Thursday, June 24, 2010

My very own personal cookbook.

There are a lot of websites out there these days that allow you to privately publish your own personal cookbook. All of Grandma's recipes can now be compiled into a single special book to be printed only five times, one for each of the grandchildren. Cool. But I have a totally different idea. Over the years I have collected many, many cookbooks. Some of them I go to again and again. Others I keep around for that holiday turkey recipe. Still others I bought for "that one recipe" that I never remember is in there in the first place and now with the Internet I can add a pile of stained and crumpled pieces of paper that I have printed out from various websites, half of which get thrown away, to my stacks of dusty cookbooks. Every time I make my weekly menu and grocery list, I pull out my cookbook stack and thumb through each book for inspiration. This leaves me on the floor surrounded by a sea of books while I hunt for the best version of Chicken & Dumplings or chocolate cake.

Here is where the online publishing comes in. What if I compiled all of my favorite recipes into one cookbook? One go to book with all of my "best of..." recipes? One cookbook to go to for all my favorites? One cookbook that I pulled off the shelf and easy thumbed through while sitting comfortably on the couch? Sounds like a great idea, I though to myself.

So here is the problem. If I make my own Fannie Farmer or Joy of Cooking, what recipes should I include? Is it necessary to describe how to de-bone a chicken in my cookbook? Or should I just keep to my reservoir of go-to dishes? Do I add a baking section with the best cakes and cookies? Do I add in classics that I have never made but might want to one day?

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