Reading: Eat, Pray, Love

Yes, I  LOVED that book.

I think I will re-read it this summer at some point.

Right now though, I am reading the book Meg gave me. 

She is a good egg, to say the least and if you EVER need cheering up, go see her.

The other book(s) I am reading are my extended collection of cookbooks.

My daughter said the other day...

"You know what this house needs? NOT more cookbooks!"

Hilarious, that one.

I mentioned before that I read books about food and I read cookbooks for sport.

I own 67 cookbooks.

Yep, I do.

I also read almost all of these fairly regularly.

My favorite thing to do while I am eating alone is read a cookbook while I eat.

My most used cookbooks are all stuck together and gross. 

I am a messy and fly-by-the -seat of my pants cook. I rarely follow a recipe to the letter and I never make the same thing the same way twice. It is a little frustrating sometimes.

These are my most tried and true cookbooks that I reach for over and over.  

Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book:

I have had this sucker for 20 years and it is nasty. And well loved.

Screen Doors and Sweet Tea: 

Went to a book reading and met the author, Martha Hall Foose.

She is adorable and the book reads like hanging with a friend who tells great stories. 

Bills Food 

Easy recipes for fresh healthy food. AND amazing desserts that taste hard, but are not.

Fresh Food Fast

Vegetarian and interesting dishes, this book is separated by season.

I use this book at least once a week, and my family of carnivores  never complains about what I make. Excellent flavors in each recipe.

Lone Star Legacy I and II

My parents had these books when I was cooking in high school and still ate meat. I cooked lots of chicken dishes out of it. Now, I have my own books and I cook lots of desserts, appetizers, eggs and of course Tex Mex. I think they were put together by the Junior League or DAR or something like that. Excellent collection of Mrs. Robert Such n Such recipes. 

I  love collecting and reading  cookbooks. I love ones that are collections of family recipes (Leslie Smith gave me her family collection) and ones that are random (Cooking with the Grateful Dead). 

I have books that have great tips, like how to replace an egg in a recipe  and how to cook on your radiator while driving to your vacation spot. 

I also have two of my grandmothers recipe boxes, which are hilarious and  painful time capsules to read when I get to missing them. Recipes are like stories to me. I wonder who made them up and why.

When I am at someones house, if they have a shelf of cookbooks, I always look to see what they have. Partly out of curiosity and partly out of jealousy if they have one I don't have.

I scour used bookstores and garage sales looking for cookbooks. My girlfriends give them to me for my birthday. My husband ( and now my daughter) make fun of my for having so many. 

But, I love them. And the goodness they contain.

Here is one of my kid's favorite recipes that have made for them since they were babies. It is also the first thing they learned how to make when they started cooking.

Double or triple it and freeze the rest for future meals.

I love this book!

BHG New Cookbook 

Pancakes

1 cup all purpose flour

1 tbl sugar

2 tsp. baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk

2 tbl. cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients. Add wet and mix just until combined. Pour 1/4 cup onto hot griddle for each cake. Flip when pancake is covered with bubbles and then cook  approx. 1 minute on other side.

Makes about 8 pancakes. 

If you make these Casa Swann style, you add cinnamon and vanilla (eyeballing about a tsp. or so of each). You can also substitute orange juice for the milk or add frozen blueberries. We like to mix it up.

YUM!