A handmade cookbook no more durable than its plastic binding and yellow construction paper covers, the book allowed young farm wives to communally share recipes, exhibit their culinary expertise to peers, express artistic creativity (evidenced by the “Peanuts” comic strips and the “cut-up cake” diagrams within), and perhaps raise money for their organization or their brother club, the Young Farmers.“ Ideas for Special Occasions” contains dozens of seasonally appropriate dessert, appetizer, and craft ideas for holidays like Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. Between its covers, there is one sole entree recipe. The book is not meant for practical, everyday cooking; instead, it represents a shift from cooking for a family’s nourishment to cooking for the purpose of entertaining. Like the change from cooking as a chore to cooking as a creative practice, the Riley County Young Farm Wives’ cookbook showcases how women’s work became more public and published, and thus more resilient in the archives and our memories. 

Dene Dryden