My Love Affair with Cookbooks

Some of my earliest memories are helping my mom bake. We would get out the big green mixing bowl, spill flour all over the kitchen, and turn pages in one of the ancient cookbooks we kept on our family room bookshelf. As a little kid, it felt like I was planning for a glamourous dinner party. Would we make a green Jello dish filled with shaved carrots? (The height of sophistication). Or perhaps Sherry Chicken with Lipton's Onion soup mix, cooking sherry, and cream of mushroom soup. Our family of five with two working parents was always busy and filled with comings and goings. But my mom made dinner almost every night, even if half of it came from a box or a can.

At Thanksgiving, we would read Cranberry Thanksgiving and make grandmother's famous cranberry bread that Mr. Whiskers helps protect from being stolen by Mr. Lavender. On summer evenings, we would use the mixer to blend Cool Whip, orange Jello and mandarin oranges into a creamy citrus pie with a store-bought graham cracker crust.

As I grew older, I noticed staples I looked forward to every month; split pea soup in the crock pot, something called Chicken Continental which was basically Minute Rice with chicken and frozen green beans, or spaghetti sauce made with a Lawry's spaghetti sauce seasoning packet and some canned tomatoes.

I grew up. Sometime in my early 20's my mom put together my own recipe box of handwritten recipes with some of those favorites from childhood. I started buying cookbooks or stealing them from my mom. As my experience grew, my library of cookbooks grew. I made Raspberry Lemon Muffins from Great Good Food, Bouchons Au Thon from A Homemade Life and Meatballs in Chipotle Tomato Sauce from My Berlin Kitchen. I used fresh ingredients and turned up my nose at anything that was not made from scratch.

But now, my love affair with cookbooks has taken on a new life. I work full time and have my own family of five. I am constantly answering the question, what are we having for dinner? I have plenty of online recipes I regularly scan. But there is something about the cookbook; the pages splattered with food that I am drawn towards. Anyone could guess my most beloved recipes by the number of stains on the page. (Have you ever tried making chocolate chip banana bread with a 3-year-old?) I sometimes find myself reaching for one as a form of relaxation instead of a good book. It still holds that allure of escape to another world.

My collection has grown with time. I've gotten more adventurous in buying cookbooks like Coconut and Sambal that's wildly delicious and mostly easy. I aspire to cook more advanced recipes in Dessert Person like her Cherry Cream Cheese Danishes but I'm mostly in the beginning and early intermediate category.

I read Ina Garten's Be Ready when the Luck Happens and bought Modern Comfort Food, mostly to make the Boston Cream Pie (5 stars).

Allison Roman's Dining In has given me a renewed interest in simplicity. I have never cared for radishes, but Butter Tossed Radishes with Fresh Za’atar are described as her favorite thing in the entire book. A bold statement like that will always catch my attention and they were pretty incredible. Full disclaimer, I had an old jar of Za’atar hiding in my pantry from another random recipe experiment several years back. Not exactly a spice that makes a regular appearance with my garlic salt and oregano, but it felt good to resurrect it from the back of the spice graveyard with its fellow retired spices turmeric, and cream of tartar.

All that said, my cooking has a full spectrum of fresh ingredients, take-out, and instant mashed potatoes. We sometimes eat corn dogs with ketchup and frozen corn between soccer practice and reserve the more involved recipes for weekends or special occasions. Most recently, a friend and her kids came for dinner, and I made my mom's Sherry Chicken with a can of mushroom soup, some cooking wine and a Lipton's onion soup mix. Later that evening, she asked for the recipe. I smiled to myself (thanks Mom) and sent it her way. Make sure to serve Minute Rice.