I love looking at recipe books. I love the potential of them. The goodness, the gooeyness, the savouring, imagining and the resulting communion of sharing good food.
When we downsized we had to donate quite a few cookbooks. I rather grandly declared we could find everything we wanted on the world of the wondrous web. Also, our apartment’s shelf space was minimal. There was that.
I was mostly right about the web. I keep most of my best recipe ‘clippings’ on Pinterest, which is ever so handy. But there is still something so tactile and homey about well-used pages with drips and stains and stuck-together pages. Those well-worn recipes make me smile.
As well, some books demanded to be kept. Like the Mennonite cookbook my mother gave me with her hopeful inscription that I would remember it was up to me to feed my new husband. Mom hadn’t quite fully signed on to the feminist manifesto before she died (though I liked that she used the words ‘far out’ in her hip enticement to get me to be a good wife. I swear I cannot recall her ever ever ever saying those words in real life).
All this to say; a cook book has to be pretty stellar for it to pass the test and enter our world. Last month I decided Angela Liddon’s vegan cookbook, ‘oh she glows‘ made that cut.
First off, a disclaimer. I’m not a vegan. I’m not even a vegetarian. But I want to incorporate more and more plant-based recipes in my day-to-day life. I swear I feel healthier just looking at this book.
And now I have one more reason to crack the spine and whip up my first batch of ‘classic glo’ energy bars: we are heading up to Whistler this Wednesday for a couple of days of snowshoeing and spa-ing. I am on an arduous assignment from Expedia.ca.
They asked me to report on winter alternatives to skiing. Naturally I suggested a snowshoe picnic followed by a massage and maybe, after the next day’s snowshoe expedition, a few steam-and-cold-plunge sessions at Scandinave Spa.
I decided that with all that tromping around and frolicking in the snow, a girl’s gotta have some homemade energy bars.
I am happy to report these ‘classic glo bars’ were dead-easy to make and very tasty. I modified them slightly as Miz Liddon called for sunflower seeds and I happened to have pumpkin seeds on hand instead. Also her call for brown rice syrup sounded suspiciously like good ol’ corn syrup would work. It did. I only had an 8×8 pan instead of the 9×9 she suggested, so my bars are a little thicker around the middle, but then…so am I.
Also, when she talks about really pressing the mixture into the pan, I just threw another piece of parchment paper on top to keep my fingers from getting stuck to the top. Easy peasy.
As for non-dairy chocolate chips? With all due apologies. She must have been kidding. Seriously. No way. Pure chocolate. Every time. Thank you very much.
Here’s the Classic Glo Bar recipe. Feel virtuous and enjoy.
#52Creations2016
Love this recipe but will make a few substitutions (corn flakes for rice krispies, pumpkin for sunflower, ground flax instead of hemp) and real dark chocolate of course. Can’t make them this week because I had a molar removed today that came out in pieces. My mouth is on fire and I’m on liquids/cold soft food for the next two days. I’ll make them next week for our trip to AZ.
You’re right about tracing history by scanning cookbooks. Mine start with Joy of Cooking, Fanny Farmer, Canadian Mennonite (1974) Mennonite Treasury (1982?), gazillion Good Housekeeping, Microwaving, Treats to Remember from the UBC Bakeshop, and fizzle off the series Best of Bridge, as I put my faves on the computer or look up whatever.
Ouch! Hope you heal up fast.
That’s a wonderful history of cookbooks Martha. Oh man, I loved that Best of Bridge cookbook. I never did own a copy but I remember writing out some of those buttery recipes.
Substitutes are the fun part of cooking!
I have another tip for when you make those bars. When she says not to add the chocolate until the mixture is cooled (because the chocolate will melt)…apparently it’s really true.
I didn’t think the mixture was that warm when I added the chocolate. Apparently it was.
The bars still taste great, but the chocolate is sort of smeared throughout.
Just a dreadful night resorting to Tylenol 3 at 1 & 5 am but then slept until 9 am. The throbbing is much less this morning and I’ve got 10 days to recover before we hit the road — 3-day road trip to Phoenix — yippee!
As for the bars, I like the idea of melting the chocolate as a glaze sprinkled with chopped almonds and more shredded coconut … pop in the freezer for 10 mins so they don’t stick together when packed. Last week at Costco I sampled a delicious meal replacement bar that was covered in dark chocolate but didn’t buy after reading the ingredients high in fat, sugar, etc.
I love road trips. Sounds like you’ll be fully recovered at this rate.
I kind of like the melted chocolate throughout as well. In that case, dump the chocolate bits in right away because mine are definitely chocolate-y throughout and really really good!
Thank you for this latest post, and like you, Colleen, I love cookbooks, for all the same reasons you mention in this post. Unfortunately, the “Healthy Eating” ones haven’t found a spot on my shelf…yet, but that healthy looking bar is tempting me. Ethnic, and especially the “favourite recipes” of the Catholic Women’s League or the United Church Women of any home town in Saskatchewan always remind me of the women who have shared these recipes….in a good way, and make me smile. Your energy is inspiring and I wish you Happy Snowshoeing…Go…girl…go!!!
You’re right about the reminders of the women when reading those compilation cookbooks…even if I don’t know the particular person, I am always able to imagine a portly Mrs. Doerksen or that reed-thin Mrs. Wiens, carefully measuring and noting down her recipe, flour on her apron, her pen slightly sticky.
Oh wait, it would be Mrs. John Doerksen or Mrs. Abraham Wiens. Not only the last name but even her first, completely subsumed by the man’s identity (oops…did I go off on a slight tangent again??).
Let’s dial that back for a second.
I like that the cookbooks, like my Mennonite one, filled with lard, flour and cheap cuts of meat is sharing a confined space with a book extolling the virtues of veganism. One could trace the trajectory of some women’s lives, just by scanning their cookbooks.