Cooking for 2

We've set a table for two. The editors of Taste of Home "have been hearing the same request over and over from readers. Could you give us more recipes that serve only two people. . . Why not publish a new cooking magazine devoted solely to delicious small-scale recipes?" When this Premiere Issue c2004 appeared on newstands the winter of 2005, (display until February 28, 2005, next issue March 1, 2005) Reiman Media was already publishing Taste of Home, Quick Cooking and Light & Tasty.

In addition to lip-smacking good recipes, the issue includes a reference page on reducing ingredients by 1/2 or 1/3, shopping for two tips, and good web sites.

Taste of Home's Cooking for 2
Premiere Issue Winter 2005
ISSN: na
Canadian GST No. 876052820RT
Subject: Cooking, recipes
Publication schedule, quarterly
Reiman Media Group
5400 S. 60th St.
Greendale WI 53129-1404
$3.99 for Premiere Issue, $4.99 Canada
Subscription $19.96/year; $29.98 for 2 years; $39.98 for 3 years; specials on insert cards, $9.98/year
http://www.cookingfor2.com/
Executive editor: Kathy Pohl
Food Editor: Janaan Cuningham
Chairman and Founder: Roy Reiman


The Reiman Media Group web page reports: "Reiman Publications was started in 1965 by Roy Reiman in the basement of his Hales Corners, Wisconsin home. Today, the Reiman Publications family of companies (located in Greendale, Wisconsin) employs over 500 people in full-time and part-time positions including Editorial, Print Production Scheduling, Circulation Marketing, Prepress and Country Store. Affiliated companies include World Wide Country Tours, LLC, Homemaker Schools and Reiman Advertising and Promotion (RAP).

We publish 13 national magazines, many of which have a rural focus, plus a variety of cookbooks and "coffee-table" books."

It was announced in 2002 that Reader’s Digest Association Inc acquired Reiman Publications LLC for US$760 million cash, and also completed US$950 million in syndicated financing that was partially used to fund the Reiman purchase. Link. Initially, there was little change in the folksy format or style, but the most recent Taste of Home I saw looked like any other recipe magazine, including lots of ads and coupons.

17 Taste of Home

There were two premiere issues of Taste of Home, one a premiere newsstand issue, Vol. 1, no. 2, April/May 1993 (cover is May/93) and the other called simply Premiere Edition 1993 (2). They have different covers and different content. This magazine features practical, down home recipes, with ingredients most cooks have on hand. It includes step-by-step instructions and special articles on frugal recipes, cooking for diabetics, brown bags, picnics, collecting, using herbs, using garden produce, and regional and seasonal favorites. The newsstand copy says

Putting out the first issue of a new magazine is a lot like putting your first meal on the table for your in-laws. Your stomach is a little tight. . . Our whole staff was like a bunch of new brides when we mailed the first issue. . .to people throughout the U.S. and Canada.

Of course, this is a magazine that boasts of being edited by a thousand country cooks. I have a subscription to this magazine, and that is still the policy 12 years later. There are removable pages in Taste of Home that can be cut apart into recipe cards. Of course, I wouldn’t do that, but I have photocopied some, and used the “Favorite Broccoli Salad” on p. 37 many, many times.

I got these first issues from Ruth, who turns 90 this year and lives in my home town in Illinois. She used to work for a magazine fulfillment agency and apparently also liked first issues and gave me her copies. She had also visited Reiman Publications in Wisconsin, the publisher of a number of glossy, nostalgic magazines. Ruth and my father grew up on adjoining farms in Pine Creek, Illinois, and her nephew and I were neighbors when we were little.

Taste of Home; the magazine edited by a thousand country cooks!
Premiere Edition 1993 (2)
April/May 1993, Vol. 1, No. 2, Premiere Newsstand Issue
ISSN: 1071-5878 (supplied)
Canadian GST No. R123204331
Subject: Cooking
Publication schedule, bimonthly
Reiman Publications
5400 S. 60th St.
Greendale WI 53129
$2.95; $16.98/year
http://www.reimanpub.com
Food editor: Mary Beth Jung
Senior Editor: Bob Ottum
Publisher: Roy Reiman