Thank you all for the kind comments on my post about the whole "but is it ART?" thing.

Again, I think part of the crux of the problem - both in terms of how I feel about what I do craft-wise and what I do research and teaching-wise, is that I'm surrounded by so many talented people that I begin to feel kind of second-best.

But anyway. I cleaned my house this evening and that helped (both the simple activity and the fact that my house is now clean).

*****

I have a lot of cookbooks. I've been accumulating cookbooks for many, many years. (Most of them were purchased in the last 10 years or so).

But I've had some since I was a child.



These are the first two cookbooks I ever had. (I think I also had a cookbook put out by - was it "Humpty Dumpty"? One of the children's magazines? But I don't have that one any more).

The Winnie-the-Pooh cookbook was given to me in 1974 - there's an inscription from the friends of my family who gave it to me for Christmas. (So, I've had the book longer than some of you lot reading this have been alive.)

The Mickey Mouse cookbook was bought for me by my dad...I think I remember him getting it at "Best" (it was one of those warehouse-showroom type places: they'd have like one appliance or one tv out on the sales floor, and you had the salesman fill out a tag for you, and then you went and picked it up...they also did have some things, like books, just out for sale. I remember "Best" best because they had that lady-in-the-rain lamp. Those of you of a certain age (were around in the 70s) might remember those - a lady, vaguely Greek-statue in style, in the center of a sort of column. There were these "tracks" of nylon filament around the outside and it looked like raindrops ran down them. I was always intrigued by those but also secretly thought they were a little tacky. I'm not describing it very well but I don't know the real name so I can't search for a picture. But they were pretty ubiquitous 30 or more years ago, and not very long ago I saw one in a steakhouse in Iowa.)

Anyway, he bought the book for me because I liked to cook.

I liked to cook because my mom liked to cook. And when I expressed a desire for an "Easy Bake" oven, she asked me if I wouldn't rather learn to use the real oven.

So I did.

The Mickey Mouse cookbook looks, well, a little Mickey Mouse, but it's got some halfway decent basic recipes. Unlike some "beginner's" cookbooks, there's very little reliance on mixes or pre-prepared things. It actually could teach a kid to cook.

And I still like and still use the recipe for oven-fried chicken sometimes.



One thing I like about the book - and realize now as an adult was a good teaching-thing - is that a lot of the basic recipes come with a bunch of different variations. Like, different things you can add to pancakes or to salad or different ways of preparing cupcakes, as shown here. (Of course, there's the gimmick that each "variation" is tied to a character: hence, the seven dwarfs have seven varieties of cupcakes, one for each dwarf.)

Another thing that I realize is perhaps a bit unusual for a cookbook - even in the 70s and maybe especially for a Disney-themed cookbook - is that male characters are shown cooking in roughly equal proportions to female. So, Robin Hood has his recipes, just as Maid Marian does.

And some of the recipes are just kind of endearing.



This is one of my favorites: Piglet's Pizza Muffins. (We made these a lot when I was a kid. I do them a little differently now, one big change being that it's best to toast the muffins a bit first).

But the caption or "blurb" at the top of the recipe was endearing to me as a child: "Something like this can be awfully cheering when you're feeling Very Small and rather sad about it." Of course! Very Small Pizzas for a Very Small Animal.

There are a few odd things about the book. I always found this picture unsettling:



How did Donald get long hair? Why is it that weird auburn color? This picture kind of disturbed me as a child. (And I think now: Why not show one of the Princesses tying back her own hair, or getting a ladies' maid to help her? Or, for that matter, why not Captain Hook? He had long hair naturally.

Donald here just looks like some very weird hippie duck.

The Pooh cookbook is less photogenic - basically, it's recipes with reproductions of Shephard's line drawings from the original books, and quotations that more or less fit the recipes. I also used the book less as a child - the recipes were fussier, and often called for ingredients (like radishes) that I did not like.

I think the book was published here, but many of the recipes have a British feel - the cookies are less sweet and gooey, they are more dry and "biscuit" (in the British sense) like. And there are recipes for cucumber sandwiches and other things like that.

I do plan sometime to try the pea-bean soup in the book (now that I've established that as an adult, I like beans in pretty much any form; I would only eat green beans, and then grudgingly, as a child). I'd also like to try Cottleston Pie, which is basically a quiche (but with a less-rich crust), but it serves 8 so I'm trying to figure out how to halve it and what kind of size pan I'd need to use.

So, these are the books I learned to cook from (with help and guidance from my mother, of course). I've always liked cooking - I suppose that's because my mother did. I think you can get turned off of doing something if you have a parent or other role model who doesn't like it or doesn't value it - or maybe not totally turned off, but I think you're less likely to take to it.

And it helped to have fun books as a child. I baked the cake in the Disney book a lot - upon reflection, my mother was quite indulgent to let me use the kitchen (usually making a mess in the process) as much as I did. In the Disney book, on the page with the cake recipe, I have written in my childish hand the substitution you make if you don't have cake flour and have to use regular flour instead. (I thought I had also written "start with flour, end with flour" which was another piece of cake-baking advice I learned early on - when you add the flour and liquid alternately - but I guess I never wrote that down).