Marking the Days

Like many, I’m eagerly awaiting the re-release of my mother’s famous work, the I Hate to Cook Book, due on shelves July 26^th and available for pre-order now on Amazon.com. 

I imagine there are a good number of women out there—still inspiring—who were young housewives when the original came out in 1960.  As millions like them, they surely used it to make the nightly meals their families (and society) expected to come sailing from the kitchen as if by magic, accompanied by a broad smile and triumphant “voila!”  

And I know there are thousands more who remember digging in, as I did, to such memorable belly timber as Chicken Rice Roger, Skid Row Stroganoff and Cancan Casserole.  This in a time before carbs were bad, and the question of butter was not “if,” rather one stick or two.

But is this new volume a resurgent how-to on what’s for dinner?  Maybe.  The original recipes are largely intact; although some have been modified to reflect today’s sensibilities and available ingredients.   (Otherwise, those expecting to find cream of shrimp soup for Hurry Curry might still be looking.)  And whether for lunch, dinner, dessert or just nibbles, they’re all still easy to make and sure to please.

In answering it helps to know that, while supremely confident in the kitchen, Mom considered herself a writer and humorist first, a cook second.  That’s why I would say the real reason to own a new I Hate to Cook Book isn’t so much to dazzle diners with haute cuisine, but have a source for something just as sustaining:  tasty tidbits of laughter at the end of a long hard day.