Beyond the City Limits: The Wonderful World of Food - Softcover

If you think a cookbook memoir is boring and predictable...Think again. Beyond The City Limits is a mythical place where Betty Crocker Meets Erma Bombeck. Thoughtful, irreverent and occasionally hysterical this book combines fabulous recipes with humorous stories, amusing anecdotes and inspirational cooking tips. It’s rollicking good fun. Take a step back to the great Mid-West a half century ago. Return to mom’s kitchen one last time. Relive decades with old memories of nightly meals...some of the most boring, predictable menu choices ever plated. Compare these choices with the endless options we have today. Discover the magic of Renaissance Meals! Learn the secret to a perfect steak, omelet or sauce. This book appeals to anyone: Who collects cookbooks Who loves to cook Who hates to cook Who takes perverse pleasures in the screw-ups of others And to the legions of baby boomers who grew up in their mother’s kitchens and share the memories the author cherishes. Remembering the way it was.

About Becky's Life, Travels and Food. The author is a talented cook, comedian, former teacher, government accountant, wife, mother, grandmother and favorite aunt. She has been married to her college sweetheart for over fifty years. Dividing their time between Portland, Oregon and their beach home on the central Oregon Coast. She compiled her first hand-written cookbook for her sister Kathy in the early 1980’s. Kathy was single with little knowledge of, or interest in, cooking. But quite a bit of interest in finding a partner to share her life. The cookbook was a primer on how to cheat in the kitchen. It suggested getting help from outside friends, like a Chinese restaurant. Ordering Take-out. While at home, messing up the stove-top with little bits of rice and teriyaki. Plating the meal and serving wine. This grand plan worked. Guaranteeing success in convincing others of her sister's skills and talents via deception and sleight of hand. Becky made a second cookbook for her son Dave when he married in 1999. His book shared the tried and true family recipes he had enjoyed at home. She gave him the book with a set of decent pots and pans and wished him luck. When Becky retired, she bought a computer, thought about another cookbook, and started typing. Calling the collection "Leaving Littlefort." (The title was the nickname for Waukegan, Illinois, where she spent the first twenty years of her life.) That book was the precursor to "Beyond the City Limits."