Cookbookaholic

Fridays are Getting Fun

I’m actually getting more comfortable about hitting estate sales during my Friday lunch hour. Of course, having everything picked over is the chance I take. On this Friday adventure I find a home that still has a ton of items on tables, the walls…everywhere. If this is what is picked over and left behind, I wonder what was here at 8am!

I walked into the kitchen hoping to find cookbooks and only see one on the countertop. It’s a classic Charlotte cookbook and I’m glad to find it:

Christ Church Cooks (no dust jacket) but still a nice find.

I walk around the kitchen and on the other side of the stove, I spy these two little interesting finds:

The Terrace Chef: Richard Rosen’s Festive Barbecue Recipes (in a box!) and Old Glouchester Sea Food Favorites (Frank E. Davis Fish Co./Glouchester, MA) They’re tee-tiny cookbooks!

Oh well…if that’s all that’s left then I think I’ve found some cute little interesting cookbooks. That Old Glouchester one looks old—but I don’t see a publication date.

I take some time and go through the rest of the house. In the back corner room, I find an office with a couple of bookshelves. Tucked in between novels were these two cookbooks: 

From Manna To Mousse (Beth El Sisterhood/New London, CT) and Olde Favorites (National Council of Jewish Women/Peninsula Section-Evening Branch).

There are a ton of recipes that are stuffed into the back of the Manna to Mousse cookbook. Some are clipped from newspapers, Others are jotted down on yellow notepad paper like recipes for “Motzoh Pecan Brittle,” “Best Borscht” and “Apple Torte.” Plus, there’s a clipping from a Dear Abby column—a woman of few words is asking Abby for her 25^th wedding anniversary tribute to her husband. I wonder if that writer was saying she had trouble finding words—or after 25 years, she was having trouble finding “nice” words? 

 

Mother’s Day Present, Father’s Day Return

What a nice Mother’s Day present! I treated myself to a nice Paula Deen sauce pan to replace my old one. It was so nice and fancy that it took a while before I was brave enough to remove the packaging and actually use it.

I had to bring a dessert to a picnic and Dunc requested a pecan pie. I agreed and opened up the sauce pan to make the filling. Melted butter, Karo syrup and sugar were gently heated and I used a wooden spoon to stir the mixture together. After mixing the ingredients, I poured the filling into a pie pan. As the pan emptied into the shell, I noticed something so incredibly disappointing.

The non-stick coating on the bottom of the pan was scratched with the circles of stirring! What? My fancy sauce pan can’t handle Karo syrup, sugar and butter? Oh boy….back to the store. And now I’m without a sauce pan!

 

Why Did Angela Cross the Road?

Wow…how do you get up the next Saturday after the jackpot and follow that? My one saving grace was that one of the sales on my list specifically mentions cookbooks. Of course, it’s a later sale at 9am and it’s way north of my usual range. I’ve had some good luck when I’ve braved the outer edges of my comfort zone…so why not this morning?

I’ve got a few sales to hit before the 9am sale so maybe I’ll find some to get the morning started.

Wishful thinking. I must’ve hit four sales with zero, zilch, nada as far as cookbooks! I’ve got one more before I take my chances and head up to the 9am sale early. This last one is a multi-family yard sale all piled into one driveway. I’m looking around and then I spot something that lets me know I was meant to be at this yard sale:

Any BITCH Can Cook! Woo-hoo! I finally found one! Remember a while back, a Bob & Sheri listener down in Hilton Head found one of these on display in a fancy restaurant bathroom? There’s a whole series of them! My ultimate hope is to find a copy of Any BITCH Can Toss a Salad. Hilarious. Plus, one of my personal favorites:  Mama Dip’s Kitchen by Mildred Council. Simply the best Pecan Pie recipe…ever. It’s the only one I use now.

See that super cool red spatula? Take a look-see at the wooden handle!

Too out of focus? It says Martha Stewart Collection. For a quarter. Now it’s part of my collection!

On to the second part of the driveway for the “multi” part of the multi-family sale. I spot these two and grab them up.

Cocktails (Linda Doeser) and A Second Book of Favorite Recipes (Park Crossing Women’s Club).

I’m finally having some success so I’ll take this good mojo and head on up to the 9am sale. On my way, I spot an unadvertised yard sale just as they’re beginning to bring out their goods. The thing is…they’re on a super busy road. I notice directly across the street is a doctor’s office…which has an empty parking lot on this early Saturday morning. I park and make a mad dash across the road. No cookbooks on display but after talking to the couple, I learn that they’re moving across country. So they’re looking to unload and travel light. The young gal having the yard sale thinks for a second and goes inside. When she emerges, she presents me with her favorite Chinese cookbook.

Fresh Chinese by Wynnie Chan. She’s loaned it out to friends and has it memorized. She mentions that the “Sesame Salmon with Shredded Vegetables” is her go-to salmon recipe. She parts with it for a few dollars and I wish her well in her new career out in Los Angeles.

Now it’s off to hit the road and journey up to the 9am sale that mentioned cookbooks. I’m still going to be a little early and if they didn’t open up at the crack of dawn, I may have some luck at finding a few more.

I pull up to the driveway and the boxes are already out there. I jump out and see that the boxes are still completely filled. I just may be right on time? The gentleman having the sale is in a purple Eeyore sweatshirt—one of my favorite characters from Pooh Corner. His name is Thomas and I soon find out he’s a fellow cookbookaholic.

He says that he has a ton of cookbooks dating back to the 1800s. He even tells me about a time he made an offer to an estate sale to buy their massive cookbook collection for a set price—and they agreed. I’m putting two and two together and this is sparking something in my memory.

Remember last year when I was given a heads-up by an estate sale duo about a sale that had literally hundreds of cookbooks? One of them even told me there were a few that were super old. “From the 1800s!,” I remember him saying. I take the Friday morning off and show up at the sale with a box in hand…only to find that the majority of cookbooks are gone. I was about the fifth in line and the first one to the living room bookshelf—no one could’ve been there before me. At the time, I think the estate sale duo said the “children” showed up and decided at the last minute to claim most of the cookbooks. They left a few behind and I was able to find an original Junior League of Charlotte Cooking Mother’s Goose cookbook. I distinctly remember thinking it odd that they would leave behind such a rare local cookbook.

Are you thinking what I’m thinking? Could Thomas have been the one who made the offer and grabbed up all those cookbooks? I wonder…. 

Anyway, back to the driveway. He’s got two boxes that he’s taken out of his collection and put out for sale. Here’s what I found…

The Book of Great Hors d’Oeuvres (Terence Janericco), The Art of Italian Cooking, Julia Child & Company (woo-hoo! Wasn’t this one on the wall at the Smithsonian?), Food in Vogue (Maxime de La Falaise) , Hot Italian Dish (Victoria Gotti), Betty Crocker’s Cookbook (spiral bound?), The Pasquotank Plate: Coastal Carolina Cuisine (Christ Episcopal Church/Elizabeth City, NC), Basic Flavorings: Mustard (Clare Gordon-Smith) and Lanc. Co. Amish Cookbook.

Nice gets I think! Thomas also mentions that he usually sells cookbooks up at a place called Webb Road Flea Market. Anyone heard of this place? Thomas says that is the place to go for cookbooks. A quick web search places this up near Salisbury. Future road trip, perhaps?

As I look around Thomas’ other items in the garage sale, he says his wife used to be a caterer. In fact, the big Italian cookbook was a popular one for them! On the back table I spy this gorgeous cake stand:

She used this one at wedding receptions. Fancy design on the side and a mirror on top. So pretty! I added it to my haul for the morning. 

 

Review: A Cookbook Strong Enough for a Man…

Esquire’s newly published Eat Like a Man bills itself as “the only cookbook a man will ever need.” That’s some pretty big talk there, mister. But after going through this cookbook cover to cover—I’m beginning to think it’s probably true.

 

This is a smart, straightforward resource to everything from having the right tools on hand in the kitchen to recipes and witty and wiseass guides to seemingly overwhelming topics like wines and cheeses. But, let’s jump back to the recipes for a minute. This hardcover cookbook contains more than 100 recipes and each is smartly categorized in one of three labels: Easy, Reasonable and Worth the Effort. Now isn’t that a smart way to get a guy to bring his A-game to the kitchen? It’s like the “Worth the Effort” label is almost double daring the guy to not wuss out and at least give it a try. Plus, the recipes are organized, not in the usual format starting with appetizers and beverages; but, rather, it starts with Breakfast (Esquire, you had me at “Banana-Bread French Toast”) then slides into Lunch, Dinner, Sides, Dessert (notice the singular use of the word because there’s only one recipe) and finishing with Drinks.

I’ve already mentioned the “Banana-Bread French Toast,” but how about “Pulled Baby-Back Ribs Eggs Benedict”? I’d stay for lunch if a guy had “Croque Monsieur” or  “Steak Tacos with Guacamole, Salsa and Lime Crema” in his repertoire. Let’s be honest, heck—I’d love to master the “Garlic-Rosemary Roasted Picnic Ham,” “Coca-Cola Brined Fried Chicken,” “Bourbon and Brown-Sugar Salmon” and “Tandoori-Spiced Red Snapper.” As for the Drinks section, I’d love to try “The Foolproof Daiquiri.” I’ve always avoided daiquiris because of my strawberry allergy, but this is the original recipe. “The Foolproof” native version is stripped of the fruity, “girly-drink” reputation and allowed to get back to its simple and elegant roots.

These recipes aren’t wimpy or half-assed, either. They’re impressive, hearty and from scratch. Yep, I said “from scratch.” Remember that old proverb “teach a man to fish and he can eat for a lifetime”? The guy who takes on Esquire’s Eat Like a Man is wisely giving himself lifetime of knowledge—and a leg up on the competition. Dads, Grads and Lads…lend me your ears: the ladies like a guy who can cook!  

Great and very practical gift for Father's Day, Graduation or a guy who eats too much take-out pizza. Run out to the local bookstore if you need a last-minute Father's Day gift! Here's where to get it online: http://www.amazon.com/Eat-Like-Man-Only-Cookbook/dp/0811877418/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1308341436&sr=8-1

 

Jackpot!

Yep, there really is no other way to describe this Saturday garage sale adventure. The morning started off without finding any cookbooks for the first few sales. I decided to head down early to an 8am sale a little further out of my usual area. I think it had mentioned books in general, but I remember it also it focused on homeschool material. Who knows, maybe I’d find a cookbook or two tucked in there somewhere.

When I arrived and caught first glimpse of the driveway I could not believe it. The long driveway was lined deep with boxes and boxes of books.

I could not believe what was in front of me. So many boxes! I took a look in the first few…they were all cookbooks. I swooped down and began to put my hands on a Junior League from Louisiana here, a Savannah church cookbook I’d lost in an eBay battle over there.

My hands couldn’t keep up with my eyes glimpsing amazing cookbook after cookbook. Plus, I wasn’t the only one there…I was scrambling to eyeball every box while also outgrabbing anyone else there for cookbooks as well!

I literally had no idea how to conquer the more than 5+ rows of boxes in warp speed timing. I just went as quickly as I could and as my piles grew taller and taller, the family would take them up to the checkout desk and put them in boxes for me. 

I’d look in one box and spot three Junior Leagues. Walked over to the next aisle and spotted a Betty Feezor…hello!

There’s a Betty Feezor sitting here in front of God and everybody—and no one had grabbed it yet? What else was waiting for me in the next box or the boxes two aisles over? Would I get there fast enough?

The family at this sale was just the nicest. I told them about collecting cookbooks and writing the blog. The mom, Lynda, was super amazing. She said that she had collected all sorts of books and cookbooks from second hand stores and yard sales and had been selling them online. I would seriously check out her eBay store—but she said she stopped selling them. They’d been sitting in one of those outside storage units for a while now.

I was just glad to have a shot at taking some of these—who are we kidding, as many as I could get my hands on—home with me! The husband mentioned that he had kept some of the more valuable ones and would still try to sell those later. But no one would tell me the online store! Oh well…I need to concentrate on the task at hand.

After about thirty minutes and backbreaking lifting, I had almost three full boxes. I paid and had a little bit left over. What? Something was still bothering me…like I had not looked over everything carefully enough. We put the boxes in my car and then I said I’d come back and look the boxes over again more slowly.

This time around, I went over the boxes much more carefully. I started at the first box at the beginning of the driveway. As I was going through this first box, I noticed a cookbook that was placed on the edge of the next box over. Guess what it was…the original Little Church on the Lane cookbook that I’d missed out on last week. How’s that for ya?

Plus, as I was going through the boxes again, all the family members (Lynda, her husband and two daughters) would help find community cookbooks and bring them over to me! How nice was that? I ended up buying about fifteen additional cookbooks that way!

 Seriously, how could any other word than “jackpot” describe this day?

Here’s the haul…forgive me for not naming each and every one of them.

Back for the BBQ!

Finding One Hot Mama’s on New Year’s Day was a stroke of good luck. It’s actually a BBQ joint but was undoubtedly one of the best Hoppin’ John feasts I’ve ever had. The ham was thick, tender, juicy and had a great (but not overwhelming) smokey flavor. The greens were good….really good. I was so impressed I even blogged about it!

During our trip back down to Hilton Head Island for the Memorial Day weekend, I wanted to make sure I got back to One Hot Mama’s….this time, One Hot Mama’s needed to deliver where it counts—the BBQ.

Sunday night was our night out and I went in full speed ahead. I got the BBQ plate with green beans, sweet potato fries and cornbread. It looked amazing!

The BBQ was really good. Plus, they had three different sauces. One mustard, one vinegar and one ketchup-based. I tried all three and couldn’t make up my mind. I absolutely loved, loved, loved the green beans! They were buttery and a little oniony with slivered almonds in them. Oh man, I’d belly up to a full plate of those green beans any time!

Hubby had this huge fish sandwich…literally huge!

He really enjoyed it and cleaned the plate completely…always a good sign. And yes, his two sides were slaw and slaw. 

One Hot Mama’s makes it very easy to have a great meal in a no-fuss atmosphere. This will definitely become one of our go-to places on the island.

One Hot Mama’s American Grill

7 Greenwood Dr. #A

Hilton Head Island, SC  29928

843-682-6262

http://onehotmamas.com/

 

Road Trip Worthy: Carolina Cider Co.

Yes, after all those times I forgot my copy of the Southern Living magazine with the Carolina Cider Co. information, SL publishes Off the Eaten Path with an entire two page feature on the store. I deliberately kept my copy of the book in the car to have on hand for our next trip. We finally had a chance to head down to Hilton Head Island for Memorial Day weekend. With the book (and address) within grasp, I talked the guys into a little side road adventure and we were off!

We took an exit off I-95 and, within half an hour, ended up at the tiny little roadside stop far away from the holiday traffic. Yeah! I’d finally made it here!

Just seeing the trademark, hand-painted sign made me so happy!

There were several other cars already in the parking lot so I snapped some outside pictures and hurried to follow the guys already inside.

Oh the wonders! There’s a table filled with their famous ciders: peach, bing cherry, scuppernong and strawberry. Several choices ran from a chilled small bottle to a giant half-gallon jug. The walls were stacked with sacks of ready-to-cook flavored grits from local Lowcountry companies to barbecue sauces. I didn’t notice my Uncle Marvin’s sauce there—perhaps they need a phone call?

A back table featured jams, preserves and local honey. I was busy looking over the store and snapping pictures, but the guys all seemed to gravitate to the sample table. In fact, they stayed there for most of our time inside the store! Hubby and Dunc both loved the cherry butter.

But the billboards up and down I-95 talk about the cider. They beckon to you while whizzing by at 70 mph. Stop and try the cider. Peach Cider. Cherry Cider.  Plus, it’s called the Carolina Cider Co.; so, we should probably try them, right? They had all of them ready to sample in a chilled dispenser. I really preferred the Bing Cherry flavor.

The next display over showcased the famous pies featured in Southern Living magazine. Today’s pies were peach, apple and pecan. Oh, you know I had to try out the pecan pie!

Behind the pies and up against the wall were two pots of boiled peanuts—regular and cajun. Seriously?! I love boiled peanuts. Had to have some!

They even had a bookshelf near the register with cookbooks! Junior League of Charleston, of course. There’s a Gullah cookbook I would like to get, but I was spending my cash on food this time around. Maybe next time? Definitely!

So, I ended up spending a good bit of my recent “Above & Beyond” Award winnings on pecan pie, two cartons of boiled peanuts, two small refrigerated ciders for the boys and a larger strawberry cider.

This quaint little roadside spot was a one-stop shop for all things Southern: pecan pie, BBQ sauce, boiled peanuts, grits and cider! Now that I know the way, Carolina Cider Co. may become a part of every trip down to Hilton Head!

Carolina Cider Co.

81 Charleston Highway

Yemassee, SC 29945

843-846-1899

www.carolinaciderco.com

Church Attic Sale—Take Two...or Three

Okay, Saturday has rolled around and I’m going to attempt the attic sale at my former church in Charlotte. As it happens, there’s a super old church up near my house that is also having a sale—so I’m crossing my fingers that my former church keeps the doors to the Fellowship Hall locked. The one near my house is slated for a 7am open and the former church is on for 8am.

So the old church first on the list is Hopewell. It’s hundreds of years old and I’m hoping to find a member of the congregation that’s looking to let go of some old cookbooks. I show up early but the doors are locked…but I’m the start of the line so that’s great. Once the doors open, I only find one table with some cookbooks on it. I grab them up!

Favorite Recipes of Eastern Star Members: More Olde Family Favorites, Heart for the Harvest (Mount Harmony Baptist Church, Matthews, NC), Private Collections (Providence Day School, Charlotte, NC), Holiday Favorites: Traditional Family Recipes and The Candy Bar Cookbook (Alison Inches & Rick McKown).

I totally thought the Private Collections cookbook was from a hospital. The picture of the building just looked like one! Turns out it’s a cookbook from the parents at Providence Day…that’s a fancy private school. The Candy Bar Cookbook has me drooling with “3 Musketeers Meringue Pie.” Oh my…. And I’m thinking the “Milky Way Pain Au Chocolat” might be simple and quick enough to do for a Sunday morning treat.

They all belonged to a super nice lady named Billie and I think this is a good start to the day. But now I’ve got to race down to the attic sale at Little Church…

And once I get there it’s very clear that they didn’t hold the door. They opened early and I’m late to the party! I start over on the far right side and see a bookcase with a ton of books…and some cookbooks tucked in here and there. I grab one and then suddenly realize—these aren’t for sale! I’ve run over to their “library”! Oh boy…no worries. One of the ladies recognizes me and says that she’ll ask if I can buy one.

I make my way over to another familiar member and start chatting. After a few minutes, we get on the subject of my blog. Then she says, “Well, that whole back table is Becky’s old stuff. We’re selling it for her and she’s got a ton of old cookbooks including the original one from Little...”

She didn’t even get to finish the sentence…I took off running to the back table like a streak of lightning.

Here’s what I found:

Feast of Love (Bethania Moravian Church, Bethania, NC), Atlanta Cooks for Company (Jr. Assoc. of Atlanta Music Company), Favorite Recipes (Pleasant Hill Presbyterian Church), A Cook Book from Christ Church (Alexandria, VA), Parish Cook Book (St. Mary’s of the Hills, Blowing Rock, NC) and Following the Lamb, Feeding the Flock (Macedonia Moravian Church, Advance, NC). That last cookbook was the one I grabbed off the library shelf—and they let me buy it! Best part? Fifty cents each!

The highly-prized original Little Church on the Lane cookbook had just been snatched up by Valerie, the church secretary. Thisclose…oh well. That’s a great “get” for Valerie and now she has one of the really great Moravian cookbooks in her collection.

Also for sale near the door were copies of one of Little Church’s small red cookbooks called Our Church Family: Celebrating Our Special Needs. I remember buying this one during a Christmas Bazaar about ten years ago. I showed it to my mom who said, “Oh, I want to take a look at it.” And I haven’t seen it since….

So, as these are priced at fifty cents as well…I picked up three of them.

Why not? A girl can never have too many cookbooks, right? That’s why we’re cookbookaholics!

Two Tiny Bettys

Remember when I lost out on the Holy Grail eBay battle? While still on the site, I did a search for Betty Feezor items. I came across two auctions for small, thin pamphlets. During her more than two decades on television, all of Betty’s recipes were available to the public through mimeographed copies as well as her self-published cookbooks. Tucked in the middle of the daily show and the new cookbooks that would come out every few years, station advertising clients would sponsor and distribute small pamphlets with a collection of her recipes.

These were limited runs and are now very hard to find. When they do go up for auction on eBay, they can get out of hand for a 12- to 15-page publication. I should know, I’ve bid on a few!

There was only one bid on one pamphlet and no bid on the second one. I put bids on both and was the highest bidder. A few extra bids did come in and bumped the prices up quite a bit—but in the end, I got both of them!

So, a few days later and here they are:

The white one is “Betty Feezor Southern Biscuit Recipes” lots of recipes for cookies, cakes, fritters and dumplings. This one was published and distributed by Midstate Mills (Newton, NC) and Mooresville Flour Mills (Mooresville, NC).  The brown one is called “Country Cookin’ goes Modern.” It reminded me of Betty’s early beginnings as a home demonstrator. She’d go out to the less-developed areas and show them more modern cooking techniques for preparing meals. This one is published by Piedmont Natural Gas, Carolina Natural Gas Corp. and Public Service Company of N.C.

And they’re both is pristine condition, these were either forgotten on a shelf or very carefully cared for by a fan. Or, maybe both?

Salvaged Sunday

Saturday’s yard sales were really disappointing. I forgot to mention that my first stop was a church sale at my former church. When I got there, a whole line of cars were already there and a lot of people were just standing around. The fellowship hall was empty and the doors were locked. What’s the deal? The ad in the paper was for the next week…so I’m glad I wasn’t the only one that made the mistake of showing up a week early.

I’ll put it on my list for next week! In the meantime, I’m heading to visit my mom and will make a quick stop by my favorite used book store on the way. I’ve had some great finds there recently (hello Betty Feezor!) and I’m wondering if I can find some again today. They can’t all be great, right?

Turns out that today is a really great day…a salvaged Sunday almost. Today’s haul really makes up for the sad sack of a Saturday that was yesterday. 

Here’s what I got:

Barbara’s Top Recipes (Barbara Stutts/WBTV), Gems from Georgia Kitchens (The Garden Club of Georgia, Inc.), Old North State Cook Book (Junior League of Charlotte, Inc.) and From My House To Your House: Nell Graydon’s Cook Book (Nell S. Graydon).

I think I’ve mentioned that Barbara Stutts/Barbara McKay was the one who took over after Betty Feezor retired from WBTV. I guess to be fair, I need to try and pick up some of her cookbooks as well. The Gems cookbook is a first edition from 1963! And who can believe that I found a nice copy of the Junior League of Charlotte’s Old North State Cook Book.

It’s in really great shape and it’s the 1947 Second Edition.

Then there’s this Nell Graydon cookbook. The shape is really unique, very  handy. There’s a stain on the cover but something about it kept me coming back to it. I decided to go ahead and get it.

After doing some research online, I found that Nell Graydon was born in nearby Pineville, NC, but married and lived in Greenwood, SC. Time spent on the lowcountry beaches evolved into a career as a writer including books such as Tales of Edisto, South Carolina Ghost Tales and Tales of Beaufort. She is credited for publishing stories—ghost tales, fables and lore—that helped preserve local traditions and history.

The website I found still publishes a few of her books. They are still printing From My House To Your House but they’ve listed the original publication date as 1970. Well, then why does this one list a publication date of 1968? There is a special page at the very beginning that says, “All proceeds from the sale of this book go to the restoration of the South Carolina Methodist Conference School at Cokesbury.” Do you think this was a special initial run of the cookbook? I guess she could’ve capitalized on her fame within the state and offered this cookbook on an exclusive basis for this rebuilding fund. I wonder if that’s what happened here?

What a nice little historical mystery!