Robyn Eckhardt writes: My mother has a rather morbid habit of asking me, whenever I return to the US for a visit, to specify which of her belongings I will want for myself 'when the time comes'. I prefer not to think about it,  but if pressed I'd really only have one request: Mother, please set aside for me your entire Time Life 'Foods of the World' series. I've spent alot of time on visits home poring over these fascinating recipe books, even more so since I began writing about food. (This time around much of what I'm reading in the American Cooking volumes from the series dovetails with a book that's on my bedside table: The Food of a Younger Land by Mark ...