Happy New Years everyone! If you’re like me, you’ve got loads of New Year’s resolutions that you’re hoping to stick to. I always start off strong, then kind of dwindle as January ticks on. This year it began with the same old promises; ‘eat healthily’, ‘cut down on wine’, ‘exercise every day’. But here we are, January 5th and I have to say, it’s not going too well! I love eating good, comforting food, it’s too hot to exercise, and life is too short to give up wine. So I’m happy to go with my old motto – everything in moderation (and let me tell you December was a month of indulgence so moderation is good enough).
Now I can be moderate with most things, but I do have a secret addiction. Books. I am guilty as charged for buying books by the truckload- books I really NEED (promise). Books I can’t live without. Books that need to sit on my shelf so I can walk past, look at them and smile. Oh yes, I read them too! Now, I know you can read e-books or use kindle etc.. but there’s something about the real deal. I love to turn the pages and feel the texture of physical books. There’s something about opening a brand new book, smelling that new paper smell. I love running my hands over the unwrinkled pages, perfectly smooth, unblemished by anyone’s hands. Although I am quite taken by second-hand books too, and the history the yellowed, dog-eared pages bring. There’s no denying it, I can get very obsessed with books. Now I love all books, but what I am really, really drawn to is cook-books. I have been collecting for years. I can still remember the very first hard-cover cook-book I ever bought. It was Nigella’s How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I was hooked! Yes, I do want to be a domestic goddess. And with that first book, I became totally addicted.
Nigella herself confesses to being a cook-book addict too, and I can resonate with her on this, especially the late night online purchases. It’s so easy to just hit a button and BAM, another book is on its way (or another five, depending on how late I’ve stayed up). It doesn’t even feel like you’re spending money. That’s the worst part (or best, depending on how you look at it) of online shopping. There’s no pulling out the purse, no money changing hands, no signing off to anything. It’s so instant, so tantalisingly simple, and I found it such therapy on those days when you feel like the world is against you and nothing is going your way – there’s nothing like the promise of a parcel with your name on it coming your way. And for me, it was cook-books. I wanted them all.
Ok so how many are we talking here? Well, I didn’t really know to be honest, never bothered counting. I knew it was a lot though as there aren’t many walls in the house unadorned with shelves of books, and the few times we have moved house over the years, a very large amount of packing boxes was needed to move these books. And books aren’t exactly light when you compact them all together into boxes. Well, so I have been told by my husband and sons whose job it is to lift them (these days I play my weak feminine type card to avoid the back strain).
Recently I was introduced to the Goodreads app. I may have had my head in the sand, but I had never heard of it before, but once I downloaded the app I was like a little kid with a new toy. You scan the barcodes or front of your books and the app identifies each one and you can indicate if you have read it or want to read it. So it’s basically a database of all the books you have read, and allows you to search new books to read (this is probably a downside for me but anyway..). I spent a couple of hours scanning all my cookbooks (and was pretty chuffed when my own cookbooks scanned too – very exciting). Some books wouldn’t scan, and I couldn’t search them either, but the majority did. So I can finally say that I have 558 cook-books (plus another 20 or so that wouldn’t scan but I won’t count them). Yes. That’s right. These are all actual books, not magazines (which I have plenty of too but I don’t count them). I know – it’s a lot. As much as I love owning them all I am also a little ashamed. I mean, I love them, every single one. But if I start doing the math, that’s a pretty big investment right there!
So now I have the numbers, it got me thinking about how much I actually USE these cookbooks. I am a collector, that’s for sure, and I love reading them, and they do inspire me, but I must admit, I don’t use them enough. There are some that have been well used, and others that I just wanted to own for the sake of it. You know, like to make a complete set. Some have been flicked through and those beautiful recipes the author put their heart and soul into sharing so that I would buy and recreate have never been made. I mean that’s why we write cookbooks, so whoever buys it will actually cook your recipes. That little part of yourself shared to kitchens all over the world.
I decided to set myself a challenge for 2019 to use them more.
I have been asked to be ambassador for by Taste of Harmony again this year, which encourages ethnic diversity through food. I am a big believer in learning about other people’s cultures, and food is such a great way to do this. My roots are Italian so that is where I feel comfortable in the kitchen. I own so many cookbooks of different nationalities I haven’t cooked from enough, so I have decided this year I will use those cookbooks to create new meals for my family, introducing some new flavours and ideas to inspire my cooking.
I decided to cook one new recipe each week from 52 different cookbooks ( I know that is only the tip of the ice-berg, but it is a start!). I will make it, photograph the end result and write a post about it. I would love to stick to this goal, although realistically there are some weeks it may not be possible – I have a new cookbook being released in May plus some travel which will get in the way- but I’m setting the 52 cookbook challenge for myself for 2019 as a way to get back into those cherished cookbooks that have been neglected, and to inspire my own cooking.
Do you own a lot of cookbooks like me? If so, what are your favourites?
I’m looking forward to putting new meals on the table my family will love, shared by all the wonderful writers who grace my shelves – just like I hope my cook-books are being used by those of you who have them sitting on your shelves!
Here’s to a delicious 2019!
Leave a Reply