It’s been quite a year since I left the radio station and moved on to Bottom Dollar Food. I can honestly say that I’ve never felt more valued as an employee. I promise you, the difference is like night and day. And I’m very, very thankful and grateful every day.
As you know, I lubs me some Paula Deen. I have many of her cookbooks—some of them are even autographed from when she visited the Bob & Sheri studio. But I’ve always kept an eye out for one particular cookbook of hers. It’s the first one. Not the Savannah Country Cookbook that everyone has. I mean the very first one—her self-published cookbook.
It’s called Favorite Recipes of The Lady & Her Friends Cookbook and she had 5,000 printed. The story goes that an editor for a major publishing house vacationed in Savannah, ate at her restaurant and purchased a copy. That editor then approached Paula about publishing the cookbook under her banner at the publishing house. Paula asks one of her sons if he’s ever heard of the publishing company and he tells her to go for it. The rest is history…
So, in essence, the Savannah Country Cookbook is a more mass-marketed version of her original self-published version. The thing is, this original one…which I call The Holy Grail…has become this deified, rarified, elusive artifact. I have seen them come up for action on eBay, but not very often. I’ve even watched them consistently sell for more than $300!
I actually won an eBay auction for one of these a few years back, but my winning bid didn’t meet the seller’s requested minimum. When I contacted them directly, the seller had some outrageous $500 minimum. They must have been smoking something because that was almost three times the amount of my “winning” bid.
And then the diabetes controversy hit the news. I’ve slowly watched as the value on this cookbook has come down. A few of them showed up in rapid succession on eBay. “Buy It Now” auctions, with price tags north of $300, were hoping to squeeze out a big payday; but ended with no buyers in sight. I even saw one opening bid go for days without any takers to only get marked down a hundred bucks before ending with a buyer.
I figured I would keep waiting to see if the prices would level out to a more reasonable amount. A few days ago, I noticed an auction had just started. I kept watch over the next few days. When it was time for the auction to end, I sniped it at an even lower price than the first one I “won.”
I couldn’t believe I actually got the winning bid. I figured some email would soon arrive to, again, tell me that they had really hoped for more money. But then, the invoice showed up in my inbox. This is the real deal! They sent the bill!
Cut to the end of my one year anniversary and I’m walking through the door at home. I look on the kitchen countertop to see a box with a return address in Savannah. It’s here! What an amazing anniversary gift…to myself.
It’s almost pristine; the pages still have that stiff crisp sound when I turn the pages. I’m finally holding The Holy Grail….The Holy Effin’ Grail! Was this ever used? I seriously doubt it. There is some slight discoloration on the top inside corner of the back cover, but other than that—it looks like it has just been sitting on a shelf. Now, it can sit on my shelf!
So, now that I’ve found The Holy Grail, what’s this cookbookaholic to do next? I mean, didn’t Indiana Jones move on to another great adventure after he’d discovered the Ark of the Covenant? Maybe for my next adventure, I’ll plan a trip to Savannah and get it autographed by The Lady herself?