‘I Hate to Cook Book’ author dies at 89

While James Beard and Julia Child were steering American women through the finer points of how to cook, Peg Bracken, author of the “I Hate to Cook Book” made her mark by teaching them how not to.

She died Saturday at age 89, family members said. No cause of death was immediately available.

The book appeared in 1960 and sold more than 3 million copies intended for working women who had had it up to here with the notion that their destiny was to stand by the stove and be the then-ideal June Cleaver wife.

She adored the new convenience foods, mixes and canned foods and discovered that a can of mushroom soup could cover many sins.

And she was funny.

Consider her recipe for Skid Road Stroganoff:

“Add the flour, salt, paprika and mushrooms, stir, and let it cook five minutes while you light a cigarette and stare sullenly at the sink.”

But there was sophistication there as well.

The book was followed by “The I Hate to Housekeep Book” and “I Try to Behave Myself,” on etiquette. There were others.

She wrote columns for the Oregonian, where her obituary appeared Sunday, the San Francisco Chronicle and Family Circle and articles for publications including Atlantic Monthly. She wrote a lot of humorous verse, her first love.