Why have cookbooks?

I heard a story on the radio recently about AllRecipes.com. I didn't realize they are a local company, started when a woman asked her husband if he could make her some kind of cookie recipe sharing site for her friends. Soon came the requests for cake recipes, then pies... and now there is AllRecipes.com, a recipe-sharing, menu-planning site where it is easy to search by ingredient to find something to make that sounds good. Nutritional information is included; you can calculate servings up or down, save recipes to your "recipe box," and read reviews from other cooks who have made that recipe.

I had some ground turkey last night... what should I make for dinner? I typed in "ground turkey" in the search box and 1,668 matches came up. I made a quick pasta recipe, which was pretty tasty. A few mornings ago, while looking at the mushy bananas on the counter, I found a muffin recipe whose muffins were very delicious warm from the oven. 

Don't I already have a great banana muffin recipe, or a pasta recipe? Yep -- several or more. Sometimes it is fun to make new recipes though, twists on old favorites.

What is technology doing for the cook, baker, and chef? I can look for recipes on FoodNetwork.com on my smart phone while in the grocery store (what ingredients does that squash salad call for?). If you have a tablet or laptop, you can just pull up the recipe right by the stove top. Don't splatter on the screen!

But what about cookbooks? And card boxes filled with favorite recipes, passed down from friend to friend, from grandma to granddaughter, from mom to son?

I am a cookbook collector. My mom was a cookbook collector too. I have two card boxes stuffed with recipes. These are handwritten memories, walks down memory lane. The little comments written at the top of one card (The Cottage Cheese Dill Bread is "yum yum"); Alice reminding me that the pineapple juice needs to be HOT for the Christmas Salad by underlining the word HOT; Katie making Molasses Cookies -- my grandma's recipe -- and noting it only makes "12ish cookies"; a 70's-era casserole dish written in my mom's perfect handwriting; my friend Janet's delicious Teriyaki Chicken -- written in my famous (!!) recipe shorthand... all the ingredients and hardly any directions; my stepmom Arlene's yummy mashed potatoes that everyone always begs for; my mom's Chocolate Buttermilk Cake (I LOVE that cake!). Not to mention all the splatters and smudges from cards sitting too close to the work zone -- do you remember the time the chili was simmering too hard and when the lid was removed from the pot, the chili perked all over the recipe card...?

I love collecting a particular author's books. I have a number of Rose Levy Beranbaum's books (I recommend them!); ALL of Barefoot Contessa's; there are the local flavors such as Tom Douglas (personally autographed thanks to the connection through our friends T & T) and Rover's Thierry Rautureau. There are books from places we've eaten like "Craftsteak" (Top Chef's Tom Colicchio) and Todd English's "Olives," both in Vegas. 

Don't forget the old standbys: I think Betty Crocker's Cookbook (the old orangey red book) is really great. We love America's Test Kitchen Cook's Illustrated (no ads and lots of great how-to information). And Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking is fun to browse through. 

There are memories in the pages of these books (and recipe cards). There are dreams of beautiful meals around our table as we leaf through the pages, draw our hands over the photos of gorgeous ingredients blended into superb dishes, and build a menu from appetizer to dessert for family and friends to enjoy.

I will always love cookbooks and have them on my shelf. They are as much a part of my kitchen as my favorite spatula, baking dish or my KitchenAid mixer.