This week we thought we’d share some of our favorite cookbooks…the ones all of us girls want to have in our own kitchen someday. Everyone’s favorites are going to be different, but most of these are just good, basic cookbooks full of yummy recipes!
The New Cookbook - This is just a very good all around basic cookbook with recipes for all your basic dishes and handy little tips on baking pies, making soup stock, and other things.
The Basics and More Cookbook - another good basic cookbook. This cookbook is one of those that are falling apart at our house! 
Substituting Ingredients – This is an absolutely wonderful handy little book to have…we’ve used our so much it is in three pieces now! Whether you’ve run out of an ingredient, want to make your own ketchup, or need a healthier subsitute for a recipe you’re making, this book comes in handy!
Fix It and Forget It - A very good crockpot cookbook with recipes for everything from main dishes to hot drinks, to yummy desserts!
The Taste of Home Cookbooks - If you can ever get your hands on one of these, they have plenty of good recipes with pictures! Then it is easier to get an idea of what your recipe will look like.
Gooseberry Patch Cookbooks - These are very sweet, very quaint little cookbooks that come in many different volumes…we love the Blueberry Struesel Muffins from their book, “Flavors of Fall”.
And now for a few recipes from two of the cookbooks mentioned above….
- Are you baking and out of eggs? Add 2 T. of oil and 1 T. of water to your recipe for each egg you’re missing.
- A good make-your-own ketchup recipe that tastes almost as good as storebought:
1-15 oz. can tomato sauce
2-6 oz. cans tomato paste
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. vinegar
4 t. salt
Mix all together. Makes approximately 3 cups.
-Want something chocolaty and able to go in the slow cooker? Try this yummy recipe that we call “Triple Chocolate Mess”, but is more respectably called “Chocolate Pudding Cake” in the cookbook “Fix It and Forget It”.
1 pkg. chocolate cake mix
3.0 oz. pkg. instant chocolate pudding mix
2 c. sour cream
4 eggs
1 c. water
3/4 c. oil
1 c. chocolate chips
whipped cream or ice cream (non-optional! Okay, the recipe does say that it is optional!)
Combine cake mix, pudding mix, sour cream, eggs, water, and oil in an electric mixer bowl. Beat on medium speed for 2 minutes. Stir in chocolate chips.
Pour into a greased slow cooker. Cover and cook on Low 6-7 hours, or on High 3-4 hours, or until toothpick inserted near center comes out with moist crumbs.
Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
Do you have a favorite cookbook? What cookbooks do you hope to have on your kitchen shelf one day?
About The Author
Oh, such a lovely post dear! :D I too have my “collection” of cookbooks. :) They stay in use though…not in my hope chest. ;) HeHe!
LOVE the Gooseberry Patch books! :D Mmm, blueberry muffins are my favorite! :) I have 3 of their cookbooks. :)
Let’s see, my favorites would be my “Pillsbury Complete Book of Baking” cookbook, with scratch recipes and lot’s for all occasions. :) And my McCall’s cookbook that was my grandmother’s (etched with a few stains from her cooking on the pages of her favorite recipes). :) This books has lot’s of helpful lists of measurements, ingredients substitutions, baking times for all kinds of meats and baked goods, etc. too. :)
Then My Pillsbury Best Muffins and Quick Breads cookbook, with scratch recipes for every kind of muffins and quick bread recipe imaginable! ;) I love the basic muffins recipe in here…with variations for about 8 more muffins from with this basic recipe! ;) It’s my most used cookbook I think.
I also have a “King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion” cookbook that is fabulous! You get all the way from simple chocolate chip to very elegant cookies! :D Tons of recipes in here! :)
Then I have a few other’s that were given to me or we bought at yard sales/thrift stores…bread books, and some other small leaflet type books. :)
I also collect loose recipes from online in 2 binders; one for meals, and one for everything else from appetizers to dessert. :)
Blessings to you Jessica! Thank you for your post!
~Miss Rachel P.~
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Oh, and thank you ever so much for your recipes! :D I’ll save those and use them if I run out of ketchup or eggs. My family has that slow cooker cookbook, but we’ve never tried that recipe…I’ll have to try it soon! :D Thank you for sharing! :)
Blessings again!
~Miss Rachel P.~
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Excellent post! Thank you for the recommendations. I would also recommend the Fanny Farmer cookbook. My mom had this when I was growing up and now I have my own copy (held together by duct tape hehe).
Be blessed!
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I really like Farm House Cooking. It has over 1700 recipes using basic ingredients. Just wonderful breakfasts and more! My mom bought mine from Rod and Staff. I especially like the baked oatmeal recipe, submitted by 8 cooks! I never could eat oatmeal, but this consistency is great!
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I made myself cut my cookbook collection by a third last year only to add several more books later!
I love my older cookbooks:
A Thousand Ways to Please a Husband with Bettina’s Best Recipes
A Thousand Ways to Please a Family with Bettina’s Best Recipes
Hannah Glasse Cookbook (18th century)
Fanny Farmer’s Cookbook
The Way to a Man’s Heart cookbook
500 Wartime Recipes (vintage WW II)
My go-to cookbooks are:
Betty Crocker
Vintage Better Homes and Gardens
Joy of Cooking
Good Housekeeping
My specialty cookbooks include:
Scottish Irish Pub and Hearth Cookbook
Turkey (the country, not the food)
Indian (from India, not native American)
Some cookie cookbook, I can’t recall the title of now
I also have a collection of home canning and preserving books.
I have other cookbooks, too but they aren’t hugely significant so I won’t list them.
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Wow – sounds delicious! Some of my faves and raves are The Betty Crocker Cookbook and the Joy of Cooking!
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What a lovely website!
I too love my vintage Joy of Cooking cookbook and my The New Good Housekeeping cookbook. I also have one vintage recommendation if you spot it at an antique store/Goodwill/ect: ‘Learn To Bake…You’ll Love it!’ published in 1947 and distributed by General Foods. It introduces the novice baker to cakes, muffins, cookies, and pastry. It taught me how to make a great pie crust (hint: wrap the pastry in a damp towel for 15 min before chilling or using). I’ve been turning to this cookbook for years!
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Oh! All these recommendations sound wonderful! I am going to have to check them out :D
We, too, have the too-many-cookbooks-disease…it’s terrible! Well, not *so* terrible maybe!
Jessica
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Jessica – just wanted to let you know I’ve had to use your egg-substitute several times and am so thankful you shared this info! :)
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We just had to use it tonight, ourselves :D Glad that it has been a help :)
Love you!
Jessica
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