Come on...fess up.

How many do you have in your house?

I know you might not believe this but the only one in my house is the one I wrote myself. I hate keeping books around and never use a recipe anyway if I can help it...I do see new recipes online sometimes or in magazines but don't save those either..

I have several but hardly use them. My honey cooks; I don't. Occasionally I cook a dish from my Vegetarian Cajun Recipes cookbook or my desserts cookbook; that's pretty much it. I can't remember the last time I used one; I hate cooking. When my partner is out of town, I exist on microwave dinners.

Hmmm, I must have around 10 cookbooks. No, we don't use hardly any much anymore. Maybe 1-2 recipes per cookbook or so.

We have 3 cookbooks focused specifically on Northwest Pacific cuisine. A couple on Asian traditional cuisine +1 with nouveau fusion combined with French cooking styles. Some of them, I get specifically for authentic dishes or techniques..if I don't learn them from mother.

Hi JJ,

OK, I confess, I collect cookbooks. I love 'em, though anyone who knows me personally will tell you I never make any recipe exactly as it's written, and I never make the same recipe twice... For me, cookbooks are idea starters and cooking is a highly creative endeavor which I really enjoy...

The oldest cookbook I own is "The Fannie Farmer Junior Cook Book," which was my mother's when she was a girl, and my grandmother gave it to me when I was in about 3rd grade. It's roughly 200 pages, published in 1942. I made many of the recipes as a girl, and this is a real keepsake...

Another old favorite is called "Be Milwaukee's Guest," and it consists of recipes collected and tested by the Junior League of Milwaukee. It's copyright 1959, but my copy is from the 4th printing in 1970, and came from my mother on the occasion of my first marriage. I don't make many recipes from this book, but it is fun to read, and contains an excellent recipe for German Potato Salad...

Perhaps the oddest book in my collection is called "My Favorite Recipes from the Wild," and it's by Helen R Wilke. This cookbook was a gift from my father, who knows I like unusual recipes -- though I am not sure I will ever have a need for a recipe for "Dandelion Coffee," or "Raccoon with Bacon."

The most interesting thing for me about this book is the preface, which tells me that Margaret shared her recipes over the years with Euell Gibbons...

I remember Euell used to be on a TV commercial for Grape Nuts cereal. Does anyone else remember that?

Orchid, I'd love to know more about nouveau fusion cooking styles.

Anne, I collect cookbooks too.....I can't resist them...when my kids were growing up every school they went to, every sport they played all seemed to create and sell cookbooks as fundraisers ...so many of my recipes are in those books...and I always give 2 or 3 of them as part of any bridal shower gift. Over the years I began to collect cookbooks whenever we traveled to a new place...and now I have a bookcase filled with cookbooks...each one tells a story...

So JJ...after a long winded lead up ..the answer to your question
about how many cookbooks I have... 217!!!

Nancy, you and I share a love for them. I have so many. Let me see....I doubt I have one for cooking racoon, but I do have one that I co-authored with my company to raise funds for Alzheimer's one year, and it has how to cook an elephant in it. Elephants top racoons, Anne...sorry!

I feel like a whimp compared to you, Nancy, I only have 49! Ewww...an uneven number. Quick! Somebody send me a cookbook!

Send me your address JJ and I will gladly send you one!!

I forgot one: I have a cookbook our local Humane Society published a couple of years back. It has recipes for both humans and animals, plus lots of information on what not to give pets and what plants and foods are poisonous.

At least 40, plus I have GOBS of loose recipes that, mostly, I don't even uses. My faves are used often.