The Cookbook Thread

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[SunflowerP]

I just looked and I may be able to fit a small one underneath my window.  Plus, it would give me more space for an herb garden.

Ooh, that's a good idea!  I'll have to keep that in mind - it doesn't really apply while I'm with my parents, but I'd already started thinking about growing fresh herbs while I was still with ex-hubby (and am really glad I didn't do anything about it, as that would have added significant complication to the move when things fell apart).  It's something that's really likely to come up once JFP and I have a place together, since he's as much of a foodie as I am, and one of the first big issues with starting an indoor kitchen herb garden is always where to put it - you may have provided a good solution to that problem (depending, of course, on space layouts and such).

Sunflower

[Melamphoros]

Ooh, that's a good idea!  I'll have to keep that in mind - it doesn't really apply while I'm with my parents, but I'd already started thinking about growing fresh herbs while I was still with ex-hubby (and am really glad I didn't do anything about it, as that would have added significant complication to the move when things fell apart).  It's something that's really likely to come up once JFP and I have a place together, since he's as much of a foodie as I am, and one of the first big issues with starting an indoor kitchen herb garden is always where to put it - you may have provided a good solution to that problem (depending, of course, on space layouts and such).

Glad to be of assistance

[RhiannonWhiteMare]

Ooh, that's a good idea!  I'll have to keep that in mind - it doesn't really apply while I'm with my parents, but I'd already started thinking about growing fresh herbs while I was still with ex-hubby (and am really glad I didn't do anything about it, as that would have added significant complication to the move when things fell apart).  It's something that's really likely to come up once JFP and I have a place together, since he's as much of a foodie as I am, and one of the first big issues with starting an indoor kitchen herb garden is always where to put it - you may have provided a good solution to that problem (depending, of course, on space layouts and such).

Sunflower

I'm working on an herb garden right now. Because it's been raining a lot here (raining right now, in fact), I haven't had a chance to weed my garden. I do have some seed packets and bidegradable pots, so I'm going to start my herbs on the back porch and then plant them in the garden later.

This is going to cause a problem later on, because DH and I won't be living here forever (though that was the original plan) and we will most likely be getting an apartment at one point. Then I'll have to start growing them inside in pots.

[Owl]

How many cookbooks do you own? 

The SO and I have 24 ft of bookshelves of cookbooks.  Waaay too many!  But we hate to get rid of books.....

[Melamphoros]

The SO and I have 24 ft of bookshelves of cookbooks.  Waaay too many!  But we hate to get rid of books.....

 

I don't even have half of that for all of my books put together.

[Owl]

I don't even have half of that for all of my books put together.

Part of it is age - I'm 51 - and the other part is 2 people who love books, love cooking, and love eating coming together.  We have tons of books.  The only rooms without a bookcase are the kitchen and bathroom.  We have 8 bookshelves that go most of the way to the ceiling.  One is 6ft long, and another 5 ft.  The rest 3 or 4 ft.  We need a library room!

[Melamphoros]

Part of it is age - I'm 51 - and the other part is 2 people who love books, love cooking, and love eating coming together.  We have tons of books.  The only rooms without a bookcase are the kitchen and bathroom.  We have 8 bookshelves that go most of the way to the ceiling.  One is 6ft long, and another 5 ft.  The rest 3 or 4 ft.  We need a library room!

I imagine so

[RhiannonWhiteMare]

Part of it is age - I'm 51 - and the other part is 2 people who love books, love cooking, and love eating coming together.  We have tons of books.  The only rooms without a bookcase are the kitchen and bathroom.  We have 8 bookshelves that go most of the way to the ceiling.  One is 6ft long, and another 5 ft.  The rest 3 or 4 ft.  We need a library room!

I'm 48, so I have tons of books as well. However, most of mine are on stacks on the floor in my bedroom and on the back porch. I need a library room as well. DH and I will be moving in a couple of years and we'll be going into an apartment. So that's just going to be tons of fun trying to find places for all our books. I've been through a lot of moves, a house fire and my junkie ex-husband sold a lot of my books for his drug money, so I've lost a LOT of books in my time. I refuse now to part with any of them.

I'm hoping to have a kitchen where I can keep my cookbooks out in the open instead of keeping them pushed back in the cupboards or on the bookshelves in the living room. My cookbooks should be in the kitchen!

[Melamphoros]

Follow up questions for my original post:

Do you have any general reference culinary books that are not cookbooks per say?

What other culinary non-cookbooks do you have?

For those of you who have a bookshelf in the kitchen, do you only keep cookbook on these shelves or some of these too?

****

I ask because I just found out my parents have my sister's old bookcase in their garage and offered it for my kitchen.  I don't have it yet, but I am organizing my culinary books trying to decide which ones I should move.  I remembered I have a general culinary reference book -- Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst -- which one of my teachers (the one I sometimes call 'the female, American Gordon Ramsey) calls "a foodie's bible."  It has short entries on almost anything food-related you can imagine.

I also have a book on wine that would go on the shelves.  Other wise, there are some books that are on the more business end of the culinary field (stuff like food purchasing, management and how to price food and create a menu) which will probably stay on my main bookcase.

[SunflowerP]

Do you have any general reference culinary books that are not cookbooks per say?

What other culinary non-cookbooks do you have?

For those of you who have a bookshelf in the kitchen, do you only keep cookbook on these shelves or some of these too?

Yep.  My biggish herb book (I think it's a Reader's Digest publication, can't recall any other identifying details offhand) is about identifying, growing, and using herbs so the "how to use in cooking" bits are only a small part of the whole.  I have a very useful book on fruits and vegetables, done in a taxonomic chart-like style, that gives origin/background, when in season, how to select when buying, how to tell ripeness, nutritional info, and, yes, how to cook with but again that's a small part of the whole.  Maybe a couple of other things, too - and definitely others that have been stashed in boxes for years (behind other stuff, and a major expedition to get at so I don't); I know I have a number of "booze books" (the kind that give all sorts of origins/history/trivia info).

For me, they definitely belong in the kitchen bookcase, since they're ultimately about stuff we eat.  Also because this is the one instance in my life where there's more bookcase than books - as a result, sometimes books that have no correlation at all wind up being in there (usually either coffee-table-book sized ones that don't fit in other bookcases; or books that are frequently referenced by several household members, like dictionaries).

I remembered I have a general culinary reference book -- Food Lover's Companion by Sharon Tyler Herbst -- which one of my teachers (the one I sometimes call 'the female, American Gordon Ramsey) calls "a foodie's bible."  It has short entries on almost anything food-related you can imagine.

Good timing - the deluxe version has its latest edition just coming out this month.  Wishlisted, along with her Food Lover's Tiptionary which looks useful.  Mel, you're a bad influence!  Well, a good bad influence.

Sunflower

[Melamphoros]

For me, they definitely belong in the kitchen bookcase, since they're ultimately about stuff we eat.  Also because this is the one instance in my life where there's more bookcase than books - as a result, sometimes books that have no correlation at all wind up being in there (usually either coffee-table-book sized ones that don't fit in other bookcases; or books that are frequently referenced by several household members, like dictionaries).

That's my reasoning as well, but since I live alone in a studio apartment the bookcase in the living room/bedroom is good enough for my non-culinary non-religious/mythology/occult books including the dictionary

Good timing - the deluxe version has its latest edition just coming out this month.  Wishlisted, along with her Food Lover's Tiptionary which looks useful.

Oh my, and I just spent my Easter money on a cookbook from Colonial Williamsburg!  I guess my third edition of that book would due for now but just from B&N's description, I now want Tiptionary!

Mel, you're a bad influence!  Well, a good bad influence.

A GOOD bad influence?  There is such a thing?  I have been called a bad influence before but always in the negative sense

[xxxxxxxx xx xxxxxx]

How many cookbooks do you own?  Which ones are your favorites and why?  How many (on average) recipes do you use from those books?  Let's say somebody doesn't know the first thing about cooking.  What books would you recommend to them?  Which books would you recommend everyone to have regardless of how experienced they are?

I'm not sure of the exact number, but I have about three shelves worth.

Some of my books I bought on a whim and don't really use, but for a single recipe or two. Others though I use quite often.

For a beginner, I would recommend the Essential series. I have them for all sorts of different topics. I think that they're helpful when you're learning a new style of cooking as they do great descriptions of the actual ingredients and tools to be used. They also have great illustrations.

As for a book for any expertise, I am found of Anthony Bourdain's books, but that could just be because he entertains me. One other than his would be a book titled "Arabesque" by Claudia Roden 

Scarabnight

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