I don't cook as often as I would like to.  The bookstore doesn't have a kitchen.  I'm limited to Monday afternoon "kitchen spazzes" when I cook a large meal with leftovers to get us going on the week, plus helping with weekly contributions to the Sunday family potluck.  But my grandmother was a good old-fashioned cookie baker who taught me to love the whimsical side of baking...and my dad was a great Lebanese home cook (my auntie too!)...and I learned to make bread as therapy for my teen angst...and my parents owned a restaurant when I was in high school...and my kid brother used to invent his own egg dishes...and my husband came with enough kitchen tools to pass as a really good housewife.  And my mother-in-law and her mother turn out feasts every Sunday that bring our extended crew together from almost wherever.  My mom never cared to cook much, but the rest of us are cooking people. 

I miss my kitchen.  I read cookbooks and gastronomic literature for inspiration when I do get to cook, and to help me remember to carve out opportunities for sharing good food with my family and friends.  In these lists, you'll find books to appreciate for their philosophy of food as well as for the recipes.  Favorite recipes are noted in the reviews.  First, a beloved old friend: 

Joy of Cooking: 75th Anniversary Edition - 2006 (Hardcover)

By Irma S. Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, Ethan Becker

$35.00

ISBN-13: 9780743246262
Availability: Usually Ships in 1-5 days
Published: Scribner, 10/2006

Other Editions of this Title

My grandmother gave me her 1952 Joy of Cooking when I left for college.  She hadn't used it all that much--by the time it was given her, she was already an accomplished cook and experienced housewife.  But it served me well, and is still my default choice when I'm looking for a classic version of a favorite common dish.  It's also my favorite general guide to techniques--Rombauer & Becker taught me how to boil an egg the way I like it, explained why different kinds of American standardized food products behave the way they do, and advised on methods for prepping fruit for my freezer.  Now I turn to it for the Fluffy Rolled Biscuits that my kids love to help make, and for easy, cheap suppers.

This 75th Anniversary Edition restores some of the classic, admittedly very rich, old-fashioned dishes that were eliminated or adjusted in the fat-conscious Eighties and Nineties.  Ethan Becker (Irma Rombauer's chef grandson) wisely realized that food and nutritional fads come and go, but a good sauce will always be a good sauce.  So don't waste your money on a used copy from the last 20 years.  If you can't get an antique like mine, splurge and pick up this one, a reliable kitchen reference for every generation.

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