How a vintage cookbook helped an Iron Range writer find her way home

Crystal Schlueter found her way home to Minnesota’s Iron Range through the dog-eared pages of a vintage cookbook.

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She had traveled the world while serving in the military and settled in Colorado. “I was struggling at the time,” Schlueter said. Money was tight. Feeling far removed from family, she found solace in a Midwestern community cookbook she unearthed from a thrift store bin. The recipes with humble ingredients and deep cultural ties to countries people left generations ago started Schlueter on a path of appreciation that culminated in her first cookbook.

End of the Road Cookbook

Traditional Favorites from the Iron Range” includes tastes of those traditions as well as modern dishes that lean into the region’s hyper-seasonality — where spring feels aspirational and fall tumbles into months of living within the demands of how much snow is forecast. Recipes draw on foraged ingredients while depending on a well-stocked pantry of up north staples. There are candy salads, sweet and savory stuffed breads, hearty vegetables, juneberry jam bars and several hot dishes.

“It’s not a hot dish unless there’s a can of something in it,” quipped Schlueter. “Hot dish is meant to be something you can make during a snowstorm. You don’t have to put anything fancy in it.”

Schlueter’s love of cooking began at a young age. An aunt’s subscription to Taste of Home magazine inspired kitchen adventures with her grandmothers. It was their kitchens she longed for while living out of state.

“One of the things I learned being away from home is that when people are speaking about generalized American food, it’s usually tacos, spaghetti or burgers,” said Schlueter, “That’s when I realized that on the Iron Range, we know where our families and their recipes came from. Minnesota cuisine is so beautiful because it’s made up of flavors from all over the world, from Native Americans and foraging. It’s really special.”

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"End of the Road Cookbook" by Crystal Schlueter, published by the Minnesota Historical Society Press.

Soon after her cookbook discovery, Schlueter moved back to Minnesota to care for her father during his final years battling Alzheimer’s. In 2023, she was ready to dig deeper into the recipes from her region and began to piece together a career in cooking and writing about food.

“I needed a creative outlet,” she said. She had entered recipe contests — including a 2016 win in the Star Tribune’s annual holiday cookie contest for Nut Goodie Thumbprints — often finding success when she leaned into her “up north” ways of cooking.