I don’t have a huge collection of cookbooks, thanks to the amazingness known as Pinterest! It’s convenient to just click a couple times and instantly be at a recipe. However, there’s something just really nice about being able to open a cookbook and flip through the pretty pictures and find new recipes you may not have taken a second look at before. And since October is National Cookbook Month, I figured why not go through all the ones I have and showcase the good, the bad, and the… just plain strange!
The Good
Right now, these are my top four.
This one is one of quite a few that my grandmother let me pick out as she was getting rid of a ton! It’s coffee guys, who could resist? It’s filled with things like coffee drinks, coffee cake, coffee ice cream.. oh my gosh. I want to make everything, but I’d be the only one eating them seeing as how John doesn’t like coffee!
If you don’t have this book in your house, I suggest you buy it immediately! I love freezer meals, especially when all I have to do is double or triple one recipe and freeze the leftovers. This book shows the recipe for a single batch and then triples the recipe or even multiplies by 6 or 9 for those that really like to cook in bulk!
For the days that I want to be fat, this cookbook is awesome! Totally full of comfort food. Chicken fried steak, mac and cheese…. I should probably only make one recipe a week out of this book lest we gain all this weight back!
This is a pretty cool local cookbook! Carriage Hill is a historical farm close by our house with lots of still-intact houses and farmland, and in this book is a collection of recipes that were either found or would have been made back in the late 1800s.
This book has inspired me to actually make a sourdough starter sometime soon! It’s weird; I like sourdough bread but the thought of actually making it grosses me out a little. We’ll see what happens!
The Bad
Okay, I don’t want to call any cookbook bad. There might be a few not-so-great recipes in every book, but I think that as a whole, none of them are specifically bad. I also don’t want to offend anyone, haha. So let’s move on to….
The Just Plain Strange
I think some of my favorite cookbooks are the ones put together by small churches and local workplaces. The recipes in them vary greatly from tried-and-true family recipes that taste pretty good, to the ones that just make you think “Why in the world does this even exist??”. And the written style of the recipes vary, too.
Like this gem! I love how there’s no actual ingredient list; everything’s listed in the instructions. And every recipe that has ground beef is just called “Hamburger”; is this a southern thing? It’s not “hamburger” people, it’s ground beef! Besides the fact that my arteries clogged just reading this recipe, I may actually try it….. once.
What…. what is this. Is it a dip? Is it supposed to be eaten with a spoon? I’m not even feeling this right now. Spaghetti sauce mixed with Velveeta cheese…. PLUS another pound of shredded cheese. Can someone tell me if this is even good???
Here’s another lovely local cookbook that I think I also found in my grandmother’s collection. It’s very similar to the book above, and then I got to this recipe.
…….
THAT IS NOT SWEET AND SOUR CHICKEN. I think I just died a little inside. The joys of small-town cookbooks…
There are so many more I could share, but I’m still reeling over that “sweet and sour chicken”. I’m just going to leave this here for us to fester over. In the meantime, check out the good ones I mentioned above! I’d love to hear your suggestions of other cookbooks I should buy, so leave a comment!
Jaime is a Nutrition Coach through the ISSA and professional writer. She has 4 years experience coaching and 9 years experience in writing. She enjoys cooking easy meals, running, and learning more about food.
Jaime specializes in helping women with ADHD learn to meal plan and cook healthier meals without getting overwhelmed.