I Have the Best Readers!

Madonna from Indiana found my blog while searching for a copy of a Perla Meyer’s cookbook.  I am a huge fan of Perla Meyer’s and have written blogs about her books, and Madonna found the blogs.  She wrote such sweet comments and continues to do so.  I am glad she found me, too.  Madonna sent this book right before Christmas so I kept it under the tree.  It’s a lovely cookbook, and is one of her favorites.  It is one of those cookbooks that has chapters of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, which I love because then your cooking always goes with the freshest ingredients of the seasons.  I am a blackberry fanatic, so the Blackberry and Pistachio Shortcakes with Lime Cream got my attention.  Even though chanterelle mushrooms are expensive and hard to find, I must find some to make the Chanterelle Toasts with Parmesan Shards.  Heavenly.  Thank you, Madonna, for being one of the first people to write me and still continue to make me smile with your heartfelt comments. 

Susan from Pennsylvania is a generous spirit. We “met” through a cooking contest website called “Cooking Contest Central.”  Susan read on the site that I gave away cookbooks every week to my readers.  She decided to send me some of her cookbooks to give away on my blog!  Susan said I could keep them or give them away.  I have given some away have still have more of hers to give away, but this one tugged at the bread baker in me, so I think I just might have to keep this one.  I love the older bread cookbooks.  There are still many passionate bread bakers out there, but it seems like there were so many more in the past.  There are recipes in the cookbook with names like Old-Fashioned Pioneer Trail White Bread;  Uncle Hans’s Schleswig-Holstein Farmer’s Onion-Dill Cheese Loaf;  Daddy’s Rebel-Yankee Hominy Bread; Mother’s Summery Orange Bread; or Sons of Erin Soda Bread.  What bread baker could not love this book?  Thank you Susan, for your generosity.

This book came from my farthest away reader, at least that I know of.  Barbara from Italy.  Barbara has her own food blog,  http://ricettebarbare.blogspot.com/  and loves cookbooks as much as I do.  She enters drawing for books, but unfortunately for Barbara, sometimes people will not send books overseas, or they have, and then end up being returned for whatever reason.  But generous spirit that she is, Barbara still wanted someone to have her books.  She found my blog and read that I loved cookbooks, too, and she has had three books sent to me, this being the most recent.  The I Hate to Cook Book is celebrating the 50th Anniversary of its first publication.  Peg Braken, the author, really didn’t hate cooking, she just wanted to make it easier.  There are some great recipes in the book.  I wrote blogs about the other two books Barbara sent, one called Mixt Salad, and the other, The Indian Slow Cooker Cookbook, both which I love.  How many people would go through all that trouble of finding someone in the USA who would appreciate the books?  I’ll tell  you who – Barbara, and others like her who love cookbooks and cooking, and want to share with those who love food.  Barbara’s wonderful blog is all in Italian, of course, but go there just to see her amazing food.  Or if you read Italian, you will love this site even more.

I feel like the luckiest blogger to have such wonderful readers, and  who I now think of as  friends, even though none of us have ever met.  I don’t make money writing this blog;  I write it because I love cookbooks and cooking.  I love it because my Mom wakes up every morning and the first thing she does is read  my blog; and I write it to meet people like Madonna, Susan, and Barbara.  There is an intense and wonderful connection with people who love to cook and share, and I’m glad to be part of it.  Thank you to all my faithful readers; and of course to my Mom who gave me the love of cooking.