Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Cookbook Project

I openly admit I love and own an insane amount of cookbooks. Some may say I have an obsession with the amount I own, but in my defense, I've been collecting books for years.

When friends and family ask how many books I own, I instantly respond: "Oh, about 250". The truth is I have no clue. I have cookbooks in my living room, hall closet, office, back room off bedroom and my attic. I've never counted them and recently been contemplating how long it would take me to finish all the reading books I've purchased or projects I've started. As I was relaxing this past weekend on my living couch, I took a hard look at the cookbooks I walk by everyday and thought it's time to count my books. However, I don't want to just count them, I want to use them.

When I first started buying my own cookbooks, I wouldn't buy one unless I knew I was going to use it. Over the years, when I cooked from a recipe in one of my cookbooks, I'd make notes next to the recipe of when I cooked it, who for, any adjustments made, and final opinions of the recipe from me and the people who sampled the recipe with me.

Based upon my desire to know how many books I own, I decided to create my own personal Cookbook Project. Every week, I am going to cook 1 recipe from a minimum of 2 cookbooks. My husband has offered to lend some help. I'll pick out various recipes in the books and he'll be the one who decides which one is going to be cooked. Because he likes to cook, I'm hoping to rope him into actually helping me.

Once a week I'll post the recipes selected, books chosen, personal notes about it and maybe pics of the end result. In my personal notes I'll will tell a little bit about why/when I bought the book, difficulty, if I were to make any changes to the recipe and what they'd be, and of course I am going to note whether I'd make this recipe again.

I'm looking forward to getting started and have already selected my first 2 recipes I plan on making this weekend.

5 comments:

Brian Miller said...

nice...i could be down with that....i like food...i like to eat food. smiles. i like looking at pictures of food. ha. sounds fun.

Little Ms Blogger said...

@Brian, I'm pretty excited too especially after seeing some of the cookbooks I bought at unusual cooking classes & ones I've been given and inherited.

VEG said...

Can you come cook ME something tasty because I hate cooking but I LOVE sampling cooking. :) I know, how can you resist right? Ha! Post pics.

Little Ms Blogger said...

@Veg Ass - I would definitely bring you dinner in exchange for a painting -- it would also help if on the continent.

KaH said...

This is a great idea! Very excited!