My Favorite Cookbook

I have 2 copies of the Meta Givens Encyclopedia of Cooking.

One was my mother's and was given to her as an engagement present in 1952. It is the very first cookbook I learned to cook with. The binding has been replaced twice and there are stains are special pages where my mom placed dirty sticky fingers while cooking.

Then, when i graduated from college I wanted a copy of my own. It had been out of print for a long time at that point. My grandmother tracked down the publisher and they actually sold her one they had as a 'file' copy. This version was actually published in 2 volumes. Very good idea too, since it was a VERY thick book and tough to manipulate when in 1 volume.

My mom died in 1983 and now I have both copies.