My Mother and I have both been watching for a copy of this cookbook. So far I have not found it where I can buy it at an affordable price for me. This one is going for $150, too much for me to fit into the budget even for this cookbook. Prices vary and most of the time it isn't available.

I first found this cookbook years ago when I was visiting my Aunt Emma (she was my Grandfather's sister, so my great-Aunt). She lived in British Columbia, Canada and I visited her a couple of summers when I travelled out on the Greyhound bus from Ontario. I had a lovely trip and one thing I very much remember still are all the great, traditional Ukrainian dishes we cooked. I wrote down some of the recipes and, when I was home again, I tried them myself. I had great success with one which was basically tomatoes cooked with butter, sour cream and cabbage. It was one of the most delicious things I have ever eaten, not what I expected from a dish which featured cabbage.

Anyway, Aunt Emma is gone and I never saw her cookbook again. I don't know who got it, or if anyone actually did. So I have kept watching for it to turn up.

When I was asked to write about a cookbook for Squidoo my first thought was, of course, this old Traditional Ukrainian Cookbook. I found two on Amazon, but one is without the cover and both are pretty over my meagre budget. I'm not giving up hope on finding one for myself. More and more cookbooks are turning up in thrift stores as people are finding recipes online rather than using printed cookbooks. So, I'm sure my cookbook will come.

My favourite recipe...

Hard to pick between the cabbage rolls we have been making for as long as I can remember or the recipe from the cookbook with cabbage, tomatoes and sour cream - which I don't know the name of.

I bet you think you know what a jar of pickles looks like. But, unless you've had real homemade pickles I doubt you know how messy and icky looking pickles really are. First, they don't come in green tinted watery looking liquid. Real pickles look less than pretty and the water they swim in is downright ugly. It has stuff floating in it and I don't mean bits of herbs and spices.

How about ketchup, spaghetti sauce, butter, meat...? Ever seen those without the proper commercial preparation? Did you know spaghetti sauce isn't that lovely red colour when you make it yourself. Not unless you add colouring. Same with that meat in your favourite grocery store.

It's not pretty when it's homemade. Cakes come out lopsided, butter is not such a pretty yellow and well.. I don't want to worry you. Most people will never see the real food, the homemade, unprocessed versions. The downside of that is that people don't recognize it when it is available. Would you buy pickles in a cloudy jar? Or would you think those had something wrong with them?

Here is a pickle recipe. See, I did include a how-to!

Olde-time Pickle Recipe

Courtesy of the Gibson House Museum, North York, Ontario Original Recipe From: Mrs. Beeton's Book of Household Management First published in 1859

Ingredients:

To 6 quarts of vinegar allow: 1 lb. of salt ¼ lb. of ginger 1 oz. of mace ½ lb. of shallots 1 tablespoon of cayenne 1 oz. of mustard seed 1½ oz. of turmeric. Mode:

Boil all the ingredients together for about 20 minutes. When cold, put them into a jar with whatever vegetables you choose, such as radish-pods, French beans, cauliflowers, gherkins, etc. etc., as these come into season. Put them in fresh as you gather them, having previously wiped them perfectly free from moisture and grit. This pickle will be fit for use in about 8 or 9 months. Time:

20 minutes SEASONABLE Make the pickle in May or June to be ready for the various vegetables. Note:

As this pickle takes 2 or 3 months to make, that is to say, nearly that time will elapse before all the different vegetables are added, care must be taken to keep the jar which contains the pickle well covered, either with a closely fitting lid, or a piece of bladder securely tied over, so as perfectly to exclude the air.

20TH CENTURY ADDENDUM We always advise people that the preservation and storage techniques suggested in 19th Century recipes should be replaced with the most current methods recommended by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food, if you plan to consume the product.

In this case, the spiced vinegar brine works well with a variety of vegetables. This year we have done beans, beets, cabbage and cucumber with onions, processed in Mason jars in a boiling water canner according to Ministry guidelines. Can the pickles all at once, don't spread the process over many months as they did in the 19th Century.

This recipe came from the CBC website: http://www.toronto.cbc.ca/freshair/freshcooking/recipe2a.jsp

One of the best things about summer is fresh fruit, right off the tree, vine or bush whenever possible. Have you ever picked a tomato out of the garden on a sunny day? It's like eating a mouthful of warm sunshine. I also like peas in the pod. You pry open the pod and dig your tongue in to lick out the line of peas. They are so green and luscious. Then you get into strawberries, peaches and watermelons - all the juicy fruits that dribble down your chin, onto your clothes and leave your fingers a sticky mess.

Right from when I was a baby my Mom would be canning, making jam and pickles. Everything that was food preservation. Some things didn't work out very well. Most famous might be those pearl onions that were a royal pain to peel and then all spoiled in their jars. I never saw the dumping of the onions but we laugh about it when it comes up in our conversation. I do remember peeling all those onions, that was a lot of work. Strawberries are much easier though the stems start to dig under my fingernails sometimes. I could use a knife to cut them off but that seems to waste a lot of berry and take more time.

I think my favourite fruit to preserve are peaches. They don't take a lot of work to peel at all. When you let them sit in boiled water for a bit the skins almost slip right off on their own. From there you just need to cut them up and pull out the pits. They do make a lot of juice over the table, clothes and fingers but that's not so bad when you can eat the peaches and lick all that juice from your fingers when you're done.

Summer without fruit would be sadly lacking. I hope you all, at least once in your life, attempt some kind of food preservation. It's messy, the results are never guaranteed but it really does bring summer to your home and most especially your mouth.