Celebrating Cookies

I bought a cookie cookbook recently, a book of 100 cookies. After taking this book home and eagerly flipping through the recipes, I saw maybe one or two recipes that looked interesting. I immediately thought ‘well that wasn’t it.”  And then, I thought about my mom’s cookbook collection growing up.

Many of my mom’s recipes at our restaurant, Jacaranda Gourmet Shop, were inspired by her massive cookbook collection. I remember when my sister and I were still in middle school, my mom would call us when we got home from school and ask us to find a recipe in one of the thousands of books that were on the shelves of our family room. My mom would give us hints on how to find the book, like “It’s on the left-hand side of Grandma Gladys’ bookshelf and it’s next to a book that has a green spine - the recipe is on the right-hand side of the page about a third of the way through the book.” After a few of these requests, my sister and I would ask my mom, “Why do you have so many cookbooks, if you only use one recipe?” And my mom would reply, “A cookbook is worth buying, even if you only get one or two recipes out of it.”

Cookbooks are stories about food and stories that celebrate history, culture, and people. So if you get one or two recipes out of a cookbook, buy it, read it, share the stories, and enjoy a cookie in the process!

Buy the cookbook, share the story.