"Some of these recipes are amusing, some elaborate, and some just plain and easy. That's a good pattern for eating -- and living -- something fun, something super for special times and something plain for the quiet days with just the family to say, 'Golly, that's a good egg!' and you sort of feel they mean you're a 'good egg' too." (From Margaret Rudkin's introduction)

This lovely book consists of five sections: Childhood, Country Life, Pepperidge Farm, Cooking From Antique Cookbooks and Ireland.

Yes, that Pepperidge Farm. Rudkin was inspired to found Pepperidge Farm due to her son Mark's asthma. His reactions to preservatives and artificial ingredients prevented him from eating commercially prepared bread. She created her first product, a whole wheat bread, and offered it to the local doctor, who immediately ordered it to sell to his patients. Rudkin was soon selling it in her town and four months later she was selling it in New York, with her husband as delivery man. Soon she was distributing her bread (both whole wheat and white loaves) across the country. (Source: Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Rudkin#Career)

This working cookbook gathers together more than 500 mouth-watering recipes, from soup to nuts. It is also an intimate autobiography of a charming and adventuresome woman whose enthusiasm gave her the vitality to rear three children, manage three homes and develop a multimillion dollar business.... and finally, it is a valuable treasury of early recipes from Rudkins' fabulous collection of antique cookbooks, which she has updated with her own modern present-day ready to use translations.

Charming, old-fashioned illustrations by Erik Blegvad will remind you of times of yesteryear. They are the perfect addition to this gem of a cookbook.

(Note: I had to had this edition to GR and this is the description I crafted, using a prior description from GR and notes from Wikipedia, which are cited.)

Amazing insights into the modern history of American food. ( )

In five parts: childhood in lower Manhattan, the weekend farm turned into a working farm named Pepperidge Farm, Pepperidge Farm the business, antique cookbooks with original and revised modern recipes, and the ancestral farm in Ireland. This is a solid memoir with a variety of cooking styles and 600+ recipes. Salmon Timbales, p. 267. Hmm, PF stuffing and two cans ... surprisingly yummy; worth repeating. ( )