cookbook problem

remember my ice cream problem? well, it just occurred to me that i have a very similar cookbook problem. i am not the chef in my house--i leave that to my husband. if i were the chef, we would live on a consistent diet of mac & cheese, pb&j, soup, bean & avo burritos, and chocolate cake. i have zero problem with that, but the boy craves variety (and is a great cook), so he took over food duty years ago.

when i went vegan, he got bummed and i got nervous, because he wasn't sure what to make and i wasn't sure how to reassure him. my instant solution was to buy a boatload of cookbooks, imagining these fun lazy saturdays where we sat around, paging through them, marking recipes that sounded good to both of us. well, i've been vegan since october 2004, and guess how many of those saturdays we've had? you guessed it! zero.

still, i wasn't deterred. i kept buying cookbooks, and putting cookbooks on my christmas/birthday lists, and now i've developed quite an impressive collection. i have made a few recipes from several of them, but the honest (and embarrassing) truth is that my beautiful vegan cookbooks are sorely underutilized. i'm really more of a cookbook collector than anything. here are a few titles from my recent buying history, and in each case i've made approximately zero to one recipe from each: tofu 123, vive le vegan, the joy of vegan baking, veganomicon, and eat drink & be vegan. now seriously: those are all awesome cookbooks! what is my problem?

any other cookbook collectors out there who want to make me feel less alone and foolish? please?

Comments

[gen]

*raises hand* ;)

[mishka]

definitely. I buy 'em. I read 'em. I hardly ever cook from 'em.

[Ari Moore]

we have a lot of them too, but we do use them occasionally - sometimes we'll be out of some ingredient and unable to make a favorite recipe, and i've found that that's the perfect time to search the books for alternatives. we've found some new favorites that way.

but why keep piling on the stress (and using all the resources) by buying new books, if you're not into them, really? wait until you're actually liking them and using them, and don't buy a new one until you *need* it...

[river selkie]

i have to second what mishka said. and though you will see some posts on my blog that show foods made, it is really rare when it happens. the problem is, if i can be perfectly content with a pb&j sammie, why would i spend 30-60 minutes on a casserole or what-not? no no, i am much to lazy for regular cooking and i demand instant gratification.

[gladcow]

yep, hardcore cookbook collector here. I usually cook from some of them, but lately I've been spending too much time writing recipes to be able to use any of the recent ones I've gotten (I've probably made under 5 recipes from each of the last 5 books or so I've gotten.)

but, uh, don't stop buying cookbooks yet guys! okay?

[miharu]

I have about a million of em, and I keep buying them... and then I really only cook out of Vegan with a Vengeance.e

[gladcow]

uh, so I went to the used bookstore and bough two more cookbooks today. :uhoh:

[Stegan]

Lately, we've been sticking to three books- The Gladcow Cookbook (natch!), Vegan With a Vengeance, and Vegan Cupcakes Take Over The World. There are plenty of others just gathering dust on the shelf- The Uncheese Cookbook is a glaring example. I had such plans for that one...

You could always get cookbooks out of the library. :)

[Jamie]

(sheepishly nods head in conformation)
I probably have close to a hundred cookbooks, crammed into a bookshelf in my kitchen. I buy them with the best intention of cooking every delicious looking recipe, and then end up getting inspired by someone's blog post and improvising a recipe from that. It's a problem, really. My name is Jamie, and I'm a cookbook-aholic.

[girl least likely to]

hee, i'm so glad i'm not alone. and ari, you always keep me honest! ;) i think i need to come up with a plan, start small... something like, "one new recipe from a cookbook each month" or something lame and low-bar like that. maybe it will help me start getting into the habit of trying new things and using these great resources in my kitchen. dare to dream!