A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about how I found my copy of The Complete Asian Cookbook at an Anglesea op shop.  And there were a few suggestions from people as to other great cookbooks to add to my collection.

The one I hadn’t ever heard of before was The Greta Anna Recipes, suggested by my friend Rebecca, which was a favourite of her Mum and Nanna.  She mentioned that she had been looking out for a copy with no luck.  At the time I looked it up online to see what it was, and I registered in my brain that it was a yellowy colour with big lettering.

So … the other day was the first time I went to the op shop and looked for cookbooks since that post.  And … you will never believe in a million years what I found …

More Greta Anna Recipes!

I wasn’t sure if this was the right one as it was an aqua blue colour.  Umming and ahhing I looked at the rest of the cookbooks and I found ….

The Greta Anna Recipes! And it was orange!

It was 3pm, and I was in Kew and I needed to be back at Fairfield for school pick up by 3.30pm.  I took a quick photo of them both, and texted a direct…’do you want them?’ to Rebecca.  By the time I had gathered up my haul for the day, my phone binged, with a ‘thank you’ from Rebecca.

$3 each.  Two books full of childhood memories and interesting recipes.

The food does look pretty cool … predominantly french, with crazy names and anecdotes attached – it’s always nice to know where a recipe comes from.  And the index at the front of each section cuts through the confusion of the names, by giving a practical brief description of each dish.

Yum, there are lots of great sounding things in here!

And though there aren’t many photos, the double pages ones are amazing.  I love this soup photo!

I think I might look out for a copy of each for myself (although given that I have never before seen them in my life, I can’t imagine they are going to pop up tomorrow, but then again, maybe I just wasn’t looking for them).

So, Rebecca … I guess next time we come over for dinner we’ll be having french cuisine (not that Brett’s steaks on the BBQ aren’t delicious). But I like french food, and you need to test out your most favourite childhood recipes on someone right??  I’m a willing candidate.

Here’s the recipe for ‘Breasts of Chicken Rocamadour’.  Interesting name.  But what I love the most is the last line of this recipe.

The raw apple gives a refreshing New Wave touch to the dish.

And I took a photo of the Borsch recipe as well, just because I have always wanted to make Borsch, and this one is a’ quick and delicious’ one handed down from Greta Anna’s grandma who came from Kiev.