The book lost recipes by Marion Cunningham is GLORIOUS.
I am reading through it finally today and tabbing up various
recipes, thinking of what and when to make them
and find, as she has before, she easily gives confidence to try new things
in the kitchen...
I LOVE her Breakfast Cookbook,
which I have had for some years... I wonder if I bought it in London Ontario
back in the early 2000s when I was at Library School...
I have always loved Breakfast so I would have noticed this book!
I still remember the first cookbooks I ever used and how I would
buy cookbooks at sales, even when I had a very limited grad school budget!
For those who don't know how she is, but know a little of the culinary scene,
you will know of James Beard.... who Marion met...changed her life!
she conquered huge demons in her own life of deeply crippling fear and of alcoholic drink
and in so doing meet James Beard and take a cooking class from his school
and later, through Beard's influence, was the one who revised and re-introduced
the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, first in 1979.
She became very famous in the restaurant culinary world of the States and
especially of California, where, from what I can see, is the main place
(other than NYC) where culinary change and influence in the States comes from.
I made for my friend and her daughter, our goddaughter,
were from Marion's Breakfast Book and these recipes do not fail!
So when I saw the book Lost Recipes by Marion
I just had to get it.
(the four pictures above are of this book's cover and 2 of it's pages).
I find her books clear, warm and so inviting.
AND ones that are down-to-earth good-home-cooking that
one just delights in reading and dreaming of making.
I must have 5 or so recipes already tabbed from this book,
and I am just savouring it!
She's one of my top 5 cookbook writers.
I am not even sure which 5 I would pick... she has to be one of the top ones,
who I feel I can go to and find something I will love...
and that the ingredients will not be so hard to source!
***
So that was part of my "fun for today" as it were.
I went to sewing group this morning and got help
with my quilt... it now is pinned together but I need to sew
the back in one place (the back fabric was not quite wide enough
to be all in one go) and I need to sew a bit of the binding together as well.
Well, for dinner, we had mostly not pictured
green spinach salad, a wonderful fruit salad
(a banana, orange, strawberries and blueberries),
and I baked leftover fries and naan bread in our toaster oven,
on a rack so that it would bake evenly.
***
I also got Deb's cookbook in the mail!
(it's now in the freezer, as I talked about in another blog post,
about how we deal with used books to be sure no bugs come in the house...)
Deb is certainly one of the main cookbook writers of today
that I have read for years now.
I am pretty sure I was reading her already in Ottawa before I met
my Husband, who I married and moved to New Jersey to begin our life together.
I have never had one of her cookbooks so this will be a treat!
***
I will be able, God willing, to dive into her book later this week...
Meanwhile, I am hoping to go to NYC tomorrow
and it is late already so I better close this blog post.
But not before I say a most sincere THANK YOU for my dear blog friend's
encouraging comments on my post yesterday.
I often struggle with feelings of being that 'round peg' in a 'square hole'
world and it is comforting to know that I am not alone,
a good reminder of this.
***
I feel like I am still, as many of us are, trying to build my life
here where I find myself.
Tomorrow I hope to do errands and go to my beloved library
and do some work on an essay I am writing.
Later this week I hope to get back to the quilt I began working on again today.
I've been working on it since 2015 so I am really dreaming of getting it done...
***
I pray that you will find some joy in your daily life
(a lot of mine seems to come from the culinary side of things)
and that God is giving you the strength for the next task at hand.
To try to not worry and just do the next thing.
I have to keep working on that.
God bless each of you!
6 comments:
"The frenzy of our days has devoured the family dinner hour". I find it so sad that families eat in front of the TV these days IF they even eat at the same time. All the years of raising our family we almost invariably ate together, sharing about our day. Now none continue that tradition and it saddens me.
I think your new cookbook will give you hours of pleasant reading and ideas for many many new meals.
I hope your day in NY will be an enjoyable one.
What an interesting cookbook that is, I'm sure it will give you inspiration.
I agree, nobody seems to revere the family and friends meal times now. My children always ate at a table with us, and continue that in their own families. I'm thankful for that.
Have a good day, dear Elizabeth.
You inspire me to work through my cookbooks (reading, deciding what to save, what to cull, trying new things...) More than not, we had a regular dinner time together as a family as my boys were growing up, but this post makes me wonder how strongly memories of those are in their minds and hearts. We don't tend to contemplate what is our "normal" until faced with something quite different. It's when our sons have become aware of things done differently in other families that they've seemed to take note of how we did things. Occasionally, they express appreciation. Though, I'm sure sometimes they probably think, "Hmmm... I wish my family had done that (whatever it is). ;^) This is also makes me think DH and I can be more intentional about our meals - especially when he retires later this month (e.g. not eating while watching the evening news - I'm afraid we've fallen into that habit; eating earlier, trying new meals...) Good food for thought here. :)
That would sadden me as well! We can hope for better....♡
The main thing is to communicate....when we have a Walton's date with dinner, we are sure to tell each other about our days afterwards. ♡♡♡♡
Thank you! Yes, lots of inspiration! I am happy to hear that your children eat meals together!
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