The Recipe Collection Meme

I was tagged by The Gallumphing Gourmand for this recipe collection meme, a topic that is certainly dear to my heart. I'm something of a compulsive cookbook buyer, so much that when I had my kitchen remodeled I added a bookshelf for cookbooks right in the kitchen. I had a big yard sale two years ago and sold about 60% of my cookbooks, and I probably still have well over 100. In fact, if I am confessing here, I should confess that I've bought 10 new ones in just the last few months.

Not all my cookbooks are on the shelves in the kitchen. Near my reading chair I have several baskets of cookbooks (the ones I'm using the most at that time) plus a small shelf with more cookbooks, and issues of Bon Appetit, Gourmet, and Cooking Light and a few other random cooking magazines. This is where I sit and read cookbooks to plan the new things I am going to try.

I also have recipe binders on the shelf next to my computer, as well as a few more cookbooks. There's also the inevitable basket of recipes torn out of magazines, the newspaper, or printed from the internet that I am hoping to someday try. It's a huge pile, but it's not growing so quickly now that I find a lot of recipes online.

Now that you've seen some of my cookbooks, on with the meme:

Where do you obtain the recipes you prepare?

Right now I probably get about 40% of my recipes online, and the other 60% from cookbooks. I see recipes on other food blogs and then make my own version sometimes, and I also use the search site Foodieview quite a bit. If you don't know about Foodieview, it combines a lot of other recipe search engines.

How often do you cook a new recipe?

I make 3-4 new recipes a week, usually at least two or three of them are cooked on Saturday and Sunday and then the recipes are posted all through the week. I've been wondering if I am going to need to cut down, simply because I can't consume that much food. (Lots of times I make a half version of the recipe that I post on the blog when I'm trying a new recipe.)

Where do you store your favourite recipes?

I guess I would now say that many of my favorite recipes are now stored online on Kalyns Kitchen Recipes, although I do have all those binders you saw in the photo above, many of which have favorite recipes I haven't gotten around to posting yet.

How large is your recipe pile? Is it organized? How?

My recipe pile is the blue basket which you can barely see the corner of in the photo with the recipe binders, and no, it's not really organized at all! Once in a while I take out all the recipes and look at them to see if something really strikes me. I'm a lot more likely to print new recipes and add them to the pile than take any out.

What is the oldest recipe in your to try pile?

No clue, but the bottom recipe in the basket is for a Thai hot and sour soup that I've been meaning to try for quite a while.

Are you really ever going to make all those recipes in your to try pile?
No.

Do you follow a recipe exactly or modify as you go?

If you read my blog at all you know that I am "The Woman Who Never Followed a Recipe In Her Life." I can't help it. I always have an idea for how to improve it, even with my own recipes sometimes.

What is one new recipe that you're scared to try?

I'm pretty intimidated by tofu and Indian food in general. I have a goal of trying both this year. (In the summer, when I don't have to work!)

Tag at least one new food blogger for this meme ("new" as in only blogging a few months)

I'm going to tag Marianne, The Unemployed Cook because I think she's wonderfully inventive with her cooking. (I hardly have any time to read the food blogs these days, so I hope I don't tag anyone who has already done it.)

Tag at least one food blogger you visit regularly but never interacted with:

I visit a lot of blogs that I don't interact with! No time usually to leave a lot of comments. But one blog I've started reading that is interesting, and I don't think I've left any comments is Albion Cooks.

Tag at least one food blogger you constantly visit and leave comments:

I actually have Lex Culinaria on my feed readers, so I don't leave as many comments as I should, but I think she is an amazing cook, a great photographer, and I'd love to read about where she finds recipe ideas.

Tag anyone else you want:

I'm going to tag Erin Eats and She Craves, the other two Salt Lake City food bloggers, just because it will be fun to read what they write.

Food Recipes Cooking