My grandma, Moms, has been baking out of this 1961 Betty Crocker cookbook for as long as I can remember. Her copy of the book is on the right. And as you can see it is in bad shape. It has been though a lot of buttered fingers and sugar coated spoons.
I went on the hunt back in December to see if I couldn’t find her a new copy that actually had a cover and didn’t have to be kept in a plastic bag so that the pages wouldn’t go missing, or worse, end up baked in a cake. 😉
Well, it seemed like everyone else had the same idea in December…Christmas gifts for grandma. So, I waited it out a couple more months. I bid on a couple of copies and finally won one (on the left)! 🙂
I surprised Moms with the ‘newer’ copy of her favorite cookbook the other day. You should have seen the smile on her face. 🙂 Just be prepared for some good recipes coming your way from this beauty of a book.
Thank you Betty Crocker. You ‘rock’.
Hi I follow your blog and like reading it and looking at your cooking and adventures 🙂
I too have a couple of old old cookbooks that I seemed to inherit from my mother who is the mother of 7 kids, so she did alot of baking. It would be 59 years married if my Dad was still alive, so that book had a many of recipes cooked out of it. When you turn the pages they are almost crunchy. lol Front sections are missing and just a few recipes left and you have to kind of guess at times when reading the recipe. At times like that I will refer to another recipe to see what it could be .. Anyways thats my two cents. 🙂
What a special gift! So sweet of you!
this is so sweet! i think you might be the best granddaughter on the planet. =) i have some cookbooks + knitting books that were passed down from my grandmother + they are so neat. we also treasure the handwritten recipe cards that my grandma wrote in the 1930s + 1940s. my mom + i consider them the best family ‘heirloom’ ever.
Your perseverance paid off! My Mom started teaching me how to cook when I was old enough to stand on the kitchen stool and “help” her. Some of my best memories over the years have been of the two of us cooking, baking, and canning. Her recipe cards are cherished momentos. I was also excited as a teenager when my Grandma Mary gave me her copy of the White House Cookbook (1911 printing) that had belonged to her mother. There are many handwritten notations and very old newspaper recipes in it, and it covers everything that a good homemaker would need to know back in those days, from how to remove freckles all the way to how to dress a hog. The tradition continues as we now teach our three year old grandson how to make cookies, cakes, and take him grocery shopping with us every Saturday morning while his parents work. Good times being had by all… Good memories being made…
And what a surprise it was! I had no idea you were still searching for that 1961 edition for me but I love it that you “so secretly” kept up the search. That cookbook is a classic and belongs in every kitchen……so many of our favorites, cookies, cakes, coffee cakes, icings, there’s no end! It should be in reprint!
Thank you Caroline for being such a thoughtful granddaughter! I love you, Moms
My grandma has the exact. same. cookbook. When she got sick last year on the morning of Thanksgiving I stepped up to the plate and finished her already-started Thanksgiving dinner (she insisted that it be finished with or without her) with the help of that cookbook (and a few recipes that had been clipped to its pages). Love it!
I have that cookbook that was my moms! It is falling apart and love it… I did a blog post about it awhile back even…