Header PromotionA recipe intervention, that is.
They say the first step toward recovery is admitting you have a problem and, well, I have a problem. I'm addicted to recipes. At this writing, I currently have 46 (yes, I counted *g*) recipes I want to try. Last week alone I tried 3 new recipes - and I only cooked 3 times last week 
I can't help it! I LOVE trying new recipes. If I'm reading a magazine and see one that interests me, I immediately rip it out and add it to my TBTP (To Be Tried Pile). If I'm at the doctor's office, instead of ripping it out, I'll write it down on anything I have handy (and though I am a writer, I'm not good about carrying notebooks with me so I have recipes written on gum wrappers, the backs of gas receipts, etc).
As you can imagine, I also love the Food Network. If I see a recipe on a show I want to try, I immediately get online and print it out or save it to my recipe file on their site. If the show doesn't provide recipes on the site (such as one of my favorites, Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives) I'll take notes while the cooks are explaining how they make their masterpieces so that I can hopefully recreate it later in my own kitchen.
Of course, I also adore cookbooks. Old ones (I pick them up at flea markets or garage sales) newer ones and everything in between. But seriously, is it necessary for me to have an entire cookbook just for recipes using cake mixes? Or to have 3 cookbooks just for crockpot meals? I've even given my kids cookbooks as Christmas gifts but somehow, I end up using them more than they do 
The only problem with always having new recipes to try is that we don't often have the same thing twice. My husband teases me that it doesn't matter if he likes a new recipe or not because I'll never make it again. How can I when I'm so busy moving on to the next recipe?
How about you? What do you collect? Do you enjoy cooking and/or baking? What's your favorite cookbook? One person who comments will win a copy of either Not Without Her Family or A Not-So-Perfect Past!
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
baking/cooking
I LOVE the food network. Racheal Ray, Paula Dean, and Barefoot Contessa are my favorites. I love trying new recipes, I've started cooking a lot more. I love baking, I'm really good at baking chocolate chip cookies.
Opposite
Hmmm, Beth, I don't collect recipes. My husband and I have talked about this many times because he does. If I read a recipe I have absolutely no idea how it will taste or if I'd like it. He reads them and not only knows those two things, he's got ideas for how to make it better.
I just don't understand food or maybe I don't care enough to pay attention? Plus I'm a pretty bad cook (again, I don't pay attention so steps and/or ingredients are missed), so even if I did try something new, it's a good bet it would taste peculiar.
Luckily I do like to bake and my husband likes to cook. Both of my sons enjoy cooking as well. I'm hopeful that in a few years I can hang up my oven mitts for good, well, except for the occasional chocolate chip cookie or birthday cake.
I collect pictures. I'm the one with a camera at every family event. My photo albums are chronological and the pictures are all labeled. My walls are full of framed photos. I would collect books if I had more room--I guess I do collect them, but it's a more edited collection because I have to be careful about space.
Ellen
www.ellenhartman.com
Blog: www.romancenovelsblog.blogspot.com
Plan B: Boyfriend Superromance December 2009
The Boyfriend's Back Superromance May 2009
Hi Beth, I love collecting
Hi Beth, I love collecting old time cook books, I do love teaste of home year cook books and Betty Crocker. I have tried many recipes but hubby is picky so he'll only eat certains foods. The teenagers will eat what I make so I count myself as being lucky in the kitchen! LOL. I myself love all kinds of casseroles.
Happy Summer
Penney
Happy reading!
Penney
My faves!
Nicolerko, I love Paula and the Barefoot Contessa! I also love Tyler Florence and there's a new show where the chef (a woman) uses something like 5 ingredients or less. Very interesting *g*
And now I'm hungry for chocolate chip cookies! I should make some to celebrate since I just sent in my latest book
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Ellen
LOL, Ellen! As long as a recipe has ingredients I like, I'm willing to give it a try. Although I'm not very good at tweaking recipes - I guess I'm more of a rule follower *g*
My kids all cook but only because I make them. My son actually cooks a bit at his job (in a restaurant) but only does the basics when he's at home. Which means when he cooks, it's usally burgers or chicken quesadillas
I would love to collect pictures! Just the other day I was thinking I need to take more photos. You've inspired me to put my thoughts into action!
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Penney
Hi, Penney! Taste of Home cookbooks are great! My mom has been getting the magazine for years and I'm always borrowing them from her and copying recipes. And my Betty Crocker is the one book I go back to time and time again
I'm very lucky that no one in my family is picky when it comes to food. Well, except me *g* I have a list of things I won't eat but it's pretty small and if a recipe calls for it, I just omit it.
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Have books......willl cook!
I've been known to sit up to the wee small hours watching cookery programmes. My favourites are Nigella Lawson and Barefoot Contessa. These ladies not only make great food......but they have such a relaxed attitude in the kitchen - I love watching them both. Nigella's books are beautifully illustrated and so easy to follow!
My cookery books get treated with as much reverence as my romance novels .....I'm very protective of them - is that weird I'm wondering?
Mavis
Participant in Date with Destiny 2009
Participant in Writers' Challenge 2009
"Nunc scio quit sit amor." Lat., -Virgil
recipes
I collect recipes too. I enjoy cooking and baking. I still have lots of recipes I haven't tried yet. My favourite cookbook is the 5 roses cookbook.
Not Weird
Hi, Mavis! I love my cookbooks almost as much as my romance novels so I don't think that's weird at all
I've never tried a recipe from Nigella but I do enjoy her show! And my 12 yo daughter is a bigger fan of the Barefoot Contessa than I am!
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Chey
Hi, Chey! I haven't heard of the 5 Roses cookbook. I'll have to check it out *g*
I told my family now that summer is here I want to try cooking all of our meals outside on the grill but since we've had a few days of rain, that hasn't worked out. I need to find a few great grilling cookbooks
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Recipe dreaming
I love collecting recipes too, Beth, only trouble is I don't make them. But like reading romance it's level of wish fulfullment - all the enjoyment and none of the work.
Karina
www.karinabliss.com
Like Father, Like Son, Superromance Nov 09
What The Librarian Did, Superromance March 10
collecting and cooking
I like to bake, I don't care about cooking so much and I collect recipes and cookbooks. My latest favorite cookbook is Cooking with Friends, as I got that one recently. I also collect stamps, hologram stamps and cat stamps (both big and domestic cats), dictionaries, certain comics, like Aterix and some Disney comics -right now I'm trying to find a Quest for Kalevala by Don Rosa, some book series like in Death books and all kinds of fun and interesting stuff I find in magazines and papers, which I put to my scrap books.
Hi Beth, The 5 roses
Hi Beth,
The 5 roses cookbook is an old Canadian cookbook put out by the 5 Roses flour company. I use the one my mom got in the 60's. It's pretty beat up and I haven't been able to find another. It answers all my baking and cooking questions.
My husband is the cookbook junkie.
We have a four shelf bookcase full of cookbooks and my husband takes cookbooks and cooking magazines out of the library to read. However when he wants to try something new he will quite often google the ingredients he has on hand. I am the prep person. I get all the veggies ready and cut up but he does the cooking. It is his hobby and who am I to take it away from him.
PS. I have read both the books and they are on my keeper pile so don't add my name to the draw.
February 2009 Member of the Month
When I get a little money I buy books, and then if any is left I buy food and clothes..-- Erasmus
Cats can work out mathematically the exact place to sit that will cause the most inconvenience.--Pam Brown
Wish fulfillment
LOL, Karina! I really do enjoy the work of cooking and baking so it's worth it to me. On the other hand, I also love to look at gardening magazines but have a hard time forcing myself to play in the dirt
And tonight I made the best strawberry margaritas which were definitely worth the effort!
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Great collections
Minna, your collections sound so interesting! I wish I collected things other than recipes *g* I keep thinking I'll collect old photos or something but then never make it to the flea market or antique stores. Hmm...maybe I'll start collecting something new this summer
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
You read my mind!
I'm out of control, too! My weakness is cooking magazines. Once a year I have to purge and still I would guess that I have dozens of magazines and have recycled hundreds. It's a sickness. I blame my mother. It's our favorite thing to do - talk about food and what we're going to make for some event. Yep, it's mom's fault.
I love the heirloom recipes
Beth, our local newspaper's food section devotes a page every week to old family recipes, including the backstory and photos. There's always a LOT of butter & sugar
, and I've made some of them, but since I hate to turn the oven on in summer (98* today), I especially like the cool refrigerator pies and... dare I say it? Jello Salads! LOL! Lots of creativity from the 50's & 60's there! But guess what? One turned out to be a Keeper! Just wish it wasn't so green!
My favorite thing is the backstories & pics... women in Gibson Girl blouses & hats, to farm ladies in the 30's Depression , wearing those awful black shoes! There's pics of post WWII brides & grooms, standing next to home made wedding cakes or in their going away clothes, up against a big cruise ship of a car... little ones in pinafores or sunsuits squinting in the sun, clutching grandma's floral skirt... or lovely grandmothers present day, flanked by their proud children, reminiscing of scant food supplies and old time wood burning ovens.
Love Those. The memories tied up in food and kitchens and rituals and celebrations and families... along with the respect for hard working mama's and resourceful grandmothers, and a wistfulness for simpler times.
Oops. But you asked about collections? I collect china! So many plates & cups & saucers I don't use... many adorn my dining room walls. My favorite is Blue Willow (that heirloom look again) but I also have lots of Wedgewood and Homer Laughlin, and Depression glass my father got with bonus coupons when he went to the Saturday nickel show. And I covet my grannie's handpainted Audubon Bird china set from the 40's, but my cousin loves it too, so I have to visit it frequently. And isn't it funny how everybody uses coffee mugs now! Almost never, unless it's an occasion, do we use cups with saucers. About to go the way of the fish fork and the sugar tongs, I suppose. Yup, got those too.
Beth,
I don't think you're weird at all. I probably have 150 cookbooks (or maybe even more), and I go wiggy if anyone ever gets a splatter or stain in one of my cookbooks. I do tend to repeat recipes we really love, but I still can't resist getting new books. My single favorite series of cookbooks are the Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks, which are not the trendy cookbooks but are old standbys for us. Most of our favorite family recipes come from one edition or another of their cookbooks or baking books. For cakes, I love The Cake Bible by Rose Levy Beranbaum and A Piece of Cake by Susan Purdy. Yum! But I have cookbooks that cover pretty much every category from general to ethnic to special interest (like low cal or birthday cake books) to regional specialities to heirloom or vintage cookbooks to specific food books (breads, etc.), to vegetarian-friendly to cooking techniques (like microwave cookbooks, grilling cookbooks, breadmaker cookbooks, crockpot cookbooks, etc.)
Adopt a shelter pet. Save a life; gain a best friend for life.
View my DD's very public video acting debut at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-E-v05kMucw.
July 2009 Member of the Month
Okay, I definately hit this
Okay, I definately hit this one. I cut out recipes all the time. Unfortunately, I don't have as much time to cook as I use to, so they pile up and pile up. Drives my hubby crazy, of course if he throws any out, I go crazy so we are a match. :) Of course, when you hit a winner, I love it. Got a great recipe for crab and shrimp salad, lasagne, and mexican meatloaf that all are in the rotation now from this.
Cady
TBR--The Born Readers
Molly
LOL - of course it's Mom's fault *g* but if my kids want to blame me for something, I'm denying I said that ;-)
Cooking magazines are the best! I had to stop getting them because I veered into an obsession with fashion and health magazines (that's a whole 'nother blog *g*) but my mom gets at least 3 and my SIL gets a few as well and they pass them down to me
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
I'm envious
Tappitytaptap (love it!) I'm so envious of your local newspaper AND your china collection! I love recipes that have been handed down through generations. One of my favorite books is from at least 60 years ago about Christmas traditions, crafts and recipes. It's so much fun to look through it when the holidays get hectic
I've recently decided I need to collect china *g* I have a set from my MIL and a few odds and ends from other family members but I would love to add to my small collection.
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Wow!
JV, I'm drooling just thinking about your cookbook collection! I love specialty cookbooks. I'll go through a stage where I'll clean out my collection and then, of course, have to get new ones. I especially love cookbooks devoted to certain ethnic foods such as Chinese, Italian or Mexican. One year for Christmas, I gave my mother a Swedish cookbook in the hopes of her finding some of the recipes her grandmother used to make (she was a baker but for some reason, my mother doesn't have any of her recipes). She had fun making different cookie recipes even if she didn't find the one she was looking for
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com
Cady
LOL, Cady. Sounds like we're cut from the same cloth. I don't have as much time as I used to but that doesn't stop me from collecting those recipes. Mexican meatloaf sounds great! Two weeks ago I made a meatloaf on the grill that was a big hit so it's definitely a keepr. Tomorrow we're trying a layered cobb salad and Saturday night I tried a new recipe for strawberry margaritas that were as good as the ones from my favorite restaurant
HIS SECRET AGENDA ~ October 2009, Harlequin Superromance
www.bethandrews.net
www.romancebandits.blogspot.com