My first cookbook

My dad used to get those Reader's Digest book suggestions in the mail and one day he noticed a cookbook that he thought would be perfect for me, for my first cookbook.  He ordered it through the mail and when it arrived, he hid it away to give me for Christmas.  Nine days before Christmas that year he passed away of a devastating heart attack.  After more than a decade of heart troubles, his heart finally could do no more and at fifteen, I had lost my beloved father. 

The days and weeks and certainly the holidays that followed were the darkest period of my life.  On Christmas morning, I still received that cookbook; the last present physical present I would ever receive from him.  My mom told me the story of him picking the book for me and how excited he was to give it to me, as well as her struggle to find where he had hidden it when it had arrived in the mail. 

The Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, for many years, the best cookbook in the world to me!  So many wonderful recipes, so much information learned.  I never made the soufflé on the cover (I just realized that!) but so many other wonderful recipes came to life for me, ones that I continue to use in my day to day cooking, including lemon ice, moist bread stuffing, roasts, turkeys, desserts, pancakes, etc.  It became a reference guide for how to set the table, how to lay out a buffet table, menu planning, how to prepare and cook any vegetable or fruit, the Canadian equivalent name of cuts of beef, roasting times for turkeys and chickens and so much more.  I wish he could have known how much joy it has brought me, how many people I have fed with recipes from its pages and how much I have missed him over the years.

My oldest daughter turned thirteen this week, and while we had already spoiled her (early) with an electronic book reader, we didn't want her actual birthday to go by without a little something.  We decided it was time for her own cookbook.  Since starting my business, I have relied more and more on my girls to help around the house and she has stepped up to the plate (no pun intended!) with meals.  It has been awesome.  She started reading my cookbooks and we decided it was time for her to have her own!

She was thrilled to get this gift, The America's Test Kitchen Healthy Family Cookbook, in fact, she squealed with delight!  The girls and I faithfully watch the tv show on PBS each week and I already had the regular (read: non-healthy) version of the cookbook that she had been checking out.  She has already read her cookbook like a novel and has come up with a number of great ideas for meals.  She now gives me tidbits of advice on how to prepare vegetables and rice, meal suggestions and recipes.  She looks for recipes that are suitable for our family's special dietary needs and searches for ways to make a recipe fit our life.  It is such a gift to have her helping me, sharing my love of cooking with me and taking the first steps to becoming a wonderful cook.  But the biggest gift of all was that I was able to witness her face when she received her first cookbook.  I hope I can love her and the meals she is going to make for us, for many more years!