I guess if you go to yard sales long enough and only buy cookbooks, you’re bound to be associated with them. My first yard sale of the morning was supposed to be promising, I pulled up to a house with a bunch of cars but I see people leaving empty-handed. Uh oh…not a good sign.
I quickly look through the items and find one cookbook. Only one, but I grab it.
Seasons of the Heart from Presbyterian Cardiovasular Institute’s Center for Preventitive Cardiology. It features a Mediterranean American Diet…I guess that means no baklava?
Oh well…I check off this address on my list and then notice something odd. The house numbers don’t match. I’m at the wrong yard sale! The one on my list is still two houses down the street. I was tricked by another person trying to glom onto the advertised yard sale.
I walk over to the real yard sale and the lady running it is wearing the most awesome pair of glasses. If I can ever afford to go back to Lens Crafters, I want a pair just like hers. But anyway, she sees me and says, “You collect cookbooks, don’t you? I recognize you from yard sales.”
Wow! This lady just become “awesome” in my book! Her name is Cynthia and she says she has a cookbook that I might like. She takes me inside her home and pulls this off the bookshelf in the living room:
The New James Beard. Nice!
Then we start talking about collecting cookbooks and she shows me her shelves of cookbooks back in the kitchen. She points out a few that she doesn’t use anymore and I offer to buy them. Here are the ones I snagged:
Favorite Brand Name Casseroles, Winter Soups (Ray L. Overton) and The Lady & Sons Savannah Country Cookbook (Paula Deen). She also pointed out one her favorite cookbooks. The front and back covers were gone but it had lots of the thick (almost cardstock) papers that were in different colors. I thought it might be the Junior League of Chicago’s Soupcon? But she says it’s probably a Junior League of Grand Rapids and it has the very best Banana Bread recipe in the world. I believe her because right next to the recipe is a handwritten note that says “Excellent!”
And we all know…those handwritten notes don’t lie.
Do I have a Junior League of Grand Rapids already? I can’t remember off the top of my head. Cynthia also mentions that I should look up a Susan Spicer cookbook from New Orleans called Crescent City Cooking. I will definitely add that one to my list. Plus, she gives high marks for anything from Lee Bailey.
Now THAT’s a great way to start off my morning! My list is short again so that stop really made the morning worthwhile!
My next stop proves elusive. It’s on one of those streets that curves and has an offshoot. I’ve mistakenly taken the offshoot and end up at the right house number but on the wrong street. I’ve wasted time looking for the house and now I’ve got to backtrack to get back onto the correct street. It’s also well after the time the yard sale was scheduled to start…so whatever items were there have had a good half hour to get picked over. If they opened early, then I’m even further behind the good stuff.
And I’m right. When I finally arrive I see a ton of kitchen gadgetry. And there’s a box of cookbooks that are now more than half empty. Now I’m jumpy and nervous that this is my jackpot yard sale and I’ve missed out on the mother lode. I nervously scan the tables of gadgets and sift through what’s left in the cookbook box. I come out with these:
Mediterranean Desserts (Cindy Mushet), The New American Chefs (Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page) and Cheese Primer (Steven Jenkins).
Now these are very nice cookbooks and I’m looking around at some pretty spiffy kitchen gadgets. What’s up with all this? It turns out that Robert, the husband in this family, is also an instructing chef at Johnson & Wales. He gets cookbooks left and right from publishers looking for him to use them in his classes. Are you kidding me? I’m at a yard sale of a Johnson & Wales instructor who is selling off cookbooks and gadgets! I wish I’d made it to this sale earlier, but I’m really happy with the cookbooks I snagged.
Know what else I snagged? This never, ever used Mandoline…still in the box.
He was super cool and took a little less than the asking price. Now I’ve got a fancy schmancy slicer! I also meant to pick up this cool-looking rotating cake decorating stand but between the nerves and chatting with Robert, I forgot. Man! I wish I’d made it to this yard sale earlier…