'Member the Time Life 'Foods of the World' books?

[Jenise]

There's a toad on eBay I'd like to put in MY Vitamix! Had one of the books I wanted, hardcover only, with lots of them for sale from others, listed at $9.99 "or best offer". So I offered him $5--he declined. I hope he enjoys living with that book for all eternity.

I just perused our cookbook collection and realized that what I thought were my hard copies were another series. When we moved in '05 I donated the hard copies to the our library in Searsport, and just kept the spiral recipe books. I guess the memory's the second thing to go.

Which other series did you have, the Good Cooks series?

Would you believe "The Women's Day Encyclopedia of Good Cookery"; 12 volumes? Actually I have to admit that the genesis of many recipes we us today is in it; though most, lasagna for example, have gone though multiple iterations.

I remember my mother having several of these. If I recall correctly you could either subscribe to have each book in the series mailed to you by Time-Life books, but they were also for sale at our local supermarket.

-Paul W.

We have the "Cooking of Provincial France" by MFK Fisher, complete with spiral cookbook, courtesy of a friend years ago. It's a treasure.

Mark Lipton

[Jenise]

Mark, I have a feeling they all are, though I can't imagine how any volume could top anything by MFK Fisher. I just checked to see if she also wrote the Classic French book I just acquired but no, that's Craig Claibourne (with help from Jacques Pepin, looking mighty dashing circa 1970 I might add, Pierre Franey and James Beard).

Some advice to anyone wanting to acquire other copies? Tom's fantastic coup on eBay not withstanding, there are very few deals on eBay. I stupidly bid on several before thinking to check Amazon where, if you search by volume name, usually quite a few options pop up, many at .01 cents. There are enough of them around that most used book sellers are happy to let the volume go for the modest profit they'll make on the shipping and handling--ergo, $4 per book. The Scandinavian and Japanese books are both so plentiful and unsought-after that they'll almost pay you take them away! The American series are the rarest. The New England edition is the most plentiful of these, with Southern the absolute rarest, and typically the seller who stumbles over one knows what he's got. No one cent opportunities there!

Jenise, have you mailed out the Chinese book yet? Just wanted to check and make sure it did not get lost?

[Jenise]

Karen, gosh no, I haven't. I'll check my PM's for your address.