Thrifty Acres: Now You're Cooking

Hello! I purchased these secondhand cookbooks last Thursday:

Celebrate the Seasons 2012, Best of Country Breads and The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen all came from a library used book sale.

Celebrate the Seasons 2012 is a Better Homes and Gardens book, the kind that the company sends mailers out well in advance of Christmas, hoping to entice would-be buyers with glossy photos of the wonderful crafts, decor and recipes that will be theirs to replicate. Said buyers can save money by sending for the book at some special price - but with shipping and handling tacked on, of course. 

I know about these come-ons because I often get these mailings. But by now I've gone to enough thrift stores and used book sales to know that these special publications often show up at these places - usually looking like they'd never even been cracked open. So instead of paying somewhere between $25-$30 for a book that's less than one year old, I paid $2.00. 

Best of Country Breads is a 2000 Reiman Publications issue and includes results of a recipe contest from Taste of Home, Quick Cooking and Country Woman magazines. These recipe-compilation issues often show up secondhand as well - I already have a volume from the same company featuring the results of a cookie contest. The bread cookbook has recipes for yeast and quick breads, rolls and muffins - in short, lots of good, solid recipes! I look forward to going through this book and marking up some recipes I want to try. 

I know I had checked out The Farm Chicks in the Kitchen (a Country Living publication) from the libary, so I was glad to see it offered at its used book sale. The Farm Chicks, out in Washington State, run a very popular antique show. Their cookbook is a lot of fun, packed with yummy recipes, crafts using vintage items, gift wrapping techniques, ideas for home decor and more. As the book is barely three years old, I don't know why the library staff wanted to get rid of it, but I'm glad they did! 

The last book, Moosewood Restaurant Book of Desserts, was a thrift store find. I can say that this purchase fits the saying "good things come to those who wait". Almost two years ago, we ate lunch at the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, NY. This long-standing vegetarian restaurant has published a number of cookbooks, four of which I already own (thrift store purchases or were given to me). 

While waiting to be seated at lunch, I browsed through Moosewood's "library": copies of all their cookbooks were available for perusing. Of course, this was a bit of a marketing ploy, since next to the "library" were copies of the same cookbooks for sale. 

I grabbed the "desserts" cookbook and saw some nice recipes. Was tempted to purchase it, but, after all, I didn't really need another dessert cookbook. I told myself I'd consider buying it if I came across it at a thrift store. 

And that day came last Thursday. My patience paid off - and I saved twenty dollars by waiting. I'll gladly take those savings!