One year ago today, we went for a casual stroll through a local Goodwill, like many other Saturdays before it. Been through that Goodwill many times, but THIS time, there was something special waiting for me, and I found it.
Another Simply Delicious book. With a different style of cover and everything.
I’ve waited a year to tell you that I’ve found more recipes. This seemingly never-ending project just got longer.
I have stated at other times that I didn’t feel like I wanted to add any more to what I considered my personal “canon”–the original set my mom gave me long ago. But when I saw it, there was no question that it was coming home with me. There wasn’t a LOT of new content, but there were quite a few that I’d never seen before.
Consider 20-15: Vary the Butter Sauces to be the advanced version of 20-13: Béarnaise and Hollandaise Sauces. There’s probably something that bridges the two better (whatever 20-14 is, but I don’t have that card in my collection), so 5-4: Eggs Benedict will have to do. This set of recipes is part of the Cooking School, the back section of Simply Delicious that provides instructions in basic techniques, ingredients, and recipes that any skilled cook should be familiar with.
Like I said in 20-13: Béarnaise and Hollandaise Sauces, Hollandaise and its variations comprise one of the five mother sauces, a big part of French cuisine. Mastering it (and the others) is one of the marks of an accomplished and talented chef. I’ve always appreciated a well-made butter sauce, and these variations are intriguing–I’d be interested in eventually trying each one out.
Here’s where I explain what this whole site is about. Settle in–there’s a bit of a story involved.
When I was a small child in the late 80s-early 90s just learning to cook, my mother gifted me with a set of subscription-based cookbooks called Simply Delicious. The set I currently have consisted of three “volumes” (although I’ve been told there are more cards/volumes out there–I don’t doubt it), and I believe I have a good amount of the cards that were produced. She (my mom) claims she gave up near the end. Thanks, mom.
Many of the cards have her notations on them, as well as mine. I come from a long line of cooks and restaurateurs, and we take our cookbooks seriously when we find good ones. They’re still my go-to books for basic techniques, dinner parties, and just about any instance where you need easy, clear, traditional recipes.
I’ve had these books for 30+ years now, and they’ve been carted back and forth across state lines several times, existed in every kitchen I’ve ever had, and have generally just gotten really beaten up. While living in a really terrible apartment in the San Fernando Valley after moving back home to Los Angeles post-college graduation, they were temporarily inhabited by roaches.
I successfully evicted the roaches long ago, but the books still aren’t exactly in the best shape. However, I continue to love them and haven’t been able to part with them, despite the lingering roach residue that still coats the edges and corners.
Given their present condition, I feel it’s time to scan them in an attempt to preserve what’s left of the physical books themselves. Taking into account the current navel-gazing inclinations of our culture, I have decided to blog-while-doing, writing and cooking my way through the books as I scan them. I’ve cooked many of these recipes in the past, but I’ve never done the whole thing.
Since there are SO many to cover, I’ve let my husband try his hand at a few–you’ll see his entries here as well.
I call this giant time-suck: The Cookbook Project. It’s not original in any way. But considering there’s very little that I can find about these books out on the internet, I figure, what the hell.
Dive in, and enter the fanciful world of 1980s recipes-by-mail. I promise, most of the recipes are actually pretty good. You might even say they’re…..simply delicious.
