Comments on: Standby Cookbooks

By: What I’m Reading 10/9

What I’m Reading 10/9 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:01:09 +0000

[...] Standby Cookbooks @Frugal Upstate [...]

By: Andrea

Andrea — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 17:51:06 +0000

I have that same red and white checkered cookbook (the older one) and love it. I also have a circa-1950 reprint of a much older cookbook called Cooking for Two (OK, there are 8 of us so I have to change the amounts of things) that has the most delicious homemade chocolate cake, pie, cookies, and biscuits recipes that you ever tasted.

By: Nancy

Nancy — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 00:53:22 +0000

I also love How to Cook Everything, and I refer to the Joy of Cooking all the time. I also like Mollie Katzen’s Vegetables Dishes I Can’t Live Without. Also, it’s not a cookbook, but I have subscription to Everyday Food and I save every issue. They have great recipes every month!

By: Laura

Laura — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 23:42:55 +0000

My favorite cookbook is “Dining on a Dime”, by Tawra Kellam and Jill Cooper. I love it – so simple, so frugal, it’s my go-to cookbook when times are lean and I need a good, inexpensive recipe. Here’s a link to it:

http://www.livingonadime.com/books/doddesc.htm

I bought it for $10 at a book fair when my son was in school a few years back, and bought another copy for my mom because she loved it, too, after looking at mine.

By: Amy K.

Amy K. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:33:15 +0000

The cover fell off my Better Home and Gardens (the circa 2000 one in your picture) because I’ve been using it so much this summer, for the recipes and as a freezing/canning reference. When we try a new recipe we sometimes use the web,but we also cross reference between Cooks Illustrated’s “Best Recipe”, Julia Childs’ “The Way to Cook”, Better Homes & Gardens, Betty Crocker (same edition as on your bookshelf), and anything topic appropriate.

Another cookbook in the place-of-honor that is our small kitchen bookshelf: Student’s Vegetarian Cookbook (1997 version). I’m not vegetarian, but the recipes are easy and fast and they have a great chart of “one cup of dry ____ beans needs x cups of water and makes y cups of cooked beans”, ditto for grains.

By: Daniel B.

Daniel B. — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 03:02:32 +0000

I know that the Cooks Illustrated subscription is expensive. What I wholeheartedly recommend is subscribing to their website instead.

You get everything. And it’s searchable.

And everything includes all of the taste tests they have done for pantry items, spices, canned goods, etc. These taste tests can pay off in thrifty dividends.

Our family was buying crushed tomatoes that were twice as expensive as the Cooks Illustrated recommendation. Considering how much pasta sauce we make from scratch, all the money we have saved has more than paid for our subscription costs.

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 21:44:33 +0000

I received a couple as wedding gifts that I still use frequently now, 25 years later – the Better Homes one like you have pictured, and another one called American Cooking. But I love cookbooks and will often pick up “new” ones at thrift stores or yard sales for practically nothing. I keep them for awhile, sometimes find a new favorite recipe or two, and then cycle them back to the thrift store eventually to make room for more. I do find recipes online also.

By: Amyrlin

Amyrlin — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:26:18 +0000

I love cookbooks. I love the “Make a Mix” cookbook, I am a fan of the old Better Homes and Gardens books from the forties. The Internet has answered a call to a lot of recipes in my life as well. I use the library for a lot of cookbooks too, like Josie does. I eat a lot of hispanic foods that are based on the area where I grew up that I have never had recipes for, and when I am asked, I have to really try to piece a recipe together!!

By: paige

paige — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 20:11:42 +0000

I love allrecipes.com but you have to read the reviews. My favorite book is the new doubleday cookbook from 1985. Everything in it tastes like my grandmothers. The joy of cooking is also a good one.

By: Josie

Josie — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 18:21:09 +0000

I used to have dozens of good cookbooks. Then I realized that I only used a handful. Most recipes, even if I have the cookbook, get written in my own book of recipes. I cleaned out when we moved and now just have two small shelves (a little over a foot long each) and do as many here have mentioned; use the internet! I also use the library for cookbooks a lot. In fact there is a slow cooker cook book on my end table that has to go back today. I have one venison and one fish cook book that I check out several times a year, and I’ve written down recipes from them! Maybe I should think about buying those…