I thought these two cookbooks and my big recipe notebook had been lost and were gone forever.
I have no memory of having them when Brett and I lived in Hawaii the second time around. I thought they had been in the big box of kitchen stuff that the movers lost when we had our stored household goods shipped over to us.
My last memory of any them was from 2018, when I made sure all the recipes I had clipped and wanted to keep were filed in the big notebook. I gave away several cookbooks then, but knew the Sunset book and the Japanese recipes were the ones I wanted to keep.
So, you can imagine my joy when I recently discovered all three of them sitting in the back of our credenza behind some other stuff. Apparently they were among the things that had been mailed to WenYu when we left Kaua’i in 2022. I have no memory of doing that though.
I’ve had the Sunset Favorite Recipes cookbook since 1974. In fact, the one I have now is my second copy – I wore out the first. It contains so many recipes I love and some I still make from memory, like our favorite meatloaf and oatmeal shortbread cookies. I’ve owned Japanese Country Cookbook since 1983, bought after Brett and I returned to the U.S. from our first tour in Japan. The big notebook is filled with clippings of favorite recipes that I began collecting right after Brett and I got married. I went through all of it before we left Hawaii in 2018 and edited everything down to recipes I had actually made and would make again. It was still stuffed to overflowing.
So many of the recipes and pages are covered with splatters. Some are yellowed and faded. I cried as I read through them, remembering flavors, aromas, and family meals. I can’t wait to make so many of them again. Some of the recipes I had saved are now available online, but too many others are not, like the one for Spicy Steak Pizzaiola that I cut from a Weight Watcher’s magazine who knows when. It’s the first recipe I want to make again.
Treasures lost and treasures found. I’m still beaming.
The Occasional Nomads 
It is always wonderful to discover a lost treasure!
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I was so surprised and happy – I honestly thought they were gone for good. Some of the recipes I can find online, but not others (like the spicy steak pizzaiola).
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I have that same Sunset cook book, inherited from my mother-in-law. Whose cooking I truly admired back in the day, and much of which came from that cookbook.
I have to admit though, cookbooks have come a long way since then, and I find I rarely use it these days. Though I still looove more current Sunset Magazine recipes, which I find have continued to evolve with food’s ongoing evolution and focus on fresh ingredients.
Enjoy- I would imagine it’s a bit like greeting a treasured old friend. 🙂
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I LOVE that cookbook – I’ve been using it since before Brett and I met (I think I got my first copy in 1974). I haven’t fixed every recipe, but I have made a LOT of them.
I rarely use (or buy) cookbooks these days; it’s much easier to go online. I need to check out Sunset’s recipes again – they’ve always been good, and yes, focus more on fresh ingredients.
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What a find! I have old recipes that I rarely make anymore, but they have such memories attached. I can see why you cried when you found them.
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One of my most treasured recipes is in the book: my grandmother’s recipe for yeast biscuits, in her handwriting. So, so happy to have that with me again (it’s the one that got me crying). Lots of other wonderful memories as well. I was surprised by how many dessert recipes that I used to loved to make too, although probably never will again.
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This is the best! There’s nothing like a lifetime of treasured recipes to bring some joy and comfort into your life. So glad you found them!
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I honestly felt like I’d won the lottery when I found those books. There are too many memories to count, and I’ve had fun since finding going through it all several times.
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I’m not as organized as you are. I have a small bag of recipes. Some of them are in my mother’s handwriting. She sent me off to college with a set of recipe cards. I do cherish those!
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Bruce – it took me two full days to organize the big recipe notebook. I got everything out, and glued the organized recipes to paper front and back and then slipped those into plastic page protectors. Sounds like a ton of work but it was actually a lot of fun and brought about lots of memories as well as reflection on which recipes were really worth keeping and which ones weren’t. Recipes that had been printed on cards were copied so that both sides showed up together (we had a copier, so this was pretty easy to do), and then other recipes glued around them to use the space most efficiently. In each section of the cookbook there’s no real organization – that was a bridge to far – but it’s pretty easy to go through a section and find the recipe I’m looking for. Anyway, it was a worth organizational project.
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Oh wow! How wonderful that you found them and can now make some old favorites. I have some special ones too that were my mother’s and would be very sad if I lost them. I think the memories they evoke are even better than the recipes.
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LOL – my mom was not a great cook, but I have the recipe for one thing she made that I have always loved (a quick bread to go with soups). I also have recipes from my grandmothers, and other family members, but most of them were clipped from magazines.
And yes, the memories are better than any of the recipes!
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I’m so very happy for you. Terrific to have found something special that had seemed to be lost.
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It was a very happy day, with tears of joy for something found that was believed to be lost for good.
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