Birds feast in Pennsylvania

Today we enjoyed an uncrowded Saturday in the Amish countryside not far from Lancaster, PA, where the towns have names like Bird-in-Hand, Paradise, Intercourse.... From many neat farm houses, clothes are hung on high pully lines, some with all theblue trousers, then white shirts as neat as their rows of crops.

My daughter-in-law Betsy and her friend Nancy and I watched an Amish farmer till a long row with his team of horses, turning over the lovely dark soil, and in so doing, unearthing a feast that beckoned an enormous flock of birds. It was amazing to see!

~ Gwen

Meet our new Regional Books for QVC!

(Click here to see the new books:) Best of the Best Regional Cookbooks from QVC.

It is always exciting to introduce a new cookbook on QVC, and this time is no exception. In fact, it is a real challenge!

By request of people wanting all of the Best of the Best State Cookbooks, we got our heads together and decided to combine states into regions. The first six include The Deep South, East Coast, The Plains, The Southeast, The Midwest, and The Pacific Rim.

It is being offered exclusively from QVC at a lower advanced order price until March 24th at which time The Deep South will be shipped.

The Deep South Cookbook:the first to ship.

Then in April, May, June, and July you get the remaining books one each month. If you stay in the program all the way through, you get the last one, The Pacific Rim, free! And it is shipped with The Midwest in July with no extra shipping!

You can get the series after March 24 at its introductory price.
The remaining regions, The Southwest, South Central, Mountain West, Middle America, Great Lakes, and Northeast, are also in the planning stages for QVC.

~ Gwen

Want to read the whole story?

We Did It

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Preserving great recipes before they're lost.

Just a few of the 50 local cookbooks that went into making

the Best of the Best from Louisiana cookbook.

Some are now out of print.

In each state we visited in the 1990s, we searched hard to find and preserve those little recipe gems that were in danger of being lost forever. Often these are the kind of recipes that you'd find tucked away in a modest church cookbook published in a small community.

Junior League cookbooks were also a valuable contributor to the state cookbook series because they are developed by local members and reflect the recipes of their unique city and community.

By gleaning the best recipes and compiling them into a single cookbook, we worked to fulfill our mission: "Preserving America's Food Heritage."

Try these Cherry Cheese Brownie Bars. We loved them!

If you have trouble reading this size print, just click on the recipe card and you'll be taken to a large size version of the recipe card. This is a wonderful dessert for adults and kids alike. Hope you enjoy it!

~ Barbara

Thank you American Profile for a nice article

The Cookbook Ladies

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Our friend Tupper.

(Right:) Barbara, artist Tupper England, Gwen. This photo was taken at a book signing for the Louisiana cookbook. We always bring food!

(Left:) A sample cookbook page shows a bit of Tupper's work.

Ever notice all the artwork that is printed

throughout our cookbooks?

That's the work of a talented artist

named Tupper England.

She has worked with us during our

many years collecting recipes and has

illustrated every one of the

cookbooks in the series.

Isn't she great?

~Gwen

Ten states finished!

By the end of the 1980s we had finished the Best of the Best State Cookbooks for ten states. The road was not always been easy or enjoyable. We had a few car problems and were invariably helped by friendly people ranging from truckers, motorcyclists and the police! We missed turns, became hopelessly lost and sometimes made wonderful cookbook discoveries while we found our way 'back'. In the evening, we studied road maps and consulted local phone directories as we decided where the next day's drive would take us.

Our itinerary sometimes included restaurants, bed-and-breakfast inns, book shops, chambers of commerce, vistors bureaus or anywhere we could talk to the people of the state and find the recipes they really loved to eat.

~Gwen

Flying high over Kentucky

Gwen & I took our first sea plane ride in the Bluegrass State.

No stewardess on this flight!

Our trusty van still took us to whatever state we were researching at the time. But when we got to Kentucky we took to the air. Well, just for a little while. Paula Cunningham, who owns McClanahan Publishing in Kuttawa, Kentucky treated us to a sea plane ride over the Land Between the Lakes. What an adventure it was!

That night we got a taste of Kentucky Baked Pork Chops, which of course was headed straight for the book.

~ Barbara

Kentucky, Vol. II.