topic ... in Kitchen

Cookbooks

Nataliesgramma — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 11:54:38 GMT

Do you still buy cookbooks? I like looking through new cookbooks, but I usually only try one or 2 recipes from it. If I make meatloaf, hubby expects it to be the way I ALWAYS make it.

With the internet, I can look up a recipe for a new dessert or side dish....instead of paging through my cookbooks. I did pare them down to one shelf.

I still get the urge to buy more when I watch ITKWD....but I talk myself out of it....LOL

Re: Cookbooks

nyc1 — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 12:01:01 GMT

I LOVE Ina Garten's (Barefoot COntessa) cookbooks, so I buy those. I still print out most of the recipes off of the internet.... even hers, so when I'm cooking, I just have the flat sheet on my counter and I can note all of my changes on it. If I really like the recipe (and I love 99% of Ina's) I'll keep the sheet with my notes. I own over 200 cookbooks, and read them like novels, but I rarely buy them anymore unless I love the photos and the quality of the book is special.

Re: Cookbooks

Bowwowluv — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 12:45:24 GMT

Can anyone recommend a gluten free cookbook for beginners? I am overwhelmed by the choices and would appreciate your suggestions. Thank you.

Re: Cookbooks

KingstonsMom — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 12:46:04 GMT

@Nataliesgramma wrote:
Do you still buy cookbooks? I like looking through new cookbooks, but I usually only try one or 2 recipes from it. If I make meatloaf, hubby expects it to be the way I ALWAYS make it.

With the internet, I can look up a recipe for a new dessert or side dish....instead of paging through my cookbooks. I did pare them down to one shelf.

I still get the urge to buy more when I watch ITKWD....but I talk myself out of it....LOL

My DH is the same way @Nataliesgramma!

He's not keen on trying different things than what's he's used to eating all of his life!

I keep trying to whittle down my cookbook collection for this reason, but every time I try, I can only manage to rehome a couple of them, LOL!

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debic — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 13:10:10 GMT

I love cookbooks. I buy more e-cookbooks these days but I still buy.

Re: ...

PINKdogWOOD — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 13:15:49 GMT

We love cookbooks too. DH and I have many. He loves to read cookbooks and does it often. And yes he loves to be in the kitchen whipping up anything wonderful! He's a great cook too.

I belong to maybe three or four sites who send me recipes of the day. I find many great ones that I'll print off and make for dinner. Some of these sites have cooking/recipes mags too that we get at home. Some of them we keep, others maybe not. We'll read each cover to cover and if they are full of great recipes we keep them.

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debic — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 13:24:23 GMT

@PINKdogWOOD I get a lot of email recipes as well. If they're good I'll title them Recipe: Spanish Rice, and I will also put them in my recipe box. My family expects me to cook when I visit, so I usually have the recipes on hand.

Re: Cookbooks

Fressa — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:43:23 GMT

II like the Marlene Koch cookbooks because she gives you the alternatives for blueten free and other health issues. I would search the Food Network website and check the ratings for other authors.

Re: Cookbooks

HonnyBrown — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 15:54:24 GMT

I don't buy cookbooks or cooking magazines anymore. I use my tablet to get recipes online.

I have enough cookbooks for three lifetimes. My favorites are: Dione Lucas Book of French Cooking (from the 1940s), a vegetarian cookbook I use to make sides, and a Thai/Indian cookbook.

Re: Cookbooks

poohbear1 — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 16:59:14 GMT

I just finished reorganizing my recipes. I dont buy cookbooks anymore and usually get recipes off the internet. What I've done is bought 2 Lang recipe albums that hold 4 x 6" cards. One book has all my tried and true recipes. The other one has recipes that I've printed and want to try eventually. I put them all on index cards so when I want a new recipe, I just flip thru the book (divided into catagories) If I like the recipe, I'll move it to the tried and true book! (in fact just bought a third book for the tried and true since I filled the first one) I literally emptied an entire deep drawer filled with recipes I printed but had forgotten I had. This was my winter project!

Re: Cookbooks

chickenbutt — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 17:00:26 GMT

I really don't but for me I think it's a two part thing - 1) I don't cook nearly as much as I used to, nor do I entertain anymore; and 2) Over the last ten years if I want to come up with something new I just get a bunch of ideas and collectively use them, plus my own ideas, and make something up.

It seems like these days the 'thing' is making a cookbook for every pot, pan, or appliance. Don't people just, well, think anymore? Every time somebody is selling a new pan I hear a lot of 'Oh no, does it come with a cookbook? How am I going to make something?'. Uh, just cook stuff the same way you did with your OTHER frying pan? ha!

Anyway, I guess it's a growing business so that's good for those writing them. But it just seems like another runaway train to me. Maybe I've been around too long. heh

Re: Cookbooks

sandraskates — Fri, 26 Feb 2016 23:55:35 GMT

I have scaled back.

I have about a dozen cookbooks plus several Cook's Country / America's Test Kitchen magazines. While the photos look enticing I may only make a few recipes out of any of them.

However, the last cookbook I bought - The Big Book of Bisquick - has many quick, easy, flexible and very tasty recipes; I find I'm pulling that one off the shelf frequently.

I subscribe to Real Simple magazine and I've pulled out many pages to add to a recipe notebook that I've compiled.

Other than that I too find I do lookups on the Internet and bookmark any recipe that I've tried and has turned out well.

Re: Cookbooks

RedTop — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 00:16:28 GMT

I love the cookbooks I own, but have no interest in buying more. I inherited all of my grandmothers and aunts cookbooks, from the 40's, 50's, and 60's.

Re: Cookbooks

chessylady — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 04:22:40 GMT

I too inherited my Mother's cookbooks and recipes. She married my Dad at 16 and had me at 19. She was a self taught cook but loved to try new recipes at least once week, even with four children. She would try the most difficult recipes if they appealed to her. My Dad tells a story about a cake that didn't turn out, she threw it out in the back yard. She was one of a kind and I still miss her.

Re: Cookbooks

PamelaSue72 — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 14:31:22 GMT

My name is Pam and I am unashamedly addicted to cookbooks. Got married at 16 and, since I knew nothing at all about cooking and baking, my MIL took me under her wing and taught me everything and anything.

I am now 61 years old and my cookbook addiction has grown to probably around 1,000 books. I have cookbooks in a huge bookcase in one of our bedrooms, cookbooks in the kitchen, cookbooks in totes under the beds and in closets. I made at least one recipe, most often more, from every cookbook in the house.

The collection spans family-type cookbooks, church and other local organization cookbooks, national and PA Grange cookbooks, books from my favorite cooks (Alton Brown, Ina Garten, Sara Moulton, Steven Raichlen, etc.), books from Taste of Home, America's Test Kitchen, one-subject cookbooks (cakes, breads, pizza, ice cream, mushrooms, cookies, cheesecakes, pies) books on crock pot cooking, pressure cooking, grilling, canning and other ways to preserve foods, the basic (and not so basic) Betty Crocker cookbooks, and so on. Cookbooks on cooking lighter, specialty Christmas and other holiday cookbooks. Books from Nabisco, Philadelphia Cream Cheese, ReaLemon, etc. I became a pro at using my microwave to make complete meals that are delicious by using cookbooks that are microwave-oriented.

I usually take a cookbook to bed and read it like others would read a novel. I am addicted.

I have saved every issue of Cooks Illustrated and Cook's Country that I've ever received. I started getting Sift, the King Arthur magazine.

I also collect recipes from the internet and have them printed and bound.

When Mom passed away, she didn't have a lot of cookbooks as she wasn't much of a cook. I took the cookbooks she did have. My MIL recently went into assisted living and she gave me all of her cookbooks, too.

At 61, I still love to cook, I love to bake, and I'm probably more content when I'm playing with yeast doughs than doing anything else. We still entertain quite often, whether it's large dinners with family and friends or smaller, more intimate dinners with another couple or two. I still love trying new recipes and I still get a kick out of serving a loaf of bread that I made over anything that can be purchased in any store.

Re: Cookbooks

Sooner — Sat, 27 Feb 2016 15:42:18 GMT

@chickenbutt wrote:
I really don't but for me I think it's a two part thing - 1) I don't cook nearly as much as I used to, nor do I entertain anymore; and 2) Over the last ten years if I want to come up with something new I just get a bunch of ideas and collectively use them, plus my own ideas, and make something up.

It seems like these days the 'thing' is making a cookbook for every pot, pan, or appliance. Don't people just, well, think anymore? Every time somebody is selling a new pan I hear a lot of 'Oh no, does it come with a cookbook? How am I going to make something?'. Uh, just cook stuff the same way you did with your OTHER frying pan? ha!

Anyway, I guess it's a growing business so that's good for those writing them. But it just seems like another runaway train to me. Maybe I've been around too long. heh

That's me too! I have cooked so long, read so many books, watched tv from Julia on that I can make about anything (including a souffle) without a recipe. SO I just cook. I look at a recipe then make what I want! LOL!!

I think since celebrity cooks have taken over, those of us who really cook and bake have a harder time finding a cookbook that has new ideas and challenges us or helps us grow and branch out. It's all 40 page of stories about someone's life and pictures of measuring cups and text telling you how to use them.

Not much out there recently from really great chefs and cooks that interests me. I was thinking about it last week and wishing there was a new book out I wanted!

Re: Cookbooks

Campion — Sun, 28 Feb 2016 11:21:01 GMT

I don't buy too many--just a few for reading because I'm congenitally unable to follow a recipe exactly (got this from Dad, apparently.)

But I did buy the cookbook from Zahav restaurant, an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia and I really like it. I got a copy for my sister and sent it to her because I really thought it had excellent and "new" ideas. Israeli cooking is a mixture of Middle Eastern, Eastern European and Mediterranean cooking and it takes a new twist on familiar things. Some of the standards are foods that came out of the difficult early days in Israel, when there were limited number of foodstuffs. For example, rice was in short supply, so a larger couscous (wheat pasta) was developed to substitute for this staple and it was called "Ben Gurion's Rice"

There was a recipe for "shashouka" which is eggs baked in tomato sauce and it included kale, which really made it taste great. I don't really like kale, but it was delicious in tomato sauce.