Favorite Recipes from the Friends of the Ocean City Free Public Library, 1735 Simpson Avenue, Ocean City, NJ 08226 complied by the Library Volunteer Committee of the Ocean City Free Public Library 1991.
I like picking up cookbooks from places I’ve been when I come across them and I’m pretty sure I went to this library on a family vacation when I was kid, despite being a Marylander whose alliance was to Ocean City, Maryland (we visited that library every time we went, we had a card there and would return the books upon our return to Baltimore). We are a family of library goers and there was not much to do in Ocean City, NJ so we went even if we couldn’t check out any books.
My copy has a handwritten note–5/17/91 To Betty from Midge Enjoy!
The book helpfully opens with the hours and services of the library (every day! even Sunday! photocopiers! computerized card catalog!). It also says that if you live in a nearby county you can check out books for $10/year or visitors can pay $2 yearly fee to check books out through December which seems a little uneven. I guess they figure most visitors are there for a few days or months not most of the year.
There are some generic “helpful hints” in the book including napkin folding and how to roll out pie dough. Quite a lot actually, they make the book look a lot longer than it actually is. They appear on the dividers between sections along with some stock drawings of gardening/country life.
The contributors are named but for the vast majority their connection to the library is not listed. I would have been interested to see if they were librarians, patrons, or just friends of the library members. On the flipside, Blueberry Buckle (Breakfast Cake) is credited only to Ocean City Library Friend.
There are a few recipes from what appears to be men which is always a rarity in these cookbooks unless they have some government or military tie-in.
The recipes lean towards the quick and easy variety no matter what the type. June Tartala’s Special Jam calls for rhubarb, sugar, canned pineapple, and strawberry Jell-0. Kathy McDonnell’s Tamale Pie calls for canned soup, corn muffin mix, and Velveeta Mexican cheese. Frances W. Keenan, Library Volunteer’s Yellow Squash Casserole calls for cream of chicken soup and stuffing mix. I’m not against a short cut but I’d rather the book state upfront that those are the types of recipes they are focusing on. Not all of the recipes are like this but a good number are and that makes them hard to duplicate at times.
Someone (Midge?) did not like June E. Huff’s One-Bowl Brownies.
