Picture of author.
14+ Works 1,532 Members 37 Reviews 2 Favorited

About the Author

Image credit: From the back of her book I Didn't Come Here To Argue

Series

Works by Peg Bracken

Associated Works

The Penguin Book of Women's Humour (1996) — Contributor — 117 copies

Tagged

1960s (13) American (9) American cooking (11) autobiography (5) cleaning (15) cookbook (171) cookbooks (47) cookery (40) cooking (142) essays (12) etiquette (30) food (42) food and drink (8) funny (5) hardcover (9) home (8) home economics (13) homemaking (11) household (9) household hints (6) housekeeping (45) how-to (6) humor (215) kitchen (7) memoir (28) non-fiction (120) own (11) paperback (13) PB (6) quick cooking (6) recipes (28) reference (14) retro (6) self-help (9) to-read (24) travel (15) unread (5) USA (8) vintage (12) women (6)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Bracken, Peg
Legal name
Bracken, Ruth Eleanor
Birthdate
1918-02-25
Date of death
2007-10-20
Gender
female
Nationality
USA
Birthplace
Filer, Idaho, USA
Place of death
Portland, Oregon, USA
Places of residence
Filer, Idaho, USA (Birthplace)
Clayton, Missouri, USA (Childhood)
Portland, Oregon, USA
Hawaii, USA
Education
Antioch College
Occupations
Author
Advertising Copywriter
Relationships
Smith, Mike (first husband)
Lull, Roderick (second husband)
Edwards, Parker (third husband)
Ohman, John (fourth husband)
Bracken, Johanna (daughter)
Short biography
Peg Bracken wrote humorous, sometimes sarcastic, books and magazine articles on cooking and housekeeping that showed American women that she wasn't a perfect homemaker and they didn't have to be, either.

Members

Reviews

My mom had the original version of this book in the kitchen. When we sold the family house, I took a photo of the one recipe I had used, wacky cake (called cockeyed cake here) and gave it a well-deserved burial. (It went through a lot!) But I had never read the whole thing. So when I saw there was a 50th anniversary edition, I took it out from the library.

It's written in a funny, breezy style and while some of it's dated now (the chapters on dinner parties and ladies luncheons especially), there is still a lot of great things in it. What's fabulous is that none of the recipes require fancy ingredients (although it's pretty funny to see lamb considered a cheap meat and assuming everyone has a well-stocked bar of liqueurs) or long prep times. A lot of recipes here use either cream or mushrooms (I hate both) but I still found some simple recipes that I want to try.

If you're like me, who doesn't want to spend ages cooking, I'd recommend checking out this classic.
… (more)
 
Flagged
mktoronto | 17 other reviews | Jan 25, 2023 |
Historical, sociological interest. Very dated, most of the recipes were offputting
 
Flagged
naoph | 17 other reviews | Jan 1, 2021 |
The I Hate to Cook Book is an amusing recipe book for people (like me) who aren't good at cooking. The recipes are fairly easy and simple. Although I still don't cook a lot, just looking through this book and at the titles is funny. It can be fun looking through the humerus 440 easy, and well known recipes and the aesthetically pleasing retro illustrations. I got this book because the title was funny. I wasn't disappointed looking through the recipes either. Now that I have this fabulous cookbook, I can finally cook without feeling like it's homework. It's a good meal that comes with a good laugh.… (more)
 
Flagged
SDeWitt.ELA2 | 2 other reviews | Jan 13, 2020 |
As someone who doesn't cook...I loved this book.
 
Flagged
Karen74Leigh | 17 other reviews | Sep 4, 2019 |

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Statistics

Works
14
Also by
1
Members
1,532
Popularity
#16,795
Rating
4.1
Reviews
37
ISBNs
41
Favorited
2

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