A Collection

This post is an entry for Sarah's contest about special collections.

I don't collect many things but I do have a special weakness for my cookbooks. They are worn and marked with post it notes. There may be a dusting of flour on the pages of my favorite biscuit recipe. Each one holds meaning for me.

I pictured some of my favorites:

Dom DeLuise- given to me from my mom. Some of my first dinner successes as a married woman came from this book. And Dom makes dinner such a hearty, warm event with his wonderful stories.

Cooks on Vacation- purchased in Florida while my husband and I were visiting my Grandpa. It had some fun, old fashioned recipes. Grandpa loved the egg salad recipe. I made a big batch just for him, probably the only thing I ever made for him to eat that he liked. I still hadn't come into my cooking prime before he passed away.

Cooks Illustrated, Bound magazines from 1993-2007 and The Cooks Bible (christopher kimball)- The most perfectly possible recipes ever, all researched out and reasoned for you, the cook. For those who wish to cook sinless, without fault or blame. Or for those cooking hyprocrites, like me, who devour the magazines from front to back, for the sole purpose of possessing The Knowledge, so we can say, like all good engineers, the stock for whence I came: This is the way it's supposed to be done!

Sometimes I do practice what I preach, when I can find the specific ingredients. Guess I'd have better luck if I would do my grocery shopping in someplace other than Super Walmart.

Penzey's Spices and King Arthur Catalogues- make superior cooking and baking possible by mail order, even to those whose grocery saavvy is limited to a giant discount chain store. Thank you Penzey's, I love you xxxxooooo.

Saving Dinner- see all the blue post it notes sticking out of it? Saving Dinner is my saving grace, when I can't cook faultless and without blame. It does not require me to stand on my head and mix the batter with my toes because that is the best and most delicate way to do it. It meets me where I am (at walmart) with easy to find ingredients, and simple procedures, to create some of the best (and healthy) meals I have ever eaten, let alone made with my own 2 hands. I have discovered a love for Kale, squash, and other foods that I, picky eater, never thought could be possible.

I am utterly ruined for restaruants, because those meals are so darn good.

King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversy Cookbook- Baking is my true passion, bread, cookies, cake, scones, crackers, it's all here, and I love it. Yes, I have make my own crackers, more than once. It's fun when I have time.

Yep, good feelings when I look at my cookbooks...they all have wonderful stories.