Mom's 1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook

When I came to live in the UK, I brought very few belongings with me.  I was confined to what I could pack into two large suitcases and one piece of carry on luggage.  For the first few years I didn't think about what I'd left behind. Beginning a new life and making a new home was so exciting.   As time went by and I became more established, I realized there were a few things I wished I had been able to bring with me.  Things that reminded me of my Mom and Dad, things from my childhood home.

 Things like my Mom's well-worn cookbook.  On a whim, I searched on the internet and found I could buy a  new copy of the exact recipe book I remembered from Mom's kitchen.  I had to have it!  When it arrived I was transported back to my early childhood, standing on my little, red, wooden chair to reach to kitchen work surface, helping Mom bake cookies.

I've spent at least two weeks pouring over each page, studying each illustration and photograph.  It's exactly how I remember it.  Now I've started cooking from this book.  I am trying recipes Mom and I never tried before.  It's almost like being that little kid again, learning how to cook and bake for the first time.  Best of all it brings back memories of happy days in the kitchen with Mom.

If you'd like to try a recipe from the '50s, visit Deb's Dust Bunny and learn how to bake Brown Sugar Drops.

Betty Crocker's Illustrated Cookbook is available from Amazon. First printed in 1950, it is a real slice of Americana.