The Recipe Library: Working Through Our Libraries One Recipe At A Time

Last month, right before I clicked the "Complete Order" on an amazon shopping cart with the critically acclaimed New York Times Cookbook in it, I thought to myself

"Do I really need another cookbook?"

I got up from my office chair, wandered into the kitchen and turned to my shelf of cookbooks, running my fingers on the spines. It turns out that the one I had last used was Martha Stewart's Cupcakes, and before that, I couldn't remember cracking one open. Let me tell you, I have a lot of really great cookbooks, yet I find that I hardly ever use them unless I'm making something for a special occasion. Since both my husband and I both work, there seems to be less and less time to explore my cookbooks for a weekday meal. Instead, I tend to rely on old favorites. On a typical week, this is what our dinners might look like:

Day 1: Thai Beef and Coconut Rice from Martha Stewart. Yes, this is the second time I've mentioned her, and you should know right now that I adore her and when I look online for recipes, her website is always the first place I look. This Thai Beef recipe is my go-to meal, and I think I could eat it three times a week---with extra chilies, lime, and basil. My husband, on the other hand, looks defeated every time I announce I want to make it for dinner.
Day 2: Pizza we make from a Chef Boyaree mix. Don't laugh. We have it down to a science and it's pretty okay.
Day 3: A visit to Chef's Hat, our favorite diner in town.
Day 4: Some kind of soup I make in the crockpot---varies between beef stew or chicken poblano pepper chowder.
Day 5: Some kind of meat/rice/veg combo
Day 6: If I'm lucky, a repeat of Day 1
Day 7: Leftovers from Day 4?

As you can see, we are in a bit of a food crisis at my house. Before we moved here, I loved to cook, but there were also plenty of old reliables that could be brought in at the last minute (Hello, Jimmy John's? Two Hunter's Club sandwiches, please!). Since eating out is hard where we live, I keep buying cookbooks to inspire me to make great things, but I'm not really using them. So back to the Amazon shopping cart. I didn't buy the book, and after some thinking, I realized I wanted to dedicate this year to using the resources that I already have. My friend Jaime and I have been looking for a joint project, so she's going to join me---we plan on working to use two new recipes per week, which we will post here.

Luckily, Santa brought me the NYT cookbook---and soon I will do a post so you can see what books I'll be working from.