I’m making another valiant attempt to get through that pile of cookbooks that I stashed on the bottom shelf of a bookcase last year. The previous blog post was part of that. But this post is focused on the cookbooks I bought during one of our last weekend getaways.
Sadly, the in-laws sold the Harbour Town condo in Sea Pines last fall. Hilton Head Island has been where my family has gone for vacations since 1999. That’s a long, long time.
And as it was all gearing up to be listed, I was able to get in this trip to The Book Lady, my favorite Savannah used bookstore, Back in the Day Bakery and a few thrift stores on Hilton Head.
My new favorite thrift store on the island has become the St. Francis Thrift Store. I’ve had some really good cookbook finds there since my beloved Hospice Community Thrift closed down. Here’s what I was able to find:
Judie’s Cookbook (Judy Teraspulsky and others) looks to be recipes and menu suggestions found at Judie’s Restaurant in Amherst, MA. Sweet Potato Recipes is one of those seemingly authorless cookbooks…no one is listed so I guess it just self-published? Intriguing. But, it does have a Sweet Potato Biscuit recipe, so there’s that. Finally, I come across Unbearably Good from The Junior Service League of Americus, Georgia. Nice…first edition, first printing!
A day trip into Savannah involves a trip to Back in the Day Bakery. It’s been so long, but this was actually my very first trip to the bakery. There was a line of people outside, which I thought was the line to get in. But after a quick conversation with a few people, it turned out that they were waiting to pick up their orders. I didn’t see any other customers inside so I went in…and saw her. Cheryl Day was there! I thought I was going to die. And if I bought something or placed an order, I would have a chance to actually talk to her!!! OMG!!!!!
Also, one of the benefits of shopping inside the bakery? You can purchase autographed copies of Cheryl Day & Griffith Day’s cookbooks!
The Back in the Day Bakery Cookbook (Cheryl Day, Griffith Day). I love that you can see the shelves that are in the background of the cover photo inside the bakery. So cool! And…they’ve got other cookbooks for sale as well. I spotted Coconuts & Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South (Von Diaz) and decided to pick it up. It had been featured in a flyer from the University Press of Florida and caught my eye. This was the first time I’d seen this cookbook in person…so glad I picked it up!
When I went to the register to check out, the word “excitement” is such an understatement. I wanted to get a cupcake so I asked for one with all the icing. You heard me, I wanted one with as much icing that could be slathered on top of it.
While we were waiting on someone to bring a cupcake to the register, Cheryl Day rang me up at the register. She told me that her new cookbook, Cheryl Day’s Treasury of Southern Baking, was due to be published soon. I told her that the publication date was very close to my birthday, and I would treat myself to a copy as a present to myself. She was so nice! I was walking on air the rest of the weekend after that!
Want to see the cupcake with all the icing? LOL!!!
Now was time to settle in and look through the cookbook section at The Book Lady, my favorite used bookstore in Savannah. Here’s a look at a stack:
Going from the bottom up: Savoring Savannah: Feasts from the Low Country (Foreward by Nathalie Dupree, Introductions by Martha Giddens Nesbit) features menus with recipes by featured chefs from the area. Vertamae Cooks in the Americas’ Family Kitchen (Vertamae Grosvenor) and Vertamae Cooks Again: More Recipes from The Americas’ Family Kitchen (Vertamae Grosvenor). I had noticed these cookbooks before and wanted to make sure I got them this time around.
From Black Tie to Blackeyed Peas: Savannah’s Savory Secrets (St. Joseph’s Foundation of Savannah, Inc.) Why did I think this was from the Junior League of Savannah? I have another copy of this one somewhere? I’ve thought this was a Jr. League cookbook this whole time! Hmmm…oh well, this one is a first edition, first printing which is way cool and worthy of inclusion in the collection.
Southern Tables (Pinewood Christian Academy, Bellville, GA). This totally looks like a fancy private school cookbook which means there’s potential for the rich fancy parents to include their best family recipes. Plus, it’s a first edition, first printing.
Grace Hartley’s Southern Cookbook: Over Forty Years of Recipes from The Atlanta Journal. It’s been a hot minute since the Atlanta Constitution and the Atlanta Journal merged but I don’t think you can go wrong when the newspaper’s Food Editor pulls together several decades of recipes. This is dated 1976, so I’m thinking forty years puts this at mid-1930’s and forward. So you know what I’m thinking…congealed salads! And it doesn’t disappoint: Congealed Asparagus Salad, Tomato Aspic and Cottage Cheese Salad, Horseradish Ring with Vegetable Salad, and Spiced Peach Mold.
Cornbread Nation #1: The Best of Southern Food Writing (Edited by John Egerton for the Southern Foodways Alliance). Until recently, I’d been a dues-paying member of the Southern Foodways Alliance. I became a member of the SFA after attending a symposium in Birmingham, Alabama about six years ago. It had recently taken over/merged with Food Blog South which I had wanted to attend the previous year. My hope was to attend that year’s conference and get some tips and actionable ideas to help this blog improve: do giveaways, do interviews and expand into video. Now that SFA had taken over, there weren’t any speakers or sessions devoted to blogging or vlogging.
What I did find was a group of professional writers who were intentional in their focus to help record Southern traditions as well as its continuing evolution through the lens of food. I did feel a form of kinship, after all, this blog was intended, in some ways, to be my contribution to collecting recipes, traditions and celebrations of Southern cooking/cuisine. But I’m not a professional writer and it was getting harder for me to keep pace with blogging….so I let my membership expire. No more quarterly issues of Gravy. No more online access to the website and the Gravy podcast. But….now that I have this copy of Cornbread Nation, I can keep my eye out for more issues and maybe come across more copies of Gravy. Now that’s a good plan!
And now the final find from The Book Lady:
The Art of Cooking! (The Connoisseurs’, Lawrence County, Mississippi). The first section of this cookbooks is entitled, “VIP Recipes.” As you can imagine, there are a ton of recipes from various wives of southern state Governors. But what caught my attention was the response from Liza Minelli:
Thank you for your interest.
I’m having my secretary copy one of my recipes for you.
I’m on my way to Europe – work in London and Paris.
My best to you and the “Connoisseurs”
Liza
Then, on the next page is a recipe for Boston Prune Cake. Essentially, two yellow cake layers with a chilled vanilla pudding, spiced with cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice and “chopped, uncooked, pitted prunes” in the middle and topped with confectioner’s sugar. And the recipe is credited to…wait for it: “Mrs. Peter Allen (Liza Minelli).” Interesting! There’s no date that I can find for this cookbook….but if we use Liza to help narrow the timeframe, this cookbook could be from 1967 to 1970.
So that’s it! It’s been so sad to come to terms with the sale of the condo…so many happy family memories; but now we’re closing that chapter of our lives.
This just can’t be my last trip to Hilton Head Island and Savannah! I’d even be game for a very long day trip...