The Mija Chronicles

Mexican food and culture, on both sides of the border

My first cookbook

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My first cookbook

While going through some old stuff from high school and college last weekend at my dad’s, I found this book, which I thought I’d thrown out.

I opened it and saw that I’d written on the inside. “This book belongs to: Lesley Téllez 6/26/91.” I was 12 years old.

I loved this book. Betty Crocker’s Cookbook for Boys and Girls (a 1970s/80s-era update of the original 1957 version) was my first real cookbook, and I adored the hamburgers with smiley faces on the cover, and the baked bologna-and-egg cups, and the cool picture of a star-shaped watermelon-and-cottage-cheese salad. Granted, the “crater ham loaf” never looked appetizing, but the mashed potatoes — which I underlined and wrote “YEAH!!!” over the top — certainly did. And, I’m going to be honest, so did the hot-dog pizza. Mostly because it was real, homemade pizza.

Apparently I used to go through this book and make little check marks next to recipes I liked.

Bologna and Egg Cups

Watermelon and Cottage Cheese Salad

Crater Ham Loaf

Polka Dot Pizza

Crayton said I should launch a blog and make every recipe, but I don’t have time for that. (If I didn’t do it when I bought the EZ-Bake Oven Gourmet cookbook, I won’t do it now.) Instead I’m going to keep it on my shelf, and maybe my 9-year-old neice will cook with me when she comes to visit. I can already see myself: “Doesn’t this pink meringue pie look interesting? Let’s make it!”

What was your first cookbook?

1970s Tacos for Dinner

Stuff to Snack On

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Just look at the portion sizes! It really says something about how eating habits have changed these past 20 years.

    Those six hard shell taco wannabe thingies? I’d probably eat them and still be hungry for six more.

    • I didn’t even look at the portion sizes. Six for Crater Ham Loaf? Sheesh. Ditto on the tacos — although the food stylist who decided to put refried beans on top of a taco is probably regretting that idea now.

  2. This is awesome! Definitely the kind of book that would change someone’s life. I know that teaching kids that they can cook something as simple as the bologna cups will turn them into adults that are adventurous.

    • I think I made the bologna cups! If memory serves, I don’t think they tasted very good. (Maybe I forgot the salt. Also, I wasn’t a big egg-eater back then.) It’s funny because only a year after I got this cookbook, I graduated to a much more grown-up Betty Crocker Baking Book. (For adults.) I still have that one, and still make things out of it. I think I won my husband’s heart through the pineapple pie recipe.

      This cookbook does have some cool holiday recipes for kids though. The “Ghost With Flaming Eyes” cake seems fun for Halloween.

  3. Love. I don’t think it was my first cookbook, but I received The Joy of Cooking from my godparents as a Christmas gift in the late 90s and it has accompanied me to every kitchen I’ve cooked in since. I make notes in it, too- the dates when I cook a recipe and my impressions of whether I liked it, how I might have tweaked it, etc.

    • I love the Joy of Cooking. I got it as a wedding present and it’s still my go-to reference on almost anything. Re: notes, I never write in my cookbooks — I send myself emails instead, which is probably a little weird.

  5. The first one I used was the Fanny Farmer cookbook which had amazing Christmas cookie recipes – but Joy of Cooking was my best reference and I loved the New York Times Cook Book edited by Craig Claiborne. I love this post too and I am tempted to try a bologna cup!

    • I like the Fanny Farmer and Craig Claiborne recommendations, thanks Maria. And yes! Let’s all make the bologna cups. Maybe contain them in pie crust or something to add a little pizzaz, sprinkle a little smoked paprika on top.

  6. When I saw the post title, I thought you were going to tell us that you’re writing a cookbook. I have to say, I was a bit bummed that you’re not writing one. I’d totally buy it.

    • Hi Tim: You’re not the first person to tell me that today. I should have titled it, “The First Cookbook I Ever Owned.” Oh well.

      I am working on a cookbook — crossing my fingers that someone publishes it. We’ll see. I appreciate your confidence in me!

  7. This post brought back the memory of my first cookbook, and I had to wait until the weekend to dig it out of the basement. It was called “Fun to Cook Book” and I treasured it. I looked through it today and I don’t think I ever made a single thing in it! But I loved it, as I love all my cookbooks. Here is a link to a picture:

  9. Hi Lesley! Oh this is wonderful! That Crater Meatloaf looks horrendous but I’ll bet the recipes are still fun. I actually found my 7th grade home ec recipe notebook (all the recipes we made in class written in my own 11 or 12-year-old handwriting) and I want to make them all (haven’t yet). It brings us back to a much more innocent time, doesn’t it?

    • Oooh, you should totally make them! We should have an old home-ec recipes exchange blog. I think I still have some homemade pasta recipes from my advanced home ec class, which pretty much blew my 8th-grade mind. (Packaged pasta actually comes from REAL flour?)

  10. Ha! Leslie!! This was my favorite cookbook too. My copy has pieces of paper taped in with changes I made to the recipes. 🙂