I get giddy over cookbooks.

Especially old ones.

See that shelf behind me? It’s completely filled to the top with treasures. Many of which my mom gave to me, which are now the most priceless possessions, aside from pictures, that I own.

My mom would love to give me cookbooks for any reason.

She’d always write a little message on the inside with the date and sometimes even the holiday when the book was given.

Sometimes I sit in my kitchen looking through all of these books, touching the ink, knowing my mom’s fingerprints are there.

These cookbooks tell a story. They’re books that I can pass on to my children, to hopefully spark their own love for cooking, and to hold a piece of the grandmother they never got to meet.

The last cookbook my mom gave me was the Meatball cookbook I’m holding in the first picture above. It was a Christmas present that she ordered, signed by the authors, and of course, by her.

This was our last Christmas together, and I’m so glad I have this to remember it by.

My mom was the one who inspired me to begin building my own cookbook collection. Although I have many that I buy new, my favorite books are the ones with writing in them. You’ll typically find me perusing through piles and boxes of old cookbooks at garage sales or flea markets, looking for books like this

I always wonder how people can part with something so sentimental. I always wonder how these end up in dusty flea market dollar crates.

I found this one a few years ago at Webster flea market. This tugs at my heart strings.

When my grandmother died, we cleaned out her house and although we couldn’t keep everything, I made sure to hold on to her recipes and cookbooks, as my grandmother loved to jot down notes and hide newspaper clippings and recipe snippets in the nooks and crannies of each book.

Mr. KKM’s grandmother sent me this last year when she found out about my love of cookbooks and sentimental messages

Although I’ve never met her, I feel like a little piece of her is here in our home with this gift.

Before you toss your old cookbooks out, let me know. Those scribble-filled, falling apart, fringed books might be trash to you, but they’re my cupboard’s treasures.

What do you treasure?
Steph 🙂