Glimpses Into A 1980s Presbyterian Community Cookbook & A Peek At Angelic Little Me

/ Ally Bean
And now for something completely different…

My mother collected cookbooks. The following is a church community cookbook, a fundraiser, from the 1980s. She didn’t contribute anything to it, but dutifully bought one. I’ve shared a few glimpses into it along with a group photo of little Presbyterian angels that included me.

~ • ~

• On the front of the cheerful yellow custom cookbook is a lovely drawing of a generic, one presumes Presbyterian, church.

• My mother used to make this recipe for Crunchy Scalloped Turkey. It was tasty in a mushroom-soup-cracker-crumb sort of way. You understand, different times.

• This is a recipe for Blueberry Salad that I can swear on a stack of Bibles my mother never made. No way would she have put pie filling, sour cream, and [Jell-O brand?] gelatin together. Nor would I. Would you?

• Here is a Worth Remembering page featuring advice about how to clean house. My favorite idea is: “Wash old powder puffs in soapy water, rinse well and dry thoroughly. Then use them for polishing silverware, copper and brass.” Truth bomb, I have no powder puffs BUT if I did by cracky, I’d do this.

• Above is a Poetic Contribution to the cookbook. What would a church cookbook be without a hint of sanctimonious snark*? After Esther’s first rhyming stanza she shifts into a rhyme-less warning about bad breeding.

• Here is a close-up of my thick cute cat-eye glasses that measure 4.75″ wide x 1.25″ high. The little curves on the bows held the glasses securely around my ears thus keeping the glasses attached to my wiggly little self.

• And finally here is a photo of the First Presbyterian Cherub Choir in which you can see me over to the left in the front row wearing said cute little glasses.

~ QUESTIONS OF THE DAY ~

Do you have any community cookbooks? If so, did you buy the book, receive it as a gift, or inherit it?

Thinking about how you approach recipes in general, do you follow the instructions religiously or do you wing it adjusting the recipe as you go along?

Did you wear eyeglasses [aka spectacles] as a child? And how did that make you feel? Do you wear them now?

~ • ~

* Another delightful example of snark from an 1890s Presbyterian cookbook found here.

232 thoughts on “Glimpses Into A 1980s Presbyterian Community Cookbook & A Peek At Angelic Little Me”

  1. I didn’t have glasses! We didn’t have community cookbooks but my Mom religiously purchased books. She also has copied so many recipes from magazines and Sunday newspapers (living) sections. She did gift me with a wonderful cookbook set written in 70s when she made her first visit to the US. Now none of the books matter since all are available online but I have them preserved! By the way I do not make any sweets. Sweets require exact measurements. For my daily cooking I eyeball stuff and cook and it turns out great!

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  2. I have a church cookbook from the 60s. My mom bought one for all the women in the family and I still have it and use it. I had pink cats-eye glasses in grade school. Hated all glasses as they slipped down my face. My graduation gift from my mom was contact lenses. I wore them for 35 years until my dry eye said no more!

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    • Kate, church cookbooks were THE thing at one point. I’ve never made anything from this one, just kept it for nostalgic reasons. Pink frames! Oh you lucky duck, my mother made me wear neutral frames. I can’t wear contacts anymore either, same dry eye problem.

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  3. I started wearing glasses in 4th grade. I was nearsighted then and I still am. My current glasses I’m not a fan of. They’re huge! At least in my world. The biggest benefit of that is that going outside in the sunshine is not so horrible, but otherwise there’s only downsides to such huge glasses.

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    • AM, I’m nearsighted too. I had huge plastic frames the last time they were trendy, looked like a hoot owl in them. I agree that they did cut out some glare from lights, but uncomfortable. Now I go with rimless or wire frames.

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  4. I did wear glasses as a child – I think I was 7 when I got my first pair. And I wore them until I was 35 – last year – when I had laser eye surgery. I do not miss glasses.

    My “favourite” instruction was to whiten laces using SOUR MILK. Um. Gross! Thankfully, I own zero lace, so there is no whitening needed.

    I play with recipes all the time. I add a pinch more or less of something. I measure “with my heart”…And I almost always double things like cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Always.

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    • Elisabeth, I remember your surgery last year and how free you are now! Good bye specs, eh? I got glasses at age 5 and wore them all the time until I got contacts.

      I read that sour milk hint, too. It is… something. As much as the recipes in this cookbook are interesting it was some of the other pages that caught my eye.

      You and I cook the same way. Ditto about doubling cinnamon, ginger, and cloves plus vanilla extract and cayenne pepper. Tweaking those ingredients is a given in this house.

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  5. I love old community or church cookbooks — my favorite way to traipse through family history! And your mention of those mushroom soup casseroles — I’ve got one of my mom in laws beloved cookbooks where every dish involves a can of Campbell’s something. And you know what? They’re pretty good comfort food!😜

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  6. Look at you! So sweet…
    Oddly enough I just donated 3/4’s of my cookbooks, many of which were community versions I always felt guilted into buying “for the cause”. These days if I’m looking for a recipe I just Google. So much quicker. As for execution, I follow recipes exactly the first time and if they’re worthy of a repeat appearance? I tweek.

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    • River, I laughed when I saw this photo, knowing I had the glasses somewhere around here. Once I found them, I had blog fodder!

      I gave away most of Mom’s cookbooks, but have many of my own now. More modern recipes, ‘ya know? I do pretty much what you do, first time I follow the recipe more or less, second time it’s all about the tweaks.

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  7. My heavens Ms Bean, that is a gem of a cookbook! Reminds me of the mother-daughter pot luck lunches we had. But I can’t quite believe it was written in the 1980s. Those household hints are of the 40s to 60s, I think. I’m a collector of older cookbooks and household books. I need to share some of the useful hints from those!

    I have eaten many a gelatin salad but not one with pie filling etc. Typical Lutheran gelatin salad was a bit closer to a salad than that with canned pineapple and cottage cheese in green jell-o. I’m half tempted to try that blueberry “salad” but I hate to waste all that food.

    I kept several cookbooks of Mom’s. She learned to cook from them as her mother was a farm cook and everything was cooked in what we would call a confit and Mom hated it. The cookbooks themselves are nothing special but all the recipes that she tucked inside them are a treasure. 

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    • Oh, I forgot. I look at recipes as a jumping off point. I do try to follow them the first time, especially for baked goods, but then tweak them to my taste.

      I got glasses in the first or second grade. The school nurse insisted I didn’t need glasses and for some reason I was faking it – you know, because little girls really want to wear glasses. Anyway, I could tell which way the big blurry E’s were facing but couldn’t tell the small blurry letters apart. Clearly I was a faker.

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      • Zazzy, well said. I do the same thing with recipes, I think of them as suggestions not scientific formulas.

        What a nurse! I cannot imagine one behaving like she did toward you. Honestly it’s amazing sometimes thinking back on how we were treated, being flighty little girls. 🙄

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    • Zazzy, I wondered about the household hints, too. They seemed much older but maybe the company that created this cookbook always put those into their books? Like it’s a standard page. I dunno.

      If you try that Blueberry Salad you’re a stronger woman than I. I’ve eaten Jell-O salads like the one you describe. In my case it was from an Episcopalian aunt, but who knows she may have gotten it from a Lutheran friend. 😁

      Good point about how the cookbooks might not be anything much, but the recipes inside are where the memories live on.

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      • I was thinking something like that about the cookbook. Perhaps they had different formats and helpful hint type pages you could choose as fillers.

        There are few things I would cook from one but they bring back memories.

        And yes, I can’t imagine what that nurse was thinking. One of my friends was trying to memorize the eye chart so she wouldn’t have to get glasses.

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        • Considering the decade it makes sense that you picked a few filler pages from their stock ones, then the recipes were placed around them. 

          I knew a few kids who thought wearing glasses would be too dreadful to even imagine. I don’t know if any attempted to memorize the eye chart, though. Now I’m curious…

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  8. oh yes I would make the blueberry stuff! I have two cookbooks like this ado cook from them! I’m an old ohio girl i guess! My favorite is the bisquick recipes. Or the cake mix and cola! Mmmmm

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    • Martha, if you make the Blueberry Salad I hope you enjoy it down to the last spoonful. I don’t care for sweetness enough to be able to eat all the sugar in that recipe. I like Bisquick, too. It’s an old-time standby, but I didn’t see any recipes using it in this cookbook. Go figure.

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  9. Whoa – that drawing of the church on the front looks exactly like the “First Presbyterian” my dad was pastor of when I was a child.

    Wash laces in sour milk seems like an interesting instruction. But I feel a little lost because I don’t know how to get sour milk. Or sweet milk for the cracked glass for that matter. Such fascinating tips!!

    Love the picture of you, Ally! Cherubic for sure!

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  10. I culled my cookbook collection and jettisoned the community cookbooks since most of the recipes were full of sugar, fat, or other unpalatable (to me) ingredients ~ like cream of mushroom soup.

    I enjoy cooking whole food, real food, in straightforward ways that don’t require following a recipe.

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    • Nancy, you’re right about the recipes in this community cookbook. I find them a slice of culinary history more than ideas about what to make to eat today. Fascinating, but not really what I/we crave for the most part.

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  11. Both those glasses and you are quite adorable! Those days gone by of dumping cans of soups and crackers and jello into everything make me both appreciate fresh food and also laugh at what we used to consider tasty!

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    • Collin, I agree. I looked through the cookbook in respectful awe and horror. I know that my mother and aunts made recipes like these often enough, and I ate what they made, but OH MY! Food choices today are so much better.

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  12. Why in the world would they not put a drawing or picture of the actual church the members belonged to?? But I would have totally eaten and enjoyed the blueberry salad recipe and the turkey casserole as a kid. I loved anything with cream cheese and jello together and my mother made variations of that salad for holidays. I still make casseroles with cream of soups, but I make my own cream of soups instead of the canned. It’s actually very easy and only an extra 5-10 minutes. No sodium or fat.

    You are adorable in those glasses. I didn’t get them until 5th grade, but my Middle Child got glasses at age 15 months and she also had the wires covered in plastic that were curved around her ears.

    I adjust just about every recipe to cut back on sodium and sugar, as well as modifying it to my family’s tastes. My mom had a bunch of community cookbooks and I donated them all to the library and Goodwill.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Bijoux, I, too, wonder why the drawing on the front of the cookbook isn’t of the actual church whose ladies shared the recipes. All I can figure is that the company that printed this fundraiser had a set template for all church cookbooks.

      Like you I try to cut back salt and sugar. I used to make my own cream of soups but have forgotten about doing that. Considering how infrequently I make a casserole I suppose I’m not adding too much extra fat and salt. I hope.

      Oh your middle child wins the prize for the earliest wearing of glasses of anyone I know of. I bet those little specs were cute as the day is long.

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  13. Well this was fun…in an eerie sort of way given that section on “Worth Remembering” which harkened back to things I remember from the 1960’s. Sort of creepy that some suggestions were still happening 20 years later. I felt like I was in a time warp.

    Nope, no community cookbooks in my collection. I am a “wing it” person, especially given that I often don’t have ingredients like spices that are specified in new recipes. I actually don’t make too many new to me items, just stick with my tried and true and those are simple. Glasses- I was supposed to wear glasses as a kid. I took them off about 2 blocks from home. It’s funny though because I don’t remember ever wearing them at home until I was old enough to demand contacts. Just ordered new specks and these are probably the first pair that really fit my face. The optician was amazing to work with. I was thrilled.

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    • Deb, good way to describe the cookbook, a time warp. I don’t know that my mother ever tried any of the household hints, but they are unique. In the 80s and even more so today.

      I like to wing it when it comes to recipes, but I do try lots of new ones… found online or in new cookbooks. I admit that they often take a spice that we don’t have on hand.

      You had glasses but didn’t wear them! I know another little girl just like you who refused to be seen in glasses, and got contacts as soon as possible.

      I’m glad you ordered some new specs. If they fit and are flattering there’s nothing better than seeing clearly and looking good in the process. 🤓

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  14. I had brown cat’s eyes glasses. I think I started wearing them in the third or fourth grade. What a revelation they were! I could see!

    Community cookbooks were a treasure trove of homey recipes. I’m surprised at how this one seems so much older, though; more like a 50s one, especially with terms like sour and sweet milk. And powder puffs! Who was using those and polishing brass in 1980? Not me or even my mother.

    I’m trying to recall a blueberry flavoured Jell-O. I don’t think I ever saw it, but then again, I didn’t really make Jell-O.

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    • Nance, brown cat eye glasses would have been groovy, I understand that. I felt the same way when I got my first glasses and realized all I’d been missing.

      I agree with you about this cookbook, some of the advice seems dated. I’ve been wondering if the company that printed it had a template for church cookbooks that they used over and over for decades. That would explain it.

      I think there was blueberry Jell-O at one point, but can’t be sure. All I know is that no way would I, or mother, make this recipe. Yuck!

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  15. What a wonderful story. I have several community cookbooks and one we did at work. I’m sure most of the recipes have cream of mushroom soup as a main ingredient! I don’t know that I’ve ever completely followed a recipe. I try to get close the first time to see what adjustments it will need to suit my tastes but honestly, I’m usually adjusting in my mind before I even get it read one time let alone made! This was fun. Thank you!!

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    • Micheal, I tend to do the same thing as you. I read a recipe but am also clocking how I’ll be changing it to suit our tastes, before I’ve even made it once. It was interesting to see how often Campbell’s Cream of Something soups were used by the cooks who contributed to the cookbook.

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        • Well said. You’re right about the salt in those soups. I cannot imagine that they’re still as salty as they once were, but maybe they are. I’ll try to remember to look on the labels the next time I’m in Kroger.

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  16. You gave me my first cookbook for a shower/wedding gift. I used it many times, but don’t cook much now, so don’t use recipes. I can’t imagine waxing an ashtray! You never even see ashtrays anymore.

    Your cherub choir was huge! And I love you in your little pink glasses😍 I was supposed to wear glasses in the 6th grade, but just put them up to my face when I couldn’t see what was written on the chalkboard. Have been wearing contacts (just 1 now) since I turned 18.

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    • Beth, did I really?! How lovely of me. Funny how cookbooks can connect people. I don’t know the last time I saw an ashtray, or someone smoking a cigarette inside a building where you’d need one.

      I wore my little glasses dutifully. Like my parents would have allowed anything different than that! I know you took to contacts like white on rice. And you still have them [or it?]. I’m a glasses chick now.

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  17. How cute you were in the choir image. Cat-eye styled glasses are timeless aren’t they!

    I thought it was fun reading the old household hints. I wonder if boiling a teapot I made that cracked in sweet milk would have saved it? I threw it out after several years of use. First I chipped its spout then later it cracked. I had made it during my ceramic phase.

    I have and use powder puffs! I will use this tip for the few times I break out my Grandmother’s silverware that I inherited need polishing.

    Yes, I have 4 of those type of cookbooks. One is a family one, can’t remember for sure if I put in a recipe or not.

    A fundraiser one from my youngest elementary school. I can’t remember if I submitted a recipe for that one either.

    A church one, another fund raiser. I can’t remember if I submitted a recipe to it either.

    One of the books above I did put in a recipe for a pie…chocolate walnut but I can’t remember which book. 

    The last one is titled, Thru a Mules Ears by Penny Benson- I bought that one from the pack-camp cook who put together the book from her pack-camping years as the cook. I was on a 4 day horseback packing trip in the high Sierra Nevada’s. The food was so good. I especially loved her Dutch oven corn bread so bought the book mainly to make that and to this day many years later I still haven’t made it.

    I forget that these books of mine also have handy tips and tricks in them. Thanks for that reminder and powder puff tip!

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    • Deborah, cat eye glasses have been around forever it would seem. I wonder how I’d look in them at this advanced age.

      I can’t vouch for any of the hints in the cookbook, but they do make you think. I’m glad to know you have four community cookbooks. There’s a certain charm about them, even if the recipes don’t stand up to the test of time they’re like a memoir.

      The Penny Benson cookbook sounds like it’d be great if nothing else than to be a pleasant reminder of your horseback packing trip. I hope you make the cornbread someday and that it is a delicious as you remember it.

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      • Next time you pass a Sunglass display try on some cat-eye ones and see! I bet you look great in them. I think most women look great in them if they get the right size for their face.

        You know that cornbread probably wouldn’t be the same. I’m sure Penny puts in something extra like smoke from the woodfire or something really specials only she can add. 😀 It sure is great souvenir/reminder of her food, and the trip though.

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        • Excellent idea about trying on sunglasses with cat eye frames. I’ll do that. You’re probably right about how the cornbread would taste different now, maybe good just different? 🤷‍♀️

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  18. My grandmother sent me a “Junior League” cookbook years ago. All processed foods made into terrible meals from the 1950s and 1960s. My gourmet chef husband was horrified. But at least it had no snark about good breeding?

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  19. I have several community cookbooks including the two our church produced, complete with little stories, poems, quotes, and photographs. It was a hoot to put together, and we made around $1,500 net.
    I’m relieved to know there is a trick to ironing rickrack….

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    • Dorothy, yes I, too, am feeling a sense of relief about the rickrack hack. As we would say now.

      That’s a good profit on your church cookbook. Impressive and I’m guessing a little more in keeping with the times. This one was a treasure trove from a different era.

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  20. That Church cookbook image really transported me back in time to my mother as well, Ally. She had all sorts of cookbooks – quite the library – including a couple of community-related items. I think both Mrs. Chess and I subscribe by the theory if you see a recipe that intrigues you, make it exactly as directed the first go. At that point, any future makes can feature adding, dropping, and/or massaging ingredients. Recipe adjustments are only made after we determine what the original recipe tastes like. Both my wife and I only started wearing glasses as adults. She now wears hears pretty much 24/7, while I wear mine just to read. I’ve had a couple of eye surgeries, and prefer “moving around” my reading glasses as opposed to implementing bifocals. Just grateful to have the gift of vision! 😎

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    • Bruce, this old church cookbook is nothing special in that once upon a time community cookbooks were a guaranteed fundraiser. On the other hand I remember some of the names in it, so it’s a bit of history for me.

      Your approach to trying and adapting recipes makes sense. I/we like to cook and bake so we generally have a few recipes in process that we’re tweaking until we get them just right.

      I’m with you in that I’m pleased to be able to see so if wearing glasses [mine have bifocals] is what I need to do, so be it. Sounds like you’ve found what works for you, too.

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  21. I have a couple of cookbooks like that – gifts from my mother-in-law. They not only reflect different times, but a clear misunderstanding of nutrition and health (shudder). One recipe in an Amish cookbook called for 2 lbs of Velveeta and many lbs of hot dogs. I felt nauseous and just recycled the whole thing.

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    • KDKH, yes I’m not sure that good nutrition was the goal of these community cookbooks. Seems more like they were a way for all the church women to feel appreciated. That’s a lot of Velveeta and hot dogs in general beyond the idea of using them all together in one recipe. 🤢

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  22. I’m trying to figure out what the best part of this post is… I’m coming up short!

    While I do not have any powder puffs, there are a lot of interesting solutions to situations and I swear I am printing this one out!

    I don’t have a community cookbook but I do have one from the Cercle des Fermières… which translates to Women Farmer’s Circle. I’ve done a few recipes from that one.

    My mother was not a recipe book person though she did have one of those index-card thingies. Wherever did that get to, I wonder? I, on the other hand, am a cookbook-aholic so… Not sure where that came from, to be honest. None of the women in the older generation EVER followed recipes.

    My sisters both got glasses when they were 3-4 years old and one year, my father took my middle sister out to choose her own glasses. They were almost exactly like yours, light blue and my mother wanted to kill my father. Haha! She was all of 4-5!

    Love me that snark (in both posts).

    BTW, that blueberry salad sounds absolutely revolting.

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    • Dale, I agree about the Blueberry Salad, I am not into sugar enough to even consider making it… before we get to the sour cream part. BUT to each her own.

      I collect cookbooks and come from a long line of collectors. That being admitted I have no problem jettisoning any book that has outlived its usefulness. I keep a few older ones more for nostalgia than for the actual purpose of following any recipe.

      When I was a little kid and getting my glasses, there was almost no choice. We lived in a small town with one optician, so I got what there was. Funny about your sister though. I think she had good taste.

      I have to believe that Presbyterian cooks do snark well, and have the history to prove it.

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      • Absolutely. We are not to judge 😉

        I forced myself – and it was no easy task – to give away many, MANY cookbooks when I had my house remodeled. It was most difficult and I swear, not even a year later I was cursing myself because I was POSITIVE, I had kept one recipe from one book. Sigh. I had not. That said, one recipe out of over a hundred books. I’ll live.

        There weren’t many choices, for sure. Still. Little old granny glasses for a 4-year old? Coz at the time, that is what they were…

        Presbyterians do snark very well!

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  23. Even though our family didn’t go to church when I was a kid, we had many church cookbooks. Maybe hints from grandparents, who knows. There were many good recipes and then there were those cracker crumbed, or in one case crushed potato chips, recipes that every mother seemed to make with leftover poultry or a can of tuna. We loved them at the time, but can’t stomach them now. May I never be subjected to another recipe that calls for canned soup again.

    The household tips are hilarious. Imagine what homemakers of that time would think of our cordless vacuums and spray mops.

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    • Jenn, church cookbooks were popular when I was growing up. When I cleared out my mother’s recipe book collection I only kept this one, the rest went to Goodwill. I remember crushed potato chips on top of casseroles and also in cookies now that you mention them.

      I take your point about how we live now. I sometimes wonder how my grandmother would react to a microwave or an electric coffee maker. I choose to believe she’d adore them.

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  24. My mother had one of those from her church but I think one of my siblings has it. I remember the recipes as being terrifically bad. I don’t think my mom ever used it; she just bought it to contribute. I had forgotten about those; I think they were a common fundraiser in churches everywhere. I experienced a strong sense of nostalgia when I first saw your opening picture.

    I didn’t wear glasses when I was little but the young bean is very cute in hers. 😊

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    • Lynette, you said: I remember the recipes as being terrifically bad. You win the prize for understatement. Community church cookbooks were popular and may still be for all I know. This one was part of a fundraiser which I think explains some of the generic pages of hints and the sketch of a church on the front.

      Thanks for the compliment. Little Ally Bean was very nearsighted so my glasses were my friend, even when I got teased about them.

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  25. It’s interesting how church architecture can suggest the faith. If the cookbook hadn’t given it away I would’ve guessed Presbyterian because of the prominent square bell tower. Methodist churches, to contrast, prefer a slender tower with more of a towered steeple. Small Mormon churches all look the same, as if you could order a built-it-yourself kit through Amazon. And so on. Also, the “Worth Remembering” page is wonderfully dated. We need to bring “rickrack” back into our vocabulary.

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    • Dave, I’ve never taken the time to analyze different types of church architecture and appreciate your analysis. I figure the company that put this cookbook together had a template for it, maybe one dedicated to Presbyterians in fact.

      I agree about rickrack. I can’t think of the last time I had any on my clothes let alone needed to mention it. Yet such a good word for a decorative element… perhaps long forgotten?

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    • Venus, this cookbook and ones like it were good fundraisers but I don’t know if they would be anymore now that it’s easy to go online and find recipes. I like to mess around with recipes, too. Therein is the fun.

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  27. I love the hints on the Worth Remembering page. A lot of those tips still hold up today.

    I used to have a couple of those community style cookbooks but I never used them much and you are wrong about people using gelatin with fruit for salads. My mom did it all the time. I still make flavored jello a couple of times a month. I guess it’s a comfort food thing for me.

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    • Jean, I make Jell-O salads still, too, usually around holidays. I just don’t dump pie filling into them. That’d be too sweet for me. I like this cookbook not for the recipes, but for the memories. I can picture some of the ladies who contributed recipes which is trippy.

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  28. My MIL collected cookbooks and OMG there were SO many to donate to the local library and the second hand store when we moved her down here. I think those are the things she misses most but honestly, there’s no way she ever used them. She just liked to read and look at the pictures. I do have a few that I got when I moved into my first apartment and one that is a family cookbook from my husband’s side of the family. I had similar glasses but mine were more of a mint green. You are blonde. For some reason I pictured you with dark hair. As for the jello recipe, I think we did used to make some concoction with cream cheese but not sour cream. We had a Jello cookbook. LOL Happy Tuesday!

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    • Janet, I got rid of most of my mother’s cookbook collection, kept just a few more for sentimental reasons than to use them. I’ve made Jell-O salads with cream cheese or mayo, but not sour cream. And I made those salads decades ago.

      Yep I’m a blonde, much more so back when this photo was taken. Now I’m graying naturally so the stylists refer to me as gronde [gray + blonde]. It’s a nicer description than dingy blonde!

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  29. I love the cleaning tips. What a hoot! Yes, I have community cookbooks. The first was a garden club my mom was involved in. Her recipe was for Greek Moussaka — which she never once made in her life. She was trying to impress the ladies. The other is a cookbook from a medical center I worked at in PR. The recipes are from Dolores Hope, Betty Ford and friends. My great-grandmother published small cookbooks in the late 1890s early 1990s. She sold them to church auxiliaries across the country. I have them all and I’d love to republish them. Yes, I had cat eye glasses and I felt like a nerd.

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    • E.A. Wickham, I liked the cleaning hints, maybe more than the recipes. I adore the idea of your mother trying to impress the garden club ladies with a fancy recipe she never made. That’s spectacular.

      I wonder if your great-grandmother’s cookbooks would be popular now? I think they sound delightful, but I like knowing how people live, now and back then. Cookbooks are a good way to peek into lives.

      Yes to the nerdish feeling of wearing eyeglasses back when we were girls. Now they’re hip and sought after, but then… dork city.

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      • That sums up my mom to a tee. I find my great-grandmother’s cookbooks so fascinating. She has one called “Sick Room Necessities” for curing common ailments. They really give a picture of what life was like then. I got contact lenses in seventh grade and was so happy to get rid of glasses.

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  30. Oh my, you’ve sent me down the church memory rabbit hole. First off, the drawing of the church on the front looks very similar…very very similar…to the Presbyterian church I grew up in and was married in. Second, I don’t think you can get blackberry gelatin any more..but I might have tried it back then. Third, I have purchased similar cookbooks, now days mostly at tourist bookstores. And I’ve received a couple too. Lots of good tasting stuff, most of it not so good FOR you..but that’s not the point.  I enjoyed your post very much. I never wore glasses until I got old..but I DID sing in the youth choir! 🙂

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    • Dawn, I have to believe that the drawing on the front of the cookbook was meant to *sort of* look like all Presbyterian churches so I’m not surprised you recognize it kind of.

      I don’t know exactly which flavors of Jell-O are available now, I know the choices change every so often. Now, of course, I’m going to be looking carefully to see what is on the shelf. Not to make anything but to be informed.

      I started wearing eyeglasses when I was 5 y.o. so for me they’re a given. I sang in a few youth church choirs along the way, but none as cherubic as this one.

      Like

  31. Do I have those type of recipe books? Of course I do. 🙂 I have some from my grandmother, my mother-in-law, and some I participated in. I haven’t looked at them in quite a while, but I have them. I follow directions except when it says cool for three hours before baking. I just can’t do that. I wore glasses all through grade and high school and took major flack for it. I then wore hard contact lenses until I retired and decided I wanted to go back to glasses. Who cares? 🙂

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    • Judy, these sorts of cookbooks were popular when I was a child, my mother had many of them. This one I kept because I recognize some of the names of the contributors, good church ladies ‘ya know? 😉

      I had hard contacts in high school and until I was about 30, but they bothered my eyes so I switched to glasses which weren’t considered stylish back then. Who cares that I’m a four eyes? Not one person who matters to me.

      Liked by 2 people

  32. Oh, Esther. You bard, you. Definitely a great book to look at. A friend of our family last year gifted my wife some pamphlet cookbooks that were published annually by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. Included were many from the 1920’s, 30’s, and 40’s. They are fun to read.

    I wore glasses as a child after an eye surgery to correct double vision but mysteriously stopped wearing them for some reason. I re-started as an adult at some point in my forties. – Marty

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    • Marty, you have expressed my exact sentiments about Esther, the old girl. I bet those pamphlets are wonderful in their own ways. I admit that while it’s easy to mock old recipes it’s also a good way to see how people lived.

      The need for glasses seems to come and go in different ways as we age. I’ve known many people who got glasses in their forties or fifties. Whatever works, eh?

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  33. I have a couple of cookbooks from my mother-in-law who was raised a Mormon. A lot of the recipes contain things like Campbell’s Cream of Mushroom soup and canned vegetables and onion rings. It was popular to top casseroles with crushed corn flakes or stale potato chips! I think that’s because fresh produce was hard to get at certain times of the year in the middle of Utah. I’ve worn glasses since I was eleven! But I don’t have my original cat’s eyes cuties. You lucky ducky!

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    • Jan, excellent point about the lack of availability of fresh produce thus the recipes with canned foods. My understanding of the crushed toppings was that it helped seal in the moisture, keeping the casseroles from getting dry.

      I am pleased that I kept these little glasses. I didn’t do it on purpose, just kind of happened. I started wearing eyeglasses at age 5 and this pair was one of the earliest pairs.

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  34. That photo of you is adorable, as are your old glasses. I think they’d be considered pretty stylish today. I have a long history with eye correction. My vision changed dramatically in a year–so much so that the vision screening lady accused me of lying in 6th grade during the eye test. (I was not a liar kind of kid, so I was quite insulted!) I’ve had glasses, soft contacts, hard contacts, lasik surgery, drugstore readers, and now back to full-time prescription glasses–progressive lens trifocals. Don’t much like how they look, but I appreciate their ease and I do like being able to see. 

    Old cookbooks make me appreciate how much our diets have changed. Not much fresh produce in those old recipes!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Rita, I wonder if kids frames today are cat eye in addition to the big hoot owl look that is popular around here. Both are cute, just in different ways.

      Another commenters said that the school nurse accused her of lying on the vision test. She wasn’t a lying kind of kid and felt like you did. Don’t know what to make of that.

      You’ve been all over the place with your vision and your ways of seeing clearly. it’s quite a story. I have progressive bifocals and like them, working my way up to trifocals I suppose.

      The lack of fresh produce would be difficult for me. I mean some of the recipes in the cookbook specify “fresh mushrooms” [or whatever] but more say “canned mushrooms.” Yuck.

      Liked by 1 person

      • I’ve had no issues with my trifocals; hoping that if you “graduate” to them that it is the same for you. I’m just thankful we have the technology we do now. Almost everything I love doing depends upon vision.

        As for the vegetables, we are in total agreement! My mom made a green salad with our dinner every night (iceberg lettuce, cucumber, tomato and scallions for my dad only), but other than that all the vegetables were canned until well into my high school years, when they were frozen. No wonder I didn’t like vegetables!

        Liked by 1 person

        • I agree that the advances in eyewear are amazing. Much better quality frames and lighter lenses. I am grateful to have both.

          I grew up with more fresh vegetables than you did, but even then it wasn’t until I got older that I began to appreciate many new-to-me vegetables. Another good thing about aging I guess.

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  35. My mom had several of those cookbooks and now my sister has them (long story and not worth my time to share it). I had some from the 80’s and 90’s bur recently copied out the few recipes I used and sent the books to recycling. Super cute you and the glasses! I find it interesting that you still have them. I started wearing glasses around 45 and am not a fan but zero chance I could adjust to contacts.

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    • Bernie, I don’t know that I’ll be making any of the recipes in this cookbook, but it is in good condition and charming in its own time capsule way.

      I have the little glasses because my mother saved them in her jewelry box. She thought I might want them someday so she saved them. I had contacts when I was younger but they weren’t for me. Glasses work better, some pairs better than others.

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      • Yes old recipes could be a bit “scary” although as you said we all have a Campbell’s soup comfort dish! Mine is chicken, rice and broccoli although that is actually from the 80’s not the 60’s. That would just be plain mushroom soup with crackers. That’s my “go to” when I need comfort.

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  36. I didn’t start wearing glasses until I was in college. I wore contacts for a while but now I can’t be bothered. Your pink cat-eyes are adorable, and I love that you still have them.

    I think my mother had a few community cookbooks and I have had one or two over the years. Now I mostly get new recipes from friends, Mr. Google, or Pinterest. I’m glad you pointed out the strange rhyming – and sudden lack thereof – of Esther’s poem. I thought I must have missed something.

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    • Janis, I had contacts for a while, also, but they’re not for me, my sensitive eyes didn’t like them so spectacles it is.

      I get some recipes online now too. I also buy modern cookbooks because I enjoy having them around, but nothing I buy now is like this old community cookbook. Yes, Esther’s poem is a bit off, leading me to wonder about Esther who also might have been a bit off. 🤔

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  37. I’ve actually used some of those household hints/tips, but that last one befuddled me. As to your questions:

    I had seven community cookbooks, two of which had recipes of mine, I had bought over the years, but finally gave them all away when I moved into a small apartment. Not that I was using any of the recipes anyway. Now that I’m changing over to a low-carb lifestyle I usually get new recipes on Pinterest or other online sources.

    The ffirst time I try a new recipe I follow it to a a T. If I didn’t like it but want to try it again, I’ll make my own adjustments.

    I never wore glasses as a child and when I finally had to start wearing them as an adult I hated wearing them. Over the years, I gradually progressed to bifocals, then trifocals. Since my cataract surgery two years ago, though, I only have to wear wading glasses.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Barb, you had quite a collection of community cookbooks. I understand why you gave them away, space is an issue, as is the fact that recipes in them might not be the healthiest. I look online for new recipes, too.

      I know many adults who start wearing glasses don’t like them. For me, a person who has worn eyeglasses since I was 5 y.o., it’s no big deal… but I do get it. I have yet to hit trifocals but I suppose I’ll get there. And won’t that be exciting?

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      • Oh, it will be sooo much fun! 😁 The only pair of glasses that didn’t bother me as much was my last pair of lightweight titanium frames with rimless lenses. The newer polycarb lenses are so much better than the heavy glass ones. I’ve got a script for prescription reading glasses and I still have that frame so I’ll use it when I get it filled. Considering the price of such frames today (double what I paid years ago) I’m glad I kept them.

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  38. I’ve worn glasses since second grade … so I can’t recall much different. As for the cookbooks, I’m sure we have several community ones – but I can’t recall if we bought them or if they are given out. We may have bought one for the cause, but I’m thinking most were given out. Good post, Ally!

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    • Frank, like you I don’t recall a life without glasses, so they’re a given for me. I’ve never bought a community cookbook, just inherited them. Case in point, obviously. Glad you enjoyed this wander down memory lane.

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  39. You were so adorable with your little spectacles! What a fun photo. I got glasses in 5th grade. I wore contacts for many years, and then, like you, my eyes got all sensitive and I couldn’t bear it. I love cookbooks like that, and our library has a bunch of them from our community. They’re time capsules, and I love it when the recipes have little stories to go with them. It’s especially fun when they’re people I know or knew.

    I really love that page of advice! Wax your ashtray! How hilarious!

    Liked by 1 person

    • Michelle, I have to admit that I do think I looked cute in my little glasses, just like a nearsighted cherub.

      I never thought to look for community cookbooks in the regional library. That’s a great idea. I like the history of them more than the recipes.

      The advice hints had me laughing out loud. Granted they were sincere, but talk about living in a different world now!

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  40. Shockingly enough, I DO have a community “type” of cookbook; the Lone Star Legacy II from the Austin Junior Forum that a friend gifted me before we left Texas. Not surprisingly, I’ve never made anything from it as I don’t cook. Although, thumbing through it, Meemaw’s Lemon Meringue Pie does look tempting.

    I’ve worn glasses (and or contacts) since third grade. At the time I hated it (I got the glasses at the same time as I received a VERY unfortunate hair cut); but I also loved the ability to actually SEE.

    Nowadays, I don’t really wear my contacts much (if I do, I need readers; so what’s the point?), but I do like my new glasses very much.

    And you were/are a little cutie, aren’t you?

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    • Gigi, your community cookbook has a nice memory attached to it even if you don’t use it as a cookbook. Although I’m with you about Meemaw’s Lemon Meringue Pie…

      A bad haircut in addition to getting glasses would be a bit much for any third grader to process and endure. My sympathies.

      I take your point about contacts and readers. That does seem to be counterproductive in a practical sense. Glasses are better now than they were when we were kids even if my old ones are darned cute.

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  41. ALLY!!! I have a very similar Lutheran Ladies’ Family Favourites. I don’t know about the turkey or the blueberry pie but I do know there is an entire section devoted to meat and macaroni salad. And an “ethnic” section which is very strange to read (African Chow Mein?) Also there is a recipe called Vera’s Wiener Pie which is “chop an onion, add a package of sliced wieners into a pie crust.” Ooookayyyy. What the Lutheran Ladies perhaps lack in dinners that I would want to eat, they more than make up for in their “squares” and “muffins” section. I love those old cookbooks, I could read them forever.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Nicole, your Lutheran Ladies’ Family Favourites sounds like a winner of a cookbook, within the genre of community cookbooks. I’m intrigued by African Chow Mein, but not entirely surprised by Vera’s Wiener Pie. Not that I want to ever eat that, but it is in keeping with a certain type of recipe trying to up the status of hot dogs.

      I can imagine how many wonderful squares and muffins recipes are in your cookbook. Sadly the Presby’s didn’t seem to excel in that area, leaning more into casseroles with dubious toppings.

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  42. I didn’t start wearing glasses until I was in my 50s, but now I can’t read without them. (I’m not exaggerating.) I recently went to read to the residents at a care home as I do twice a week and had a funny experience. I accidentally brought my glasses case but not the glasses. I tried to read without them, but it was nearly impossible. I sounded liked a beginning reader (again not exaggerating). One of the workers came by and heard me struggling. She has heard me before and knew I actually know how to read. She offered me her glasses (not quite like the cat-eyed classes, but very feminine frames nonetheless. I knew I looked ridiculous, but I could see. Twenty minutes later I returned her spectacles. I didn’t ask anyone to take a photo, but I laughed most of the way home.

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    • Pete, that is a funny story. While I’m sure you looked divine in the borrowed glasses, probably better to not take a picture. Still glad you were able to read what you needed to. I bet you now doublecheck your glasses case before you leave home. No need to make that mistake again.

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  43. These days that powder puff advice would be called a “life hack.” Looks like we’ve been hacking away all these decades and didn’t even know it! No childhood glasses, no community cookbooks. As for following a recipe to a T: yes for baking, no for cooking.

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    • The Travel Architect, yes all that advice is a hack, especially the rickrack hack! No glasses as a child and no community cookbooks! I’m impressed about how you could have avoided both. I’m much the same way as you when it comes to baking and cooking. We all have our ways.

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  44. Angelic Ally is worth remembering, for sure.

    I bought a community cookbook compiled by a school where I taught as a fundraiser. I believe I contributed a breakfast casserole recipe from my mother. My cookbook collection washed away in the great flood of 2017. Thank goodness for the new era of Googling recipes.

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  45. Crystal, through commenters here I’m learning that cookbook fundraisers still exist, like the one at your school. I’m sorry all your cookbooks were ruined, but am glad that you can find recipes online now. It’s not the same as having the books, but that may not matter if the recipe is a good one.

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  46. Marigolds will deter rodents….HMMM. I wonder if I put some marigolds in my garden, if the damn squirrels will stop eating my plants? Most recent is my poor little plumeria that I brought home from Maui, and I do NOT want that to get eaten. I’m going to give it a try! Thanks Presbyterian cookbook!

    I’m sorry to say that I would try that blueberry sour cream jello thing. I mean, I wouldn’t make it, but if someone brought it to a pot luck, I’d give it a try.

    Liked by 1 person

    • J., all I know about marigolds is that deer won’t eat them, so I put some of the marigolds in planters trying to keep the deer away from geraniums.

      A couple of other commenters have mentioned that they’d make or eat the Blueberry Salad and I say GOOD FOR YOU, NOT FOR ME. Oh my!

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    • Awakening Wonders, community cookbooks are delightful in their own unique ways. I get that. I’m glad you like angelic little me, who managed to stand still at least for a second.

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  48. Pingback: How to preserve a husband | Saying nothing in particular

  49. The only question I feel like I can answer: I started wearing glasses in 4th grade “just to see the board,” and by 5th grade I was wearing them full-time because I kept forgetting them. I’ve worn them ever since, so 58 years? Mom and Dad both wore glasses, so I figured it was just a matter of time.

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    • John, my parents both wore glasses, too. I didn’t think much about getting spectacles, just something that happened in our family. Now they more or less define me, or at least this blog!

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  51. Cookbooks purchased from both Syrian church (father) and Methodist church (mother) as fundraiser. We’ve used the one from Dad’s church.

    I didn’t wear glasses until 10 to 12 but I still do.

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  52. I love the snarky bits (particularly the strawberry fork one). I do not have any community cookbooks, though when I was a kid we had one compiled by my class at school. Long gone. I am willing to make many substitutions or omissions when trying a recipe when I don’t have all the ingredients. I will likewise skip the blueberry Jell-o thingy. I would have eaten it in my younger, eyeglassless days. I have to have glasses now for reading and up-close stuff so I wear progressive lenses while working.

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    • Eilene, the strawberry fork quip is priceless. Delightfully snide and probably an inside joke in that church.

      I do like you do with recipes, I use what we have around substituting or omitting as I see fit. After all these years of cooking I have confidence in my choices.

      Many commenters have said they got glasses at an older age. I’m glad we all have the ability to get glasses, regardless of when you start to wear them. They are a blessing.

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  53. I have what’s called the Cookery Book of the “Asian Development Bank Women’s Club,” from 1979. I suppose I paid for it. It was probably a money-making project. The women contributed recipes from their own countries. Here are some examples: Gazpacho (Spain), imitation sharksfin soup (China), vichysoisse (France), kimchee (Korea), potato-sago croquettes (India), chicken adobo (Philippines), eggplant curry (Sri Lanka), Yakitori (Japan), and pavlova (Australia). It’s a good cookbook, and I’ve referred to it every so often.

    I started wearing glasses in the second grade. After a couple of years they realized I didn’t need them. In 8th grade, I was diagnosed with amblyopia. (It’s hard to explain.) I started wearing reading glasses again in my late fifties.

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    • Nicki, the recipes in your Asian community cookbook are more interesting and varied than the ones in this old Presby one. No surprise, but insightful too. Whatever works as a fundraiser, works.

      I had amblyopia so I know what you’re talking about. I still wore glasses though. As an adult I like the look of reading glasses, makes a person look wise, but I’m told I don’t need them… just keep wearing regular old glasses with bifocals in them.

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  54. I read this post this morning and had my chance to be an early commenter, but then . . . my guess is a kid I sit for needed something. The nerve. ;) I did wear glasses. I even had the upside down variety when I was in 6th grade around 1983. I realized shortly after getting them that they looked really dumb, but getting a new pair was not in the budget.

    I love reading the pages in these books. So funny. I like the tips on how to clean your ashtrays. How strange to think of people having ashtrays available in their homes. I remember that, but it seems so strange now.

    I inherited a ton of my grandma’s old cookbooks from her parish, etc. They had some really funny recipes in there. I have a few from our church or from my kids’ Catholic school forever ago. I submitted recipes for that one. I use one, held together with rubber bands now, for my favorite banana bread recipe.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Ernie, I remember those upside down framed glasses. I hadn’t thought of those in years. Sorry they didn’t suit you and you were stuck with them, but ain’t that the way?

      I agree about the ashtrays. I was around adults who smoked so there were ashtrays in the house, but now it seems weird and dangerous.

      You’re right that these old community cookbooks have some very ODD recipes in them, fun to read but never to make. I love knowing you use an old cookbook held together with rubber bands. You gotta do what you gotta do to make good banana bread. 😋

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  55. This by far has been your funniest post that I have had the pleasure to read, Ally!
    You had me grinning at “little Presbyterian angels that included me.” One pic and words after another had me rolling! Then I saw the glasses… then I saw the choir… before I read your pic description, I was reviewing each angel looking for those spectacles! And there you were! So cute, sweet and Presbyterian pure, second one from the end in front!!!

    Mushroom soup??? In turkey casserole??? My mother wasn’t a good cook, but I never told her. When I went away to university, I called her to ask for her spaghetti recipe. She replied I don’t use recipes. You will learn to cook how your husband wants you to cook. My grandmother loved cooking and I inherited her Betty Crocker cookbook with all her handwritten notes (at my age of 39) and (after my first husband taught me how to cook). Unfortunately my grandmother lived in another state and I don’t have any memories of her cooking, even when I visited them there. Truthfully my mother-in-law taught me how to cook. She was the best cook I’ve ever known!

    I just re-read the blueberry salad recipe and cracked up laughing because it sounds terrible!

    I loved how the poem was going… until WHAT!? I had to laugh! Such judgment… by a church woman at that!

    I will admit that I look up recipes on line, but never able to follow. I omit or add. So I make it up with whatever. Now my cooking is often a science experiment. Sometimes it’s really delicious and sometimes it’s trash.

    No I didn’t wear glasses as a child. I cannot remember any of my childhood schoolmates wearing glasses. It’s possible that I never noticed. At 40, an eye doctor confirmed that I was officially over the hill and needed my first pair of glasses. Yes I still wear glasses but they bother my nose. I have a phobia of sticking contacts into my eyes and even after an hour of therapy I still couldn’t stick a contact into my eye. So glasses. It is!

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    • TD, I’m glad you enjoyed this. I say that as a grown-up little Presbyterian cherub who still wears glasses, spectacles if you will. That group photo makes me smile, remembering the day we had it taken and how I was chastised by the choir director for wearing dark tights instead of white anklets and Mary Janes. She was a stickler for perfection.

      You were wise to not tell your mother she wasn’t a good cook. I’m glad your MIL helped you learn to cook. It is a useful skill, to say the least.

      I have a Betty Crocker cookbook that is well used. My mother was a good cook, within the definition of the timeframe in which she lived. Hence casseroles and Jell-O salad [not the one featured here of course].

      No glasses until you were 40! I started wearing them at age 5, so that seems amazing to me. I used to wear contacts but my eyes are sensitive and they never were completely comfortable. I understand about not sticking a contact into your eye. It isn’t natural to do that, my husband couldn’t do it, and besides glasses are so much easier. 🤓

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  57. I’ve never had a community cookbook, although I believe my mother did have a couple. But she had soooooo many cookbooks, way more than there were days in the year. A friend of mine puts together a family cookbook for anyone who marries into the family. Some of the recipes are serious and genuine family favourites, others while still favourites are less serious – like the recipe for the perfect Martini from her Uncle Francis.

    Those glasses are remarkably cute – I’ve never seen ones that curled around ears to keep them on. And that photo of you – in the choir – look just adorable 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    • Deb, my mother collected cookbooks, but not as many as yours. Wow! My aunt put together a family cookbook at one point, but I don’t know that I still have it. I’m liking your friend’s Uncle Francis, he sounds like a character. 🍸

      I started wearing glasses at age 5. All my early pairs of little glasses had that curl-around-the-ear feature. I was a wiggler and glasses were expensive so any way to keep me from breaking them, I suppose.

      Liked by 1 person

      • Uncle Francis (and his wife Aunt Kate) are, indeed, great fun and a bit of a double act truth be told.

        I forgot to say I got glasses at 10, then contact lenses at 18. Since the op, I know I will still need reading glasses, but may also have “top up” glasses for driving and/or to use when my eyes are tired.

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        • I remember from my childhood a few older couples who were an act. Love thinking back on them.

          I was wondering where you’d be about glasses after your surgeries. Thanks for explaining.

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    • Neil, you started wearing glasses early too. I got my first ones at age 5, but the featured pair here isn’t that first pair. I broke the first ones as I recall. I still wear eyeglasses today, but am no longer a cherub.

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  59. I’ve worn glasses since I was eight. My first pair was a pair of cat-eye glasses also, but in baby blue. 😊 I’ve seen church cookbooks. Someone sent one to me. When I was growing up, my church didn’t have a cookbook because many people just winged it. 😊 I follow recipes and adjust (if needed) as I go along. One of my sisters-in-law loves to experiment while cooking.

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    • L. Marie, another commenter who got glasses early in life. I like the idea of little blue cat-eye glasses. Tres chic! Community cookbooks were a good fundraiser, but I only remember this one. I’m comfortable adjusting recipes and like your SIL like to experiment. It’s science-y fun that you can eat [hopefully].

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  60. No on community cookbooks. I follow religiously when baking…that’s all chemistry. As to cooking I adapt asi go along. I started wearing glasses in fifth grade, which I hated. Switched to contacts at 14 which I loved. Switched back to glasses at 55ish, which I love now…

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    • LA, I cook in the same way as you. I respect the science of baking, while enjoying the freedom of cooking. I had contacts for a while, but prefer glasses. They’re much better quality now than they were when we were younger.

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  61. I’m pretty sure I’ve had that salad, except it was pistachio instead of blueberry. I have a couple of community cookbooks – one I bought and one that was a gift. Cooking doesn’t come naturally to me, nor was I taught to cook when I was younger. I tend to stick to a recipe. My idea of adventurous cooking is to use smoked paprika instead of regular or to substitute one of my gourmet salts for plain. (Tip: bourbon smoked sea salt is amazing on roasted squash.)

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    • Linda, I’d guess there are many variations on the Blueberry Salad. I’m still going to not try it, somehow I can’t get beyond sour cream with Jell-O. I love smoked paprika but have never tried bourbon smoked sea salt! That sounds delicious, will look for it. Thanks for the idea. 😋

      Liked by 1 person

  62. That blueberry salad sounds delicious, to be honest, and I might be tempted to bring it to our next family gathering. Those types of Jello salads are still all the rage at midwestern family potlucks. I don’t know if I’ve ever purchased a community cookbook, but I certainly have seen them!

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    • NGS, I like Jell-O salads but I cannot imagine putting pie filling into already sweet Jell-O. That being said, you make it, you take it, then report back on how it goes over. I imagine there are as many community cookbooks in the midwest as there are small towns… from which they came.

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  63. One of the funner (not a word, whatever!) assignments I had at TobacCo was writing web content based on recipes from old community church cookbooks in the deep south. There were some interesting ones in there for sure!

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    • Mark, I can imagine the recipes were something else. The ones in this midwestern church cookbook were unique, but generally all about ways to use canned goods. Nothing too fresh or live!

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  64. The “Ambrosia for One” made me smile too.

    The powder puff info was interesting, but the last item, how to repair a cracked plate by boiling it in sweet milk had me wowed … how many dishes over the years could have been salvaged! I have my mom’s cookbooks and there weren’t many and no church cookbooks as Mom didn’t belong to a church after my parents married. I however, was sent to Sunday School with my little friends, no matter the denomination. My mom had (and I still have) four spiral-bound “help books” with household hints like these in them: “Handy Helpful Hints by Heloise” and now I admit I’d probably Google for a solution instead of looking it up in these books.

    I really don’t cook much and I never bake, so I kind of make up recipes and make my meals in a crockpot where I can’t mess up too badly. Since I live alone, I don’t have to please anyone but me and I’m not too critical of myself … as to my cooking anyway.

    You looked very cute in your choir picture Ally. I had pink cat-eye glasses too … in fact, I got them on my 7th birthday. I was not pleased in the least. I got contact lenses when I was 18 and wore them until I started working from home, whereupon I became lazy … first the contact lenses, then makeup, then highlights in my hair all disappeared. That is called lazy and believe me the “old me” who was very vain would never have been lackadaisical about my looks.

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    • Linda, I liked that Ambrosia recipe and shared it back before I knew how to be chatty about it. I mean, what the heck is a strawberry fork?

      “Handy Helpful Hints by Heloise” is something I’d forgotten all about. What a source of information that woman was. I imagine the problems she solved would be of less concern to us today!

      I like crockpot meals, too. They’re easy to throw together, you can clean up the kitchen long before the meal is cooked, so when it comes time to eat all you have to clean up afterwards is the dishes. There wasn’t a section for crockpot meals in this Presby cookbook, now that I think about it.

      Many commenters have mentioned not being happy about getting glasses when they were kids. I had contacts for a while but they didn’t work for me. Fascinating about how your priorities have changed over the years, less dressing up, more living comfy. I think most of us have gotten to that point, either due to aging or to the stay-at-home part of the pandemic.

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      • I have always loved ambrosia, so I had to laugh about the snooty remark re: the strawberry fork.

        My mom had pieces of paper marking favorite hints and when Post-it notes came along, there were lots of “stickies” in her hint books. And, she had a clipping file of household and outside hints from various newspaper columnists. Do people still keep clipping files in 2024?

        Maybe crockpot cooking was not a “thing” back when your featured cookbook or other church cookbooks were popular?

        My mom had a favorite cookbook which I still have called “The Best of the Recipe Detective: Famous Foods From Famous Places” which was a compilation of author Gloria Pitzer’s newsletters she mailed to listeners who signed up for them. She was often featured on WJR radio and called herself “The Secret Recipe Detective” because she could take any franchise meal and come up with a recipe for it. She even came up with the recipe for Pepsi or Coca-Cola. She gave the recipes names that were slightly different than the real deal and they were hilarious titles. I know the recipe book is available on Amazon even though she passed away several years ago.

        I amaze myself how my priorities have changed, but after not working on site anymore, it seemed silly putting so much effort when only going out of the house to walk or on errands. I don’t plan to return to wearing contact lenses, although my eye doctor keeps trying to persuade me to get them. Perhaps he is trying to tell me something?

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        • The recipe detective sounds like someone who’d be endlessly interesting. No such person around here. And considering how infrequently I eat out I wouldn’t know half the dishes anyhow. Still, gotta admire a woman with a purpose.

          Does your eye doctor make a profit off your purchase of contact lenses? My cynical self says that’s the only reason I can imagine a doctor pushing them at this point. Glasses are so much better now, why fuss with contacts?

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          • She was interesting Ally – she had a regular guest appearance on the Warren Pierce Show and my mom enjoyed her newsletters and cook book. She claimed she could take a few bites and recreate any recipe. She became somewhat of a local celebrity.

            I’m not sure about the contact lenses. I had another opthalmologist and he had his own contact lens practitioner. They closed the practice suddenly when the doctor had health issues, so I had to scramble to find another eye doc who was familiar with gas permeable lenses. My current eye doctor wears glasses – designer frames, so it leaves me wondering why he is pushing contacts for me? I guess you can only order the lenses through him then? I think more people wear disposable lenses now. I was told I would have clearer vision if I could tolerate hard lenses, so stuck with that type.

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  65. I love this post! I believe we need to get ourselves Powder Puff’s ASAP! HA.

    My grandmother had a church cookbook and I think she may have contributed to it. I vaguely remember inheriting it and not keeping it forever. *sigh* Now of course, I wish I had!

    Love the cat glasses and your childhood picture. *Meow*

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    • Suz, I, too, believe we all need to get powder puffs, use them, then wash them so that we may clean our silver with them. Such a lost opportunity!

      I saved this church cookbook because it seemed like a fun way to remember some of the ladies from my youth, plus the advice is spectacularly unique.

      The glasses are little classics, might look for some cat-eye ones the next time I need new glasses!

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  66. My father always planted marigolds next to his tomato plants. I really miss the taste of the ones he grew! I had no idea the marigolds discouraged rodents, but my father believed they deterred other pests. Interesting household tips!

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    • Barbara, I knew about the marigold tip because my husband’s grandfather did that, to save his tomatoes. I agree the old-time household tips are interesting, a glimpse into a different era.

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  68. When I was a kid, I was so jealous of my sister’s cat-eye glasses that I actually told my mother I was having trouble seeing so that I could get a pair too. What my six-year old self didn’t know was that I had to have my eyes checked by an actual eye doctor before I could get glasses, so it was soon discovered that I had no problems seeing at all. Much to my great disgust…..

    And yes, I love community cook books! The best part is finding an old recipe contributed by a friend or family member no longer with us…..

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    • Ann, that’s a wonderful story. I’ve no doubt you were not happy about the whole go to a doctor first aspect of getting glasses. 😁

      Good point about seeing names from the past and remembering someone. That’s part of the reason I kept this cookbook for as long as I have. It certainly isn’t for the recipes.

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  69. I do have a couple of community cookbooks, Ally, one I purchased from a previous employer and in which I have a couple of cookie recipes, and another that my neighbor gave me (leftover from a fundraiser). I did offer to contribute towards said fundraiser, but it was long over.

    I typically follow a new recipe quite religiously, but if I like it but can see room for improvement, I may get a bit more creative the next time around.

    I wore glasses starting in late elementary school or junior high. I can’t remember exactly. I know at first I hated them, but now they are considered fashion statements. Lucky me!

    Also, I love that bit of poetry from the cookbook. It made me laugh. Also, your glasses were adorable.

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    • Christie, community cookbooks were a thing in the small town I grew up in. My mother had a few, but I only saved this one because of the church connection. And because it’s such a great look back in time.

      Many commenters have said what you did, follow the recipe first time through, then adapt.

      You’re right, glasses are now fashionable. They weren’t when I got my first pair at 5 y.o. but I liked them, seeing clearly was cool. And now I know that wearing cat-eye glasses made me too cool for school! 😉

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  70. When I worked at a hippy-dippy candle factory, we put together a cookbook. That was around 1979, 1980. I believe I still have it. I contributed a recipe for pizza, I believe, and I did use some of the recipes over the years, but not in a long time now.

    I might go a little loosey-goosey with recipes if i don’t have all the necessary ingredients. One example is using evaporated milk instead of whipping cream if the whipping cream wasn’t avalable. But then I only cook for me and my husband. On rare occasions I’ve cooked for guests and then I do try to stay true to the recipe. Which is probably why I rarely cook for guests 😉

    OMG, I started wearing glasses when I was about 10 and I had blue cat-eye glasses! (You, by the way, are just adorable in that photo.) I probably should have gotten glasses when I was a few years younger. I think it was my school that said I needed to have my eyes checked. I was near-sighted and couldn’t read the blackboard. At home, there was no blackboard so my mom was unaware 😉

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    • Marie, it’s interesting that your workplace put together a cookbook. I’ve not heard of that before.

      I’m laughing about your logic about cooking for guests. I feel the same way. I do okay for Z-D and I but when it comes to hosting a dinner, which I refuse to do anymore, I am by the book.

      I got my glasses at age 5 when I started talking about my good eye and my bad eye. My parents took note, but I can understand how your mother wouldn’t know you needed them. In some ways it’s a miracle any of us kids got spectacles considering the way in which we grew up. Doctors didn’t look for vision problems back then.

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    • You’re reminding me of a box I have stashed somewhere, filled with old cookbooks I got from my mother-in-law that she stopped using a few decades back… I think I’ll unearth it and see if there are any fun (or is it funny?) tidbits in it 😀

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      • EW, old cookbooks are glimpsed into history. I hope the ones you have offer up any number of tidbits of fun. [Like the way I avoided the whole correct grammar issue you posed in your question!]

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  71. You were a very cute kid Ally! I like the tip for cleaning ashtrays in the book, how times have changed!
    I didn’t wear glasses until my late teens when I started driving and I still wear them now.
    I’ll use recipes online instead of cookbooks and when tweaking them it will usually be to make them easier (what’s the use in over-complicating?)

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    • Rae Cod, the choir photo is a moment in time. It makes me smile about how any photographer got all us kids to stand still [enough] for a group pic.

      I hadn’t thought about how when you start driving you really need to know if you should get glasses. Makes sense. I adore your ‘why overcomplicate things’ approach to recipes. Hear, hear!

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    • I couldn’t agree more: extremely cute little girl, and adorable pair of glasses! I started to wear glasses as a teen, too, and, and I still wear glasses (though many pairs later…). I still remember how different the world looked with the corrective lenses and without: I spent so much time comparing “with it” and “without it.” It was almost like the difference between a hazy day and the starkness of the world right after it rains?

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  72. I avoid Jello for its texture and its associations with being sick. I have many cookbooks like that from various schools and organizations and have made a few recipes, but always with my own modifications. If I don’t like something, I leave it out (as long as it’s possible to do so) and add more of what I do enjoy. That’s an adorable photo of you in those glasses, beaming! I had cats eye glasses too although I think I was older at the time. Junior high.

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    • Margaret, many people don’t like Jell-O, I understand that. I can guarantee you while I like the stuff, no pie filling is going into any I make.

      Cat-eye glasses were THE thing at one time. I don’t know if I realized that when I wore this pair, but looking at them today I think “so cute!” I’m sure you looked great in yours, too.

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  73. It was a rough week at work (actually, mostly busy and exhausting), so I saved this gem of a post for the weekend. There’s just so much here to enjoy!

    First, those glasses. My first pair arrived in 3rd grade. I was happy enough to wear them, despite the usual schoolyard taunts of “Four Eyes!” but I was mortified that my first frames were pink plaid. That was my mother’s choice, not mine. She thought they were cute; I considered them abysmal. I do remember that they helped in negotiations for my first big girl bike. It ended up being gold, after I used the “If you’re going to make me wear pink glasses, I don’t want a pink bike” argument.

    I get such a kick out of the mealtime memories in those old cookbooks. Our Methodist ladies created one, too, and the recipes were probably the same everywhere in those years. I’ve never bought one, but somehow I’ve still ended up with a few. What’s really fun is getting back into cookbooks from the early 1900s, especially when it comes to directions (a pinch of this, a taste of that). I will say that the piecrust, biscuit and bread recipes from the early 1900s are still ones I use occasionally.

    Believe it or not, twelve of those household hints are ones I’ve used, and some I use regularly, like the toothbrush in the kitchen. I used mine just this morning to get biscuit dough out of my pastry blender.

    Do they still have Home Ec classes in school? In my day, girls took home ec and the boys took shop. Our home ec room had six mini-kitchens, and we worked in teams to plan menus, do shopping, and then prepare our meals. Every year, the boys were invited to one meal; in exchange, my class got to go to their shop class and learn how to use wood turning lathes. (I don’t think anyone knew the phrase ‘liability insurance’ back then.)

    Finally: my favorite recipes are some my grandmother (yes, she of the blue and green lesson) embroidered on a set of tea towels. I just pulled them out and looked at them: Chicken a la King, apple sauce, scalloped tomatoes, egg custard, and drop biscuits. She always included things like measuring cups, sticks of butter, and baking dishes. So many memories!

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    • Linda, pink plaid frames! Oh my stars and garters, that’s something to contemplate. I can’t say I’ve ever seen such a thing, then or now. Glad you got your gold bike thru clever negotiation.

      Some of those older cookbooks are worth keeping around. I understand why you still use a few recipes from them. If it works, it works, especially when it comes to cooking.

      I don’t know if home-ec is still taught or not. I took it, but ours focused less on cooking, more on knitting and sewing. The boys took shop class but I’ve no idea what they were doing in that class, we certainly never cooked for them nor visited to use a lathe.

      I’ve had all of your favorite grandmother recipes except scalloped tomatoes. Scalloped corn, yes– but somehow tomatoes were either fresh or stewed in our house. Wonder how my mother missed scalloping them, it’d have been her kind of food.

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  75. The snarky image did not show up for me. :/ Cute glasses. Blueberry Salad? No. Sounds dreadful. My mom had a recipe book from our church too. I saw it lying around a lot. I don’t know if she actually used it, though. Super cute little you!

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  76. What a beautiful step back in time! I remember my mom’s cookbooks and the worn pages. Thank you for this lovely journey.

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  77. A friend from the town where I grew up in Ohio recently sent me a picture of my high school marching band recipe book cover. She belongs to an Ohio recipes group, and there was a picture of the book in there. I wonder if your church’s recipe book is in there…

    I love a community recipe book. They have some very yummy recipes in them.

    I love your little glasses.

    I wore glasses as a small child (kindergarten), but then I didn’t wear them again until I was in my 30s and have ever since.

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    • Kari, I’d guess that someone in an Ohio recipes group might have a copy of this cookbook. Your marching band had a cookbook? Mine was not that sophisticated!

      I’m amazed you got glasses at such a young age, then didn’t have to wear them all the time forever after… like me. When I think of you I think of eyeglasses, they suit you.

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  78. Now I know how to whiten shoelaces! Some excellent hints here and some that date the publication! These old recipe books are fun to reflect on how times have changed and often contain recipes using proprietary brands. Mothers needed to save time back then as they do now.
    Love the big bows on the cherub choir! Those were the days!
    No specs here until I hit 30 but my little girl probably needed them earlier than I believed. Feel guilty about that….

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    • Amanda, I liked the hints, too. I don’t know that I’ve been concerned about dingy shoelaces, but if I ever am I know what to do. You’re right about how these recipes are all about saving time, nothing gourmet about them.

      Those cherub choir bows were the bane of our choir directors existence. She was fussbudget and wanted them perfect [on a bunch of wiggly kids] at all times.

      Funny about your experiences with spectacles. It can be difficult to know when to get them, for yourself or for your children.

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  79. I have many community cookbooks. Mom’s recipes are in some of them as well as other family members and friends. They are the best and I use them often. I’ve worn glasses since Grade 3 and had a pair of cat-eye glasses which I may still have somewhere. The last photo is so cute!

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    • Darlene, I like community cookbooks, as much for the idea of how they came to be as for the recipes contained within. It is wonderful how some of your mother’s recipes are in some of the books. As a group we cherub choir members were cute, but maybe not as angelic as you might hope!

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    • Hopewell’s Library, good point about how in the past there was more value of cookbooks like this one. I bet your grandmother’s ones are priceless, for many reasons.

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  81. “dutifully bought one” OMG. My mom had stacks of these from any worthy church or community group. Got a giggle over the powder puff – those were so fluffy – kids could hardly grow up enough to be able to have one. Do you remember the bath powder puffs – oh, the luxury…now they would probably scowl saying “bad for the lungs.” Yes, that turkey recipe is so familiar.
    (Really cute little glasses – who couldn’t love those!)

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