Beckett, Clara Nielsen, Marilyn Mrkvicka, Trudy Tobias, and Pastor Walter, just to name a few.) And unlike so many cookbooks that seem designed for wealthy people with staffs on hand to do the cooking, church cookbooks are written by real people who want to prepare real food for the real people that they love.
Pastor Walter’s Last Minute Surprise Casserole
4 ctn. leftovers
1 sm. can tomato paste
1 to 3 c. cooked macaroni, rice, mashed potatoes or bread cubes
1 can beer
Drink beer. Remove 5 unmarked containers of leftovers from refrigerator. Discard oldest container. Place contents of remaining containers in saucepan. Do not stir. Heat until stove is spattered. Add tomato paste and macaroni, rice, mashed potatoes or bread cubes. Lower the lights and serve.