I Love Cookbooks!

In fact, I may have a problem...I love reading, and prefer a real book, to the electronic versions I can easily get on my Nook.  I could spend hours in the bookstore, looking at the covers of books, picking them up, flipping through them, and in the end, I always buy more books than I have time to read.  Cookbooks are no different for me really.  There is such a wide variety of them out there on the shelves - hardbacks, paperbacks, spiral bound recipes, desserts, appetizers, famous chefs, local cuisine, ethnic and cultural collections, and they all have so many pretty pictures.  And, I am especially fond of old cookbooks - I have one from the 1950s entitled, "365 Ways to Cook Hamburger".  I just love them, and have developed a habit of looking for cookbooks in the gift stores of anywhere we travel.  So, I have a lot, and my family of enablers have added to the collections through the years at holidays.

I decided, as one of many New Year resolutions, that I would start actually using these cookbooks.  For the most part, they sit on a bookshelf I have in the kitchen, unused, because in my busy life as a wife, mother, teacher, volunteer, I go to my Pinterest boards instead of these books.  Here's the small book I started with last weekend...

I found this little paperback for under $5, in Kansas and just had to have it.  I'm not very good at making pies, in fact, I'll confess, I never use a homemade crust.  But, I love pies!  They are my absolute favorite form of dessert, and I will choose pie over cake any day of the week. 

I started with the lemon chess pie.  I had heard of a chess pie before, and knew that it contained cornmeal as an ingredient and expected it to turn out thicker and maybe even "cakier" than a lemon meringue pie.  It looks different than a lemon meringue pie, when you take it out of the oven, with a thin crunchy layer on top, but really didn't taste much different than a lemon meringue pie (minus the meringue of course).

 Lemon Chess Pie

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
2 C sugar
1 Tbs flour
1 Tbs white corn meal
1/4 tsp. salt
4 eggs beaten
1/4 C milk
1/3 C butter, melted
4 Tbs pure lemon juice
1 Tbs grated lemon rind

In a mixing bowl combine sugar, flour, corn meal and salt.  Blend in beaten eggs and milk, then remaining ingredients.  Beat mixture thoroughly.  Pour in to pie shell.  Bake in 350 oven for 35 - 40 minutes.

My husband doesn't like lemon desserts.  I knew this when I chose the pie, so I also chose a recipe to make right after that I thought he would like, and one I had never heard of:

Brown Sugar Pie

1 9 inch unbaked pie shell
3 C dark brown sugar firmly packed
5 Tbs flour
1/8 tsp. salt
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 C whole milk

In a large mixing bowl combine ingredients in order given.  Pour into pie shell.  Bake in preheated 350 oven for 30 minutes.  (I baked mine about 10 minutes longer, because it appeared to jiggly in the center)

Now, this pie, got rave reviews from every family member.  My son says it is his new favorite dessert.  It tastes like a caramel custard, but not as eggy as a custard tastes.  It has a creamy soft texture and is extremely sweet, which makes it the perfect pairing for a strong cup of coffee...another addiction of mine:)