The other day I mentioned that things are never really quite the way you remember them. The dinner in France at a little cafe becomes, over time, a dining experience at a three star restaurant. Our memory exaggerates these experiences and they often become much more in our mind than they originally were. I was reminiscing about foods I had eaten years ago and wondered whether they were really as good as I remember.
So I went out to the garage and dug out my favorite cookbook from my younger years. It is called Thoughts for Buffets (published in 1958), and along with it's companion Thoughts for Foods, were the two books I relied on for many years. In the 1970's and 1980's I used to entertain a lot. I loved to cook, and would use these cookbooks, along with Gourmet Magazine, to throw some pretty terrific parties. One of my favorite desserts was Angel Fruit Pie, and I wanted to see if 40 years later this dessert was as good as I remembered. It was. So at least for this particular food, my mind did not exaggerate what my tastebuds remembered.
I started rereading the cookbook, stopping on the pages that were stuck together, realizing that I had made something on these pages, and remembering the menus that I had put together using those recipes. It was very nostalgic. There were a lot of great recipes in those cookbooks. I am going to try some of them again. Often we are looking for something new, a new way to do chicken or rice or whatever, when there are so many wonderful recipes we have left behind. So I for one will try some of these oldies again. My experience with the pie taught me that I need to trust my memory. If I was right about the pie, I could be right about some of the other wonderful foods I remember from the past.
So I went out to the garage and dug out my favorite cookbook from my younger years. It is called Thoughts for Buffets (published in 1958), and along with it's companion Thoughts for Foods, were the two books I relied on for many years. In the 1970's and 1980's I used to entertain a lot. I loved to cook, and would use these cookbooks, along with Gourmet Magazine, to throw some pretty terrific parties. One of my favorite desserts was Angel Fruit Pie, and I wanted to see if 40 years later this dessert was as good as I remembered. It was. So at least for this particular food, my mind did not exaggerate what my tastebuds remembered.
I started rereading the cookbook, stopping on the pages that were stuck together, realizing that I had made something on these pages, and remembering the menus that I had put together using those recipes. It was very nostalgic. There were a lot of great recipes in those cookbooks. I am going to try some of them again. Often we are looking for something new, a new way to do chicken or rice or whatever, when there are so many wonderful recipes we have left behind. So I for one will try some of these oldies again. My experience with the pie taught me that I need to trust my memory. If I was right about the pie, I could be right about some of the other wonderful foods I remember from the past.
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