My Goose Is Cooked: Five Generations of Home Cooking

Janet Arnett is the former campus manager of adult education at Ontario’s Georgian College. She is the author of Antiques and Collectibles: Starting Small, The Grange at Knock, and 673 Ways to Save Money.

This truly is a cookbook that’s as much fun to read as it is to use.
With instructions such as to make a batter “not too thick, or too
thin,” you may be uncertain what the recipes will produce, but
you’ll enjoy the accompanying stories.

Both stories and recipes reflect the developing culture of Western
Canada over several generations. The collection is drawn from the
mid-European roots and traditions of the prairies mixed with rural
Canadian classics from the 1920–1960 era of church suppers and farm
kitchens. For the recipes, you’ll need pig’s feet, canned mushrooms,
marshmallows, and lime Jell-O— ingredients not found in the gourmet
section of any food boutique.

The book revels in baked goods; the recipes for bread, buns, cakes,
cookies, pies, crepes, squares, and puddings just keep coming. And
that’s not the end of the starch parade. The selection of soups,
salads, and main course dishes include lots of pasta, pie crust,
dumplings, and potatoes. Such substantial fare is unfashionable, of
course. But then more trendy cookbooks do not include delightful stories
about the dog who always showed up for Sunday brunch (he came for the
pancakes) or reveal Dad’s secret for the perfect lemon pie.