Cookbooks need to be used (or donated)

[Linea_Norway]

I donated half of the ampunt of cookbooks I had, as I haven't used them for years. I didn't use the other half either, but they have more potential and I have kept them. DH suggested keeping them closer, in the kitchen, so that we could use them. So far, I Picked a ramdom cookbook, written by a Norwegian food journalist. I have made a few of the dishes so far and will try out some remaining ones to check if the book is worth keeping.

The good side about doing this is trying out new dishes and hopefully get inspired for the future. The downside is that I need to shop certain ingredients, instead of inprovising with what what we have. I try to skip the most expensive recipes.

So far:

Chicken wings with parmesan cheese and dijon mustard.
I had chicken breasts available. I used Swedish mustard, as I don't like Dijon. Served with broccoli. It had a good taste, but it is a bit of a pricy dish, using both meat and parmesan. Could make again sometime.

Cheese bread with potato.
Recipe said to used chevre cheese, into and on top of the bread. I bought some french type. I replaced half the flour with whole grain, minced flour to make it healthier. The bread was not very tasteful. A bit of a waste of the cheese. Will not make again.

Salmon with ruccola.
I bought frozen, farmed salmon and used two slices. On a bed of ruccola in the oven. The ruccola behaved like spinach, but had a slghtly better taste. Otherwise the dish didn't have a lot of taste. I will use the remaining wo slices of salmon in some other dish. The salmon cost a like 80% more than i usually pay for non-expensive meat. Better not eat this too often, unless with self cought fish.

Earlier I made a sald of cooked beat root served with feta cheese and pine nuts. That tasted nice and I have made it more often.

Next on:

Asiatic scampi pasta salad.
Supposed to be served cold. I might serve it as a warm dish using rice spagetti as pasta.

Please join the thread...

[Linea_Norway]

The Asiatic scampi salad was modified to be eaten warm, using freshly cooked rice vermecelli instead of cold normal spagetti. The fresh coriander did not have a lot of taste. The dish in total was pretty good, but could have used a bit more sweetness and maybe some coriander powder.
 Ingredients:
Rice vermecelli
Box of chopped tomatoes
Some sesamy oil
Sweet chili sauce
Ketjap manis
Scampi
Garlic
Chili pepper
Fresh coriander
Lime juice

We will eat this more often with the small changes.

[FIRE Artist]

I really like cookbooks but did cull my collection a few years back, but it seems to be creeping back up in size though.  I don't cook near as much as I used to, but expect to pick it up again once I FIRE so I am reluctant to get rid of them all.

[MrsPete]

I love cookbooks and have waaaaay too many on my shelves. 

About a decade ago I decided it wasn't worth keeping the cookbooks for the sake of 4-5 recipes per book ... so I typed up the recipes I was using and made myself a notebook of those recipes.  I standardized the way I type them up (my way's a little different, but I love it) and put the pages into plastic page protectors (a detail that's already made me happy because I'm not always a neat cook).  Then I let go of those cookbooks. 

Have I solved my cookbook hoarding problem?  No, but I'm better. 

[C-note]

I love cookbooks and have waaaaay too many on my shelves. 

About a decade ago I decided it wasn't worth keeping the cookbooks for the sake of 4-5 recipes per book ... so I typed up the recipes I was using and made myself a notebook of those recipes.  I standardized the way I type them up (my way's a little different, but I love it) and put the pages into plastic page protectors (a detail that's already made me happy because I'm not always a neat cook).  Then I let go of those cookbooks. 

Have I solved my cookbook hoarding problem?  No, but I'm better.

I did the same thing years ago with all of the recipes I'd found in cookbooks or received from friends.  It was quite the project to get them all typed up.  One year, during an intensive update of my family's cookbooks, I started taking pictures and dropping those into the recipe.  Improved computer technology made this possible.  :)  For my kids' favorite recipes, I took their picture with the finished product.  Just thinking about this prompts me to think I should update the pictures as may are 15-20 years old.  I'd definitely keep both.  Some of the recipes are named after kids (Emily's Tortillas) or friends (Kathy Smith's Chicken).

When my children marry, they'll receive a set of the cookbooks as one of their wedding gifts.

I still have cookbooks but have definitely culled the herd.

[Linea_Norway]

@c-note: nice idea to make a cookbook with family pictures.

When I was young (and more spendypants) I used to receive a cooking magasin. I also collected the free magazines from the grocery store. I cut out recipies and putbthem in a notebook. But I have seldom used them. I also collected them without testing the recipies.  So the bestr strategy is to try a recipe first, and then keep the recipe or document it in some other way.

[Linea_Norway]

Today a new cookbook dish and cheap.

Cabbage with bacon.
I replaced the bacon with cooked ham that I had in the fridge. That was diced and baked unto brownish. Cabbage cut thin and fried with chili pepper, garlc and some water, until soft. Served together with the ham. It did not have much taste, so we added some «chicken and steak» spices.
The dish is okay, but not special. We have two small portions left that are put in the freezer.

[soccerluvof4]

I never that I can remember use a cookbook and do probably 95% of the cooking. My DW might have 1 or 2 laying around.  I do however buy things (usually meats) and certain staples on sale and then google recipes that include them and use that as my base. For me its to try and make the best volume meals (family of 6) that will get eaten up and as healthy as they can be nut as economical as they can be.

[Linea_Norway]

I never that I can remember use a cookbook and do probably 95% of the cooking. My DW might have 1 or 2 laying around.  I do however buy things (usually meats) and certain staples on sale and then google recipes that include them and use that as my base. For me its to try and make the best volume meals (family of 6) that will get eaten up and as healthy as they can be nut as economical as they can be.

Usually I don`t use cookbooks either. I own a lot and used to read them for inspiration. But for the last 1,5 decades I have done most cooking without cookbook. But I found out thatwe often make the same food and that it is a waste to let the books take up space without using them. Therefore I give the books a change. I try to stick to avoid the recipes with expensive ingredients.

[Imma]

I don't follow exact recipes, but I like to look in a cookbook for inspiration. I'm glad my mum has a massive collection, so I can borrow hers. She has these great books with lots of texts and information about the local cuisine and historic traditions. I only really use cookbooks for baking and canning, because you can't make mistakes or it will go totally wrong. Plus I have two books that go very much into detail with cooking techniques. I guess I could look up those things on youtube as well, but I like looking through these books.

I have borrowed a 200-page Indonesian cookbook from her right now. We like to eat Indonesian food, but we keep preparing the same few dishes I know how to prepare (ironically, my mum took them from this book 30 years ago and I learned them from her). For the past few weeks, I have tested new Indonesian recipes during weekends. I have a notebook that I copy succesful recipes in. I'm also collecting all my grandma's recipes so they will survive in written form.

[Linea_Norway]

Yesterday I made pork with spices apples.
The apples were a good alternative. Sliced, fried in butter in the frying pan and mixed with cummin, sugar, salt, pepper and garlic. Shortly, so it doesn`t become mashed. The pork was not different from normally.

I also made a lemon tarte. Used the peel and the juice of three large lemons. The tarte didn`t stiffen other baking. So I let it bake longer and longer. But still not stiff. The we let it cool down on kitchen counter, where it stiffened a bit. After a night in the fridge it quite good. But it is such a disappointment to make a cake and having to wait for it a whole night.
My DH`s quick and dirty cheese cake with cheating use of gelatine tastes better than this cake and does not require an oven.. So I guess we`ll stick to that. Saves a lot of time and oven energy.

Today I am making a cake form filled with potatoe, spinach, feta cheese and egg/cream/garlic. It is in the oven in a tray of water, using almost two hours to get ready. We`ll see how this will taste..

[Imma]

I didn't get around to trying out recipes this weekend, but I'll try out one some time this week. My fiance's birthday is coming up next weekend and I always bake him a cake. I have a magazine with 100 cake recipes, so I'll pick one from that magazine rather than just bake one from my standard repertoire.

[Linea_Norway]

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Today I am making a cake form filled with potatoe, spinach, feta cheese and egg/cream/garlic. It is in the oven in a tray of water, using almost two hours to get ready. We`ll see how this will taste..

Again, this cookbook is not good with spices. The dish tasted like potatoes, spinach and feta cheese. It should have contained a lot more pepper and salt, some nutmeg, maybe a lot of greek style spices. I'll put more spices on the remaining half that we will eat tonight.

We are approaching the end of this cookbook and my conclusion is clear: it will not be my favorite cookbook. I might just as well ditch it.

[FindingFI]

I, too, have way too many cookbooks that I don't use!  Last year I went through almost everything I own to weed out and declutter.  Donating most of the novel books was easy, but I couldn't get rid of the cookbooks even though I almost always google for new recipes instead.  Love the idea of cooking a set of recipes from a book and then deciding to either keep it, copy a select few recipes, or ditch it all together.