Comforting Cookbooks

   

With all of the news about meat and poultry processing plant closings coupled with shortages at the grocery stores, it made me think of other times in history that found food in short supply.

Of course one of these times was during World War II.

Growing up I remember hearing stories about the rationing of many food items, but couldn't imagine what that must have really been like.  After all, we have been grocery shopping for years in stores with shelves filled with multiple choices of everything.  Sometimes too many choices, it seemed to me.

Anyhow, this all brought to mind a cookbook I have in my collection.  You can see it in the photo above.

Dedicated to General Douglas MacArthur, it provides a glimpse into the ways women aided the war effort on the American homefront.

It was a time when women rolled up their sleeves and did what was necessary.  This very heavy book (have you ever noticed how heavy some of the old books are?) went into great detail about keeping food on the table despite the shortages.

Another cookbook in my collection.

This one also provides a peek into the American kitchen, although from a slightly different perspective.

Published in 1943, this one was for boys and girls who like good food.  My, those children were snappy dressers, weren't they?

I love this book for many reasons.

Among them is this inscription in the front cover.

Perhaps it's because my mom always wrote something nice in the front cover of books she gave as gifts.  I still have many of them and seeing her handwriting is like a warm hug after all of these years.

I don't know how little Jeanne's book found it's way from California to a North Carolina thrift shop, but I'm glad it found it's way into my collection.  I like to think of the excitement Jeanne felt when Mother returned with this surprise after going to see Granny :).

I also adore these sweet colored photos of simpler times.

One last cookbook from the collection.

Written in 1937, this one provides many different recipes using Crisco.  Apparently one of the many benefits of Crisco at that time was that it was "fit for delicate stomachs".  For some reason that made me chuckle.

Nice of them to start off with helpful suggestions for the servantless households.  Although after reading the entire chapter I was exhausted with the amount of work they put into putting a meal on the table.  Between making absolute certain there were no spots on the tablecloth to making sure the knife blade was facing the right direction, the servantless woman was under a lot of pressure.

Thankfully it all became clear near the end of the book.

As long as the children's cheeks were rosy and the man of the house was healthy and happy it was all worth it.

Chuckle, Chuckle, Chuckle.

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