Nell Beaubien Nichols (1894–1984)

The cookies are pretty uniformly excellent, if occasionally a bit odd. Ketchup cookies: a testament to our foremothers' creativity in the face of desperation, or just high weirdness? I'll let you know as soon as I work up the nerve to try them.
The book also has interesting and useful lists of cookies--such as "cookies that sell well at bake sales", "cookies that mail well", "cookies that do not fly into a million crumbs at first bite and are therefore practical to give to a toddler without show more first equipping him or her with a flypaper bib"--that reek of hard-won experience and are honestly quite practical.
As a special bonus, the book comes larded with quaintly sexist advice, for your guffawing pleasure! (Disclaimer: I have the 1971 edition. Maybe they've updated.) show less

If I could keep only one cookbook from my collection, this would be it. I use it more often than any of the others I own. Some of the recipes feed lots of people, so I can always find something seasonal to make for a church dinner. Other recipes, especially those for canned vegetables, feed smaller groups of 4 to 6 people. These are ideal for every day meals. Most of the recipes use ingredients people commonly keep in their pantries, making it easy to come up with a side dish on the spur of show more the moment. My copy originally belonged to my grandmother, so I have the added benefit of her margin notes by the recipes she used. The book is out of print, but you might be able to find a copy at a yard sale. show less

The main dish pie section is quite good. I want to make more savory pies, but recipes I find in most cookbooks tend toward variations on the pot pie concept. While I love stew in a pie crust, I figured there had to be something more. Particularly, finding vegetarian pies has been a pain for me. The ones I do find tend to be unappealing. With a number of vegetarian friends, I really want them to have a reason to come to Pie Night. For a cookbook targeted at the strongly carnivorous country, show more Farm Journal’s Complete Pie Cookbook has a surprising number of hearty, tasty-sounding vegetarian recipes. show less

This is the best bread cookbook I have, and I got it from the cookbook club. I have never had a bad recipe in it, and the CDQ Cinnamon Rolls have been a family favorite for many years