A Well Used Cookbook . . . and a bit more

Now there's a cook book that's seen some use! It was given to me by my in-laws for Christmas in 1978 and I've made many a fine dish from it. Note the classy duct tape holding it together.

It's a compilation of the best recipes from  the many cookbooks put out by Junior League groups in the South -- home of some very good cooking, indeed.

I made a chocolate pound cake yesterday -- the condition of the page should hint that this is a favorite recipe. It's also Ethan's traditional birthday cake and he was up from Atlanta for a small early celebration.

Yes, I write in my books and make adjustments to the recipes now and then.

And on the blank pages at the back, I have a rough guide to my usual barbecue sauce . . . 

. . . as well as directions from the archives of a 13th century monastery for making a monk's robe.

Yeah, I don't know either. I haven't a clue why I wrote this esoteric information down -- nor why in the cookbook.  I don't know where the directions came from -- certainly not the original archives: I'd remember that.

But it's kind of cool -- as one who in the past struggled with those exasperating and tedious tissue paper patterns to construct a garment,  I find the economy of these directions charming.  
 

"Of stout black woolen cloth take 4 equal pieces,  each as long as the height of the Brother from nape to heel and as wide as will stretch across his shoulders from elbow to elbow. Let the first cover his right front and the second his left and the third shall cover him behind. Then let the fourth piece be folded into three & of these the first shall be for his left arm, the second for his right, and the last for his hood.  So shall he be covered and two ells of common rope encase his middle."