Many thanks to everyone who participated in the “Cookbook That Helped You the Most When You Learned to Cook” blog contest. The contest brought back some fond memories for many of you. It was difficult choosing just one entry.
The Watkins Vanilla Classics Recipes Cookbook and Watkins Vanilla goes to Rebecca, who submitted this entry about the cookbooks that influenced her the most when she was learning to cook:
“The Five Roses Cookbook was a source of great mystery to me. My grandmother used it to cook, and so too did my mother. On nights when Mom was undecided, she’d pull it out and flip through the pages as though it were a food magazine. Her favorites were well stained and creased, and my grandmother occasionally had to call my mother as her copy was missing many pages. I learned the basics of cooking from that book and have never seen its like since (I now own my mother’s very used copy).
When I moved away for the first time, cooking went from being an occasional luxury to a necessity. I was living with 4 other students, and on my night to cook I found myself recreating the recipes I learned from the Five Roses Cookbook. I called my Mother many times during that first year; sometimes to chat under the guise of talking about how long to cook a potato, and sometimes to clarify just how much garlic a casserole required.
That Christmas my mother gave me a soft-bound copy of the Joy of Cooking. Within a month I found myself sitting at the kitchen table, perusing the Joy as if it were a magazine — trying to figure out what I could cook with what I had on-hand. My copy of the Joy is now heavily held together by duct tape. The pages that have fallen out are carefully taped in place.
These are the books from which I learned to cook. Although I moved on to other books (like How to Cook Everything, numerous diet cookbooks, cooking light magazines, and now websites and blogs), I still go back to the Joy and Five Roses to recapture warm memories and the simple recipes that I grew up on.”
Rebecca, please email me at eleisiawhitney@watkinsonline.com with your complete name and address so that I can send your prize.
Thanks again, everyone who told us about your most helpful cookbook. Check back with us often for other contests.
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Wishing you many dog-eared and ingredient-stained pages in your cooking quest!
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