Top Cook: More Than Just a Taste of Home

A prolific home cook shares her recipes.

More on:

• Pork Recipes
• Family Dinner
• Family Brunch
• Party Planning
• Family Breakfast
• Dessert Recipes

Edie DeSpain of Logan, Utah, loves to cook. She's been at it since she was a girl, helping her mom feed the family. When Edie had children of her own, she used them as guinea pigs, experimenting with recipes.

In 1997 her first one, Toffee Coffee Cake, was published in Taste of Home, a Reader's Digest magazine. Since then, over 19 have appeared in the reader-generated magazine. This month, The Taste of Home Cookbook hits stores. It's packed with over 1,200 recipes, all from home cooks. Edie, 66, is the most prolific, with 5 recipes in the book, from Poppy Seed Fruit Salad to Melon Ambrosia. She created her Chive-Ham Brunch Bake using what she had on hand (chives, ham, cheese, tomatoes) for a party. "Everyone loved it. They all wanted the recipe." So she sent it to the magazine. It was published in 2001.

The new must-have cookbook has splash guards to keep pages clean, with plenty of tips and tricks to better your cooking. Buy it in stores, order it online or call 800-558-1013. It's $29.95 plus shipping.

Try more of Edie's recipes:
Savory Pork Roast
Macaroni Chicken Skillet
German Apple Cake

From Reader's Digest - September 2006

 

• Gifts for Your Favorite Chef
• Great ideas for the person on your list who loves to cook
• 
• Stunning Recipe Scrapbooks
• A reader's creativity takes a tasty turn.
• 
• 5 Cool Cooking Tools
• A slew of new kitchen helpers have just hit the stores. Here are some we love.
• 
• Make Your Own Fast Food
• Make ahead recipes can be delicious, healthy meals for your family.
• 
• 10 Time-Saving Kitchen Tips
• Discover how clever cooks from Taste of Home streamline their kitchen time ... then make the most of yours!
• 

I became friendly with the fortune-teller, one of the more popular attractions at the amusement park where I worked. One chilly, windy afternoon, I stopped to chat. "How's business?" I asked. Not good, she said. Only two customers had come by. She then added, "If I'd only known things were going to be this quiet, I wouldn't have bothered to open."

-- Iain Macpherson

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