Look at her. Just look at her! For years, I have been looking, searching for her sweet face on crowded bookshelves in every thrift and antique store I've stepped into. And, oh my, just look! Here she is, sitting right here on my dining table!! I finally, finally, finally found her! I'm so twittery, jittery excited to tell you about this! It's the kind of thing that just makes a girl want to squeal--or cry--or, both!
You may be thinking that all this sniffing and chortling is about the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook that you see up there, plain as day. But, oh, no. No. This sweet thing you see always has been, and always will be known to me as The Red & White Checked Cookbook. When I was a little girl, she was my nanny in the kitchen. Thanks to my mom, the kitchen was never off-limits to eager little hands itching to make every single recipe from this delightful book.
In the beginning, Mom gave me guidance and patient instruction, then my red-checked nanny and I did the rest. We started out with easy things, like Peanut Butter Crisscrosses, and went on to more difficult things, like Plain Pastry dough; my nanny ever there to show the steps. When it came time for me to leave home, she was completely falling apart--not because she was going to miss me, I'm sure, but because I had completely worn her out. So, carefully, I scooped her up one more time and gently carried her to the kitchen counter, because I just couldn't leave her--not before one last time around the kitchen together, not before one last embrace of her goodness, not before I had written down about twenty of her best recipes to take along with me as a new bride.
Even after I had set up my own kitchen, some 3,000 miles away, she was always just a phone call away. Sometimes, my teenage brother would answer, and I'd say, "Get the Red & White Checked Cookbook, turn to page 73,--which is in the "Breads" section, which you won't find the tab for because it's torn off, but it's the section right after "Appetizers & Beverages",--and on the left-hand side, half way down, there should be a recipe for Sugar 'n Spice Coffeecake. Can you read it to me?" And he would be amazed at how I could do that. But it wasn't so amazing to me--I knew her, and him. You have to give directions like that to teenage brothers.
When I walked into an over-crowded antique store the other day, all the clutter of old fluff and gadgets melted away when my eyes spotted her. The room seemed to suddenly fall silent. There, on a shelf in the back of the store, sat my red-checked nanny, pretty as could be. Before I knew it, she was in my hands, falling open to show me that it was her--it was really, really her!
Suddenly, I was a little girl again, standing at the old library table cum island in my mother's kitchen, 
my nanny and I mixing up Banana Nut-Bread, or Coffeecake Muffins (my brother and sister used to beg me to make these!), or Baking Powder Biscuits, or Favorite Pancakes (the only recipe I've ever used), or Raised Doughnuts, or Perfect White Bread (that's the picture of it, there), or delicious Cinnamon Rolls--and that was just from the "Breads" chapter! From "Cookies", we'd be making Peanut-butter Crisscrosses, Gingersnaps (which are actually wonderfully soft and chewy), or the best Brownies. Ever.
I flipped the pages to the "Jiffy Cooking" chapter, the sounds of the busy store beginning to come tinkling back, and there was the picture that I remembered of the pretty "Jiffy" lady. Oh, she seemed so fabulous to me when I was a girl--from her many hands laden with a full spread meal, finished with time to spare, to her pretty yellow dress and starched, pleated apron with the stripedy trim, and, if you looked really close, you could see her pretty pink nail polish...I knew I wanted be just like her. I just knew it.
Another lady came over to snoop through the bookshelf, so I gave her way as I excitedly flipped over to the "Pies" chapter. There was the full-spread photo of Perfect Apple Pie, the recipe that has gotten the most rave reviews in my kitchen over the years, hands, feet, and head down. Really. It's that good. It comes out looking just like the picture, too. Oh, and good apple pie isn't good unless it's cuddled in a perfect, flakey crust, which is, of course also in this "Pies" chapter. They were all there-- Rhubarb Pie, Craham-cracker Crust, Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Meringue Pie, and...sniff--where are the tissues?
I closed her carefully, turning her over in my hands just to have a good look at her. I must say, she's sure looking good--smooth and tight in all the right places. Hope I can say as much when I'm her age. I hugged her close to my heart and fairly danced to the counter to give the lady at the till all the $9.95 she wanted so I could have my nanny back. I was so eager to get her home, show her my kitchen now, and bake something together again. You know, for old times' sake.
We've been catching up ever since.
