On Cookbooks

“Anyone who eats three meals a day should understand why cookbooks outsell sex books three to one.”
---L. M. Boyd

I'm pretty certain I have a cookbook fetish. Looking at these shelves in our kitchen, I'm realizing that only a few volumes are regular, go-to favorites, while there are other that I just had to have, but have never even cooked from (Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking comes to mind). I think this is a personality quirk I inherited from my grandmother, who subscribes to more magazines and clips more recipes that it is ever possible to cook. It's also carried over to the digital realm--- my bookmarks are a disorganized mess of recipes and craft projects. Perhaps the fun is fantasizing about how good something might be more than actually making it, because despite all my collecting, we repeat many of the same meals (as nice as they might be) over and over again.

Part of my spring manifesto is to try new recipes, which is a particular challenge when cooking takes a back seat to a baby who clearly loves to eat as much as her mother does. So I'm returning to the overlooked books on my shelves, but also (of course!) continuing to have fun looking for new ideas. So please, if you are reading this and you have a best-loved cookbook, food blog, or link to an amazing recipe, leave them in the comments for me?

And here are my lists for you:

Most Used and Loved Cookbooks on My Shelf

• Moosewood Restaurant New Classics
• Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home
  
• Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson
• Quick Vegetarian Pleasures by Jeanne Lemlin
• Everyday Food (it's a magazine, but I always find at least one great meal in every issue)

Revisiting and Plan to Cook From Soon

• Fast Vegetarian Feasts by Martha Rose Shulman
• Great Greens by Georgeanne Brennan
  

Currently Checked Out From the Library

• The Vegetarian Mother's Cookbook by Cathe Olson (for pregnant and breastfeeding women)
• The Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rogers
• Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver

Favorite Food Blogs

• Orangette
• 101 Cookbooks