Monday, September 27, 2010

And More From Peg Bracken

I did a post a while back about some of the books authored by the late, great Peg Bracken. I mentioned in that post that I hoped to find more of her books. Well, guess what??
My search has been successful, as you can plainly see:
You can see at the top of this paperback copy of "The I Hate To Cook Book", below, that it is the "Birds Eye Edition":
Which, apparently, meant that purchasing it included this little booklet:
Which included Menus......
......and recipes incorporating frozen foods from Birds Eye:
Peg Bracken became a spokeswoman for Birds Eye, doing more than eighteen commercials for them.
I was not aware that this year marked the 50th anniversary of her first book. I read the foreword written by her daughter Jo Bracken for the 50th Anniversary Edition on Amazon.com. It actually brought tears to my eyes.
I found another copy of the appendix, as well - see the differences between the two:

Great books, all.
Thank you, Peg.

6 comments:

  1. These are great! Thanks for sharing them with us!

    E+J

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  2. I never heard of these, but they sure are cute! I think I need to read "I Try To Behave Myself" before my next trip to the flea market!
    Happy Monday!
    Carol

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  3. no one speaks of her much anymore - which is a shame. the was an icon in her day and i am glad you make sure we don't forget heidi. well - i think i am caught up now and i am still sick. but i got thru the posts i hadn't seen yet and i now can shut of the computer and hope to recoup some more.

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  4. I always especially loved the I Hate Housekeeping book. Would love to reread them. The artichoke chicken casserole recipe sounds interesting, maybe a little less butter these days though. Love T

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  5. My favorite Peg Bracken book is "I Didn't Come Here to Argue." It's a book of essays, all hilarious of course, but "101 Highly Original Sins" must be one of the funniest pieces she ever wrote.

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  6. I collect old TV programs--mainly game shows--and I have one from 1968 featuring an Birds Eye ad with Bracken.

    That is a good point about Bracken...I read the promo info about the 50th anniversary re-issue and how it noted Bracken for being someone who was saying (with humor) that women shouldn't necessarily define their existence in terms of how many hours a day they spend
    in the kitchen.

    She also lived until 2007--long enough to see two distinct strains of cooking and eating American culture developed:

    On one hand...the fast food/takeout/microwave mindset. On the other, the Julia Child/Martha Stewart/Food Network mentality (which in general is even more involved and time-consuming than 1960-era home cooking).

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