You know how you purge your cookbooks every once in a while?  Well, I think in one of our three moves in our 17 year marriage I donated one of Mr. Bee’s cookbooks.  It was one of those cookbooks that looks like it was typed on a typewriter.  It was a small town cookbook sold by a bank — First State Bank Rio Vista, Texas to be exact.  Mr. Bee has been looking for it for years.  He finally gave up and found one on Ebay.  It came this week…

When he opened it, the dedication page was signed by the woman who inspired the cookbook.  Miss Jessie Fantroy.

She was the cook for the bank.   Can you imagine having someone prepare you hot homemade meals everyday at work?  She also cooked for President Lyndon Johnson and his wife Ladybird at their lake house near Marble Falls.

I asked him what was so special about this book and he said it was the bbq sauce recipe.  So, as soon as the book arrive, he got to work making the sauce and bottled it in a ketchup bottle.

 East Texas Savory BBQ Sauce:

1 TBL chili powder
1 TBL paprika
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1 tsp dry mustard
1 TBL vegetable oil
1 TBL Worcestershire sauce
1/2 grated onion
1/2 cup vinegar
1 tsp lemon juice
1 cup ketchup
2 cups water
1 tsp liquid smoke

Mix it all together in a saucepan and bring to boil for 15-20 minutes.  Mr. Bee used the sauce to smoke ribs this morning to take to his men’s retreat.  I am sure they were a hit.

Mr. Bee if you are reading this…I promise to never donate anymore of your cookbooks.  You can never judge a book by its cover.