Confessions of a Cookbook Nerd

At home, my mother and I share our cookbooks.
Probably the most used books on this shelf are Martha Stewart's
Cookies or Alton Brown's I'm Just Here for More Food. Giada gave them
a run for their money for a few months...but, alas, she did not win it all.

I'll willingly admit I am a dork. A nerd. A geek.  For proof, you just have to come with me to work. In a lab.  Where I become inappropriately excited when colored tubes arrive for me to use. Or when my proteins have fun abbreviations like dANK and mRA and TRX. You can't tell me you don't immediately think T-rex and picture a T-rex stomping around  in your head. I know you are. It's impossible not to!

For all that I am a science nerd--just wait for me to excitedly explain how something works (based on the reactions of my typical audience of Eric and Manning, it induces spontaneous eye-rolling and feet twitching to escape)--I am an even greater geek about kitchen stuffs and cooking.  Alton Brown? He's my hero, combining science and cooking in an easily digestible format you're guaranteed to remember.  Harold McGee? Near idol status. (He's wrote On Food and Cooking, the source of much of Alton's fun facts. I asked for it for Christmas. And it's in my casual reading stack.)

On the bookshelf in my apartment.
The most used of these books are The Food You Crave (Ellie Krieger)
and Martha Stewart's Cupcakes.
The Vodka Cookbook is surprisingly good and always a treat.
It's not nearly as kitschy as you'd expect.

So it should come as no surprise that I read cookbooks like novels. For fun. For education. For expanding the horizons of my culinary knowledge.  And--I won't lie!--for the pictures. Though I didn't miss the pictures in Melissa Clark's two cookbooks (nor in Molly Wisenberg's book or David Lebovitz's book), because they offered a story so well told that I had vivid images from their stories. I want to write like that someday.

I'll admit I haven't read every single cookbook I own...yet. It's a newer habit of mine, pouring over each page while curled up on the couch or lying in bed. Each brings a little something different to the table (pun intended, so there!). Alton organizes the recipes by cooking technique and prefaces each new technique with some scientific explanation.  Melissa Clark sorts her recipes by month in one of her books, which has helped me focus on more seasonal ingredients.  Gesine Bullock-Prado separated recipes by the temperature state of the sugar required in the recipe, so I can progress in skill and confidence as I move forward.  But each one makes me want to dash into the kitchen and try out something new.

Another shelf of cookbooks in my apartment,
of my most recent cookbook purchases.
I already have a list of future purchases, awaiting
the next Amazon order.

In fact, I have a tremendous list of "food things I want to make".  Actually, it's beyond reason now. Oops. It's one major reason why I want more hours in a day--so that I can make more of these recipes.  Thank goodness I have coworkers, family, and friends who are willing to devour the finished products!

Random fact: one of my New Year's Resolutions was to cook at least one new recipe each week.  I've been cooking from the hip the last few years, and making the same handful of things repeatedly.  My cookbooks sat on the shelf, collecting dust and longing to be used.  This is my effort to go beyond the usual and learn new ways to prepare both familiar and unfamiliar ingredients.  It seems to be working so far!

At home, another shelf full of shared cookbooks.
My favorites are in a row -- Power Foods, Martha Stewart's Baking
Handbook, Baked Explorations, and Mario Batali's Molto Gusto.

Another random fact: browsing for cookbooks on Amazon is favorite way to pass time. It's led me to some unanticipated finds. And it's saved me from shelling out full price at Anthropologie (which is a surprising great place to find indie cookbooks...but I always flip through the entire book before purchase to make sure it's worth it!).

Random fact #3:  My wonderful aunt and uncle are tremendous foodies and have endlessly encouraged me in the culinary arena.  They also have a fabulous habit of gifting me or my mother with autographed cookbooks.  I love each one!

Yet another shelf of cookbooks (and other books) at home.
The prize here?  Harold McGee's On Food And Cooking. It's intense
but its awesome. I plan to start it (for bedtime reading) after
I finish Ruhlman's Twenty.
Also check out the three books on perfume on the left...
They're all hilarious and brilliant. 

Look for "By the Book" posts in the future, as I try recipes from my library of cookbooks.  I promise it will be full of adventures!