{ Cookbooks and Recipe Binders....Use them }

Over my many years of marriage, I've collected dozens of cookbooks.  Some I got rid of over the years, but most I have kept.  I just can't help it, I have a problem when it comes to cookbooks, they seem to jump into my shopping basket when I walk by and I can't just put them back.

Well maybe it doesn't go down exactly like that, but that's what I tell myself to feel better about the fact that I'm absolutely besotted with cookbooks.  I'm also kind of shallow because I need them to be pretty and have adorable covers, oh and they HAVE to be filled with photographs of what I'm supposed to be cooking cause I need to know what I'm shooting for.

Now, granted, I do have a few with no pictures, well, actually quite a lot with no pictures, so maybe I'm not that big of a snob as I thought I was.  Let's just say that if I have my choice, I prefer pictures, lots of them, preferably one for every recipe.  There!!!

Here's my problem though.....much as I love the cookbooks, a lot of time they tend to be forgotten, just sitting there all sad on the shelf.

If I had to think of the moment that I stopped oohing and aahing over them, I will say that it was when Pinterest and food blogs came about.  I mean, all of a sudden I had the cooking world at my fingertips and with just a few clicks of the keyboard I was slammed with tons of recipes to try.

But I've also found that the more I look online, the less I find what I want.  And maybe I really am a bit of a snob when it comes to cookbooks, because I still find that the best homemade dishes come from the old cookbooks.  Some of the newest recipes seem a bit too froo froo for me.  Just sayin'!!!!

Since I'm all about using what you have and getting back into the hang of things, I thought, why not fall back in love with all my old cookbooks.

So I've given myself the challenge of cooking at least 2 or 3 recipes from the cookbooks, every meal plan that I make. 

I had already made the menu plan for the next two weeks, so I'm going to look through it once more and I'm going to switch out 2 or 3 recipes.  I'm quite excited to do this because I have such good cookbooks, some with inexpensive trusted recipes that I know we will enjoy.

These small cookbooks are one of my treasures from my collection.  You know how big of an Anglophile I am, so I've collected these for a few years.  They are the perfect combination of recipe with a little history behind them, like the one below for Richmond Maids of Honour, which are small tartlets from the time of King Henry VIII.

I can't wait to try these.

So, challenge set for myself and I'm going to see how I do.  I might even do a weekly feature of the cookbook recipe I tried that week, which cookbook, if I liked it or not etc.  What do you think?

And feel free to join me, pick up your cookbooks, look through them, cook from them and let us know how it goes.  I think we'll all be surprised at the yummy recipes we have laying around, and most of them pretty inexpensive too.

Something else I'm working on, is improving my written, printed and cut out recipes.  I've collected quite a few over the years and right now they're all sitting in this folder.  It works ok, but I want something easier, so I grabbed those colored folders which I had sitting around from one of the school years.

I'm going to print out a cover for them, make each one into a specific category and start organizing my recipes.

I was quite surprised to find some of my favorite recipes hidden in that recipe folder.

These are recipes I cut out from Taste of Home magazines, when my Jasmine was about 2 years old, so 16 years ago.  Some are so good, I remember the Chicken Stroganoff, Parmesan Chicken and the Swedish Meatballs.  Brings back some great memories :)

I even have recipes that my great grandma cut out for me, and some handwritten by my grandmother.  For now they're just around, laying here and there so I need to get them put up somewhere safe where I can get to them when I need but also preserving them.  It would be quite sad if I lost those mementos.

Well ladies,  I started this post earlier in the day and then had to stop to help kids with school and do some laundry, it's now just after 5pm and I really need to get dinner started.

Have a wonderful blessed evening :)