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You may not believe this but once upon a time I didn’t know how to cook. I was a teenager before I realized that you could bake a cake that didn’t come from a box.
I can hear my husband laughing from the other room. It’s true!
A decade or so ago I found this little cookbook sitting on a library shelf and I decided to check it out. I made a chocolate cake that night, from scratch, and my whole world changed. As I browsed this book I noticed that I wasn’t just learning recipes, I was learning cooking techniques that would save me time and money.
After years of going through my hand-copied recipes I finally bought a copy of the book last year, and I still use it at least three times a month (I also continue to put a lid on a pot of boiling pasta and turn the burner off for the last few minutes!)
The More With Less Cookbook was spawned from the book Living More With Less by Doris Janzen Longacre. Mrs. Longacre and her family served with the Mennonite Central Committee in Vietnam and Indonesia in the 1960s and 70s. She saw how the families there ate, how they were able to feed many people for very little money and with little or no modern cooking technology; she saw how out-of-sync North American culture was with what is good for people and the planet. She took their recipes, cooking techniques and ideas and translated them into modern North American society.
Unfortunately Mrs. Longacre passed away in 1979 but her books live on in the form of reprints, and both are available in Kindle edition.
This is the book I plan to give my children when they move out on their own.
This is a great book for:
-People looking for easy-to-prepare and “green” recipes
-People learning to cook from scratch
-Newlyweds or college students
-People who want to transition to a diet that depends less on meat
-Anyone looking to live a simpler, more concious life
I absolutely love this cookbook, it is one of only two cookbooks I have permanently stored in my kitchen. (The other is a 1950’s copy of The Betty Crocker Cookbook.)
Buy it!
I agree that this is a wonderful cookbook. I also have Living More With Less, as well as Extending the Table, which was her last book, I believe. ETT contains many delicious and cheap ethnic recipes. I am not religious, but I love the values espoused in these books, and all the little stories scattered throughout.
I’ve browsed this cookbook too. And I have the 1969 Betty Crocker’s Cookbook. It’s the first cookbook I ever owned, and it was a present from my Mom after I married and moved into my first apartment. I will never part with it, not only b/c Mom gave it to me, but b/c it’s an excellent basic cookbook. :)