Random Thoughts of Chris Tilley

Fannie Farmer is the cookbook that along with my mother taught me how to cook. I remember as a kid flipping through it looking for new recipes to try. I made all sorts of cakes,cookies and pies (mostly apple) out of this book. My mother would never stop us from making our own dessert. Later my mother made cooking dinner my brother and mine's responsibility and we learned all sorts of meat dishes although I think meatloaf was the most common.

Today I use it mostly as a reference, anytime I need to know cooking time per pound for something. There are a couple of recipes that I use regularly. The first is Yorkshire Pudding which is an absolute requirement for those Sunday night roast beef dinners. The second is the chocolate fudge a necessary component of Hyper Cake. I'll describe it next time I make it with pictures.

I actually own four copies of this cook book. When I moved out my mother bought me my own copy but it was quite the same as my mother's so I bought a used copy that match her edition. Later I found a very early edition. Nice to own and funny to read but not very useful 'butter the size of an egg' and 'medium hot oven'. When my grandmother passed away my mother got her copy and I got my mothers including the duct tape and all important notes. Some families have a family bible we have a family cookbook.