While this cabinet is in there in the name of storage, it’s not for gadgets.

My kitchen is small.

 People are surprised that someone that cooks as much as I do doesn’t have a wealth of kitchen toys.

I have carefully edited them in the name of space.  And I prefer that space be given to something I love more than gadgets.

Cookbooks.

(And my KitchenAid stand mixer.)

I love the cookbooks various groups put together for fundraisers.  I have an especially fondness for old ones from churches. I think some of those came from college roommate’s grandmothers.  Some of them, I’ve had forever, like before I learned to cook.  My watermelon pickle recipe came out of those books.

Mollie Katzen is probably my favorite cookbook writer.  I have a number of her cookbooks.

Oh, and I clearly have a fondness for some Betty Crocker – that’s a late 80’s version right next to my early 1950’s version.  Sadly, somewhere along the line they dropped the helpful housewife hints that recommended being ‘fresh and cheerful’ for your husband when he came home from work.  I also have the 1960’s Betty Crocker Cooky Cookbook. 

Among my treasures is this complete 1970’s set of McCalls cookbooks, in their little box.  I was amazed when they fit into my cabinet, I thought for sure I’d have to get rid of something to make room.  Just a little reorganization was needed. 

I have ethic cookbooks.  I have the classics- Joy of Cooking, Fannie Farmer and so on.  I have dessert cookbooks.  I have several cookbooks just on chocolate.  I have holiday cookbooks.  I have part of a late 70’s, early 80’s Southern Living series that I have picked up piecemeal at yard sales.  The bulk of my collection though are vegetarian cookbooks.  I really cannot stand to touch raw meat and so when I first learned to cook, I avoided it in my cooking.  I am still just learning how to cook meat.  I tend to stick to bacon and sausage, which is easy stuff.  (and yummy.)

I like to read cookbooks.  I will sit down with a stack to get inspiration for dinner.  If I have an idea of something I want to make but not entirely sure how I want to go about it, I’ll consult my cookbooks.  With the exception of the Mollie Katzen books, I never follow a recipe to the T.  I like to stack about 3 or 4 cookbooks on my counter and create my own from similar ones.   A little of this, some of that.  The end result gets written down in a notebook I also keep in that cabinet.  Along with several binders of recipes I have printed out from the glory of the internet.

A few weeks ago, I entered a contest on Facebook hosted by fellow blogger edible cville.  I tend to enter alot of contests, although I rarely win.  Much to my surprise, I won! 

I was excited to discover it was a new cookbook.

Anthony Bourdain.  To be honest, I don’t know much about him.  I don’t pay a whole lot of attention to celebrity chefs.  We live without cable, which means no food channels, outside of the PBS Create cooking shows (which I adore).  Although I learned to cook by watching cooking shows and reading cookbooks, I have found I don’t care for most of the cooking shows on these days when I do happen to get to watch those food channels on cable tv.  Too much flash, not enough substance.  Extreme eating?  No thanks.  Cooking competitions?  They don’t interest me either.   But a book?  That I can do.

At first glace, I really like the look of the book.  Love the font.  (That would be the design background in me, coming out.)  Paging through it, I think I might learn some new tricks. There are just good basic skills in here and not just recipes.  I love those kind of cookbooks.  I’m excited that it’s not another vegetarian cookbook.  Due to requests from a certain self-described ‘meatatarian’ that lives in our house, I have found myself learning to cook more meat. She’s pretty excited about this new cookbook too.

I might find myself sharing it.  She’s already been flipping through it, looking for dinner suggestions.

Thanks edible cville, for adding to our library and our inspiration.

It’s not often we get a cookbook around there that gets everyone excited.