I was traveling and moving around quite a bit in
the 1970’s so most of the cookbooks I collected during that period
were paperback or o
ther small easily portable books. An example is my paperback edition
of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Other books came with various products
I purchased. These include Loafing It, Cutco Cookbook, Kitchen Aid
Cookbook and several others. One of the first big full size cookbooks
I got was in the 1980’s – The Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking.
During the 1990’s I obtained several cookbooks from attending meetings and conferences for volunteer directors. These include Celebrating the Centennial, First there must be Food, Healthy Habits Cookbook, What's Cookin' from ASDVS membership, World of Cooking, The Well-Seasoned Wok
Other cookbooks were given to me by family and friends. These include Betty Betz Teenage Cookbook, Bowlers Favorite Recipes, the Deaf Smith Country Cookbook, Fix-It and Forget-It Cookbook, For the Pot, Recipes from Brandywine River Museum, Harvest Recipes, Mendocino County Treats & Trees and the Thursday Night Feast.
Since about 2015 many of my recipes come from the internet. I discovered this was a great way to look for recipes containing a specific ingredient. I copied recipes that interested me into word processing documents. I have built up quite a collection over the years. These documents come in handy not only for the recipes themselves, it is also a way for me to mark the recipes I have used and make any notes pertaining to that recipe.
I n more recent years I have expanded on a project
started back in the mid 2000’s. That is scanning portions of
certain cookbooks in the family collection. I created a spreadsheet
listing t
he recipes I was interested in trying along with the book they were
in, the page number and key ingredients. I have marked the ones I
have tried. I found it is easier to scan recipes I have made or
intend to make as my filing system makes a digital copy easier to
find than going through the book even using my spreadsheet as a
reference. In addition all my digital recipes, whether they are part
of the family recipe book, recipes I have collected from the
internet, scanned from the family collection of books, or other
sources provides for a lot of flexibility and enhances the ability to
use them. For instance, I can access them on the computer and on my
tablet. I can take the whole collection or just pertinent parts with
me when we go camping.
Note: I have always been a fan of Winnie the Pooh. This book has some great recipes.
I have chosen to list all of the cookbooks in the
family archives instead of just mine. As of March 2025 there are 453
cookbooks, booklets and pamphlets listed in my cookbook spreadsheet.
Looking t
hrough the above documents I realize there are at least a few more I
need to add.
I ended up with the recipe boxes from both my grandmothers as well as from my mother. The collections also include recipes from various other family members. Click here to view the collections of Josephine Harrison -|- Myrtle Leipper -|- Virginia Leipper -|- Virginia’s Christmas Planning - Diane Leipper. Included on the page is a link to a photo gallery of dishes I have made from the various collections.