Cookbook collecting a tasty passion

“Did all these cookbooks come from one collection?” I inquired of the lady behind the desk. Several rolling carts filled with books spilled out of the small room labeled “Friends of the Library Used Book Sale.” I was visiting the community college library in Fort Collins, Colo.

“Yes,” the clerk replied. She explained that a woman had died and her husband had donated her cookbook collection to the library — 23 boxes worth! I had already browsed enough to learn her name and see personal handwritten notes and recipes tucked in the pages. Although several cookbooks were calling to me and priced at only $1, $2 and $3, I purchased not one. The thought of packing my suitcases in a month to fly home to Alaska was the deterring factor.

Growing up in Glennallen, the one cookbook in my mother’s kitchen was her red-and-white checked 1953 “Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook.” I rarely saw her consult it. Mom had grown up in a Methodist children’s home and had not learned how to cook until she married Dad several years later. Moose roast or steaks, boiled potatoes and canned vegetables were the usual supper. I was introduced to other more “exotic” fare such as pizza, lasagna, spaghetti, sloppy joes, etc., through the hot lunch program at Glennallen School.

When I married my husband, Gary, he already had a collection of six or eight cookbooks and we received more as wedding gifts. At one of my wedding showers, the community ladies each presented me with a 3x5 card with a favorite recipe. The first few months of marriage, I enthusiastically tried numerous recipes with a different menu every night.

Six years later while living in Cooper Landing, I was invited to participate in the Dall Homemakers Club community cookbook, which sparked my interest in small regional cookbooks. A few years later in Palmer, several of my recipes were included in the Lazy Mountain Bible Church cookbook.

On a family trip to Texas, I was introduced to the cookbook collections resulting from the Southern Living Magazine. Mail order offers opened my eyes to a variety of other cookbooks. At this point, money was not as tight, and I succumbed to purchasing a new cookbook once in a while.

After a couple more years, though, I realized I had more than needed and said “enough!” But by this time, family members had started contributing to my collection. Knowing that we eat a lot of Mexican food, my dad even personally picked out a Mexican cookbook for me.

Recipes were also collected through newspapers, magazines and friends. Early on, I followed my mother-in-law’s example and organized a shoebox with divider cards for the various categories. Now with two shoeboxes, several three-ring binders and four shelves of cookbooks, it is sometimes hard to locate a particular recipe.

Having been taught at an early age not to write in, or otherwise deface books, it was a major milestone when in 1998 I decided to start making notes in my cookbooks each time a new recipe was tried.

The usual notes include the date and whether we thought it was delicious, OK or don’t try again.

Five years after our son left home, I received a call from him requesting a few specific recipes he remembered from his growing up years. It pleased me to compile and make copies for a personal cookbook for his use. Since our daughter became a vegetarian, I received no such request from her. Now both of them cook a much more creative and wider variety of foods than I ever did or hope to. Sitting down to a meal at either of their tables is a delightful, although rare, treat.

My collection still occasionally grows when I just can’t pass up a special volume at a yard sale. Most recently, a good friend here in Palmer downsized her collection and I became the happy recipient of her copy of “Cooking Alaskan.”

After my experience at the community college library in Fort Collins, I called my daughter and said, “Erin, I would like you to give my cookbooks to any interested family members after I no longer need them. The rest can be donated to a library, but first please flip through the book pages and remove any loose papers of notes.”

Maraley McMichael is a longtime Mat-Su Valley writer and resident.