How two Minnesota cookbooks helped a generation of home cooks and students
While having lunch together earlier this year, Beth Gausman and Harlene Hagen began talking about a past project of Twin City Home and Community.
“About halfway through our meal,” Gausman recalls, “Harlene says to me, very casually, ‘You know, we did a cookbook… actually, we did two cookbooks, and we earned thousands of dollars for scholarships.’”
Gausman had no idea and neither did many other newer members of TCHC, whose backgrounds include experience in fields related to family and consumer sciences (formerly known as home economics).
“I said to her, ‘We need to do a program on this,’” Gausman said.
Their conversation came just in time to honor a significant milestone: On Wednesday, dozens of TCHC members and their guests filled a large room at Roseville Lutheran Church to celebrate the 50th anniversary of that first cookbook, *Cooking in Minnesota*, which was first published in October 1975, followed in 1983 by *More Cooking in Minnesota.*
The cookbooks, as precise and organized as a home ec teacher’s pantry, are filled with family-favorite recipes ranging from Wild-Rice Barley Casserole to Finnish Pulla Coffee Bread. About 80,000 copies were sold through the 2000s in Minnesota and beyond. Along with other philanthropic efforts by the organization, these cookbooks raised $822,404 in scholarships and grants (minus operating expenses).
Today, the cookbooks are out of print, but a few copies are still available online. They are preserved in the archives and collections of the University of Minnesota and the Minnesota Historical Society.
### “Fresh Apple Cake” and Vintage Memories
On Wednesday, a long table of refreshments was set just as it was at an original cookbook launch party — down to the baskets of apples and the Fresh Apple Cake (from *Cooking in Minnesota*, page 118), along with other creations including Chocolate Mint Brownies, Pumpkin Bars, and Blueberry Lemon Muffins.
The organization was able to recreate such moments and delve into the history of its two cookbooks with the help of the University of Minnesota. Its archives hold a collection of records from Twin City Home and Community, which originally operated under the umbrella of the American Association of Home Economists.
During the program, copies of some archival materials were displayed on the tables, providing a glimpse into that era.
“You’ll find a sense of communication and determination to involve all 250 to 300 members and their families who joined in wholeheartedly on our wild ride into publishing and philanthropy in the early ’70s,” said 95-year-old Elaine Christiansen of Falcon Heights. She served as the cookbooks’ chairperson and is best known today as the longest-serving volunteer at the Hamline Church Dining Hall at the Minnesota State Fair.
The program in Roseville became a kind of oral history as Christiansen shared the story behind the cookbooks along with one of its editors, Marcia Copeland of Plymouth (co-editor Betsy Norum, an icon in Family and Consumer Sciences, passed away in 1994).
Copeland wore red in honor of her background as the director of the Betty Crocker Kitchens at General Mills. But back when she was asked to help create this cookbook, she was at home with her young son.
“Have you ever taken on a project that you knew was too big for you?” Copeland asked. “Well, I did, and it was called, ‘Cooking in Minnesota.’ And I’m glad that I did. Had I known how much work was involved, I might have thought twice!”
The process involved blind testing of the recipes by members, tasting by their families, and an editing process that strove for recipe uniformity and accuracy.
It wasn’t just about the recipes, though; Copeland said the cookbooks illustrated a shift in the American palate.
“I want to give you the background on why we did a cookbook,” she told the group. “World War II was over: 1945 was a time when the soldiers came home. They had eaten regular pasta in Italy, they had eaten wiener schnitzel, they had eaten Aebleskiver, they had eaten all kinds of things that we hadn’t, or if we had, the ingredients weren’t available.”
After the war, she explained, that began changing.
“I’ll never forget reading Julia Child for the first time or Jacques Pépin, the ones that became very important to us and helped set the table, literally, for better cookbooks, better recipes,” Copeland said. “We didn’t have to eat a can of spaghetti and serve it for dinner. We knew what good food was and we wanted to share that with the world, which is what we did.”
### “The Lift to My Spirit”
Geri Skogen was one of the organization’s scholarship recipients, receiving $1,200 in 1983. On Wednesday, she spoke to the group about the gift’s impact.
“While the dollars were very significant to my master’s degree progress, it was the lift to my spirit that I remember so well,” Skogen said.
At the time, Skogen had resigned from her Extension position in Carlton County to attend graduate school at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities and was missing her colleagues and church friends in Cloquet, Minn.
“Your scholarship was an affirming wink and a nod, a pat on the back and ‘You go, girl!’ statement that I have never forgotten,” she said.
Skogen went on to earn a master’s degree and worked as assistant to the department head in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Minnesota for nearly 25 years.
“I was ‘home’ in who I was and the responsibilities and challenges before me,” she said. “Thank you TCHC for helping get me ‘home.’”
### Cooking Today
In October 1975, columnist Eleanor Ostman wrote about the cookbook’s debut for the St. Paul paper. The report included a photograph by Bob Walsh of Christiansen with her four sons. The caption read:
“Earned treat for the four Christiansen teenagers is a sample of Saucy Apple Swirl Cake which their mom, Elaine (Mrs. Martin) Christiansen, Falcon Heights, submitted to *Cooking in Minnesota*, which she produced with members of the Twin Cities Home Economists in Homemaking (as it was known then). She suggested the project three years ago when she was president and the membership made her chairman. All recipes were tested by the home economists including the chairman who once had her sons taste test four lasagna recipes in one day. Mrs. Christiansen is one of the managers for the annual Pillsbury Bake-Off and is also in charge of 5 cooks and 30 workers serving a thousand people per meal at the State Fair Grounds 4-H building.”
So many years later, Christiansen listened as members shared their thoughts and memories of the cookbooks.
The carrot cake recipe was used in her sister’s restaurant, one woman said, and it was a hit. A teacher said a Braille version of the cookbook was dog-eared from use at a school for the blind.
Hagen, who sparked the idea for this anniversary program, said she still uses the books for reference for pan sizes and other basics when she is unsure of the accuracy of online recipe instructions.
And another member, whose 10-year-old son witnessed the intense process involved in creating a cookbook, recalled that he asked if the third cookbook would be called: “(I Am Sick of) Cooking in Minnesota.”
But what is cooking in Minnesota like today?
For Christiansen, her most recent meal was a bit simpler and involved a modern-day staple that would be perfect in an updated version of the cookbook — especially for these chilly November days.
“I like to buy a rotisserie chicken I can get six or eight meals out of it from salad to sandwiches to a casserole to broth,” she said. “I just cooked up the bones to make a nice, warm bowl of vegetable soup.”
—
### Fresh Apple Cake
**Ingredients:**
– 1/2 cup shortening
– 1 cup granulated sugar
– 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
– 1 cup buttermilk or soured milk*
– 2 teaspoons soda
– 2 eggs, beaten
– 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
– 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
– 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
– 1/4 teaspoon cloves
– 1/4 teaspoon salt
– 2 cups chopped apples (2 or 3 medium)
*Milk can be soured by combining 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice and enough milk to measure 1 cup.
**Topping:**
Combine 1/2 cup chopped nuts, 1/4 cup brown sugar (packed), 1/4 cup granulated sugar, and a dash of cinnamon.
**Directions:**
Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 13 x 9 x 2-inch pan. Cream shortening and sugars. Dissolve soda in milk; stir into shortening mixture. Add eggs, flour, spices, and salt; beat until thoroughly mixed. Fold in apples; pour into pan. Sprinkle with topping. Bake 30 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean.
*Recipe by Evelyn Hagen from *Cooking in Minnesota.*
https://www.twincities.com/2025/11/08/cooking-in-minnesota-50th-anniversary/
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