What's Cookin' discussion

What cookbook is sitting on your shelf, or lying on your counter that shows lots of signs of wear and tear, what is the first cookbook you go to when looking for a recipe or an idea for dinner?

Me use take out menu the most rolf

Thems nott helthy foods in them leeflets but tastie

Hey is of not all the recipes used over again?

Betty Crocker's. I have my mom's that was probably published in the late 50s-early 60s. I will use Allrecipes.com for finding new recipes any more.

Definitely Mark Bittman (How to Cook Everything, The Best Recipes in the World), Madhur Jaffrey's World Vegetarian and any of the Cook's Illustrated series. I have ones I turn to for specific cuisines, eg. Feast of Santa Fe for New Mexican.

I use my Better Homes New Cook Book the most, with a smattering of New Basics and Joy where it lacks.

Actually the one I use the most is unpublished, and would be the one I made up of all of my mother's and grandmother's recipes. It's all downhome cooking and that is what my family likes the best.

HA HA! Mental cook book! But seriously I read my Junior Cook Book that I got when I was like five!

Not Your Mother's Slow Cooker Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. Every single recipe in it is delicious. I've been slowly working my way through the whole book.

Kelley wrote: "Actually the one I use the most is unpublished, and would be the one I made up of all of my mother's and grandmother's recipes. It's all downhome cooking and that is what my family likes the best. "


I have sooo many recipes on my computer. I have put together two cookbooks from them that have been wedding/birthday presents for several years. At first I thought I was being a little tacky, but I have had people beg me for one now. And they are definitelty the ones most used at my house.

Oh I plan on making books like that for my children! I have all the originals in my book, so I was planning on typing them all out, and making like a scrapbook with recipes and pics of the people who actually owned the recipes and give them to the kids for christmas presents!

http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/2... Join the best group ever please!

I'm a little late to the discussion huh?

My Joy of Cooking cookbook is a great source of basic techniques that I am able to apply to the many meal ideas I get from reading recipes online and watching the Food Network.
I found a blueberry cupcake recipe at cooks.com that exploded in my oven and since then I double check ratios etc. from recipes online against my Joy of Cooking. The Joy of Cooking All about cookies it my favorite cookie cookbook too.

I still love The New Basics Cookbook, by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins. It takes traditional favorites and turns them upside down with more current ingredients and is aligned with my own preference for strong flavors. My copy is 20 years old. There are spots on the pages and the binding is disintegrating, but my hand usually reaches for it first.

Molly Katzen's classic Moosewood Cookbook is by far my favorite, but I also have a lot of recipes I find in magazines and online and save to my Springpad account (springpadit.com), a great resource for keeping all those recipes together and organized.

If I could only take one cookbook with me to a desert island--one with a garden, of course--it would be Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone." I've never made anything in it that wasn't delicious. The soups have become classics in our house.

I love that idea I couldn't cook when I first met my husband. He was married before to an excellent cook. I decided it was time I learnt and oer the past 20 odd years I have made up my own recipes based on flavours and ingredients i love. I have often said I want to write my own cookbook based on these very simple and easy recipes. Just never got around to doing it so well done to you I love your idea.
Beth NC wrote: "Kelley wrote: "Actually the one I use the most is unpublished, and would be the one I made up of all of my mother's and grandmother's recipes. It's all downhome cooking and that is what my family l..."

Beth NC wrote: "What cookbook is sitting on your shelf, or lying on your counter that shows lots of signs of wear and tear, what is the first cookbook you go to when looking for a recipe or an idea for dinner?"

I borrowed Madhur Jaffrey's Indian cookbook from my library about 6 months ago and I haven't been able to return it. I love the colors, smells, and textures of Indian food.

The New Basics Cookbook, by Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins I still use this book, it is over all useful, but I use others more oftern

I belong to a couple of on-line cooking groups, so I have cookbooks that get weekly attention... Around my French Table by Dorie Greenspan; Essentials of Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan; Thirty Minute Pasta by Giuliano Hazan... I hit my favorite cooking group for general recipes and specialties, then it depends what I'm looking for beyond that. I've got multiple cuisines on my shelves! Japanese, Italian, French, China, Thailand...It's all here somewhere!

I seem to go in spurts with all my cookbooks and will work out of one for months before moving on to a different one. But I have to say I really like Food to Live By from Myra Goodman and The Red Hat Society's Just Desserts cookbooks.

I'm up to over a hundred cookbooks at this point though so it's definitely one of those pick and choose on a whim type things.

I have lost count of the number of books on my cookbook shelf. It would certainly be more than a hundred. My current favourite is Ottolenghi, by Yotam Ottolenghi. I could happily cook everything in that book. My most used baking cookbooks (baking being my preferred form of cooking!) are Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess and Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours.

Culinary Arts Institute Encyclopedic Cookbook- an older edition is my go-to cookbook when I need a recipe for something basic, like biscuits. It's also a great place to cruise for interesting American retro-style recipes. Mc Call's Cookbook has good basics, too.
When I feel exotic, I go to
World of the East - Madhur Jaffrey
The Original Thai Cookbook - Jennifer Brennan
Take a Thousand Eggs - Cindy Renfrow

And I still peruse my Frugal Gourmet cookbooks
FG Cooks Three Ancient Cuisines & On Our Immigrant Ancestors. Weight Watcher's International Cookbook is also a good book for ideas.

Southern Living also put out an interesting "Illustraed Cookbook" My copy is from 1976. It contains interesting recipes like "Derby Egg Casserole", "Clam Pie" and "Lobster Waffles".

There are so many. I am a bit of a cookbook collecting addict much to my husband's dismay. Everywhere we go, I am on the hunt for a used book store to look for strange and unusualy cookbooks.

The Williamsburg Cookbook: Traditional and Contemporary Recipes
The Colonial Williamsburg Tavern Cookbook
Favorite Meals from Williamsburg
Betty Crocker's Cookbook
125 Best Vegetarian Slow Cooker Recipes
Italian Comfort Food: Intensive Eating from Fresco by Scotto Restaurant

Hi Jennifer,

I love my Joy of Cooking cookbook too. Love finding any and all kinds of information :)

This is also my favorite cookbook but have quite a few on food allergy now and celiac disease.

I love my Joy of Cooking cookbook too. Love finding any and all kinds of information :)"

Kelley wrote: "Actually the one I use the most is unpublished, and would be the one I made up of all of my mother's and grandmother's recipes. It's all downhome cooking and that is what my family likes the best. "

How do I get a copy?

I am echoing what bluedaisy had to say. I am using allrecipes.com most of the time now. I still keep a few of my cookbooks for sentimental reasons. I have purchased a few cookbooks recently for the lovely photographs more than the recipes. I think I am enticed by the visual presentation and staging of the food.

Part memoir, part teaching manual, The Kitchen Counter Cooking School is as much a transformational book about Kathleen Flinn as it is about her students. . . . here’s hoping The Kitchen Counter Cooking School will start the ball rolling and become a real force for change in the way Americans eat.
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I will use allrecipes.com for a basis of a recipe, and completely tweak it. I picked up 'Hairy Bikers: Mums Still Know Best' while in England, and love trying recipes from that one!
I am also, like many others, compiling many of our family favorites into a cookbook for the kids since they have gone off to college!

My favorite all-purpose reference is Cooks' Illustrated New Best Recipes Cookbook, and the slimmer New Best Recipes Light. For vegetarian food, Didi Emmons's Entertaining for a Veggie Planet tops the list. But it's hard to choose!