When I started writing this post, I assumed that most people suffer from the same malady as me, but after talking to my sister (who doesn't own a single cookbook apparently), I realized that the problem may not be as widespread as I first thought, and may simply be me.
If you suffer from the same problem that I do, here's how to get rid of them, or at least whittle the pile down a bit.
Gather all of your cookbooks in one place.
Here is what my before pile looks like. There are 33 cookbooks in it (some are very thin so it is hard to see them--ignore the craft project gone terribly wrong that they are sitting on).
OK, Here is the magical guide. You will be thinking "Fran is a genius" once you read this one (<sarcasm>) Take your pile of cookbooks. For each one, ask yourself, have I ever, even ONCE, cooked a recipe out of this cookbook? I am talking about actually putting ingredients together and eating the resulting dish (or giving the food away if you used it for Christmas candy or whatever, but if you are trying to tell me that you made a batch of Christmas candy and didn't try it, you are such a liar!!)
Wanting to cook a recipe from the cookbook, tabbing a recipe in the cookbook, buying it for a recipe that it contains, none of these things count. The food in your mouth (or someone else's) is all that counts.
Now, I'm telling you to do that with every cookbook that you own. Make two piles. Cookbooks that you have actually ever cooked from and cookbooks that you have not.
Here are the cookbooks that I have actually cooked something from:
There are twelve of them.
You have my permission to keep any cookbooks that you have actually cooked from, but if the one dish you tried wasn't too tasty, you might want to consider getting rid of it anyway, you know? If you have cooked out of it more than five times, it is a definite keeper (Such as my Joy of Cooking and both of the Better Homes and Gardens cookbooks pictured--yes I need both of them and I'll explain why in another post)
We are going to focus on the "never cooked from this cookbook" pile
Take a deep breath. Focus and hear what I am saying. They need to go or you need to cook from them. Tonight.
But Fran, you say, you are being too harsh. I will get around to cooking out of those cookbooks. There is a lovely recipe for fillet of sole with white wine and quince reduction and asparagus two ways, with a lemon curd and bearnaise sauce that am going to cook, I swear. I will cook them for my next dinner party (or book club or state dinner or whatever type of festive gathering you are planning on having).
I totally understand where you are coming from, I really do.
You are talking to the queen of wishful thinking here For example, in my "never cooked from" pile, I have this fabulous book on essentials of classic Italian cooking. Actually, that is the name of it, Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcella Hazan. It was given to us as a wedding gift. The price listed on it is $30, and I am certain it cost every penny of that. It is 688 pages long. I have only opened it twice in the six years that we have been married. Once when we got it-it was so dense (no pictures, only drawings) that I was immediately intimidated and closed it back again. And I am a girl who knows her way around the kitchen.
I opened it again about four months ago to see if it had gotten any better, but alas, it is still chock full of amazing recipes with a lot of prep time for each one. Did I mention that the food from it is gorgeous? I mean, I haven't actually tasted anything from it and there aren't any pictures, but the fact that it has so many recipes with so many ingredients means that the dishes must be to die for, right? Lists and lists of ingredients that must be washed, chopped, braised, sauteed, whipped and separated before you even put them into the dish.
This cookbook is amazing. The woman who cooks from this book will live in an Italian villa, eating fava beans and liver while sipping a nice Chianti. She is thin and wears large brimmed hats and scarves and sunglasses while having her morning espresso on the terrace of her palazzo overlooking the Mediterranean. If I cooked these recipes, I could be that woman. There would be opera music playing in the background, and I could watch my hunch-backed serfs harvesting the fields of grapes and picking olives in the orchard while the golden fields of grain flutter in the summer breeze. I could be that woman. I could serve three course meals with a flip of my wrist, and have my friends ooh and ahh over my cooking prowess.
Oh right, my house is too cluttered to have anyone over right now and the meal would cost me $150 if I bought all the ingredients not to mention take me five hours to prepare since I am noticeably serf-less. Hmm....so maybe I'll just keep this cookbook on my shelf instead and the fantasy can live on in my mind.
DING DING DING WE HAVE A WINNER!!!
Because, when you keep a cookbook that you don't cook from, you are holding onto a fantasy of some kind. Or you just feel bad getting rid of a gift.
Here is my "never cooked from this book" pile.
I have to take a moment to apologize to anyone who has ever given me a cookbook that they now see in the "never cooked from" pile. Especially a cookbook with words in the titles like "Healthy" and "Fresh" and "Whole Foods". Being given a cookbook like that seems like an indictment of me and my cooking, although I am sure it isn't intended that way. "Fran, you obviously eat like crap. If you would only cook from this book your problems would be solved!" I know I should cook from scratch more, but it has to be on my terms and fit into my lifestyle.
Most nights I have a two-year old trying to plug headphones into electrical outlets when he is not chasing the cat around the house and locking himself into bathrooms and I don't have time to mince the ten capers, four cloves of garlic, two small onions and half a dozen fresh herbs that these cookbooks call for. And I have to make sure to serve the meal immediately, so we get to eat standing up because I still haven't found time to clear off the dining room table. Oh, and half of the ingredients in those cookbooks have to be purchased at specialty stores at least 20 miles away (dragonfruit? baby octopus? za'atar spice? really?).
Anyway, back to the point:
I like the idea of cooking out of the Italian essentials book, I really do. And I have no doubt that the recipes are healthy and delicious, but they don't fit into my lifestyle right now. So this cookbook has to go.
For those of you in similar quandaries, you have two options here. You can either copy the one or two recipes from a book that appeal to you onto an index card OR you have two weeks to cook a recipe from that book if most of the recipes appeal to you. Those are your options. At the end of two weeks you get rid of the cookbooks you haven't cooked from. Donate them or sell them.
Can I just keep the book rather than copying the recipe from it? Nice try. Do you really think that you you will find time to cook that recipe if you can't find the five minutes to copy the recipe onto an index card?
Keep dreaming! And use those cookbooks or lose them!
Hubby and I spent a good portion of last night looking through the unused cook books and picking out recipes to try or eliminating cookbooks entirely from contention. I will post an update two weeks from now with my "kept" pile.
Year Of Less tally:
I bought two things today. Ack! The book "Eat this, not that!" and a new pair of workout pants. I will definitely use both of these. The book is going to live with me in my purse so I will be good when out and about.
Since two things came in, at least 3 must go out. Otherwise it wouldn't be a year of less.
I threw away a pair of ratty workout pants that are too long and drag the floor when I wear them. Also old, ugly, and too big.
I put a collapsible dog bowl that we got free somewhere on the donate pile. It isn't quite out of the house, but will be tomorrow when I take a trip to the charity thrift store.
Also, my son shattered a Christmas ornament this morning when he jostled the tree (that I later took down- after the ornament broke I felt guilty because I yelled at him but really I should already have had the tree down). I am counting the ornament as my third item since it did go in the trash.
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