My half-priced book adventure!

[unbibium]

I found a Half-Price Books store next to the Guitar Center, so I went in and found what might end up being the perfect cookbook for me: "What to Cook When You Think There's Nothing in the House to Eat."

It seems to sort recipes by ingredient, so just turn the page to that thing you got for that one recipe and then don't know what to do with the rest of it. I think "The Joy of Cooking" has a similar index, but it's a big thick book with tiny print on flimsy paper. In this book, the print is large enough for me to read comfortably, and it's printed on durable plain non-glossed paper.

Come back in a month and ask me whether it's gathering dust with the rest of my cookbooks. Even if I only use a few recipes out of it, it'll be worth the $3 I spent on it.

Also for $3: The Reader's Digest Fix-It-Yourself Manual, a book I always saw lying around some random part of the house when I was growing up. It's pretty much what my dad used to learn home repair, so I suppose it'll work for me too. Can't wait for something to break.

Comments

[plorkwort.livejournal.com]

It seems to sort recipes by ingredient, so just turn the page to that thing you got for that one recipe and then don't know what to do with the rest of it.

The 1970s-era Campbell's Cooking With Soup includes similar mix-and-match charts, with at least one flavor of condensed soup in each. Also, the dutiful reader of the 1959 Betty Crocker's Guide to Easy Entertaining would be well-prepared for natural disaster or unexpected guests: there's a two-page spread on Emergency Rations and Reserve Foods, with an example of

"a complete dinner of reserve supplies, with nothing fresh except the lettuce -- even the coffee cream came powdered out of a jar!

Hot Bouillon
Toasted Parmesan Cheese Crackers
Creamed Crab Shortcake
(cream of celery soup, canned crabmeat, and Bisquick)
Asparagus Tips on Lettuce, Caper Mayonnaise
Pears Glazed under Jelly
Coffee

It is so easy to make dream dinners in your mind! Some Sunday night, treat your entire family like Pot Luck guests. Pull a whole meal off the shelf, and see how it works."