cookbooks...

I love cookbooks and looking for new recipes to try. In the little cupboard above my stove are the ones I use the most. Amongst them are my vintage Betty Crocker, a shower gift in 1976...
and the "used so much I wore out the binding" church cookbook filled with tried and true recipes of women of my congregation.
There are antique cookbooks and Goodwill books...
and four new ones including this homemade one of ebelskiver recipes created by Jayme. I can't wait to try my way through this one!
This blog has been lacking in activity lately as our eating habits recover from holiday overeating and we have been eating simple and light foods (not to mention it is too darn dark to take photos for the blog!). But after a couple of weeks, I am back on track and feel up to the occasional indulgence once again so this morning I sat with my cup of tea, a stack of post its and the 3 books I received over the holidays.
The New Glorious American Food book was given to me by my friend, Kathleen, of Cuisine Kathleen. She is one of nine of us blogger friends spread over the country who have became tight knit friends and are there for each other celebrating the good times and the bad times. This book in a way celebrates our friendship as it is divided into 9 regions of our country with info, menus and recipes from each region and she has given a copy to all of us. As you can see, I have already bookmarked several recipes to try soon.
The second book I received as a Christmas gift on Jeff's side of the family. You know the gift game where you bring a generic male or female gift and draw numbers and steal each other's gifts - I don't even know who to credit for this one :) It is Rachel's Ray's Big Orange Book and to be honest I haven't had much time to go through it yet so it's content remains a mystery. However, she is a tv favorite so look for some of these recipes in future posts.
Lastly we come to the book I enjoyed the most! I am an avid fan of the blog, The Pioneer Woman and have laughed out loud while reading her stories of life on the ranch, immensely enjoy her photography and love her down home cooking.

Our niece, Lisa, went to the PW's book signing at the Mall of America in November and waited in line a LONG time to have her sign a copy for herself and one for the J family gift exchange (as mentioned in the RR paragraph). She made the mistake of mentioning it to me at the Thanksgiving gathering so I told her I would be ruthless in the game and end up coming home with that book :) In MN, our weather doesn't always cooperate with our plans so Lisa wasn't able to be there for the gift exchange, but the next week I about screamed with joy when I got a package in the mail with a note from Lisa wishing me a happy birthday and enclosing the book. Isn't it a beauty? Starting from the title page with Ree's inscription and the photos of her and Lisa at the MOA to the very last page of a "cowboy view of The End" I have read every word and poured over every photograph.
It reads like a novel with her personal sharing of herself and family and life on a ranch. The colors, step by step photos of recipes, clipart and photos all come together to make it such a fun read...where else would you find a horse next to a photo of potato skins?
The recipes are all full fat down home cooking, the kind my husband loves and with the off recipe topics, I have come away educated and now know the difference between chaps and a chinks.
This is the only cookbook I have ever read that "keeps it real" showing the aftermath of what one's kitchen looks like after a day of cooking :)
If you are one that is put off by photos of dogs and cows and the brown "mud" made by a herd of cows then this book is not for you but I for one couldn't put it down and have browsed it several times since. Tomorrow's post will be the first recipe I tried from the book.

It is Lisa's birthday this week and I need to start thinking of a gift that she would enjoy as much as I enjoyed this gift - this one is going to be hard! Happy Birthday Lisa and THANK YOU - I owe bigtime!