[LMB] AKICOTL: Cookbook?

[Raye Johnsen]

> On 27/04/07, PAT MATHEWS <mathews55 at msn.com> wrote:
> I am older, single, and live alone - I will make
> recipes for 4 and eat them
> several times running, but what I'm looking for is
> a cookbook with - (1)
> simple! (2) healthy (whole foods, fresh foods)
> etc)
> (3) traditional! recipes. 

The cookbook I've been using recently, 'The
Presbyterian Women's Missionary Association Cookbook',
fits your criteria.  Also, so does my Year 8 Home Ec.
cookbook ('Country Cookery').  These are beginners'
cookbooks (the PWMA Cookbook in particular spends the
first quarter of the book on things like 'what 1 cup
of flour is in weight of various grades of flour' and
'what the temperature difference is between a "warm"
and "moderate" oven' and 'how to "blanch"
vegetables').

I firmly recommend you go look at beginners'
cookbooks.  Recipes in beginners' cookbooks are
necessarily simple (because they're for *beginners*),
usually traditional (because when the twelve year old
is asking Mum for help, Mum has to be able to
*recognise* the problem), and tend to use whole, fresh
foods (because they're trying to teach cookery
principles).

Another option is, if there's anyone in your family
with a reputation for cooking, even if they were a
couple of generations back, to ask their branch of
your family if your family has a 'family cookbook'. 
Many families have 'family versions' of traditional
recipes that they may have written down (or will write
down when asked for them by other family members), or
kept copied of recipes printed in magazines or
newspapers that they tried and the family liked. 
These recipes may or may not be simple but they will
be traditional and you'll already know if they will
suit your taste (eg, you already know you hate
Grandma's white sauce, you don't need to make and try
it) plus you can get your cousin to demonstrate how
exactly to chop and add the onions for that crosshatch
effect in Auntie's baked beef stroganoff that no other
recipe you've ever seen ever manages to duplicate.

Raye

raye_j at yahoo.com
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