BillandRosasBookRoom

Most households have at least a few cookbooks: perhaps some have been passed down through generations; perhaps others, more recent, cater to the various dietary needs and restrictions in the household. Cookbooks are a familiar sight, but what do we really know about their history? One of the most famous early cookbooks dates back to the 2nd century BCE. It is called the Deipnosophistai (“The Learned Banquet”) and is a treatise on food and food preparation written by Athenaeus, a Greek gourmet. This was however not the earliest cookbook by any means. That honor goes to the Yale Culinary Tablets, three of which date back to 1730 B.C. They are from the Mesopotamian region, or what is today Turkey, Syria, Iran and Iraq. In fact, much of what we eat today was cultivated or domesticated in that region. The tablets provide recipes for more than two dozen Mesopotamian dishes, such as stews of pigeon, lamb or spleen (A team of international scholars set out to recreate three of the r…

Stop by for a free homemade Cowboy Cookie. February 26th is Buffalo Bill’s 179th Birthday and Bill & Rosa’s Book Room  is celebrating with «Cowboy Cookie Day». The origins of "cowboy cookies" are unknown but Old West lore claims that they were eaten by cowboys as a high energy snack that could be easily carried in a saddle bag. Its a “drop” cookie mashup of oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies, Cowboy cookie dough typically includes flour, brown sugar, eggs, butter, vanilla, oat and coconut. It’s the oat/coconut combination that gives them their chewiness. But the really good stuff is up to the maker. The typical cookie includes a variety of rich ingredients, including chocolate and pecans. Substitute your favorite type of nut if you can’t find pecans which are a specialty of the American south. Other ideas are to add raisins, cranberries, M&Ms, butterscotch chips, corn flakes, rice krispies or pretzel pieces. A teaspoon of cinnamon is an option too. Cowboy cooki…