Thursday, March 4, 2010

Collections - Part 2

I thought I would share my biggest collection......................................my cookbooks.

They are spread all over my house and seem to be breeding like mice. Each month I rotate the ones that I am going to cook from, I then put the 'chosen 'ones on my kitchen counter for easy access:


This is where my cookbooks live, in the bottom of my dresser. This is the top shelf:


and this is the bottom one:


But to be honest I don't think they like their little home, they always seem to escape. I seem to find them all over the house. These ones managed to get up to the bedroom:


and these ones found their way to the living room...........


When you look closer at my little collection you can see that I have got some rather odd ones:



and some that are works of art in the own right - I love this one:



just wonderful old English recipes with the most beautiful illustrations:



Over the years, I have been trying to master the art of Indian cooking:



and Australian cooking:



and New Zealand cooking:



and of course English cooking:


But if I had to choose just 3, these are the ones I would choose.............

I just love Mary Berry, she is a fabulous English cook, her books are amazing. There are photos for every dish, categorised by cooking time. I picked this book up on Amazon marketplace for $1.99.


I am thoroughly taken with this book from Trisha Yearwood, I have cooked a jolly amount of her recipes and have been thrilled with the results. Southern cooking seems to be quite similar to English cooking. Lots of stew, casseroles and one dish meals. I am love with her chicken pie, it has now become a firm favourite of mine.


And lastly my Prue Leith's Cookery Bible:

Really boring to look at, hardly any photos and it is so big and heavy:

but AMAZING all the same. Think of anything you would like to cook and I bet you it is in here. She has a cooking school in Kensington in London, it is spectacular. I did an evening course there in my early 20's and loved every minute of it. It was on a Thursday night and I used to dash over there from work. It was life changing for me as this is where I learnt to cook.

I know, I know, I have rather a lot of cookbooks. Maybe I am a cookbook-aholic. The problem is I still want more. I am currently coveting a Barefoot Contessa one, I keep picking it up in Target and then putting it down, knowing that I don't really need it. I also want that Julia Childs French cookbook, the big blue one and I hear on the grapevine that Trisha Yearwood is bringing out her second cookbook on Mother's Day. It is just far too exciting on the cookbook front, too many books and not enough cupboard space to store them!!

6 comments:

  1. I just have one thigh to say Tara: Buy as many cook books as you want!

    I read mine from front to back, every recipie, every word. I hardly ever use cook books and recipies when I cook, but I keep them in mind when buying ingridients and experimenting with spices and herbs. I have a book by Carl Butler (its called the "Contuniation", and I love it! The book looks so strange, but I haven´t made anything from it that I did not love. If you can find it, I would buy it asap (its out of print, and I don´t even know if it is translated to english...)

    Siri

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  2. I spy a little Maya Road acrylic flip cookbook in that first picture. It is covered with Cosmo Cricket Early Bird...do share some more of that!!!

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  3. oh how I love cookbooks! DO splurge and get a BC one, they are amongst my favorites! Another really great one is the America's Test Kitchen Family cookbook. Oh and the Martha Stewart cupcakes one!

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  4. Thanks Siri and Melissa for the recommendations, I will be sure to check them out - any excuse to get some more cookbooks!!

    You were right Krisite, the little cookbook I made was a Maya Road flip book with Cosmo Cricket Early Bird. It was a class at our local Archivers just before Christmas. I will get some photos of it on the blog.

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  5. Wow! You DO have a lot of cookbooks! My husband likes to pick them up at book sales...we are going to have to weed through them at some point. ;)

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  6. what a beautiful collection! i think that the wind in the willows cookbook looks like such a treasure. i am going to have to get one of those since that is one of my all time favorite books. tfs!

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