About a week ago, I came across this very interesting article about cookbooks. The author talked about how they will always prefer a cookbook to a recipe online, among other things. It got me thinking about my own (very large) cookbook collection and what it represents to me as a home cook.
I think for me, ultimately, I love the tactility a cookbook or magazine can provide. I love the idea of being able to sit for a while and just flip through to find a new recipe to try. The element of discovery is how I realized I had a recipe for red velvet cupcakes when I was having a big craving for them. I love looking at the pictures of the final product and getting the satisfaction of getting my dish to look something like their end product. They give me the inspiration to try something new and try ingredient combinations that I would never have considered on my own. Case in point: the scallops recipe from Ted Allen's In the Kitchen that I tried last week. I never thought that chorizo and lemon juice with scallops and cornmeal would equal yumminess, but it did! Cookbooks are probably the "books" that I read the most; granted, many of them would never be fully "read", but it's nice to know that they're there.
When I was living on my own, the collection was much smaller, but the discovery wouldn't come to fruition as often. It was such a big frustration because all the dishes that I wanted to try just made far too much food for one person. I hated having to sit there and try to figure out how to halve the recipe (still hate trying to do that kind of stuff...darn math!). It's probably why I mostly focused on baking while I was one my own, since that can easily be frozen and taken out when needed. Enter hubby: the trying of various recipes really took off!
One of the other reasons that I have so many cookbooks (18 to be exact) is because I've always been one for variety. I like knowing that I have a few different books to look through to find a new dish, or even to find two different versions of the same dish and make one that reflects the best of both worlds (something that I've done before with my onion soup recipe and my hush puppies recipe). It's also the reason that I started collecting Food Network magazines (which hubby very smartly bought a subscription for); I much prefer being able to flip through the magazine to look for something new over searching their website (though I have looked on their website for a few things when I wasn't happy with my findings in my cookbooks). I've been slowly but surely building up quite the collection of bookmarked recipes to try (mostly desserts), but unless I sit at the computer to sift through them all, I am more likely to just turn to my books and magazines.
Who knows, maybe I'll eventually cave to having a digital cookbook on my iPad. For now, I'll stick to my cookbooks with my scribbles of changes and stains from various ingredients. :)
Here's the meal plan for the week. The chicken wings will be made this week, since we ended up not making it. After a second day at Fan Expo, we were just too exhausted. So glad that they're going to make it three days next year! Just the one new recipe this week, the rest are oldies. Have a great weekend and happy cooking all!
April 28-May 3
Sunday: Teriyaki-orange wings, veggies, dip
Monday: Tuna mornay with pasta
Tuesday: Hot roast beef heroes
Wednesday: Clam chowder
Thursday: Hoisin pork with rice (new Food Network recipe)
Friday: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes, veggies