there was a good show on npr's talk of the nation the other day called our insatiable appetite for cookbooks. the hosts were interested in why we continue to fork out dollars for cookbooks when so many recipes can be found online. cookbooks aren't cheap after all. the consensus among most of the people who called in was that they loved to read cookbooks because of the stories behind the recipes. stories of farmer's, far away places or friends and family involved in the making of the recipe.
i've never really thought about it, but now that i am, it's true. when i cook from the moosewood cookbook, i think about the moosewood veggie restaurant of the 70s. or whenever i make the barefoot contessa's indonesian ginger chicken, i always think of lauren bacall, because in her introductory paragraph the contessa writes about lauren bacall getting cranky whenever her store is out of the dish.
there's a really pretty story about rice pudding on the show. about the author monica bhide and her childhood best friend and their love of rice pudding. now i'll always think of that story when i eat rice pudding.
I baked cookies today. I used the recipe from my mother's old plastic recipe file. The cookies were oatmeal....nothing special, but the memories of her baking were my stories.
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