My Top 5 Cookbooks

Good morning everyone!

Recently, I had a very good friend of mine, her name is Cindy, encourage me to start a cookie catering business. She is out and about in the community where we live and has had several inquiries from the people she comes into contact with about where they can purchase bakery style cookies. Since our community no longer has a local bakery, she thought I would be the right person to offer this service to the community. After thinking about it, I said, why not hang out my 'baker's shingle'.

Cindy and I at our favorite watering hole.

If you know me, you know I love to bake. Breads, pies, cookies, sweet rolls, cakes! Anything that puts me in the kitchen baking, that is where I enjoy being the most. Baking cookies would be a perfect niche for me.... now that I am retired. I'm starting to think this little baking adventure could be right up my alley....again.

Several years ago while living in Kansas I did a little bit of baking on the side. I baked and sold cinnamon rolls, cream pies, and pumpkin rolls for customers, friends and acquaintances alike.  At one time I even sold cinnamon rolls to a mom and pop's diner, called Mary's Cellar. I would get up early and knock out 3 dozen cinnamon rolls before getting the kids ready for school and before I headed off to my job. I would deliver them fresh and hot, right out of the oven to the little mom and pop diner.

So to get started with my new adventure, I began to gather up my tried and true cookie recipes. Sometimes I can get sidetracked as I look through my collection of cookbooks and I tend to forget what I am doing. Looking through all those favorite cookbooks I begin to reminisce. There is a little trick I use that I learned from a friend. She always dated and rated the recipes she made from the cookbooks she used. What a great idea! I started doing that years ago. Now when I look through my cookbooks and see those penciled in dates and one word notes, I smile and remember her.

Over the years I have collected so many cookbooks. I can't help myself! I have kept my mother's old cookbooks and a recipe box that held her favorite recipes. There are even a few of my mother-in-law's cookbooks in my collection. I have cookbooks given to me by my daughter and others from good friends. Whenever I go antiquing I'll search out old cookbooks or recipe boxes that still hold recipes from another forgotten cook.

I have so many cookbooks and I have narrowed it down to my Top 5.  I hope you will consider purchasing one for yourself.



My Top 5 Cookbooks

  1. Betty Crocker's Cookbook.
    This is the first cookbook I owned. Originally I received this cookbook from my mother's collection. I used it so much that eventually it fell apart and I had to replace it with a new one. The recipes in this cookbook are good. I still use the waffle, biscuit and bread roll recipes from this tried and true cookbook.
  2. Granddaughter's Inglenook Cookbook. 
    This cookbook was given to me by my grandmother back in 1973. It is loaded with so much useful information about basic cooking, baking and homemaking. It was originally published in 1901 by the Sisters of the Brethren Church. It holds a special place in my heart. 
  3. Jim Fobel's Old Fashioned Baking Book. 
    When I lived in Kansas, I had a neighbor and a good friend. Her name is Carol, who herself was an excellent baker. She shared this cookbook with me and after reading through it, I knew I had to have one of my very own. It is full of families stories centered around the recipes and the history behind each recipes. I love that about a cookbook. My favorite recipe from this cookbook is the Lemon Meringue Pie. Most excellent! 
    Lemon Meringue Pie I made using the recipe in this book.
  4. Stories and Recipes of the Great Depression of the 1930's.
    Knowing my love for cookbooks my mother-in-law gave me this cookbook for Christmas 2000. The inscription inside the book says "To Corla - Queen of the Kitchen" - Love, Mom." Isn't that sweet? This cookbook includes a few stories and a bit of history of the people and their lives around this time in history, along with some delicious recipes. 
  5. Colorado Cache Cookbook. 
    Here is another cookbook that was given to me. My sister-in-law, Kathleen, let me borrow this cookbook a several years ago, and when I tried to give it back to her, she told me to keep it. I have found some great recipes in this cookbook. Some of my favorite recipes in this cookbook include the Mother Lode Beef Stew, Green Chili and Pozole. All and all, it is a great cookbook. 


There is one more cookbook to share with you. You won't find it on Amazon or in any book store. You see, this particular cookbook was compiled by my husband's Aunt Della. A baker and cook extraordinaire. All the recipes in this cookbook are hand written and compiled in a notebook by her. She gave each of her immediate family, and maybe some friends, too, a notebook of her best and most requested recipes for their very own. I was fortunate to acquire this notebook via my mother-in-law. What a great gift!

Aunt Della's cookbook is a coveted family cookbook filled with favorite recipes from my husband's aunts, cousins and grandma. Aunt Della was a well known baker in her community.  She won many a ribbon at the county fair over the decades of entering her delicious baked goods.

Aunt Della's baking ability has left a lasting legacy to all who knew her. No Christmas morning was complete without her infamous tea ring, .....which she always made 2 for my husbands family for us to enjoy Christmas morning with the family. No birthday was complete without her coconut cream pie. My favorite recipe of hers.

I found the following recipe for a Coconut Cream Pie that is very similar to Aunt Della's.

Here are a couple of pictures of Aunt Della's fair ribbons and of course, a picture of Aunt Della.



It is my hope to aspire to be known and remembered for my baking ability much like Aunt Della was.








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