Very few things in life delight me as much as thumbing through Charleston Receipts from the Junior League of Charleston, SC. If I'm not mistaken, it's the oldest Junior League cookbook still in print, and they keep a fair amount of the copy still written in Gullah from the original editions.

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My family swears by the St Mark's Treasured Chinese Recipes, Stockton California. Apparently, it's recipes adapted from my great grandmother's village..or so the rumor goes.

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I did a cookbook of the historic village of Sackets Harbor (upstate New York on Lake Ontario). It's DELICIOUS TIDBITS: Recipes and Secrets of Sackets Harbor. It led to my blog about writing a community cookbook. If I can save anyone any missteps, I'd be thrilled. I'll post most of the books online, but the purpose of the blog is Writing a Community Cookbook in 365 Days.
Dee Buckingham
www.deebuckingham.blogspot.com

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You are correct Kat, Charleston Receipts is the oldest JL cookbook still in print. If you like CR - you might want to consider CR-Repeasts their 2nd cookbook - it is the same great low-country foods but a bit more updated.
It is very hard to pick a favorite community cookbook - but I love the JL of Birmingham cookbooks - Food For Thought and Tables of Content. I also us Prime Meridian from Lamar School in Meridian MS.

You can find a great selection of community cookbooks at www.cookbookmarketplace.com.

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My mother and grandmother always used Marjorie Standish's "Cooking Down East," and her other authentic Maine recipe cookbooks (the latest editions of which are now available on Amazon.com).

**"An outstanding collection of hearty, down-home Maine recipes for everything from fish chowder to apple pie. Marjorie Standish was a long-running food columnist for the Maine Sunday Telegram who spent years gathering her own favorite dishes along with the best of her readers' suggestions. The result was this book, long a standard in Maine kitchens but out of print for years until now. "It's like opening a treasure to share a recipe," Standish writes. These are treasures that will endure long after the latest food fads have passed."**

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Oooh - Marisa, what was the novel?

I got my copy from my Mother-In-Law's magical cabinet o' cookbooks. I'd asked her if I could look up a recipe while we were there in NC, and she opened the cupboard door. It was like the Pulp Fiction briefcase with the joy that glowed forth. If I come across another copy, it's yours.

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