"The Good Taste of Pittsburgh"

For Christmas this year, both of my parents got me some cool vintage / thrift store gifts. This was especially nice for me because it really shows that they understand my tastes and interests in these sorts of things. For instance, my dad was given this cookbook by someone he works with, and so he passed it along to me because he knew I'd like it - and he was right! Ch-ch-ch-check it out:

 

This is the Three Rivers Cookbook, illustrations by Susan Gaca, published in 1973. Essentially it is a community cookbook where people submitted recipes and they were collected into this book which was sold to benefit the Child Health Association of Sewickley (which, it turns out, not only still exists, but also still makes the cookbooks! Pretty rad, I think.). While the recipes are often a little odd --

-- yes, I often give my sick children coffee and bourbon (an ENTIRE CUP?); or gross, in the case of one recipe I found that was a cucumber, onion juice (wait, what?), and lime jello, and then you mold it into a bowl and fill it with crabmeat, what is really the gem about this book is the AMAZING illustrations of iconic Pittsburgh things.

Left: The American Wind Symphony Orchestra, which started in nearby Mars, PA and plays music still on a "floating arts center."
Right: The Children's Zoo, now the Pittsburgh Zoo and PPG Aquarium. Apparently the zoo used to feature a giant cement whale that kids could walk through the mouth, as well as a giant fake block of cheese that had a city of white mice living in it. Sadly, the zoo has neither of these things anymore.

Top: Kids perusing the art at the Three Rivers Art Festival.
Left: A Pittsburgh trolley
Right: Daniel Striped Tiger! There are several other Mr. Rogers puppets included, like X the Owl, Henrietta Pussycat, and Lady Elaine, but Daniel is by far my favorite.

There are lot more really lovely illustrations in this book - far more than I could really get pictures of - and you can see more over at my vintage books Flickr. I have to say, I may not ever actually cook something out of here (although, who knows, maybe someday I'll have a big craving for lime jello and crabmeat), but the pictures alone make it an incredible find and I'm happy my dad thought of me when he got it. Thanks dad!