What is yours?

I got my favorite as "points gift" when I had a Tupperware party in 1977. It's a Better Homes and Gardens three-ring binder type. Red/white checked covers.

I use it for EVERYTHING from how to perk coffee to making Zucchini Cheese Casserole...and it SHOWS the years!

I have so many cookbooks it is hard to pick just one. But...I think Marcia Adams Cooking From Quilt Country has to be one of my favorites. There is lots of old fashion recipes in her cookbooks, which I like. I have made 2 picturesque cookbooks for myself over the last several years of all the recipes that I have made, and still make.

I got my first cookbook when I got married. It was a Betty Crocker three ring binder also. Matter of fact, I still have it. It's funny, though, because some of the receipes have to be updated now. It's about 37 years old.

Through the years, I've used different books or made some from the favorite receipes handed down through the family. I helped my mother make cookbooks for the grandkids of some of her favorite recipes as well as the ones the grandkids liked of hers. That was a lot of fun and they still have them although mom is gone now.

Lately, though, my favorite cookbooks are those of Paula Deen. I really like hers. She has such a variety.

I have about 30 but the only one I look at is the original Moosewood, "Sundays at Moosewood Restaurant." Multi-ethnic vegetarian, which is how I eat.

OH Gosh, choosing a fav cookbook is like picking one child over the other for me. LOL However, When we first married my DH suggested (don't know why? LOL) that I accept the Annual Southern Living cookbook offer. From there we got one every year for 10 years, plus a master index. Granted a lot of their recipes are way too long and fussy for my liking, but over the years at Thanksgiving when I pull out the 1st one and theres the messy splatered page w/ Texas Peacn Pie, or the one w/ our fav dressing/stuffing...those would be my treasures. Even my sons comment with loving/jokes at the obvious years of using those recipes. The Pecan Pie Recipe was requested by my DIL as one she'd like on her Wedding Shower Recipe Cards. I've probably got near 100 cookbooks, some my MIL gave me, some are handwritten by my Mom used when I was a kid, DH buys me one occasionally, one my sons gave me when they were in K. & 2nd grades (complete with their little "To Mom - From" notes), the community fund raisers are always fun too. I love reading cookbooks! LOL

Di, me too on maps and dictionaries, I even read the bi-lingual assembly instruction & compare them to the English version..in hopes I might learn something? When I see maps I look at fun routes off the interstates to get from point A to B, then research the towns that would be gone through. Seldom fo these trips happen but, it's fun to plan an escape even if it's only for an afternoon of considering it. I like my cookbooks that have personal stories or coments from the submitter with the recipes. Say, do you get the Kraft Food & Family magaizne? You can sign up for it online it's free & sent out 4 times a year I think. DH & I enjoy it and most recipes are reasonable & naturally using Kraft products. Speaking of DH, being paged! He so needs a hobby. LOL

Betty Crocker, Julia Child is not exactly part of my history nor my natural palate.

However I love some French dishes which we have done…such as from this cute book: http://www.amazon.com/Pedaling-Through-Provence-Cookbook-Sarah/dp/0761102337

I seem to have cookbooks, but don’t use many recipes from them. I guess I like the idea of creative cooking when I pore over the recipes.

Have some good Asian and Asian fusion cookbooks. I like a cookbook with many creative recipes which may combine the author’s travels in a foodie way, history snippets of the feature cuisine

http://www.gunghaggisfatchoy.com/blog/RevChanLegacyProject/_archives/2005/8/9/1122948.html Cookbook I bought as a gift for several family members. It has meaning because my father worked in a Chinese-Canadian restaurant his whole life. And the Chinese restaurant phenomena has a historical thread in North America..since that’s where many of the Chinese men went to work after the national railroads were built. Recipes are more homey..in tune.

I have a cookbook by Ken Hom, http://www.kenhomcooks.com/mystory/index.html where he goes back to China and learns/samples regional cuisine. The book is out of print..and now, valuable to me. Hom’s dishes are more traditional, authentic Chinese. Ming Tsai originally from Ohio, who is more well-known to some American audiences, seem to use more creams, sugars..more French influences in some pan-Asian fusion dishes, I find abit more heavy and sometimes more complex to prepare. But I would recommend as quality stuff fusion: http://www.ming.com/

Martin Yan has improved in his self-presentation and diversified his recipes…excellent in traditional Chinese recipes from China also from Chinese communities worldwide. You have to understand that Chinese cooking in Hawaii, Carribbean, Peru, Singapore and Malayasia, each get influenced by their locales. http://www.yancancook.com/

This Australian-Chinese chick-chef, is cool also. http://www.kyliekwong.org/home.aspx

All of the above people, cook and speak with passion about a cuisine …that is on par with French cuisine.

As for my cooking techniques..most of it is from memory…from my mother. My steamed savoury egg custards, steamed chicken, etc…seaweed soups. I’ve never consulted a recipe book for these dishes that I learned from mother.

Cook books are awesome and I have several. I love one called "Le Cordon Bleu At Home" and in the store the book looked user-friendly. Until I tried to make something...then I learned I had to go to page 'whatever' to make this ingredient...then to another page to make this or that and then another page with tons of ingredients to make this...all for one recipe. It's been sitting on a shelf with my other cook books that aren't user friendly. But, they can sure be pretty to look at.

Joy of Cooking has been my Cooking Bible over the years. I also found some of the best recipies on packages. And I used to love Cooking magazines...but alas;...Hubby has taken over that department.

Although I don't cook (my partner does all the cooking) I have a couple of cookbooks that I use occasionally - one is vegetarian Cajun recipes and the other is a dessert cookbook that uses no sugar (honey, molasses, etc. is used instead). I also have my Mom's old English cookbook - I think it is Women's Institute. I recently acquired one we sold at the Humane Society as a fundraiser - it has fun recipes for people and for pets. It's gathering dust on the shelf along with all the others! LOL

My first was Better Homes and Gardens. Now, when I want to feel saintly, I use my South Beach Diet cookbooks.

I have several, and have three favorites:
*Justin Wilson's Homegrown Louisiana
*Texas Home Cooking
*International Cookbook (Betty Crocker)

My favorite is also Sundays at the Moosewood. But I have a James Beard book from years back which is my "bible" for all the basics. I also keep a Joy of Cooking around and about 30 ethnic cookbooks.

I tend to read them, too, and never really follow a recipe completely. I use them to get basic ideas, then sort of make it up depending on the ingredients I have on hand.

My first? I don't remember the names (I still have it, but I can't find anything right now) but one was a vegetarian soup cook book and the other a tantric bread book. Made the best bread! Those days are over, tho.

I have cookbooks running out the ying yang. I absolutely LOVE reading them. I have all of Taste of Home yearly recipe books for the past 10 or 15 years, Better Homes and Garden, Betty Crocker's, and on and on and on...

My favorite though is called Calling All Cooks and it was done by the BellSouth Operators a bazillion years ago.

I have another one, Mrs. Mary Bo Bo's Boarding House Cookbook which was done by ah...Mrs. Mary...but it is from the restaurant in the town of Lynchburg, Tennessee where the Jack Daniels distillery is located. Their food is out of this world.

I also have one, can't think of the name of it, but it has all of the secret recipes like the batter for KFC, Red Lobster's Cheese Biscuits, TGIFriday's stuff, and other well-known restaurants...it's a fun one.

I also have a cookbook project in the works. I'll reveal more as it takes wings.

There is a Womans organisation in Scotland "The Womans Rural Institute" similar to the English "Womans Institute" of Calendar girls fame.The cookbook from that is my favourite.
Older editions have the member and home county beside their recipe.Indeed there are several options for each item.
Starters soups and meals then baking.jams marmalade bottling freezing.Each county has an emblem and there are competitions locally then wider afield.
My copy of the WRI Cookbook is forty years old. and has recipes telling how to make an old hen fit for eating.Poor hen no doubt at the end of her laying days.All the recipes are foolproof.
Do women elsewhere meet like this..? once a month.When I was a young wife I had suppressed giggles at the start of the meeting..such serious attitudes (to my unformed brain)
I dont go to the meetings now but support it fully in other ways.
Mountain ash

I have so many cookbooks; really need to go through them and give
some away. Hard to dust all of them LOL!
But I love that old Joy of Cooking!

Speaking of cooking & recipe following, LOl everytime my MIL eats something I've cooked she asks for the recipe. After I give it to her she always says: " And What did you do to it?" I can't seem to reisit the urge to tweak recipes.

JJ...you're working on a cookbook? Goodness, woman, when do you find the time?

Who has been to Savanah to Lady and Son's (aka Paula Deen) restaurant? larry and I went but could not get a seat...so popular....but, my ex-DIL gave me one of her cook books. Her food is delicious but goodness...loaded with real butter and true southern fat.
I have to say I LOVE cooking at christmas and go stupid in the baking department. Last year I baked so much that I had tons of left overs (cookies of all sorts, cakes, etc.). maybe this year I'll try making candies...or not.
I love the Christmas baking mags that come out around October.
I'm still looking for that melt-in-your-mouth coconut cake recipe Mamaw made when I was a child. Does anyone have a coconut cake recipe that is to die for?

JJ is it a funny cook book?
I have a cook book where my comments are a trip up memory lane. I wrote on the side who I experimented the recipe on, what occasion it was, and if it was blech or hmmm good. I got quite a few blah and yucky comments. Meanwhile I think I can read a recipe and tell if it will taste good or not.

EW...I have two German cook books and love the potato pancakes with applesauce. It's a lot of steps but the end result is really good.
I really miss the fried cammebert cheese with berry sauce. I used to order that at a restaurant Rudesheim ...AND believe it or not I miss smoked Mackerel for breakfast (the large one, not the littles ones). I used to buy the Mackerel in the fridge section at the German stores...I'd take that puppy home, put it under the grill and yum. Add fresh brochen and butter...ahhh.
When I was stationed in England I got hooked on Indian (dot not feather) cooking. I liked it so much I decided to learn how to make it and have 2 cookbooks that are amazing. Unfortunately, I can't get fresh ingredients here nor can I eat Indian as often...to high in fat...the Ghee alone is an artery clogger. And Ghee is what adds the flavor. Oh, where's the Chicken Tika Massala?

I have to share this. We were watching a Rita Rudner special last night. She said she doesn't cook. She enjoys reading cookbooks. She reads them like science fiction. "I get to the end of the recipe and say, 'That isn't going to happen.'"

I love looking through cookbooks. The first one I remember reading was when I was a kid (age escapes me) but it was bought from a musium I went to visit when I went to summer with my dad. Any way, what attracted me to it was the decorations the front cover displayed. All sorts of idian carvings, and beeded decorations. But on the inside was goobs of cool stuff like the history of idean cooking, how things were made what the women talked about while cooking and all sorts of recipies I had never heard of. It was just fun to read.

AS for now, its my memory of watching my grandmother lovingly prepare meals for the family. I had thought of designing a cook book filled with the respies of my past and make it 3x5 style ( since I really like them.And asking my grammy is out because she went home to be with her Lord) Cus there were things she made I only have a vage memory of ingrediants, and it saddens me. So maybe if I start it will trigger the ones I am foggy on.

Rachel, I often hear friends speak about watching and help in their grandmothers cook and bake in the kitchen. My last grandparent died when I was three so I don't have these fond memories, but I did have two aunts, one on each side, who enjoyed baking especially. I got a few recipes from Dad's sister before seh died at the age of 92, but never got any of the aunt on Mom's side which I totally regret. Boy could she bake. Her specialty was apple pie. I can make a mean apple pie, but often wonder how the ingredients compared to hers.

I'm all for you starting that cookbook. Your family will be eternally grateful.