Podcast Ep. 38: Are Cookbooks Still Needed? (+ Favorite Recipes)

After a listener mentioned that we missed an opportunity to talk about cookbooks in our books episode, we decided to do a whole episode on cookbooks and recipes! It’s a fun discussion because we both wondered, are cookbooks still a thing? Brian did a little research about how well cookbooks have survived the ebook and online recipe revolution. Then I list my favorite cookbooks, the ones that have survived both our recent moves and that I still finds favorite recipes in. In a Farmhouse Update segment we share some happy farmhouse updates – and some sad garden updates. And then we of course talk about some cool things we’ve discovered. We’d love to know your thoughts on cookbooks! Leave a comment or your feedback for the podcast on a voicemail by calling (541) 658-0215.

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Cookbooks and Recipes

Here’s the main article that Brian found information about how cookbooks have sold throughout the last decade: What’s Up With The Cookbook Industry These Days?

Brian and I talked about the a much larger cookbook collection that took up kitchen space and bookshelves that I use to have and how it’s been whittled down over the years to the few I really use. These include these favorites:

• Better Homes and Gardens
• Fannie Farmer Cookbook
• Junior League of Eugene cookbooks: A Taste of Oregon & Savor the Flavor of Oregon
• Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook
• Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything

I’d love to know what your “must have” cookbooks and recipes in them are!

Farmhouse Update

Here’s a picture of some of the treasures our mason has found under the farmhouse. Not pictured are all the marbles and broken pottery. From these items and the bits of newspaper we know for sure that the house is older than 1923!

And here’s that boulder that our mason couldn’t remove. It’s just going to be a quirky part of the foundation (it’s all been approved by the county). Which seems fitting to us, since the whole foundation used to be made of these!

What’s Cooking

I thought I’d share two recipes from one my favorite cookbooks that I kept, the More-with-Less Cookbook (and 1970’s Mennonite cookbook) that illustrate how simple and pure most of the recipes are (though the 70’s were the height of the margarine phase, so I do change all that to butter 🙂 ):

Coconut-Custard Pie (my note says ‘”surprisingly good with crisp crust and chewy middle”)
4 eggs
6 T. butter
½ c. flour (I use whole wheat)
2 c. milk
¾ c. sugar
1 t. vanilla
1 c. unsweetened coconut

1. Heat oven to 350. Grease and flour a 10” pie pan or 2 8” pans.
2. Blend all ingredients except coconut in a blender or food processor. Add coconut and blend few seconds more.
3. Bake 50-60 minutes. Pie forms its own crust.

Honey-Baked Chicken (good served with rice and broccoli)
3 lbs. Chicken pieces
⅓ c. butter
⅓ c. honey
2 T. prepared mustard (I use Dijon)
1 t. salt
1 t. curry powder

1. Heat oven to 350. Arrange chicken in a shallow baking pan, skin side up.
2. Combine the remaining ingredients and pour over chicken.
3. Bake 1 ¼ hours, basting every 15-20 minutes until chicken is tender and nicely browned.

This is Really Cool!

Jami – Cold Sassy Tree, Olive Ann Burns: I’m listening to this on audio and the reader has a great southern accent that just helps the characters come to life. It’s a sweet story that has caught me laughing out loud.

Brian – The secret to the best shaving: use conditioner! An inexpensive one like this works great.

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