Catherine Marshall Gardiner, the editor of the first edition of the cookbook, was asked by a church member for all of the dessert recipes she knew how to make. It was 1900 and cookbooks for the home were rare. She decided that perhaps her other friends from church would also like to share recipes. She inquired and eventually gathered 1001 handwritten recipes from the ladies of Saint John's Episcopal Church, and then she compiled a cookbook for everyone to have. Included in the pages, the home cook can find recipes that range from tea cakes to squirrel stew, each one reflecting the personality of the woman who contributed it. Some of the ladies had traveled the world, while others had never left their home sate of Mississippi. Mrs. Gardiner valued and preserved their unique qualities by changing not a word, phase or measurement with any sort of conformity, creating a delightful adventure back to the turn of the 20th century.