Kitchen

[chickenbutt]

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

[sandraskates]

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.

[RedTop]

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.   

[chessylady]

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.

[PamelaSue72]

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.

[Sooner]

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@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

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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!

[Campion]

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.