When I was going through my recipe books before Christmas, trying to make up my mind for our Christmas dinner, I ended up not using any of them. Instead I did an internet search for recipes that I knew I wanted to cook. That's when I realized that:
1. I have too many recipe books.
2. I do not use them.
3. This is insane!
It's not that I don't like to cook - I love cooking! I just end up using the same old recipes or recipes from the internet. Often, I just throw some random stuff together in a pot and that works fine most of the time. At the same time, I am running out of space for my recipe books and I keep getting more. I don't buy them anymore, but I get them as presents and I love leafing through them, too. I just rarely use them!
So in 2012, I'll put an end to this madness. I will use at least 1 recipe from one of my books each week. I will also try to use recipes from as many books as possible. To stop me from just using my old favorite recipes, I will also need to make sure I use only recipes I haven't tried before. That still leaves me with a lot of flexibility. I can do starters, main, desserts; I can cook, bake or mix drinks. I can do some of the quick and easy recipes on weekday evenings or some more complicated ones that need a few hours of preparation. The only thing limiting me is the choice of recipe books - only the ones I own.
So, to see how much of a limit that is, I took stock:
- Vegetarian dishes: 7 books (I'm not a Vegetarian, but I like good meatless dishes)
- Wok cooking: 3 books (interestingly, I no longer own a wok, after my old one got moldy and rusty in our old apartment)
- Fish: 2 books
- Wines and cocktails: 5 books (yes, no recipe needed for drinking wine, I know...but wine pairing is easier with some advice)
- Baking and desserts in general: 16 books!
- Books dedicated to chocolate: 6!
- Rice, pasta and potato dishes: 4 books
- Regional cuisine: 14 books (includes Indian, Californian, Bavarian, Irish - to name only a few)
- Also, some books from famous or not-so-famous cooks and food lovers and some that are difficult to categorize ("Modern lounge"? What the...?).
I guess that shows that I love my carbs and chocolate in particular. It also looks like I should buy a new wok. Let the cooking begin!
Please share the recipes you are using that saves me the time to run through my cookbooks. And you are right, I have exactly the same problem. I haven't used a cookbook in ages, but search the internet to find what I like.
ReplyDeleteI plan to write about each book that I use and share the recipes that I try. Photos of the end product would be nice, too - just to see how much it differs from the ones in the book. I hope to sort out a few books in the end that don't seem to be worth keeping and hopefully I'll find a few new favorite recipes that can become part of my standard repertoire.
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