Betty Crocker outdid herself with Foods Men Like: Sure-to-please Recipes for the Man in Your Life. This might be my greatest estate sale find to date, if you don’t count the Betty Crocker cookbook in which the original owner chronicled her life story (what is it about Betty Crocker books?)

Foods Men Like will help you cook “more than 35 man-pleasing recipes.” Dishes such as “Spaghetti with Meat Sauce,” “Chili con Carne with Tomatoes,” and “Eggs Benedict” – foods you likely hate because you’re a woman and your role in this is to merely create these masculine delights (like date bars, because what guy doesn’t love date bars?)

Betty even provided helpful illustrations that will assist you in determining which of these recipes will appeal most to your man, based on his occupation. For instance, all you ladies married to astronauts? Whip up some “Apple Pie – Deep Dish Style” or “Blueberry Cobbler.” And if you were lucky enough to snag yourself a lawyer (because God knows you can’t be one – you’re a woman), your man will love “Gazpacho” or “Hashed Browns.” (And based on the illustration, a foot-long hoagie with salt and an apple, which he’ll devour underneath his “Diploma Law.”)

In addition to all the mouth-watering recipes (men like…), the book also claims it will help you learn the “… A to Z’s of the foods men fancy.” Did I mention the recipes are alphabetized? Twenty four-plus ways to make your man happy – because X,Y, and Z are the “specials that you alone know.” Wow.

So, as the back cover sums up, “when you’re looking for a subtle way to say ‘Thank you,’ ‘Please,’ or ‘I’m Sorry,'” whip up some oyster stew or blue cheese dressing.  Or a Reuben, because nothing says “we’re all equals here” like making your man a sandwich.

As difficult as I found doing so, I parted with this relic of Americana shortly after posting this. I hope the new owner appreciates it as much as I did.