You know Di, I didn't even think to count the loose recipes I have. OMG...back to the drawing board.

I recently went through all my cook books and got rid of all but about six of my favorites. It's old, but McCormick Spice had a great one back in the 70s. Still my favorite because all the recipes have great spice combinations in them.

Hi Di and Jaw Jaw,

I have gobs of loose recipes too, not to mention that the recipe box I received at a wedding recipe shower back in the 70's has all but give up the ghost... I keep it together with rubber bands! So most times, a few of those recipes are out of the box, as well.

I need to get some sort of 3 ring binder and start over...

Meanwhile, Georgia, you are right, elephant does trump raccoon.

Wanted to jump back into this conversation, as I read an interesting column in the Chicago Trib Food column today: A list of the top cook books all cooks "should" have. Yikes, I've been "getting by" all these years with only 2 of those books in my personal possession.

Here's the link. The columnist wants to know what books we readers think are missing from the list. Here 'tis:

Chicago Tribune List of Top Cook Books We Can't Live Without

Anne

Dotsie,

How bold of you to cull your cookbook collection. Mine takes up an entire bookshelf in my pantry, and spills over onto the floor. Good thing the pantry has a door!!

I agree, there are only a few books I use on a regular basis, and I'm a great one for searching FoodNetwork.com whenever I decide to try something new..that's where all my loose recipe sheets come from...

But like AvalonBlondi, a lot of these books represent a memory of a place we've visited, a person who gifted me with the book, or a special interest -- like authentic Scandinavian cooking -- and I don't think I could give them up...

Anne

But for me, like

I love my "Calling All Cooks" book which is done by the telephone companies. Also, Mrs. Mary BoBo's book (a boarding house in Lynchburg, TN, home of the Jack Daniels Distillery)...Then I have a Campbell's book which has yummy recipes for all of their soups...

Another fab is my "restaurant" one which has the secret recipes from all of the restaurants we know and love to frequent...

So many cookbooks...so little flour.

I, too, recently gave away 15 cookbooks. Dennis' PCA can't boil water without a disaster, so I thought she would make better use of them than I have over the past two years.

I kept:
Joy of Cooking, Part one and two
A James Beard cookbook - I have had it so long, it's torn in half and the covers are missing, so I can't tell you which one it is.
Sundays at the Moosewood Restaurant for my vegetarian cravings
6 assorted specialty cookbooks - Thai, Indian, etc.

At one time I owned 12 books on baking bread. That was a lifetime ago.

I actually fantasize about making homemade breads. I would have sold my front row seat in Hades to have had those books. Sigh...

My mother has sets of cookbooks from all around the world, she has been collecting them since she was a girl plus inherited the ones my grandmother, her mother collected...

My two sistrs squabble who is getting them BUT mother has it in her will THEY ARE ALL MINE...

I am the only one whose cooking she likes to eat and says I use all natural ingredients and nothing processed like my lazy sisters do...LOL!

We have a tall,narrow shelving unit in the corner of the kitchen/dining room...it holds only cookbooks, many very old from my Mom and various aunts. Some of the aunt ones have hand-written notes and I can't bear to give them away. I keep trying to sort the books out to give some away, but can't seem to give an entire shelf's worth away, so end up keeping them all in order to keep the other books from toppling over. LOL. Some excuse, eh? But the only one I really use anymore is the green binder full of recipes I've either copied off of the Internet or old family recipes that I've typed up.

I do have a passion for buying cookbooks from charity organizations. I have so many of those from various churches, cancer and other charities. I rarely ever use them, but love collecting them.

I'm the same as you Eagle, I love collecting cookbooks...I have over 200 now and I can promise you that I haven't tried recipes from each one..but after seeing the movie Julie & Julia I vowed to my husband that one year after we retire I will make a meal from a different cookbook each day for a year...:) In the meantime I love to read them...some of the homespun cookbooks written by organizations as fundraisers have some great ideas in them..and other simply remind me of a nice visit to a different town or a great restaurant where I purchased the cookbook.