Wednesday is for literature and art...

...or something like that. I'm cooking dinner, and it occurs to me that the humble cookbook is one of the greatest literary innovations ever. As I noted last night, everybody needs to eat, and a cookbook provides a compact, yet useful and often meaningful vehicle by which to pass on humankind's information regarding how to feed oneself and others. It can convey how-to information on lifestyle and diet, as well, and imbue its users with anything from homeyness (like Mom) to sophistication (like Martha Stewart, pre-incarceration).

The featured cookbook of today is a rare, now out-of-print tome, The TMF Cookbook. It was available for a short time only, to missionary ladies of Irian Jaya (now known as West Papua, and variously known at various times as Dutch New Guinea, Netherlands New Guinea, West Irian, and Papua Barat). While it has not achieved the fame of, say, In the Kitchen with Rosie, or even Fannie Farmer's Cookbook, The TMF Cookbook is one of the great examples of a cookbook that was targeted to a very specific group of people, and works wonderfully for them, but also manages to be useful to nearly anyone else (although I cannot imagine that Innuits of the Arctic or the Laps of Scandinavia would find it compelling, but, well, I wouldn't dream of marketing anything to those people groups anyway). Another great example of a specific-yet-versatile cookbook is that classic, the More-with-Less Cookbook. But I digress. If you need directions on how to make, store, and fancy up pretty much anything, particularly if you live in the jungle with nothing at your disposal but rice, spam, and tropical fruit, TMF Cookbook is for you. If you long to bake from scratch with sago flour, make simple but elegant puddings, or serve up authentic Indonesian dishes, it's still exactly what you need. If you are living in the urban United States, but want to create quick and practical yet tasty and impressive meals, you can still get what you need from this fabulous book. And for those of you who have just picked up a large pack of sago grubworms from Costco, but just don't know how to fix them, look no further, for to the best of my knowledge, TMF Cookbook is the only cookbook that offers recipes for these rare but delectable invertebrates. [Be wary, however, for some folks--like my brother--are allergic to grubworms, and can suffer and even die from anaphylactic shock.] For future reference, here is the recipe.

Sago Grubs (courtesy of Ruth Roesler, a great lady whose son Neil died just a few months ago, while he himself was also serving God, as a missionary pilot in West Papua):
Wash live grubs (Beware, they can bite). Put on cutting board and slice off heads and ends of tails. Pour off any juice being careful of clothes--tho clear at first it turns black and stains clothing. Heat frying pan. Place grubs in hot pan with only a minimum of oil to keep from sticking. They will soon cook in their own fat. Let fry down to little brown fingers. Salt. Serve like tiny link sausages.
Yum! Yum! You can't eat just one!

Back in real life, I was sick today, and stayed home from work. My coworker Cheryl was sick earlier in the week, with a severe flu, and I wonder if I caught what she had. *sigh* On the plus side, I watched a few old movies (The Divorcee and The Jazz Singer) and got some reading and laundry done.

Now Laurel is visiting us for our weekly study night, and I am about to begin actual studying. Goodness knows I have plenty to do.