The Best of Betty Crocker

One of my many collections is cookbooks.

It began innocently enough, many decades ago. Working on a newspaper, one of my delightful tasks was to review cookbooks that came into the newsroom. If no one else wanted the books being reviewed, I got to take them home and keep them!

From that point on, cookbooks became a kind of obsession. In used or new bookstores, my feet went automatically to the cookbook sections. Same at yard sales and thrift stores.

A shelf of cookbooks in the home library quickly became two shelves. Over the years, an entire section of the library became dedicated to cookbooks.

There was even a time when I stopped cooking for awhile but still loved reading cookbooks for fun!

No matter how many cookbooks passed through my hands, my all time fave was, and remains, Betty Crocker's Cookbook.

Time and again, looking for a new recipe or an old standby, I always rely on "old faithful." Eventually, the cover fell off and the pages started getting very worn. The index totally separated, causing frustration in finding recipes for specific dishes.

Imagine my delight when, at a yard sale, an intact Betty Crocker's Cookbook showed up, barely used, with a perfect cover, index, and pages! With only a second of regret, I bid my old Betty Crocker's cookbook "adieu" and put its replacement on top of the refrigerator, for easy access.

Betty's my best buddy and I hope we will never part!