I didn't own a cook book until my late '20s when my love for food and my palette started to get a little complex. I now have about 10 cook books, complemented by print-outs of recipes I find online, recipes printed on the back of canned good labels or food cartons that I keep, and post-its with my hasty handwriting of recipes I see on TV.
The first cook book I owned is called The Little Book of Fish & Seafood, which I now find odd that it's my first cook book because I'm a meat lover. I hardly use this book because some of the fish featured are not easily available like skate and herring.
Later somebody gave me the Practical Wok & Stir-Fry and the Practical Barbeque cook books. These two are right up my alley because most recipes were easy enough for newbie cooks to follow.
Discovering food and loving it unfortunately could make one put on weight. That must be the reason why someone gave me a Low Carb cook book, which I love because most recipes are well thought of, delicious but not too involved to prepare.
Another step-by-step cook book I have is called Meat Dishes from the Essential Cooking Series. This is also a friendly cook book that I consult from time to time.
I'm also a proud owner of three books by Ina Garten. I have the Barefoot Contessa At Home, Barefoot in Paris, and Barefoot Contessa Family Style. I love watching Ina Garten cook in her lovely home at the East Hampton. She is very generous with the ingredients and her environment -- her own herb and flower garden, the small food shops she frequent, etc. -- is something I wish to have or visit. I have attempted to replicate a number of her dishes already. Several of her ingredients, however, are unique to the U.S. so I have to make adjustments to recreate her recipes. I noticed, though, that she loves to use flour and butter a lot. She's also a heavy user of the food processor. Nothing wrong with these, really, and her dishes are great. But sometimes I do struggle with some of the "big production" recipes that seem so easy to follow when I'm just watching her do them. I also wonder who keeps her kitchen looking so pristine before, during and even after her cooking episode. Because mine certainly looks like where a bomb dropped after I finished cooking.
Last Christmas I acquired the two volumes of Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I am that intrepid! But that lasted only a few minutes before real trepidation set in because the moment I leafed through the pages (and saw the old-style reference drawings which I like but also kinda wish there are updated color photos of the dishes) of Julia Child's masterpieces, I felt so foolish to even think about replicating what a kitchen goddess had done.
I think 10 cook books will serve me for sometime when the mood to cook something new hits me. I just took them out from the shelves today and studiously listed and typed down the ones I think I'll try cooking in the days to come. Wish me luck :)
