Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Welcome friends! Welcome back to the kitchen and back to Sunday Morning and The Old Cookbook Show. Today we’re diving into a truly special piece of Canadian culinary history: a 1950 community cookbook from the Independent Order of Oddfellows and Rebekahs Home in Barrie, Ontario—sent in by a viewer (thank you!).
This book has everything I love about old cookbooks: handwritten notes, check marks, spills, taped-together pages, and a history of being cooked from again and again. The cover is gone, the binding replaced with butcher twine, and nearly every recipe is annotated with “good,” “no good,” “fancy,” or “great for a party.” A well-loved community cookbook tells a story—and this one tells many.
Today we’re making a recipe simply titled “Easy Cookies”, though we’re baking it in a 9×9 pan just as the original cook noted. With no added fat (other than what’s in the eggs) and a simple mix of brown sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and chopped nuts, this recipe turns into a soft, chewy, in-between-a-cookie-and-a-cake bar that goes perfectly with a cup of tea.
I also use up the last bits of ingredients in the cupboard—light brown sugar I didn’t know I had, a handful of almonds, the end of a bag of pecans. Vintage recipes are great for that.
We bake it, taste it, and talk about the Oddfellows/Rebekahs, community cookbooks, the value of imperfect books, recipe notes from long-gone cooks, and why these “easy cookies” deserve their check mark.
Stick around to the end for a chat about cookbook collecting, the joy of well-used recipes, and a preview of a future episode: the bath bun dough that had… a wobble.
⭐ What’s in this episode:
Exploring a 1950 IOOF & Rebekah Home community cookbook
The charm of handwritten notes, check marks & kitchen stains
Making Easy Cookies (more like a chewy bar than a cookie!)
Using simple pantry staples: brown sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla & nuts
Baking in a 9×9 pan instead of cookies—just like the original note says
Tasting, reviewing & discussing recipe variations
Why “goes well with tea” is a perfectly legitimate category
Cookbook collecting insights: why imperfect books matter
A teaser for the upcoming Bath Bun experiment
⭐ Recipe ideas & variations:
Swap nuts for chocolate chips
Add cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom
Include candied peel or dried fruit
Try different nut mixes like walnuts, hazelnuts, or cashews
Dust with powdered sugar after baking
Easy Cookies Recipe
Sift together 1/2 cup flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt.
Beat 2 large eggs very light; gradually beat in 1 cup brown sugar. Add dry ingredients to egg and sugar mixture. Beat thoroughly; add one teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup chopped nuts. Spread mixture in buttered and floured pan about 9 inches square. Bake about 25 minutes in 350 degrees.
Cut in strips about 1 x 4½ inches, while warm.
ELMA FAIRMAN
More info about Hope Air: hopeair.ca
hopeair.ca/impact-report-2024
Here is the link to our Apron: searchandrescuedenim.com/products/s-r-x-glen-friends-chef-apron?country=IO&variant=50865649877152
searchandrescuedenim.com/GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING
Discount code to be used at checkout: GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING
Buy us a cup of tea: ko-fi.com/glenandfriendscooking
Help us out with a PayPal donation: paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=T4FPGUQABAUTE
Join this channel:
youtube.com/channel/UCsU15yvILBmnHPeAf4SFVaQ/join
This channel is nothing without you our viewers! Thanks for watching the Old Cookbook Show and our Historical Cooking.
#LeGourmetTV #GlenAndFriendsCooking
Check out our Aviation and Flying Channel: youtube.com/glenshangar
Welcome friends! Welcome back to the kitchen and back to Sunday Morning and The Old Cookbook Show. Today we’re diving into a truly special piece of Canadian culinary history: a 1950 community cookbook from the Independent Order of Oddfellows and Rebekahs Home in Barrie, Ontario—sent in by a viewer (thank you!).
This book has everything I love about old cookbooks: handwritten notes, check marks, spills, taped-together pages, and a history of being cooked from again and again. The cover is gone, the binding replaced with butcher twine, and nearly every recipe is annotated with “good,” “no good,” “fancy,” or “great for a party.” A well-loved community cookbook tells a story—and this one tells many.
Today we’re making a recipe simply titled “Easy Cookies”, though we’re baking it in a 9×9 pan just as the original cook noted. With no added fat (other than what’s in the eggs) and a simple mix of brown sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla, baking powder, salt, and chopped nuts, this recipe turns into a soft, chewy, in-between-a-cookie-and-a-cake bar that goes perfectly with a cup of tea.
I also use up the last bits of ingredients in the cupboard—light brown sugar I didn’t know I had, a handful of almonds, the end of a bag of pecans. Vintage recipes are great for that.
We bake it, taste it, and talk about the Oddfellows/Rebekahs, community cookbooks, the value of imperfect books, recipe notes from long-gone cooks, and why these “easy cookies” deserve their check mark.
Stick around to the end for a chat about cookbook collecting, the joy of well-used recipes, and a preview of a future episode: the bath bun dough that had… a wobble.
⭐ What’s in this episode:
Exploring a 1950 IOOF & Rebekah Home community cookbook
The charm of handwritten notes, check marks & kitchen stains
Making Easy Cookies (more like a chewy bar than a cookie!)
Using simple pantry staples: brown sugar, flour, eggs, vanilla & nuts
Baking in a 9×9 pan instead of cookies—just like the original note says
Tasting, reviewing & discussing recipe variations
Why “goes well with tea” is a perfectly legitimate category
Cookbook collecting insights: why imperfect books matter
A teaser for the upcoming Bath Bun experiment
⭐ Recipe ideas & variations:
Swap nuts for chocolate chips
Add cinnamon, nutmeg, or cardamom
Include candied peel or dried fruit
Try different nut mixes like walnuts, hazelnuts, or cashews
Dust with powdered sugar after baking
Easy Cookies Recipe
Sift together 1/2 cup flour, ½ teaspoon baking powder, ¼ teaspoon salt.
Beat 2 large eggs very light; gradually beat in 1 cup brown sugar. Add dry ingredients to egg and sugar mixture. Beat thoroughly; add one teaspoon vanilla and 1 cup chopped nuts. Spread mixture in buttered and floured pan about 9 inches square. Bake about 25 minutes in 350 degrees.
Cut in strips about 1 x 4½ inches, while warm.
ELMA FAIRMAN
More info about Hope Air: hopeair.ca
hopeair.ca/impact-report-2024
Here is the link to our Apron: searchandrescuedenim.com/products/s-r-x-glen-friends-chef-apron?country=IO&variant=50865649877152
searchandrescuedenim.com/GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING
Discount code to be used at checkout: GLENANDFRIENDSCOOKING
Buy us a cup of tea: ko-fi.com/glenandfriendscooking
Help us out with a PayPal donation: paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=T4FPGUQABAUTE
Join this channel:
youtube.com/channel/UCsU15yvILBmnHPeAf4SFVaQ/join
This channel is nothing without you our viewers! Thanks for watching the Old Cookbook Show and our Historical Cooking.
#LeGourmetTV #GlenAndFriendsCooking
Check out our Aviation and Flying Channel: youtube.com/glenshangar
