Must-Have Cookbooks??

I recently came across this article in my local Newspaper: "20 Essential Cookbooks, a list of the 20 Essential books to build your culinary library, from the James Beard Book awards committee". Interesting!

I started accumulating cookbooks with the intention to build a cookbook library, so this article piqued my interest. I was curious how many of those included on the list I do in fact own. Even though the list was compiled in 2007, so not totally up to date, it's a pretty good list. The answer? I own only six out of the twenty. I guess Gooseberry Patch did not make the list!

How many of these are on your bookshelf?

American Cookery, James Beard

Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, Rick Bayless

Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook

Classic Indian Cooking, Julie Sahini

Complete Techniques, Jacques Pepin and Leon Pererr

Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan

How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food, Mark Bittman

The Joy of Cooking, Irma S Rombauer and Marion Rombauer Becker

The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion: The All-Purpose Baking Cookbook

Maida Heatter's Book of Great Desserts, Maida Heatter

Martha Stewart's Hors D'Oeuvres Handbook, Martha Stewart

Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume One, Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck

The Modern Art of Chinese Cooking: Techniques and Recipes, Barbara Tropp

The New Food Lover's Companion, Sharon Tyler Herbst

The Oxford Companion to Wine, Jancis Robinson

Rick Stein's Complete Seafood, Rick Stein

The Silver Palate Cookbook, Sheila Lukins and Julie Rosso

The Thrill of the Grill: Techniques, Recipes, and Down-Home Barbecue, Chris Schlesinger and John Wiloughby

Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, Deborah Madison

The Way to Cook, Julia Child

Cookbook Review - Trisha Yearwood

Trisha Yearwood - Georgia Cooking in an Oklahoma Kitchen

I received this cookbook as a Christmas gift from my hubby. I was pretty excited to get this book, I thumbed through it quickly in the bookstore and it seemed like the kind of family-appealing cookbook that I am always looking for.

There is lots to choose form in this cookbook, a nice assortment of soups, salads, main courses, sides, breads and muffins, and of course, desserts. The cookbook showcases family photos of Trisha's extended family, plus anecdotes from Trish, her sister, and her mother. It definitely feels like these are authentic "Mom's recipes" that we all remember having as kids. There are a lot of basics like fried chicken and meatloaf, perfect family crowd-pleasing meals. Also included are some southern specialties like fried okra, hush puppies, and sweet pickles.

Some of my favorites from this cookbook so far include the chicken pie and the brownies. The chicken pie is just delicious, tons of chicken and a buttermilk biscuit-like topping, no veggies. Yum. The brownies came out perfect, the recipe calls for nuts but I made them without and they were still fantastic. I also liked the spaghetti sauce (from a southern cookbook - go figure!). There are still lots more recipes in this book I am looking forward to trying.

My only complaint about this cookbook is it is in a book bound format, and I prefer a spiral for cookbooks, so they can lie flat. But overall I love it, this cookbook is definitely an asset to my collection!

Addicted to cookbooks

So... I confess, I am addicted to cookbooks.

Every time I go to the bookstore, I can't stop myself from buying another one. I like to buy cooking magazines and the little booklets in the supermarket checkout counter, and on occassion I have been known to buy "vintage" cookbooks at yardsales and antique shops. It all started with an idea of building myself a cookbook library. My dream was to have the ultimate cookbook collection, all of the basics of course, Joy of Cooking, Betty Crocker, Better Homes & Gardens. The classics, Joy Of Cooking, Fanny Farmer. And names, the popular cooks of the day, Martha Stewart, Rachel Ray, Paula Deen. I imagined having this impressive arsenal of all the very best recipes, I would have a perfect recipe for everything under the sun I could ever need to cook or bake.

But there are only 365 days in a year, and with so many cookbooks, probably a few hundred recipes in each one... ummm... I may never need to buy another one again! I could probably cook a different recipe every day for the rest of my life and still never get through them all.

But the collection must go on! While I have definitely slowed down on amassing my library (there are many key titles that I still do not own!), I do still have a near-compulsive need to buy more cookbooks every now and then. I just can't stop myself, and I wouldn't want to!

I write little notes on the pages, commenting on if I liked the recipe or not, if I did anything to modify it. Many of the pages have the corners turned over, many recipes have food splashes and oil marks stained onto the page. I am not trying to preserve them in an immaculate state. Someday they will be passed down to my daughters and I hope they will enjoy reading my notes and remember having their favorite dishes cooked by mom.