Today I went out to look for a recipe book about salads, as I wanted to have new suggestions and ideas. I felt a little “dried up” on this. I succeeded in buying a very nice and complete book on salads. The “Saladebijbel” will bring me many new recipes and a lot of new ideas.
But while being at the book store, I also found another nice book… one about pies and cakes! As I am baking a lot lately, that book got right away also my attention. And as it was not too expensive, I bought it. And there is already a preference what to make first out of this book.
While talking about this, I was asked how many cooking/recipe books I owned. I made a wild guess of 50 books. I was not very wrong, with the two new books 47!
All kinds of cooking/recipe books… about meat, pasta, fish, snacks, sauces, vegetables (one very nice book on this subject), stews, how to decorate a plate and many more. And of course some books of Jamie Oliver.
But there is one book I am particular proud of to have…
And yes, it is the very old and damaged book on the photo above. It is book called “Ik kan koken.” (“I can cook.”). The book was printed in 1956 and first time published in 1948.
The book belonged to my mother and she must have got it around the time she got married.
When looking through this book one will realize that the way how we cook changed a lot over the years. You will not find anything about olive oil in this book or any of the many ingredients that are nowadays so normal. Not even to mention the cooking times for vegetables and baking times for meat. Those are way shorter these days.
And yet, there are recipes in the book that I want to try on their original way, such as some fish and poultry recipes. They are interesting at least.
I am really considering to have this book repaired. It is worth it, but this should be done by someone with good skills in this.
As long you keep cooking and baking like that, I’m happy!
And yes, you should have that cooking book of your mother repaired!