Boy, if that subtitle doesn’t say it all, I don’t know what would! This is another classic in this series by Good Housekeeping. It is filled with great illustrations by Suzanne Snider, and has a range of taste tempting food photos.

Hamburgers and hot dogs are just the right comfort food for the summer months. While grilling usually comes to mind, you’ll find many other ways to serve up your hamburgers and hot dogs in this cookbook.

Ever thought about grating a hot dog? Why not! Their Hickory Corn Fritter recipe calls for grated franks. How about stuffed franks? Yup, you’ll find recipes for stuffed hot dogs in here as well.  Ooow, how about Frank Suey?  Or Creole Franks? Deviled Hamburgers, Weiner style has an odd ring to it.

The Johnny Marzetti recipe has me wondering just who this Johnny Marzetti guy was, and why his name was immortalized  as a casserole. Aren’t you curious? A Johnny Marzetti is a fairly typical looking casserole. It was apparently created in the 1920′s byt he owner of the Marzetti Restaurant in Columbus, Ohio. According to the “American Century Cookbook” by Jean Anderson, Johnny Marzetti was the brother of the owner of the Marzetti Restaurant.  Huh, go figure.

Well, I’m off to make me a Dinner-in-a-skillet!

There is no retro kitsch here, just serious recipes from one of television’s first celebrity chefs. Apart from a few black & white photos, the book contains around 400 pages of recipes. The recipes are laid out by the show number, from show no. 14 to 134.

Why does the book start at show number 14, and not number one? Apparently the first thirteen shows no longer existed by the time they put this book together. The show began on a local New England station, and when they switched to WGBH, they needed to send copies of the show to other stations nation-wide. They apparently did not have enough copies of the tapes of the first thirteen shows, and the tape wore out. It sounds like Julia was happy about this because they were then able to redo those episodes and improve upon the quality.

A classic cookbook for anyone’s collection!

• 1/2 pound rice
• 2 quarts milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons raisins
• 2 tablespoons pistachios, chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds (grains removed from pods)
• 1/2 teaspoon saffron, soaked in 2 tablespoons warm milk

Wash rice well and let it soak in cold water for 1 hour. Drain. Add to milk and simmer (don’t allow to boil) for 1 hour. Add sugar, raisins, nuts, and cardamom, and simmer until rice is fully soft and pudding is as thick as you want it—as much as 2 or 3 hours more. Add saffron and allow to stand for ast least 5 minutes before serving. This may also be eaten cold. Makes 6 servings.

The name of this cookbook might lead you to think that it might focus solely on seafood recipes, but it covers all types of recipes. You’ll find everything from vegetable recipes, meat & poultry recipes, and there are a lot of tasty looking fish & seafood recipes in here.

The book is broken up into seven sections (seven seas, you know):

• The North and Baltic Seas
• The Mediterranean Sea
• The Red and Arabian Seas
• The Seas of China and Japan
• The South Seas
• The Caribbean Sea
• The Sea Around Us

Looking for a Fried Eel recipe? How about Pickled Duck? Poached Shad and Melted Bones? You can find those and many other recipes in this cookbook. A few favorites that I intend on trying are: Shrimp Sate, Carbonada, Clam Chowder, Shrimp Gumbo, African Fish and Greens.. and Sicilian Peach Sherbet, once peach season hits here in Colorado!

I definitely recommend picking up this cookbook if you find a copy.  There are a lot of good looking recipes from around the world, and the pages are sprinkled with fun illustrations.  The illustration style isn’t as good as some vintage cookbooks have, but they are still fun illustrations.

• 1 large onion
• 1 pound fresh okra
• 1 clove garlic
• Flour
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups soup stock
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• Thyme, Parsley
• 1/8 teaspoon Tabasco
• 1/2 pound veal
• 1/2 pound ham
• 1 1/2 pounds shrimp, cooked

Make roux of first 5 ingredients, add next 6 ingredients. Fry chopped veal and ham, add shrimp. Cook all 1 1/2 hours.

But enough about Ruth, and back to this vintage cookbook.  As the title states, this cookbook covers recipes that are from various regions across the United States. This 752 page co0kbook contains 11 regional cookbooks, which include:

• New England Cook Book
• Southern Cook Book
• Pennsylvania Dutch Cook Book
• Creole Cook Book
• Michigan Dutch Cook Book
• Mississippi Valley Cook Book
• Wisconsin Dutch Cook Book
• Minnesota Scandinavian Cook Book
• Southwestern Cook Book
• Western Cook Book
• Cosmopolitan Cook Book

While it seems a bit heavy on Dutch recipes, apparently “Dutch” did always refers to immigrants from Holland or the Netherlands. Some “Dutch” were Germans.  Hmm, isn’t that curious?  So some of the “Dutch” recipes are actually German. Each section is filled with tons of interesting, and tasty looking recipes. The Cosmopolitan cook book also includes Recipes from Many Lands That Have Found an American Home. This section includes: Italian, Russian, Romanian, Armenian, Jewish, Turkish, and of course Dutch recipes.

While many of the recipes look pretty good, there are some you might not expect. Bake Muskellunge (aka Musky to us fishermen), Gestoofde Aal (stewed eels), Chitterlings (Chit’lin’s), ‘Possum and Sweet Taters, as well as other interesting delights. This is definitely a cookbook that I want to try some recipes from.

The cookbook is also filled with decent color and B&W photos, as well as great little B&W illustrations. Definitely a classic, and not just for the collector.

• 4 loin or shoulder pork chops
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 4 potatoes, sliced
• 2 large onions, sliced
• 1 1/2 cups sour cream
• 1 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/2 tsp. dry mustard

Heat oven to 350° (mod.). Trim excess fat from chops and roll in flour. Brown chops and garlic in hot fat over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. Place potatoes in 11 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 1 1/2″ baking pan; top with browned chops. Separate onion slices into rings and lay over chops. Blend sour cream, salt, mustard; pour over potatoes, chops, and onions. Bake 1 1/2 hr.  4 servings.