Intro

Are you a cookbook lover?  I know I am.  I own over 200 cookbooks, and I'm always up for acquiring more.  I love cookbooks for their design, for the way they feel in my hands, and for the possibilities they hold.  I love hunting for cookbooks at used bookstores, flea markets, and yard sales.  I love browsing the cookbook section at new bookstores, touching the pages, and making lists of titles I hope to own one day.  I love keeping tabs on all the new titles coming out on Amazon.com.  I love reading reviews of cookbooks I don't own yet, and reading blog entries about recipes from books I already own.  Really, I love all things about cookbooks.  And I think there are probably lots of other people out there that feel this way, too.

So, I thought we should all join together to blog about our cookbooks.  Our entries will be about recipes that we've made, of course, but will also talk about the books themselves.  For me, looking through my cookbook shelves is like reading a diary.  Each book reminds me of a time and a place in my life.  Each recipe I've made brings me back to moments--some of them big like anniversaries and holidays, and some of them small, like a Tuesday night in April when I was 23, and had just gotten home from work.  I find that my taste memories are some of my strongest, and would love the opportunity to share this with other bloggers who are just as passionate about their cookbooks.

The rules to this group are loose and simple.  All posts that are submitted must be about a recipe that comes from a printed cookbook--that means no recipes from the internet, magazines, or on little cards passed down from friends and relatives.  Just from books.  I will post a theme twice a month.  Make something from one of your cookbooks that goes with the theme.  No one will chide you if your recipe is a little out of bounds for the theme--as long as it comes from a cookbook, and you've tied it in to the theme somehow.  The posts should mention something about the cookbook itself, whether it is a story about how you got the cookbook, a comment on what you like/dislike about the book, how stained the book is--whatever.  We just want to hear something about the book itself, in addition to about whatever you made from the book.

When you complete a post for the theme, put your link up through the Mr. Linky at the bottom of the post.  Simply add your name and a permalink in the appropriate fields, and the link will be available for all of us to see.  (To see a description of a permalink, click here.)

Happy cooking, and thank you for joining me!