FOOD FOR THOUGHT: When journeying through cookbooks, there’s no place like home

Noted CBS columnist, Andy Rooney, in commenting on eating, once said, “The biggest seller is cookbooks, and the second is diet books-how not to eat what you’ve just learned how to cook”. Acknowledging that the idea of dieting weighs heavily, (no pun intended), on the minds of many in our country today, the cookbook publishing industry is alive and well.

Since the beginning of the history of writing, early man has been recording directions for food preparation. In the United States, Fannie Merrit Farmer is credited for publishing the first cookbook which standardized the methods and measurement of recipes. In 1902 she founded Miss Farmer’s School of Cookery where she trained housewives of middle-class families who wanted to treat homemaking as their domestic profession. In addition to lecturing doctors and nurses on the importance of appearance, taste and presentation to those who were ill with poor appetites, she developed a complete work on diet and nutrition, titled “Cookery for the Sick and Convalescent”. The “Boston Cooking School Cook Book” published in 1896 was the first of its kind to include specific and accurate measurements. She republished the book as “The Fanny Farmer Cookbook” and updated copies of the book are still in circulation today.

While the digital media is affecting a profound change in cookbook publishing, and a desired recipe can be researched on Google in less than a minute, it cannot take the place of memories found on the dog-eared or tomato sauce splattered pages of beloved family cookbooks. A review of cookbook collections found in the homes of South Louisiana cooks can be akin to taking a journey through the lives of families for whom the recipes were prepared. As one’s expertise in the kitchen grows, newer cookbooks can offer opportunities for creative expression.

In the homes of busy young families, one may find cookbooks promising recipes which can be prepared with everyday household ingredients in a short amount of time, cookbooks for cake recipes using cake mix in the preparation to imitate deserts made though longer baking processes, and slow cooker recipe books which provide for family meals at the end of very long days. Cookbooks bought for school fundraisers bring back memories of children, now grown, and their parents who contributed to the collection of recipes for the books.

Since enjoying life and entertaining friends is such an integral part of our lives in Acadiana, community bookstores abound with beautifully illustrated cookbooks. Autographed copies of cookbooks from local authors become treasured gifts and remind us of past holidays and other special times spent with those we love. In addition to our ability to find recipes indigenous to any part of the globe through the use of the internet, when we desire food that nourishes both body and soul, our thoughts travel to recipes found in cookbooks at home.

The following recipe is one I submitted to the Daily Iberian 2011 Cajun/Creole Cookbook, viewed by many to be the consummate collection of delicious, time-honored family recipes.

Chicken-Artichoke Casserole

1 (14oz.) can cream of mushroom soup

¾ cup white wine

1 (13.75oz.) can quartered artichoke hearts, drained

8 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1 (6oz) pkg. chicken flavor stuffing mix

1 stick butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix soup and wine, add drained artichoke hearts.

Spread in 9×13 in. baking pan

Place chicken on top of soup mixture.

Sprinkle cheese over chicken.

Sprinkle stuffing mix and then flavor pkg. over mixture.

Pour melted butter over all.

Bake uncovered for 40 minutes.

Serves 8