Several years ago, I stumbled upon an ancient copy of Joy of Cooking at a garage sale. It's from the early '60s, not the 1931 original. But it's fantastic anyway, complete with a recipe for eggs-in-aspic and instructions on how to properly skin and roast squirrel, then serve it with walnut ketchup gravy.

That tattered version sits beside the most used, dog-eared, oil-spattered, goop-smeared cookbook in my collection — the 1997 version of the Joy of Cooking.

Though critics didn't like this edition, I love it because it devotes chapters to tofu, grains and vegetables, rather than possum stew. I use it all the time. It's my compass in the kitchen, navigating me through countless batches of banana muffins, mushroom barley "risotto," and mac & cheese. I'd be lost with it.

But now, they've come out with yet another version of the Joy of Cooking, in honor of its 75th anniversary.

The good news is that the latest version has recipes for the slow cooker and a nutrition section, with information about a healthy diet. They've also reintroduced a section on canning, reflecting our newfound connection to farmers' markets.

The bad news (at least as I see it) is that they now incorporate short-cuts, such as using canned mushroom soup in a tuna casserole. They've added a section on 30-minute recipes. I know these changes are practical, but it shows how far we've come from skinning rodents for dinner.

Realistically, it makes sense to keep updating this classic cookbook to keep it relevant for our modern lifestyles. (After all, opening a can of mushroom soup is a lot easier than making a bechamel sauce from scratch.)

Still, it's sad to see how all us — even dedicated home cooks — now rely on pre-prepared, pre-packaged food. As we all know, that stuff is loaded with sodium, fat, preservatives, additives and other things that have too many syllables to be good for us.

I'm not saying that I want to return to cooking with aspic, or even bechamel sauce. But I do count on cookbooks to light the way so that I can make simple, healthy meals. After all, anyone can open up a can of soup for dinner. But a lot of us are trying to do better.