your first issue

[matt]

What is or was your first issue that made you start to buy CL. for me personally it was the chicken enchallada casserole. I was working at the time and stopped by Eckerds and there was the magaizine. Thanks Matt

[BernK]

My first magazine was July or August of 1995. It had a great article on Peaches. I've been hooked ever since.

[Natasha]

Good question, Matt!
It was the spring 1997 issue with the banana pudding on the cover (April, I believe). I don't recall exactly why I bought it, but I love that issue. I used to skim through it while on the train to work, but nothing really registered because I had just fallen in love with a wonderful man and spent most of the time daydreaming...so it was only a couple of years later that I picked the issue up again and started actually making things from it! There are some very good recipes in that issue, by the way, and whenever I pick it up I still smile. Thanks for the memory, and apologies for the ramble. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[sneezles]

I had a "charter" subscription back in 1986, I believe. Received something in the mail due to my subscription to Southern Living. I think I let it lapse about two years during which time I got tired of all magazines jamming up my mailbox but I still bought most issues at the grocery store.

[This message has been edited by sneezles (edited 10-30-2000).]

[Grace]

My first issue was July 1991. It had blueberries on the front, and I was hooked right away. All the recipes came out good and it broadened my repertoire tremendously (I had been famous for making the same stuff over and over and over again). I've always been concerned about eating healthily (I even read Adele Davis' "Let's Live" Magazine when I was a young kid), so CL was right up my alley, and still is!! I save every issue in the red CL binders (I have 9 of them now), and I have the CookWare software and diskettes back to June of 1995. I still look forward to every issue! Thanks, CL!

Grace

[emilycat]

The first issue I ever picked up was the Holiday issue of 1997. There was a pumpkin praline pie on the front, I think, and it caught my eye. I didn't buy another issue until the next Christmas when the sticky buns caught my attention. After that, I started sporadically buying issues, until last year when my roommate and I sent in 3 Edy's upc's for a free subscription (I know, awesome deal, huh?). After I graduated, I bought one for myself, and I don't know how I ever was without it! I'm a cookbook fanatic, but I look forward to those issues each and every month.

[Vanessa]

My mom sent me my first issue in 94 (Chocolate Vanilla no regrets). I enjoyed the format etc but in March 95 the coffee issue with all cofffee brownies and the biscotti recipes was the one that made me want to continue enjoying CL.....

[Susan]

My first issue of CL was August 1997 with the Brownie Cheesecake Torte on the cover. I didn't buy another issue until the following August (blueberry pundcake on the cover). Like Emily, I bought issues off and on until I finally subscribed for 1999. Love it!

~~Susan~~

[Danielle]

My first issue is September 1999. I was visiting my best friend in Seattle and noticed the magazine in her kitchen. I started flipping through it and was intrigued by all the wonderful low-fat recipes. I bought a copy for myself but didn't buy another issue until March 2000. Been hooked ever since. http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[This message has been edited by Danielle (edited 10-30-2000).]

[lindrusso]

My mom started sending me a subscription in 1996. I think I just learned to appreciate the magazine from having it arrive in my mailbox! Overall it was when I learned that some low-fat desserts really CAN be tasty that kept me hooked on CL!

[ML]

How in the world can you remember your first issue??!! I know that I bought my first issue sometime in 1997. I subscribed imediately and have purchased the annual cookbooks every year- 98,99,2000, and now 2001.

I just love it!!- however I will say that it took me awhile before I started trying the recipes- I was in graduate school at the time- and cooking was not a priority.

[carolyn.1]

My first issue was some time in early 1996. I was very overweight at the time and I was looking for a light cooking recipes. At the same time we (husband and 2 teenage girls) had bought some property and was building my dream home. I received a whole years worth of magazines, but was sooooo busy with blueprints---etc. I did not look at them until the winter of 1998. Then by accident I came across them, and still overweight, decided to give the magazines a try. My very BEST issue by far is October 1996. The whole magazine is full of wonderful recipes. WELL by cooking tons of CL recipes since then and walking 2 miles every other day, and of course 8 glasses of water, I have lost 70 lbs!!! ABSOLUTELY could not have done it without CL!!!!!!

Thank you Cooking Light!!
Carolyn.

[Wendy w]

This is a very easy question as first issue was May, 2000. My sister had a copy and I was attracted to the lemon curd recipes. I have been subscribing since June!

Wendy

[ChefChris]

My first issue was the The Ultimate Cupcake one from September of 1995. I still love the black bottome cheesecake cups from the cover! I have subscribed and given many gifts since.
Chris

[sushibones]

My first one was the special anniversary issue April 1997. As I recall, I had started a subscription, but hadn't received the first issue. I couldn't stand waiting, and so bought the April issue on the newsstand. The same issue came in the mail the next day. I have been a subscriber ever since.

My issues are full of post-its marking recipes to try, and my scribbled notes are in the margins of the recipes I have tried. I enjoy the magazine immensely, and never have gotten an issue where there was not something that I could hardly wait to try. I continue to subscribe, not so much for the low-fat recipes (although that is a bonus), but because the recipes so often have ingredients that make my taste buds tingle. I, like lorelei, taste recipes in my head, so even if I don't manage to cook everything I want to, I still drool when I just read the magazine.

[andreajackson]

I am fairly young (21) so I am just starting to really enjoy cooking and especially baking and after I bought my first issue in Jan./Feb. in 2000 I haven't missed one! I love this magazine and I can't wait until the next month to get the new one!

[Norma]

My first issue was the one with the Italian Cream Cake on the cover. The full fat version was my absolute favorite cake in the whole world and I hated that it was so fatty. I hardly ever ate any (about once a year on my birthday at a wonderful konditorei here). I sent my recipe to Eating Well (I was a subscriber) to lighten but never heard from them. Then one afternoon I was in the grocery store waiting in line to check out and there was my Italian Cream Cake on the cover of Cooking Light. I bought it, but I was really kinda skeptical that it could be as nummy as the real thing, and I never made it but I made other things in that issue. I still haven't made that cake, but since joining this BB in September, I have learned that it is indeed nummy. I WILL make it.

[Veronica]

My first issue was December or January 1997/1998 (can't remember!). It was the issue with a cover featuring a steak (filet mignon?) in a skillet. It was a freezing cold evening, and my husband and I were spending a cozy evening browsing in a local bookstore. When my eyes landed on Cooking Light, I had to buy it. I enjoyed reading that issue but didn't buy the magazine again for about a year. Now, I'm hooked! Our meals have never been better.

[Laura]

Jeez, it has been so long ago I am not sure I remember. I think it was 1988 and I was recently married so I thought I would try an issue. I got one that had some great grilling recipes (almost the extent of my cooking then) and have never regretted it.

[SandyDee]

I honestly can't remember my first issue. It was in either '90 or '91 and I was dieting and was so tired of what I had been eating (frozen diet meals) that I thought if I were to continue eating well that I was going to have to take a different approach and saw this magazine in the grocery store. I do remember this, however, I was looking over all of the light, low fat, low calorie magazines at the time and the one that made the biggest impression on me was Cooking Light and I found that month after month that was the one that I always gravitated to. So I decided to subscribe to it. I did for years and then for a couple of years I let it lapse and like many of you continued to buy it on the stands, I finally thought that it was rediculous to have dropped the subscription if I still wanted the magazine and I started a new subscription.

[LauraEllen]

I think it was in 1989 when I took a nutrition class at my health club. The woman who taught the class brough in healthy recipes every week, and on night she brought a Cooking Light magazine. I started buying it at the newstand but didn't subscribe until 1991, and I still have almost every issue.

[Ohioan]

I can hardly remember when I bought my first issue; I think it may have been late 1998 or early 1999. But I do know what's made me use it more than ever, and what's made me buy all the annual collections including the out of print ones -- this bulletin board!

On another note, the reason I started buying CL was that I wanted a magazine that didn't slather everything in butter and cream sauce. I'm one of those un-American types who love veggies, fruits, grains, and beans and who gag on fats of any kind: butter, cream, animal fat, etc. I do like sharp cheeses, but probably because they don't taste of cream, and even so, I can't eat more than two or three ounces at a time. In short, I love light food and hate fattening food (except chocolate, which I can eat until my eyes bug out of my head and my tongue feels like an oil slick). Am I going to be drummed off this board for admitting to such things? http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/eek.gif

http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/redface.gif Blush, blush,
Phoebe

[emilycat]

Quote: I'm one of those un-American types who love veggies, fruits, grains, and beans and who gag on fats of any kind: butter, cream, animal fat, etc. I do like sharp cheeses, but probably because they don't taste of cream, and even so, I can't eat more than two or three ounces at a time.

Phoebe, I'm with you! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

[BarbaraL]

My first issue was way back in 86 or 87 . . . I'd received an invitation to subscribe and thought it sounded good. I subscribed for awhile, but never made much (busy with a baby), so I dropped it. Subscribed again a few years later and dropped it again . . . Third time's the charm!

[RUSTYSMOM]

I have been subscribing since Sept 93 - and like ChefChris have given CL subscriptions many times as gifts. I have most of my friends hooked as well!

[Beth Y]

It has been so long, and I have CRS disease (as many others on this BB have also confessed to having!) and have no earthly idea!

[Kristen Lee]

2000 was my first official year of subscribing to CL. But for the past 3-4 years when I was in college I would take them from my mom after she was done with them. I absolutely love the magazine and I try so many of the recipes. It's an added bonus that my fiance likes them too.

[MrsReber]

I started getting the magazine in the early 90's. Don't remember exactly when, but I let the subscription lapse a few times. In the past three years, however, the recipes have gotten so much better and the magazine as a whole has gotten better. Now I am a faithful subscriber. I don't remember what the first recipe I tried was, but my boyfriend at the time (a lazy slug who wanted the full fat versions of everything) would not eat any of the recipes I made from the magazine. I ditched him for an active and wonderful man (my now husband) and I make CL recipes all the time. We really like most of them. Only a couple of bad ones here and there, but that's usually just a matter of taste.

[coyoyaya]

I can't remember when I actually subscribed, although it was only a couple of years ago! My mom never enjoyed cooking & therefore didn't pass along any cooking genious to me. I very much want to be a good cook & find CL helps me!! It must be working as my bf has rated everything I've made from good to excellent.

[kwormann]

I had started to love cooking in college, so I started getting it around 1990, my sophomore year and except for last year (my first year of being a teacher when I didnt have time to think or sleep, let alone cook), I have read it faithfully ever sense! Thanks bunches CL!!!

Kim