Introduction: Recipes for Revolution

Abstract

When I was a child, my family’s cookbooks were crowded in a single row in a kitchen cabinet near the stove. We did not own many; nevertheless, our small collection is ingrained in my memory as I often turned to the books because I cooked regularly. In addition, we had a few dozen Sunset magazines that contained unusual recipes, such as Chinese pot stickers and meat pies flavored with chile. There was also Mom’s battered green metal file, crammed with recipes from relatives, neighbors, and friends. My mother would let me try out whatever recipe I wanted—I remember one ambitious attempt to prepare baked Alaska at age eight—so I would thumb through the books for inspiration and new recipes. I turned to The Joy of Cooking, stained, coverless, and smelling faintly of cinnamon, when making anything from biscuits to brioche, lentil soup to lasagna, macaroni and cheese to meatloaf, chocolate-chip cookies to chocolate cake. I also read the book out of curiosity. How did someone cook a moose? Although I did not have a moose to cook, it was fascinating to read such a recipe and other unusual ones, imagining who would eat such exotic fare. The Peanuts Cookbook was a small Scholastic paperback filled with cartoons and recipes, including ones for pumpkin cookies and Lucy’s lemon squares, both popular in my home. The Good for Me Cookbook, a children’s illustrated book, included recipes for healthy dishes such as stir fries, muesli, granola, and homemade whole-wheat bread.