#63 The Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous Cookbook

#63 The Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous Cookbook

It just goes to show you, money can't buy happiness. This cookbook was published in 1992 and these are the people we were suppose to envy and and want to be like at that time. They were eating well, just not a lot. See the photo of the Lobster Bouillon, three peas, six tiny pieces of green bean and a nibble of lobster. I've had more stuck in my teeth after a big meal. Then there's the people, Elizabeth Taylor and husband number 8 chowing down on roast chicken at Michael Jackson's Neverland. What a train wreak that was. Tatum O'Neal was cooking a grilled shrimp risotto, is she out of rehab yet? Poor Florence Griffith Joyner was talking about a healthy lifestyle and she would be dead less than 6 years later. Half the people in the book are either dead, divorced or only forgotten, if they're lucky.

So that got me thinking of the "Rich and Famous" I've met over my lifetime. There haven't been many but I have hung out with a few billionaires. I wonder how many there are in the world? I've met at least 4. The first are two ladies, a Mom and daughter, that I met because my sister used to help decorate for one of the parties they threw for the elite of Kansas City each year. I happened to be visiting and she took me along to help. They were lovely and didn't seem demanding at all. Marty got invited to a luncheon and to the mansion so she knew all the dirt. Seems like daughter "may" have dated JFK Jr. but she ended up with a carpenter who came to fix something around the house. I have always told my hubby, the only man he would have to watch me around would be Bob Vila. What lady doesn't want a guy who can fix things! Anyway I can't mention any names but I can say the ladies were practically Kansas City "Royal ty".

Then there was the weekend I hung out with Sam Walton, his brother and Lassie in the Missouri Ozarks. Now those boys had some money. It said in the paper a couple of weeks ago that the widow of one of his sons is worth $23.2 billion and good old Sam had several kids.

This whole weekend was a bit surreal because I ended up breaking my arm and spending the rest of the time on pain killers. What I do remember is cheap old Sam didn't even send me a get well card or flowers how cheap is that! I was there in the middle of the Ozarks at the request of Walmart, they bought a lot of the stuff I designed with my partner Pam. Walmart didn't actually request, they said you'll be there and you'll give some demonstrations. Another one of their guests was Lassie, the real Lassie or Lassie number 6 or 7 and her famous trainer Rudd Weatherwax. Our workshops and Lassie's were on at the same time so we were going to miss seeing her. I have to explain that Pam really, really loves dogs.

Anyway, Pam decided we would just head over to Rudd's cabin, and introduce ourselves. Turns out he was a lovely man and he invited us right in. Lassie is a bit like Paris Hilton, she travels with a BFF which was a cute little white dog at that time. Lassie was beautiful, much taller than she looks on TV but she was kind of standoffish. Her little buddy was very eager to entertain and she was doing tricks all over the place. Finally after about 20 minutes Rudd said he had one last great trick to show us. Finally we thought, Lassie is going to go and get help for little Timmy who's down the well! But no, Rudd had us follow him into his bedroom. I don't know why this didn't seem strange at the time but in we went. I don't remember all the details but the trick was the little dog going over to the bedside table and turning on the clock radio. Kind of a let down, so we decided it was time to leave. As we were leaving Lassie walked over to the door and asked to be let out. She trotted outside to the first big tree and then something shocking happened. Lassie lifted her leg, who knew, Lassie was not a girl at all, that long hair hid a lot. This is getting long, so I'll have to save the other "Rich and Famous" I have met until another post. The cookbook for today is #63 The Lifestyles of The Rich and Famous Cookbook, by Robin Leach.

#62 The Little Chicken Cookbook

#62 The Little Chicken Cookbook

On Thursday, our home internet went down, nothing we did worked so we called our server. By we, I mean Hubby and it only took me 2 or 3 hours to convince him to make the call. They, the folks on the phone, said they could magically tell there was something very wrong and that we would need a service call. They could do all of this over the phone from India, after we gave them our phone number and address, amazing. Anyway, the service call would not happen till Wednesday, so I would be 5 or 6 days without a computer. When this hit me, I started to panic. I had a Blog I needed to post a cookbook a day. What was I to do?

I decided I needed an emergency plan and came up with a brilliant idea if I do say so myself. So below is what you would have seen if I hadn't been able to get back online. It would have been stored in a sealed vault and only activated if I had not hit the cancel button before 6 AM this morning. Gee that sounds a bit like "Lost" but here it is.

This is an Emergency Chicken Post! When you see an Emergency Chicken Post here at A CookBook A Day, it means I’m experiencing technical difficulties. In the interest of not breaking my perfect record of posting a cookbook each day, I will be posting but they’ll all be chicken related. So until things are resolved you’ll be seeing chicken and lots of chicken cookbooks. It seems I have a plenty these and very little I want to say about them so this seems like a good solution.

The reason you are seeing this post now is because I also realized I could use a quick, Emergency Chicken Post if I was just feeling lazy or if I was having a busy day. Today, I'm both busy and lazy so here's cookbook #62 The Little Chicken Cookbook.

#61 The Potato

#61 The Potato

It says on my calendar that it's National Potato Chip Day so my cookbook is Potato by Alex Barker and recipes by Sally Mansfield. They can talk all they want about eggs being the perfect food but in my book it's the potato. It's an amazing versatile food and they show pictures of over 150 varieties in this book. I had no idea there were so many kinds or that so many of these are very new inventions. Have you all tried the funny purple ones they serve in the fancier restaurants? They're pretty but I don't taste much difference. Then there's the Canadian invention the Yukon Golden, that's only been around since 1980. They're such a beautiful golden yellow you hardly need butter but add it anyway. I had three kinds of potatoes in my pantry but I could get by just fine with only the lovely Russet. They can do it all and they mad Idaho famous. They're also used in the McDonald's fries so we all eat tons of them.

My very favorite way to prepare potatoes is mashed, the milk, the butter and then I hand whip them into a creamy texture. I don't mind a few lumps. If I have left over whipping cream or cheese, in it goes. Garlic, bits of bacon it's great. Then lots of gravy. I make meat loaf and several other dishes just so I can make the mashed potatoes that go with them, delicious.

Now this is hard to believe but I know two people who make their mashed potatoes with just the water they're cooked in. No milk, no butter blah, life is too short, live it up. The cookbook for today is #61 Potato.

#60 Cooking with Beer

#60 Cooking with Beer

I don't even like beer but I must admit I like this cookbook. It's only 47 pages but it's an inch thick made from heavy, wipe off cardboard and it's such a cute shape. About liking beer, I am outnumbered in my family, Hubby and daughter really enjoy a cold one. So much so, I have a row of empty frozen beer mugs taking up room in my freezer at all times. Heaven forbid there wouldn't be a frosty mug ready when they needed one. Also this is enough to make any mother proud, my daughter is just a few beers away from having her name on a Beer Drinkers wall of fame. How special is that!

If I was ever going to learn to like beer, it should have been when we lived in St. Louis, MO before moving to Canada. Now there's a beer town! Michael got some great shots of the old red brick buildings of the Budweiser brewery which is located there. They also keep the big beautiful Clydesdales there in the antique stables. It really is a great tour, kind of like the Cadbury Chocolate factory, see post # 28. You get lots of free samples and I'll usually eat or drink anything that's free.

But beer blah, I must get this from my Mom. As a little girl in Kansas, Mom was asked to sign "The Pledge" promising that liquor would never touch her lips. Unlike many others, Mom signed it and kept the promise. That is until that terrible day in St. Louis. In Kansas, you had to really hunt to find a drink in most areas. Do your remember when airplanes flying over the Kansas had to stop serving liquor, well I do and they did. Now Missouri on the other hand was always a wild and wanton place. There's a reason Jesse James called it home.

In the 1960s my family took a trip to St. Louis to see the Arch as it was being built. At that time the legs were about half way up and there wasn't much to see so the folks took us kids to their amazing Zoo. It was one of those HOT humid days like you find all summer long in the Midwest. Mom sat down on a bench in the kid's section while Dad wondered off to get some refreshment at a little stand. He came back sipping from a big paper cup and poor overheated Mom reached out her hand, took the cup and drank. My sisters and I stared in wonder as she made the strangest face and looked at my Dad with a mixture of surprise and respect. After all those many, many years, he had gotten her to taste a beer. He was sheepishly grinning and I'm proud of Mom, she didn't spit it out and we got a great family story to add to our memories. Cookbook #60 is Cooking with Beer and yes that is a President's Choice beer in the picture, see #54.

#59 Dining In, Edmonton Journal 2005 Edition

#59 Dining In, Edmonton Journal 2005 Edition

I'm sorry but sometimes size can matter. I've tried to stay cool and calm about this. I've tried to give it a chance but I'm sorry, I just can't get used to the new smaller size edition of the Edmonton Journal Newspaper. Totally without warning it appeared at my front door several days ago.

I get the paper in very early and take it back to bed with me to read. I got back under the warm covers, opened it up and thought I was going nuts. Over the years my elbows have wore nice dents in the mattress where I rest them to read. Suddenly they didn't aline and was staring at my thumbs when they should have been way out to each side. They had shrunk the newspaper width wise by at least two inches or 5.1 centimeters as we say up here in Canada. Even more frustrating, this doesn't seem to bother my hubby at all. He reads the paper while it lays flat on the kitchen table and didn't even notice the change. I want someone to feel my pain!! Why aren't there angry letters to the editor, why aren't people marching in the streets? Why?

Gee, I feel a bit better already, this blog thing and writing about anything that's on your mind is a great idea. Oh wait, I'm suppose to tie this in with a cookbook for today. No problem, I just happen to have the Edmonton Journal's edition of Dining In. It's a tacky, sad little cookbook and I wouldn't feed a dog anything made from a recipe in there.

Now I feel lots better but I still have something else to say to the genius who thought out this clever solution to "save" paper. I'm all for saving the trees and stuff but why couldn't you have taken the two inches off the bottom? I wouldn't have missed two or three inches off the bottom or top, after all length doesn't matter. The cookbook for today is #59 Dining In, Edmonton Journal 2005 Edition.

#58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out

#58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out

Happy Birthday to my other sister, the one who doesn't cook. She may well know how to cook but I've never had a meal that she's prepared and it might be just as well. Her tastes run to Headcheese and very smelly fish. The other day she updated on Facebook that she had microwaved a banana. I think that might have been a dinner entree but I'm not sure. I also wondered if she had skinned it first. I was around once when she heated a TV dinner on high instead of medium. Before that, I hadn't realized you can "burn" things in a microwave.

Anyway, I decided to post a beginners cookbook for her from one of my favorites series, The Australian Women's Weekly Cookbooks. I must have 80 or more of these on my book shelves. We lived in Australia for awhile and I got hooked on collecting them. There's great pictures and lots of step by step instructions. You just have to remember their cup and spoon measurements are metric. Actually the recipes in this book are not all that easy. I not sure she would want to start out with Braised Lamb Shanks with Celery on page 67 or Veal Campagnola on page 54. I didn't think so and she'd have to use a knife and pastry brush for Nashi Galette, so that's out. Maybe I'll just try to track her down an extra copy of my cookbook from post #35 Betty Crocker's Cookbook for Boys and Girls. I don't think you can get hurt following those recipes. Happy Birthday, J! The cookbook for today is #58 Beginners Step-by-Step to Starting Out.

#57 Delia's How To Cook, Book One

#57 Delia's How To Cook, Book One

This is a lovely cookbook by Delia Smith the best selling, English author. It was written in 1998 and she wasn't worried about eggs and cholesterol. In fact she says, if you want to learn how to cook, start with eggs and she does for the first 71 pages. It's great you'll never be able to say "Oh, I can't even boil an egg" again. Also, she may be right about eggs being healthy now too. This was just published in our local newspaper last week.

"While an apple a day keeps the doctor away, it turns out a daily egg may keep the heart surgeon at bay. At least that's the indication from a new U of A study, which found proteins in fried and boiled eggs may actually decrease blood pressure."

I don't know about you but I'm thrilled with their early findings. The research team, designed a model stomach and small intestine, mimicking the conditions found in a human digestive system. I'd like to see a picture of that. They sent the eggs through and what came out amazed them, I wouldn't want to see a picture of that!

When fried and boiled eggs were sent through the simulation, scientists found the egg proteins were turned into peptides with a special power known as ACE-inhibiting activity. This, they say, is good news. The other amazing thing is fried eggs do an even better job of this than boiled eggs! I so love fried eggs. Yet this is bitter sweet news. I probably would have been so much healthier and I'd probably have a much longer life expectancy if I hadn't cut out all the eggs from my diet years ago. Oh why, oh why didn't I eat more eggs? No wait, I didn't cut them out! I've been eating eggs whenever I wanted, so I bet I'm just full of ACE-inhibiting activity!

Thanks again to Manfred Zeuch for the beautiful photos on the post today. If you click on the egg picture it looks like you could reach right out and touch them. He titled it "Eggs a Healthy Choice." The photos were all taken with a hand held camera and were manually exposed. The cookbook for today is #57 Delia's How To Cook, Book One by Delia Smith. What next, will they tell us red wine is bad for us?

#56 The Jewish Cookbook

#56 The Jewish Cookbook

Happy Purim! It's a long story but because of a snotty remark made by a delivery room nurse, my name was recorded as Minda instead of Mindy on my birth certificate. Minda still shows up on my drivers licence, passport and it was always there the first day of school as a new teacher would read the official class roll call.

When I went off to university, I signed up for freshman psychology 101 and took my place in a room full mainly of young men. The instructor started the roll call and when he got to me, Minda, I noticed all eyes turned in my direction. Sure it's an unusual name but this had never happened before. Stranger still, suddenly I was popular! The guys were coming up to talk to me and I was getting lots of attention. It turns out, I hadn't suddenly development sex appeal, I had just landed in a course with the entire freshman pledge class of the Jewish fraternity. Oy vay, who knew Minda was Jewish! Turns out it is, it means something like knowledge or wisdom in Hebrew. There have also been some very well known Rabbi Mindas who I'm sure, all the frat guys thought I must be related too. I wasn't.

My instant popularity disappeared over time but I've always retained a love for potato Latkes. In fact, I'm always searching for new recipes, there's one on page 57 in this cookbook. My favorite ones always include a bit of matzo meal, there's even a nice recipe right on the box. I think maybe I'll make them tonight with some sour cream and a bit of applesauce, yum. After all, the calendar tells me it's Purim at sundown and if I remember correctly, that's one of the most joyous and fun holidays on the Jewish calendar. Kind of a Jewish Mardi Gras. There's lots of noisemaking with gragers and dressing up and drinking. In fact, the Talmud required a person to drink until he could not tell the difference between "cursed be Haman" and "blessed be Mordecai" which everyone would be yelling. Haman was the bad guy and one of the dishes in this cookbook is "Haman's Ears" which are very cute little cookies you can tear apart and eat. So have a Happy Purim, the cookbook today is #56 The Jewish Cookbook by Judy Jackson who is in fact, Jewish.

#55 Campbell's Fabulous One-Dish Recipes

#55 Campbell's Fabulous One-Dish Recipes

I was just down at our little mall and there on the wall were huge Campbell Soup cans, just like the artist Andy Warhol painted, silk screened and printed back in the 60's. I could kick myself, I was an art student why didn't I invest some money in art? You could have bought a Warhol soup can painting for $1,500 in 1964 or a signed can of soup for $6. Do you have any idea how much either of those are worth now? Well let's just say you wouldn't be eating soup if you had a couple. Even the paper dresses from the era are in major museums around the world. Why didn't I save my soup can labels and send in for one of them? Just stupid I guess.

Oh no, I had to be clever, I put my money in the stocks and mutual funds and stuff like that. What do I have to show for it now, not much. I could have bought a Warhol and had something fun to look at all these years. Plus it would have been the perfect retirement fund in a few years when we'll need it. By the way, the Andy Warhol painting of a can of Campbell's Pepper Pot soup with a torn label, sold for $11.8 million in 2006! It's funny, I don't feel very hungry for soup any more. Cookbook #55 is Campbell's Fabulous One-Dish Recipes.

#54 The Dave Nichol Cookbook

#54 The Dave Nichol Cookbook

Some of you may not know who Dave Nichol is, well he's the fellow who came up with the "President's Choice" or "PC" line of products for The Real Canadian Superstores. They are huge grocery stores up here that tend to overwhelm me. I usually loose focus and end up wandering aimlessly through the aisles. I do NOT save time like it says on the store front. Plus you have to bring your own bags or buy them and I think you still have to bag your own groceries, that's just way too much pressure.

Anyway back to Dave, he traveled the world searching for unique taste treats, then he would capture their essence in his store brand products for Superstore. If a product had a "PC" on the label you knew Dave liked it since he told us this over and over on his TV commercials from 1985 to 1993. The man was a marketing genius until he tried to market a beer named after himself. I guess no one wanted to drink a "Dave".

Anything Dave liked, he bottled or boxed up, they were known as a premium line of store brands. He came up with "Memories of Cedar Springs", Grandmother McGuigan's Sage and Onion Sauce. There were lots of "Memory" products and sauces in the line, over 28 I think. Memories of Kobe, the 2 minute Miracle Tamari Garlic Marinade and Memories of Ancient Damascus, Tangy Pomegranate Glaze and Sauce weren't bad. In all, he came up with over 1000 products and he was named "The man with the golden palate." I guess they hadn't tried his beer. I do like the Thai inspired frozen TV dinners too but it's just too much work to go in there and find them. Cookbook #54 is The Dave Nichol Cookbook.

#53 Nascar Cooks with Tabasco

#53 Nascar Cooks with Tabasco, photos by Michael Schroeter

My guest photographer for today is Michael Schroeter and he loves cars and racing. I guess it's no wonder since he learned to drive on the German Autobahn. I can't even imagine, there's no speed limit and they all have those high performance cars they want to push to the limit.

I was very pleased to find, I actually had a cookbook in my collection with a racing connection to offer as his photo challenge. It is Nascar and he prefers Formula 1 or Drift racing but he did a great job.

This last summer he visited the new Nascar track at the Kansas Speedway and got some great shots. It's just a few miles from where I grew up. He also got to try Kansas City BBQ which we think is the best in the world. This cookbook has a bit of a kick too with all the recipes using a dash or two of Tabasco. It features recipes from 50 Nascar celebrities.

Michael came up with a neat idea, he used Photoshop CS3 to place the cookbook right on the track with the cars . He even fit in the Tabasco logo, that's a nice touch. He used a Sony Alpha 100 and a fast shutter speed to freeze the cars as they sped by at speeds of up to 200 mph. I like the M & M car, that's another great food and chocolate tie in.

You'll want to be sure to click on the pictures and enlarge them to see the detail. You can see more of Michael's pictures at http://www.perfect-pictures.org/. He'll soon have a car themed Blog up and running which I'll post here. He has a BMW E300 which he has customized and I'm sure will it appear in his new Blog. So cookbook #53 is Nascar Cooks with Tabasco.

#52 Tasting The Wine Country

#52 Tasting The Wine Country, photos by Manfred Zeuch

Back in my #44 post, I mentioned that I had four friends who are great photographers. I mused that it would be nice if I could get them to do a guest shot here on A CookBook A Day. Well they all said yes and today I feature the work of Manfred Zeuch. To get the ball rolling, I handed each of the fellows a cookbook from my collection that I thought would appeal to their own interests. For Manfred I selected Tasting The Wine Country. Not only has he lived in the wine region of Alsace, France, his family also makes their own wine, so it was a natural.

For the cookbook cover, he took a hand held shot, no tripod, with a high ISO, so that it has a " tiny blurry, grainy, cozy feel". He also came up with some great photos from his albums to tie in with this cookbook. I'm so glad he was willing to share. The second photo is called "Remembering Alsace". The black and white one is his lovely wife sipping wine. The next one is a glamor photo of one of their homemade bottles of wine. They taste as good as they look! The final one is a photo Manfred took in the beautiful Okanagen wine region of British Columbia. They make some great wines in that area too.

So be sure to click on the above pictures, that will enlarge them and you'll get to see some excellent camera work here for a change. You can also click on the link on the right under "Blogs I Enjoy" to see more of Manfred's photos. Thanks again and well done. Cookbook #52 Tasting The Wine Country by Sharon O'Connor.

#51 The Goose, History, Folklore and Ancient Recipes

#51 The Goose, History, Folklore and Ancient Recipes

Okay, all the vegetarians and Peta members out there should really stop reading right now!! I'm not kidding, I'm going to admit to a guilty pleasure of mine, I'm not proud of it. I've only done it few times but it's just as addictive as any drug. I'm talking about eating Foie Gras. There I've admitted it and that will hopefully be the first step in stopping this shameful practice.

It started a few years ago when a fellow on an expense account took my husband and me out to dinner at our favorite restaurant. He had an anything goes attitude and ordered the Foie Gras for his appetizer. He also smoked $25 Cuban cigars so I should have been watchful. As we were visiting, he picked up a tiny piece of brioche bread and spread a bit of the foie gras on to it. Then it happened, he handed it to me. I could have just said no, I should have just said NO, but I didn't. I don't even like liver but I'd heard of Foie Gras. I knew they took a poor goose and for the last two weeks of their lives, they over fed them, A LOT. Their poor little livers get huge and turn a golden yellow. I'm sure the same thing happens to my poor cat when she opens the cat treats herself and finishes the whole bag. It is terrible and I'm an animal lover and I've done volunteer work at the local SPCA so I should have spit it out but I swallowed.

What can I say, one bite and I was hooked. I've never tried Crack but I'm sure it must have a similar effect. I found myself trying to think up a special occasion that would require a return trip to the restaurant. When we finally returned I ordered it and I didn't share. I couldn't have cared less about the rest of the meal, I wanted more Foie Gras. My husband started to get suspicious when I wanted to go there for lunch and dinner. I even started cooking more at home to save money for my next fix. I reasoned I don't smoke and I don't drink much, I could afford Foie Gras every once and awhile. But going out to the restaurant was getting to expensive.

Next I started hanging around high end grocery stores in town, trying to find a supplier. A tiny dab on a little tiny piece of toast just wasn't enough any more. I even wrote to the food editor of our local paper asking her advice about where I could find it on my own. She said she would deny it if anyone asked her but she had a name for me!

I got my very own tiny package of golden Foie Gras. It came frozen and tightly wrapped in a waxed paper. By the time I had unrolled and unrolled the thing I was left with about 4 ozs. of the stuff. I didn't know where to get the buttery brioche bread I would need and then I remembered the eggy bread they sell at the Oriental grocery store. I bought a loaf of that and cut out cute little shapes and toasted it. Then I started to eat. I did offer my husband some, it's hard for me to believe that he doesn't seem to crave it like I do or maybe he's just stronger.

I bought a second small package but I gave that to a young French girl who was visiting us and longed for a taste of home. So now I was a dealer too! When I next returned to the supplier they no longer had the tiny packages. All they have now goes for over $50 and it's too big to hide behind the frozen waffles. Plus I know I shouldn't weaken so I walked away without buying any. I must stay strong but look at that picture. All I can say is please, learn from my mistake. If someone, even someone you know offers you Foie Gras on toast, "Just Say NO!". Cookbook #51 is The Goose, History, Folklore and Ancient Recipes.

#50 IKEA'S Real Swedish Food Book

#50 IKEA'S Real Swedish Food Book

Another milestone, 50 days and 50 Cookbooks! If anyone has persevered and read a few of these posts, thanks. You may have noticed I often complain about what we can't buy up here in Canada in the way of food items. I'm not complaining today because we have an IKEA and the family back home in Kansas doesn't, na, na, na. Not only do we have an IKEA, we've had one once since we moved up here in 1985. It's moved several times and now it's HUGE and so much fun to visit.

If you haven't been to one, it's kind of hard to explain what all the fuss is about but it's almost like a cult. A good Swedish cult of simple design and affordable furniture and stuff. You enter the place and you can drop off the kids at the ball room and then you're free to wander. There's arrows that point the way, though all the different areas. Rooms and kitchens are all set up to show you what you can do with all the neat Swedish doodads. You push your way through the place picking up bin numbers of where the items you want are stored in the warehouse. It's all beautifully organized.

Plan on spending half a day, get there early and have the $1 breakfast and be sure to try the meatballs for lunch with lingonberry juice. You can stop for a snack of a soft serve ice cream cone or a cinnamon roll to keep up your strength. It's clean and bright, there's always something new. It's like a free amusement park for the whole family!

I know just where to go in the warehouse area to pick up my Billy Book Shelves, they weigh a ton but come knocked down flat so they easily fit into most cars. It's great you get to take everything but the custom kitchens home with you. Everything you need to assemble the furniture is right there in the package except a hammer. The instructions come in 18 different languages, does anyone know where they speak Suomi, Magyar or Cesky? There's also great pictures for the more visually inclined. My daughter and I can have a Billy put together in about 15 minutes. A Malm takes longer because of the drawers. I'd love to give a Effektiv or a Anordna a try but I'm running out of room. We always find stuff I didn't know I need, the Gosig Mus were just 75 cents so I got 40 of them and used them on my Christmas tree. Very cute! So while I won't be making the Herring au Gratin, I might give the Swedish smoked reindeer and curry remoulade a try. You can buy your reindeer right in the little store grocery, try finding that in Kansas, ha. Cookbook # 50 is IKEA'S Real Swedish Food Book.

#49 Traditional British Cooking

#49 Traditional British Cooking

First let me assure you, there is nothing X-rated about this post! This is all traditional British cooking. You can walk through any Tesco or Sainsbury's grocery store there in England and take these products right off the shelf or out of the freezer compartment. You do not have to go into a special adults only back room. It just goes to show you how the meaning of terms and words can change over the years. It also shows you what clever names the British give their food.

I'm sure in our politically correct world we would be very tempted to rename a few of these but not the Brits. If it was good enough for great, great, great grandma, it's good enough for them. They can march right up to the shop keeper and ask for Spotted Dick or Mr. Brain's Pork Faggots without slightest blush or snicker! I must admit, I usually stared at my shoes and left quickly after being handed my purchases in a plain brown bag.

In this traditional cookbook you've also got Priddy Oggies, Singing Hinnies and StarGazey Pie. In that last one, the heads of mackerel actually stick out of the pie crust and gaze toward the heavens. This is so the oil from the fish drains back into the pie shell. Their tails float around in the rhubarb sauce under the crust. It says the recipe serves 4-6 but I'm pretty sure one pie would serve several hundred over here. This is traditional cooking, not necessarily good cooking.

I did fall in love with Bangers and Mash, tasty sausages stuck in a mound of mashed potatoes and covered in gravy. Bubble and Squeak is great too with more mashed potatoes and cabbage. It squeaks as it cooks in the pan, yum. Mushy Peas in sugared salt water are not a favorite but Potted Shrimp on a cracker is lovely.

I have yet to try Jugged Hare and the Spotted Dick will remain unopened till I can look at it without giggling. The cookbook for today is #49 Traditional British Cooking by Elisabeth Ayrton and Theodora Fitzgibbon.

#48 StarKist Tuna for Today

#48 StarKist Tuna for Today

I make a very boring tuna casserole but that's the way we like it. Boring and comforting. There isn't even a recipe for tuna casserole in this cookbook, I guess they figure everyone knows how to make it. If we want to get really fancy, we use a box of Kraft Dinner, a can of tuna and a can of Rotel spicy tomatoes. I would have loved to have made that but I have to ration my cans of Rotel. That's another item we can't get here in Canada, it's a shame. Cookbook #48 is StarKist Tuna for Today, Tempting New Ideas.