Are your cookery books taking over?

Some women have a weakness for shoes. I have a weakness for cookery books, so in answer to the question, most definitely YES they are taking over.

Winging it

In all honesty, I maybe use half of them over and over, when I use a recipe that is. Even when I look up the recipe in the book, I have to substitute and change things for various reasons.

I still love the inspiration found in my books and I can see how my cooking has evolved over the years.

2016 Clear out

Last year, I cleared out over 20 books, this year I will have to clear out more. Just because I have a lot of cookery books hasn’t stopped me getting more.

Some books I have been given and are over 50 years old, it is interesting to also see how the trends in cooking have changed.

Then there are the recipes that I have taken off the internet and more recently my new favourite cook book, Gordon Ramsay’s Ultimate Cookery Course which I was given as gift.

Sorting it all out

Last year I tried sorting out the recipes that I had taken from various magazines and the newspaper but I really am not that good at keeping it up, I think it lasted a whole month. A new solution to this may be a concertina file, where I can just slide the recipe in under its correct category.

My mother has a book in which she has written her favourite recipes to pass down, this way family traditions will also not be lost.

This week we are looking at sorting out the cook book and recipe situation in our homes.

What has been a solution in terms of space in my kitchen, is that the books I use more frequently are kept in the kitchen, the rest have been moved to the bookshelf in the lounge. I can still get to them, they are just no longer taking up valuable kitchen space.

Do you need them or do you want them?

Look at your collection and have heart to heart with yourself, be honest, how many do you really use?