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| Textures from Kerstin Frank |
Over the years, I've accumulated quite a few recipes: books, newspaper and magazine clippings, computer printouts and recipe cards.
By habit, I've kept this collection stored by the back wall in the kitchen next to the mixer -- but lately, I've become rather aggravated at the clutter this has created. There are so many recipes I thought I would use, but it just didn't happen.
So today, I decided to do something about it.
Not that this was a big job by any stretch -- just a small task I've been meaning to do -- but out of sight, out of mind, right? Well, today was the day to clean this area. I managed to remove a few recipe books I rarely, if ever, use. It cleared about 5 inches of counter space and looks much neater.
Do you have a favorite recipe book or books you use on a regular basis? Or, do you enjoy trying new recipes from the Internet or magazines? Or both? I'd really like your thoughts on this.
~
On a side note, I watched some television last night, which is rare, but I managed to catch the beginning of this documentary about the Amish in America on PBS' American Experience Series.
I've always been interested in the Amish, their simple way of life and their convictions to maintaining it.
I watched the entire segment, fascinated by the images, information and people.
You can watch the first chapter online here.
The Amish . American Experience . WGBH | PBS
~
On a side note, I watched some television last night, which is rare, but I managed to catch the beginning of this documentary about the Amish in America on PBS' American Experience Series.
I've always been interested in the Amish, their simple way of life and their convictions to maintaining it.
I watched the entire segment, fascinated by the images, information and people.
You can watch the first chapter online here.
The Amish . American Experience . WGBH | PBS
~
Now it's time for another Rural Thursday Blog Hop.
Here's how you can join in:
1. Publish a family-friendly blog post about
general information describing what's happening in your country/rural/farm life,
or a post relating to a rural-themed subject that will benefit all Rural Thursday readers and participants,
such as
farming,
rural-themed photography,
recipes,
homesteading tips,
critters and pets,
DIY projects,
rural-themed giveaways
anything and everything that embraces living the simple life.
1. Publish a family-friendly blog post about
general information describing what's happening in your country/rural/farm life,
or a post relating to a rural-themed subject that will benefit all Rural Thursday readers and participants,
such as
farming,
rural-themed photography,
recipes,
homesteading tips,
critters and pets,
DIY projects,
rural-themed giveaways
anything and everything that embraces living the simple life.
2. Please make sure to add the Rural Thursday button to your blog post and link back here.
3. Please link to your actual post and not your home page.
4. If you don't have a blog, you are welcome to leave a comment below our post regarding what special things are happening in your rural world.
Your hosts for Rural Thursday are Nancy @ A Rural Journal and Lisa @ Two Bears Farm.
(The Hosts of Rural Thursday reserve the right to remove any links that are deemed inappropriate.)
Have questions? Please feel free to contact Nancy or Lisa.
Thank you for visiting!
3. Please link to your actual post and not your home page.
4. If you don't have a blog, you are welcome to leave a comment below our post regarding what special things are happening in your rural world.
Your hosts for Rural Thursday are Nancy @ A Rural Journal and Lisa @ Two Bears Farm.
(The Hosts of Rural Thursday reserve the right to remove any links that are deemed inappropriate.)
Have questions? Please feel free to contact Nancy or Lisa.
Thank you for visiting!
51 Comments:
That looks just like a cookbook my mother used to have (or may still have). She doesn't use them much now, but I remember one like that from childhood.
Joy of Cooking and cooking something with Julia were my first ones.It grew and grew.
There are so many recepies collections in this book from different way.It really informative blog.We can enjoy cooking with this type of collections.
scooter
It is nice to see your pictures again and feel your warmth, Nancy. xo
I also have this recipe problem-from time to time I have to get rid at least of a part of them:)
Life and travelling
Cooking
Nowadays, I do prefer the internet since I´m allergic to mess. It´s so handy with the iPad! :-) However, I do have some old favourite recipes that are in cookbooks or written in notebooks. :-)
I have a lot of cookbooks and I save recipes I come across too. I was just copying one out of a children's book that they sent home with Pierce last night for Thunder Cake, after he insisted that we needed to make it. The secret ingredient is pureed tomatoes! Should be interesting.
That's a beautiful photo for so many reasons but mainly because the cookbook is well used!
I ♥ cookbooks! Mine are on a bookshelf but I love combing the web for new recipes too! I have an old plastic recipe box with recipe cards from years ago, but mostly I use a manila folder now because I'm too lazy to write the recipes out onto pretty cards.
i love cookbooks, especially old ones with stories...i very rarely cook anything from any of my cookbooks though, i just forget about it. i do have a huge collection though that i just can't part with....things i actually try come from cooking sites on the net and this is why i love pinterest so much because i can save them all to one spot. once a week i've been letting my kids pick a new dessert to try on the weekends from my "sweets" board...that's fun!
I love old cookbooks but stick with the ones my Mom and Grandma used. They still have the best recipes, I think. Currently, I am trying to eat healthier and drop some pounds so I'm using the internet for recipes more and more. It's just not the same...
I don't have too many cook books and no old ones for sure. I'm not a very good cook (not bad at baking) but perhaps it's because my hubby and son are such picky eaters. No use experimenting if no one will eat it! :(
But clearing up extra counter space in the kitchen is always a good thing! :)
xo Catherine
I have a binder of recipes. I type them up and organize them by category (fish/soups/deserts/etc). I have one cook book, but everything else I either pull from magazines or the net and then type up to keep it neat and organized as per my OCD (-: gorgeous pic!
I wish I had old cookbooks. Hindsight needs to make itself more present. ;-)
I bookmark tons of stuff and also save some in files on my computer that I can back up.
I print out recipes to try. If we like them, they go in a notebook, in a section called 'like'. If it was kind of okay, it goes in a section marked 'needs work'. If it doesn't go in either of those, then it gets tossed.
I also have a section for 'want to try'.
All the interesting but haven't looked at in ages are the bookmarks and saved files, haha!
Happy Thursday!
Love your picture! Your Better Homes And Gardens cookbook is even more "well loved" than mine!
I have a lot of cookbooks but have thinned them out quite a bit recently. I use the Joy of Cooking for basic things, like mayonnaise, and like to get new ideas from magazines and the internet. The first blog I started following was Farmgirl Fare, she has some of the best recipes and they are mostly quick, easy and healthy!
Cook-books, awwww! I adore them all! Old and new, big and small :)
My dad is a great cook and as over 100 at home (in Italy), on a bookshelf in the lounge. I only have 5 here with me, that I got the first year we moved to Scotland. I also have plenty of recipes grabbed from mags. I love to read them, to look at the pictures... but I am unable to following a recipe ;) I love to try new recipes but I will never follow them 100%, I will always change something in the making :P
Happy 1st day of March! :)
I have some 'loved' cookbooks like that! My fav is a 1930s version of the Fannie Farmer Cookbook that was my mom's ONLY cookbook... I have many! Love your shot!
I think that cook book is well love! I have a ton of cook books - sitting on top of my fridge b/c I ran out of counter space! I used to like to try new recipes - but my kids are super picky, so don't too often!I sort of stick with a couple of books now, Nigella & PW
I love your picture of the old cookbook....and I guess the reason why is that I was just inherited by aunt's cookbook and she was 100 years old...It's very precious to me because she was so important in my life....
even i, ms. recipe-phobe, have an old betty crocker recipe book i won't part with...
We keep our cookbooks on shelf in the pantry. My husband's a better cook, so I often find stray book lying out. But, unlike other clutter I just about never put it away. He might just be on to something - yummy!
That red and white plaid is my favorite, I especially like the cakes in it. I haven't made a scratch cake in years though, I guess I keep it and several others, because I got them from my sister. I need to start getting rid of all these sentimental things that clutter my life.
I have tried internet recipes - with mixed results, but mostly lousy.
Thanks for the Amish link. I've visited areas where they live several times and have always been fasinated. Great photo...looks like my cookbooks. Cleaning my recipes is always on my list of things to do. I think I'll move it to the list of things I will do when I retire!
I love cookbooks but I don't cook. I needed to make only one recipe - Tuna Foo Yung - for my husband to learn to cook. He liked cooking and he's very good at it.
We have property in an Amish area and have become friends with some of the people. They are very warm and friendly and have the same concerns as most folks.
First, who knew a cookbook could be so beautiful - love your processing! Second, I started my own favorite recipe book years and years ago, typing them up on a full sheet of paper (so I could actually read them) and put them in plastic sleeves in a three ring binder. That way I have a go to for my favorites, where I can just take out the page if needed and I don't have to worry about it getting wet or stained. I do now need another binder as the one I have is falling apart and it's needing some updating. I have also given one as a bridal shower gift and will be able to pass all the family favorites to my kids someday.
And to answer your question, we use a lot of our favorites but my husband is always on the look-out for new recipies from blogs he follows, magazines, etc. If we really like them, they go into the "book"! ; )
Beautiful photo with an excellent post-processing.
Regards and best wishes
I loved your picture as I am a big cookbook collector and I have some that look just like this. I keep mine, about 200 of them, in a glass-door bookcase in my kitchen. And I cook from most of them, but read them all like novels. Thanks for the reminder about the Amish show too. I meant to watch it last night. Your blog is wonderful.
That plaid cover is very familiar! I just dug out my Better Homes and Gardens "New" cookbook with the red and white plaid cover--copyright 1968. It hasn't been opened in years. I really don't like to cook, but most of my go-to recipes are on cards in a drawer. I do open Betty Crocker's Good and Easy Cookbook (it went to Micronesia with me in 1969)now and then. Your photo editing is really special, Nancy.
We refer to our Betty Crocker Cookbook as "Aunt Betty's"! When we moved it gave me the chance to eliminate cookbooks that we'd accumulated and rarely, if ever, used. I've gotten to the point in my life where I hate clutter!...:)JP
What a great image!!
I'm not much of a cook - hubby does most of it. And as he is an engineer - he calls his recipes - "Procedures" - I think that' so funny. I'll see a "Procedure" for making homemade bread and I just crack up!
Wow, I really thought for a moment you had sneaked into my house and photographed my cookbook pile. It looks just like that, except it's hidden behind a basket in my office bookcase. Which just goes to show you how often I use them. I get a lot of recipes off the internet, but still love cookbooks and keep my best ones with all the pretty photos stored on a bookshelf in my kitchen. They inspire me. Great post! Oh, and I love the Amish ways. When I lived in Ohio I visited Holmes County frequently. It's one of the largest Amish communities in America. God bless.
We just have a couple of cookbooks for reference.
The recipes we use come from everywhere.
They are all combined into a "Recipes from Home" binder.
One of my projects from a couple of summers ago,
was to get all the use-a-lot recipes entered into the computer.
The idea was to give each of my kids a copy when they left home.
We still add to the "official" copy here at home.
Quite a few changes were necessitated when we went lower-carb last spring.
And, we've added some great recipes, too.
Always evolving.
I'm like you, I've gathered recipes that I thought I would someday make, and they have just taken up space...but they're still there so far...and I keep adding to them too!
My fav recipe resource is Allrecipes.com, and I seem to use it most often; I like the ability to organize all the recipes.
A new found fav is my mother's 3x5 index card recipe box that I just got (she passed in 2003). It's been fun making recipes from my childhood and seeing her handwriting...or turn over the card and see my dad's handwriting (passed in 1996) and see a note he'd written to my mom...awakens many memories~
Not much of a cook here but I have a number of cookbooks. Why??? But I still have one my grandmother gave me as a teen, an Old Betty Crocker one.
I need to clean out a few recipes too. You may be the inspiration to get me moving. :)
I'm fascinated by the Amish way of life, too. I'm going to check it out.
Love the picture and texture you used. My mother-in-law died 8 years ago next week and left us hundreds of cook books. She had 25 years worth of Southern Living cookbooks (which we gave to her brother) and a few others we shared with family. We had to buy a bookshelf just to house them because we weren't ready to part with them. She LOVED cook books. (She was a terrible cook, God love her, but she loved reading and copying them.) I have a huge box of just handwritten recipes. Maybe I'll do something with them -- one day. :)
When I saw the news about the tornadoes that touched down in Nebraska, I was worried about you. Glad to see you're OK! I'm not a good cook, but I come from a line of fabulous (not including my mom) PA Dutch cooks. Many of our family's old-timey favorites come from the Mennonite Cookbook. I also use one CO cookbook specifically for high altitude when I bake since adjustments have to be made in sugar, oil, and leavening. I was raised in Lancaster County, PA - home to many Amish families. Horse and buggies were a common daily sight going by our house. Last but not least - Happy Birthday!
wow, what a great cookbook... my mom has one similar ...in better condition though. i'm working on my cooking. not like my grandma's were in the kitchen but i am constantly try... working & always trying new foods. such fun. betty crocker, good housekeeping, the net, recipes that friends share with me, mother-in-law, blog friends. some where i saw that it was your b-day ... so ... Happy Birthday!! (:
Love your photo.
The stand by recipes I have from my Mom and Grandma I use mostly. I like to just put, or "throw" (as my husband would say), things together too, to make it my own.
I cleaned out my cookbooks too. I liked looking through them once in awhile, but rarely did I use them. I do have one's from the ladies church group in MN and CA that I do use. You know...the mostly "casseroles w/ campbell soup" ones. LOL
Love those cookbooks- what treasures!
Your cookbooks look loved and used. sandie
How things accumulate. I used to save lots and lots of things. But as the years go by, I save less and less though I still have too much clutter.
I collected cookbooks for most of my life. I started cooking when I was nine. Last year I boxed up hundreds of my cookbooks...kept 10 and gave all the rest away. The cookbooks my children didn't take went to the local thrift shop. It was such a hard thing to do...but I must say it freed up sooooo much space! I'm very glad I did it.
I do all of the above I have old cook books like the Joy of Cooking that is about 30 years old. But I have new ones and I use the internet too for great food finds too. I've also taken cooking classes and have gotten great recipes from there. Laura
With a degree in Food & Nutrition, collecting cookbooks and recipes has been a way of life for me. I inherited one Grandmother's handwritten recipes in a notebook and the other Grandmother's recipe box and both of their cookbooks from the 20s. I framed and hung some of their recipes in my kitchen and the books and recipe boxes are displayed as on shelves in my kitchen with my other cookbooks. I use most of them on a fairly regular basis.
When I downsized 4 years ago I finally went through the recipes from magazines/newspaper/internet and put them in binders by groups used in cookbooks! Now I use these more often as well. We also have a wonderful free quarterly publication here in Ontario called "Food & Drink" which I save in magazine boxes because the recipes are awesome! *lol* I find that because they are now accessible I use them much more...
Janet
I love PBS and that photo. It's so much fun to see all of these rural posts.
I have many old cookbooks I inherited from my hubby's grandmother. I try to keep them somewhat organized....but it's not such an easy task! I watched the Amish documentary as well...couldn't take my eyes off of it! The cinematography was so beautiful.
I have many recipes too from years ago that i collected but have never used. I should probably do a declutter soon!
Dear Nancy, I have so many recipe books and klips from magazines and newspapers you can't even imagine... and they don't look as good as your photograph up there! but my favorite is the one with the klips inside, where I can also find recipes my mom sends me, with funny measuring like, a tea cup of flower, a bit of milk or lots of onion : D
I just love it! one day I'll make a little sweet book with those recipes, dedicated to my mother!
Another great post Nancy. I must link up with this one. I love those old recipe books and I have ahuge collection but nothing with character like yours!
I have a huge cookbook collection but I confess I'm going online more and more. It's just faster! I enjoy learning about the Amish too!
my hat's off to you, nancy!
gorgeous image! great choice of texture as well.
xo
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