Friday, January 30, 2009

Friday Show and Tell

TGIF! Welcome to Show and Tell! Every Friday Kelli over a http://kellishouse.blogspot.com/ hosts show and tell. It's alot of fun.

This week I would like to show you some books I have by my very favorite author Della T. Lutes.
I first found these books when I bought The Country Kitchen at a thrift store several years ago. I was hooked after the first chapter! All the books except Gabriels's Search are about the author growing up in Michigan during the 1880's. And all the books center mostly around food and life in the country.


Here is an exerpt from The Country Kitchen about her father's birthday which was January 1st.:
"Times when my father felt most English there would be roast beef, this was not often owing to the fact that beef was not easy to obtain on the first of January. A great pan of beans, baked, nice and white. Pumpkin pies were most in evidence, since this was my fathers favorite - pumpkin custard with thin, golden-brown tegument over the top like cellophane covering for a pixies bed. Yeast bread, salt-risin' bread and "riz" biscuits filling the large, sunny old kitchen with a warm crusty fragrance which, mingled with that of roasting meat and spices released from fruity jars, teased the appetite almost beyound endurance. And into the kettles, timed to the hour of need, went the potatos, onions for creaming and the Hubbard squash for steaming".


Does that not make your mouth water!!! If not, how about this:
"Flanking the caster and adorning the table here and there were dishes of brandied peaches, apply jelly, grape jelly, dill pickles, mixed mustard pickles, and piccalli, all in fancy dishes of glass or majolica."


These books are full of down home, country living and Mrs. Lutes isn't stingy with her food! Throughout the book there are the recipes or "receipts" for many of the dishes written about.

Now you can't just go to the bookstore or library to find these books as the are out of print. But, they can be found time to time on Ebay. They are definitely worth looking for!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weeked!
Linda

15 comments:

Elizabeth-Plain and Simple said...

These are books that I would enjoy owning. I'll have to look for them. Thanks for sharing.

Blessings,
Elizabeth

Kristen said...

I love old books. Authors of days gone by had such ways with words.

Jessica said...

It's nice to know there are still books out there that have substance to them... I'll be keeping my eyes peeled for these treasures.

Linda - Behind My Red Door said...

OH what a treat it must be to open one of them and start reading. A nice little escape from the daily grind!!

Anonymous said...

I will also have to look for these books. Thank you so much for sharing

Judy said...

I would love to own those books, I just might have to go and check out Ebay.

Belinda said...

They sound absolutely delightful...now I'm sitting here wishing I had this collection! I'm going to look for some of them...wish me luck. The excerpts pulled me right in! :-)

BECKY said...

Your books sound lovely. Made my mouth water! It's so great when we stumble onto something that gives us such great joy!! Thank you for sharing with us!!
Blessings,
Becky

Alice said...

I love books, too. This is an awesome find. I'm glad you are enjoying them. Thanks for sharing with us.

You are always welcome in The Shadow of the Cross. Feel free to visit anytime.

Kathy said...

I love older books. It's great that you have collected so many of your favorite author. Maybe I'll look for them since I live in Michigan!
Kathy

Kelli said...

What a wonderful set of books, Linda! I'm going to keep my eyes open for that author now.
~Kelli

Jess said...

Looks like a great collection..

Have a wonderful week

Love, Jess

Jess said...

Looks like a great collection..

Have a wonderful week

Love, Jess

Bovey Belle said...

What lovely books to own and cherish. I have to have old books too (see the latest blog posting for my latest find). That cooking sounds SO good.

Linda C said...

These books are such treasure!

I have an award to share with you! Please stop by and pick it up:)

Linda C