The cookbooks should actually be used...

angeltreats

rachbc wrote: »

are yours arranged in a rainbow but colour of spine like mine?

Haha, no, they're arranged in more or less any way they fit onto the shelves at the moment. We're currently in the process of renovating our house and the cookbooks are on two old, falling apart, mismatched bookcases in the hall. They will live in the dining room on two nice new bookshelves soon though.

I hope this works... please bear in mind that this is not normally how messy my house is! :rotfl: We have pulled it to bits and are still putting it back together but you literally have to step over piles of wood flooring and boxes to get from one room to another.

It might not look it, but there are over 300 cookbooks there (three of the shelves are language courses and foreign language novels, all the rest are cookbooks). And the massive food magazine collection is still in boxes from when we moved in July :eek:

lostinrates

I have, um, quite a few cook books.

II tend to read them as a leisure activity noting (post it or turning over page top) so ething I particularly fancy, then will work this in to a meal plan in the not too distant future.


When eating a spartan diet, I find reading about food satisfies the foody in me, without needing to eat it.

But, more than anything, they give me the backgound knowledge and courage to cook without books most week nights.

I don't think I cook something radically new every week, though might start doing that, I used to and it really does expand one's repetoire and food knowledge. I do try not to cook the same thing the same too often.....it gets boring we have a few dozen fall back no brain recipes....e.g. However I cook mussels I always go back to moules marinieres, I just don't think it can be bettered. I can do it without thinking, I know the wines we prefer for it ant the sort of bread we like best with it. By the end of August we are so ready for the months with 'r's in them to eat shellfish, and only this will do for that first shellfish gorge.

HariboJunkie

lostinrates wrote: »

I have, um, quite a few cook books.

II tend to read them as a leisure activity noting (post it or turning over page top) so ething I particularly fancy, then will work this in to a meal plan in the not too distant future.


When eating a spartan diet, I find reading about food satisfies the foody in me, without needing to eat it.

But, more than anything, they give me the backgound knowledge and courage to cook without books most week nights.

I don't think I cook something radically new every week, though might start doing that, I used to and it really does expand one's repetoire and food knowledge. I do try not to cook the same thing the same too often.....it gets boring we have a few dozen fall back no brain recipes....e.g. However I cook mussels I always go back to moules marinieres, I just don't think it can be bettered. I can do it without thinking, I know the wines we prefer for it ant the sort of bread we like best with it. By the end of August we are so ready for the months with 'r's in them to eat shellfish, and only this will do for that first shellfish gorge.

This sounds just like me.

I only really look at cookery books for inspiration. With the exception of baking I rarely follow a recipe to the letter.

I do have a fair few books and also have a folder with magazine clippings and hand written recipes. I have a few on the puter too but much prefer hard copies.

Edited to add...Unless you are gathering the mussels yourself you are likely to be eating commercially harvested ones and so the "months with an r in them" rule doesn't apply as they are grown in controlled environments. It used to be the case but it's outdated now so get enjoying when you want! Even the wild ones can be eaten outwith those months with a bit of commonsense and knowhow.

I'm with you on the marinieres sauce though I've tweaked mine a bit but OH likes his done in a thai curry sauce.

lostinrates

HariboJunkie wrote: »

This sounds just like me.

I only really look at cookery books for inspiration. With the exception of baking I rarely follow a recipe to the letter.

I do have a fair few books and also have a folder with magazine clippings and hand written recipes. I have a few on the puter too but much prefer hard copies.

Edited to add...Unless you are gathering the mussels yourself you are likely to be eating commercially harvested ones and so the "months with an r in them" rule doesn't apply as they are grown in controlled environments. It used to be the case but it's outdated now so get enjoying when you want! Even the wild ones can be eaten outwith those months with a bit of commonsense and knowhow.

I'm with you on the marinieres sauce though I've tweaked mine a bit but OH likes his done in a thai curry sauce.

Thanks for the mussel info. However, one of the things that keeps food 'alive' for us is that we eat somewhat seasonally, so with few exceptions (and there are exceptions, I had a couple of oysters this summer) we try and stick to 'the old rules' with things like game and seafood and when lamb is available (though lamb is a big cheat exception because I buy a whole or half lamb and freeze it, I would rather eat hoggitt or mutton later in the year but no farmers or butchers round here oblige!). however, I also eat fresh veg all year round, and ATM have noticed how far I have got from seasonality with that this year. It definitely loses some enjoyment for me.

It's one of the things that keeps my cook books read too.....what's good for 'now' not just what's good.

Summers like this last one make cooking the 'standbys' less fun, because the summer standbys are less satisfying when it's freezing.....who wants chilled salad in the bitter cold? But it does give opportunity to be more inventive with summer veg!

Mayflower10cat

I used to have handfuls of recipes ripped and snipped out of magazines and newspapers, stuffed between the pages of various cookery books. And quite a few handwritten scribbles from family and friends. Also a load of recipes I'd downloaded in more recent years. Biting the bullet one rainy afternoon, I dug out my cheap little A4 laminator and fired it up. I arranged all the cuttings on both sheets of cheapo £1 shop paper and laminated them with with several packs of pouches from Poundland. If I'd been even more organised I could have used coloured paper for various types of dish, but I just stuck 'like with like'. I haven't bothered sticking them in a file as I find it easier to flick through and pull out the sheet I need; (some pages have five recipes) so it doesn't take long to find what I want. Now, I can wipe off splashes easily and if I want to add a note, I use permanent marker.