Our
Favorite
Recipes
A collection of the Abilene, Texas
Independent School District Food Worker’s favorite recipes from the 50’s and 60’s
All proceeds from the sales go to
providing for the children of
Abilene and the surrounding areas.
As Featured On
The Book’s Story
It all started with my mother, Florice Hudgins, who was a cafeteria worker at Travis Elementary School in Abilene, Texas around 1961. In Feb of 1963, she was presented with a book of recipes that some of the cafeteria workers in the school district had assembled into a cookbook. The book was titled “Our Favorite Recipes” and the author(s) are credited as the Abilene School Food Service Association.
Fast forward to 2021. My mother, Florice, had long ago passed on and I had sorted through most of her belongings. There were a number of cookbooks, this one among them, that I would just pack away for another day. But when I saw this cookbook, I thought “some of my old friends on Facebook might like to see this” so I took a couple of pictures and for some reason, I didn’t just pack it away.
When I posted the photo with an intro on Facebook, I started getting requests from people on how they could get one. The next thing I knew, a local television station came to my house to do a story. This, plus the number of people that had requested copies got me to thinking about a reprint for charity. That led me to search out the original printer in Iowa and ultimately to have 200 books printed. When this happened, the local TV station came back out and did a second story. All proceeds from the sale of the book go to a local charity called Carepacks for Kids and I felt confident that I could sell the 200 books I had ordered. I wasn’t ready for what happened next.
At the end of Nov of that year, I received an email from CNN News saying that they wanted to do a story about the cookbook. I agreed and overnight went from a couple of hundred requests to over one thousand! It was the Holiday Season of 2021 and people were looking for a “feel-good” story. Once CNN ran the piece, a number of other publications/web sites picked up the story also and it has taken off from there.
A Word From The Author
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Kathryn Moris
Complete Series
Smoke And The Heart
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What our Chefs are Saying
“Our family purchased the Abilene Schools cookbook and have enjoyed
trying different recipes from it, all of which have so far been delicious!
Thanks for rediscovering this hidden piece of the past.”
David and Georgia H.
“I am a big fan of spiral bound community cookbooks. I don’t know that I
have ever seen a collection of school cafeteria recipes. I am hopeful that
there is a recipe for the big fluffy yeast rolls we had in our cafeteria! Takes
me back to my grade school days. I have added this one to my collection.
In addition, I loved the story of the reprint, which I read about on
Southern Living. Great story.”
Denise B.
“When I first saw the original cookbook, from the AISD cafeteria ladies,
posted by a friend I was thrilled. Numerous, like hundreds, of us begged
for a copy. The cookbook is loaded with great recipes from the past and
brings back wonderful memories. Dusty turned our dream into a reality!
Not only that, Dusty donates the proceeds from this cookbook.”
Cindy C.
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Shanna Margolis
Review on Book 1
Pages From the Book
All proceeds go to
A mission of
