Colleen and I do a lot of reading so I figured it was about time to starting adding a reference library to this website. This tab is dedicated strictly to books. In time, I’m sure I’ll add a page for internet links too.
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Library Sections:
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Baking:
The Complete Book of Breads: One of Colleen’s go to books for baking is “The Complete Book of Breads” by Bernard Clayton Jr. Colleen’s copy is the 1973 printing. As I understand it, Clayton is the go to guy for baking bread.
I actually picked his book for Colleen a few years back from eBay. If memory serves me right, I didn’t pay much for the book and it made a wonderful Christmas present for Colleen.
Book of Great Cookie: Colleen was looking for a new cookie recipe this past weekend and I didn’t recognize the book she was looking through. I asked if it was a new one and she told me I had gotten it for her a while back. As it turns out, Maida Heatter’s Book Of Great Cookies is one of Colleen’s favorite cookie books because it gives your a little background about the history of the recipe. I didn’t notice at the time but Colleen has sticky notes all through the book.
I’m pretty sure the book came in a group of books I bought for Colleen off of eBay so you can be sure I didn’t pay a lot for the book. The book is a copyrighted 1977 so it isn’t terribly old either. I’m not exactly sure which of Colleen’s recipes started out as one of these recipes with the exception of one, her hermit bars.
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Canning:
Ball Blue Book: Easy Guide to Tasty, Thrifty Home Canning and Freezing: Like most homesteads, canning your own food to stock your larder is a must. This book, although small in size, is a must have to any library. It is the starting point for any successful canning venture.
This copy of the “Ball: Blue Book” is a 1963 edition and as you can see it is well used. If you have any desires to do any canning at all, this book is worth its weight in gold.
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Cookbooks
Magazines: Not all of Colleen’s ideas for the cooking come from old cookbooks. A couple of her favorite sources are modern magazines, “bon appetit” and “food network magazine“. Colleen finds these two magazines are very convenient for looking through while she is relaxing in bed at night. Colleen says if you look around you can usually find a really good deal on them. Both magazines do have website availability too.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/magazine
The Art Of Cookery Made Plain And Easy by Hannah Glasse: This is actually the link to an eBook cookbook from 1747. In the process of doing a little research on cooking and food during the Revolutionary War Era Colleen and I happened on this. Being how the book is over 250 years old the odds of getting a physical copy that is not a reprint are not real good. Colleen has used some recipes from this book but to use them requires a god bit of cooking knowledge and detective work. This cookbook is a real history lesson and definitely worth checking out. The apple pie is a real treat and I guarantee you’ve never tasted it’s like before.
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Art_of_Cookery_Made_Plain_and_Easy.html?id=xJdAAAAAIAAJ
The Boston Cooking-School Cookbook by Fannnie Merrit Farmer: Colleen reads cookbooks like they were novels. She says the older “They are, they better the story.” I was wandering around on eBay a while back and came across this 1907 Edition complete with notes and comments from the original owner so I got it for her at a very reasonable price I might add. Colleen fell in love with this particular cookbook often referring to it as her “Holy Grail”. Yes it is a little beat up, but it is still quite serviceable. Colleen feels if you really want to get to the roots of good cooking there is now place better to start than back in the old days when modern kitchen gadgets weren’t available. Heck, back in 1907, they didn’t even have electric stoves. If your really looking to get back your hands on an older cookbook check out eBay. You can find some real gems for not a lot of money.
Betty Crocker’s Picture Cookbook: Colleen suggested that I add these two cookbooks to this library. She pointed out that everyone has to start their cooking adventure somewhere and these are the best books with which to start. The books are excellent for addressing some of the most basic cooking questions.
Both of these books are early editions. Colleen says the early editions are more back to basics as many of today’s modern kitchen gadgets were not around back then. You can get the books in new condition by buying facsimiles or you can find the older books on eBay for very reasonable prices.
The Ultimate Guide to Smoking Meat, Fish, And Game: How to Make Everything from Delicious Meals to Tasty Treats: Colleen doesn’t do all of the cooking around this place. When it comes to the grill and smoking meats outside I get called into service. I’ve grilled and hot smoked meats with great success for as long as I remember, but cold smoking and curing meats is something new to me.
This is a relatively new book, published in 2015. I found it to be a great starting point to preparing and persevering meats without the use of a refrigerator or electricity. Granted that some of the smokers are electric but you do not need electric smokers to be successful.
City Tavern Cookbook: 200 Years of Classic Recipes from America’s First Gourmet Restaurant: Colleen says this is one of the best cookbooks if you are looking for recipes from the Revolutionary War Era. Granted the methods for making the various dishes in the book have been brought up to date, but it is an essential starting point if you are looking for old world recipes.
Walter Staib has done an outstanding job of bringing old world classic recipes into the modern era. This particular copy is the 1999 edition. If you really want to see just how significant this book is please look up the history of The City Tavern. It’s in Philadelphia just down the street from Independence Hall.
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Gardening
Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening: Growing your own produce is the mainstay of any homestead. The smaller your plot of land the more challenging gardening is. A friend sent me this book and it has proved to be jammed packed with insight for which vegetables can coexist in a good garden.
Companion planting is vitally important for a wide variety of reasons from better harvests to pest control. This copy of “Carrots Love Tomatoes” by Louis Riotte is a relatively new reprint of the 1975 addition. Our gardening skills are getting better every year and a large part of that success comes directly from the pages of this book.
Crockett’s Victory Garden: Colleen was rummaging around in some boxes of old books in our basement and came across this gem. When we firsat started trying our hand at gardening this was our “Go To” book. I started rereading it the other day and quickly realized why we held it so dear. It’s a great book with tons of valuable information. If your a novice gardener or a seasoned veteran this book is a must have. I highly recommned this book especially for those just starting down on the homesteading path. Writtne by James Underwood Crockett, this copy is the 1977 printing by Little Brown and Company, Boston and Toronto.
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Wood Working:
Old Way of Working Wood: The Techniques and Tools of a Time-Honored Craft: by Alex W. Bealer – I fell in love with wood working with many, many years ago in my youth. I found I had a natural talent for it. This book showed me a whole new ways of doing things with a whole set of different hand tools. It covers everything from selecting trees for wood, hewing the trees down, and any number of different techniques for working the wood with various hand tools. Needless to say, after reading this book, my wish list of new tools now includes things like a brace and auger bits, an adz, a hewing ax, a draw knife and a froe just to mention a few.