This is my shelf of recipe books.........
And this is my very old huge tatty folder of recipe cuttings and photo copies dating back to to 1975, when I first married and started cooking.
but I only make about 14 different meals............... and don't need a recipe for most of them!
These are the main meals that I rustle up for myself because they don't take much time or much thinking.
Warm pasta salad with either feta, tuna or a tin of sardines, plus tomatoes, cucumber and olives and mayo
Pasta with home made aubergine and tomato sauce (batch made and frozen)
Pasta, tuna and broccoli bake (batch made and frozen)
Veggie Burger in a bread bap with tomatoes, cucumber and lettuce
Home made vegetable curry with rice and mini samosas and bhajis (batch made curry, frozen)
Home made quiche using bacon, onion and cheese - or just a vegetable mix.
Co-op Goats Cheese and Vegetable lattice bake
Stir-fry chicken and veg - usually peppers, onion and carrot. With noodles and chilli sauce.
Chicken, onions, peppers and tomatoes with Fajita seasoning in a tortilla wrap
A two egg omelette with tomatoes
Home made Spinach and Ricotta Lasagne (batch made and frozen)
Mini Pizza with added home made topping (batch made topping, frozen)and salad
Fritters (courgette, sweetcorn or leek) with bacon.
Cauliflower cheese
And shop bought fish and chips once a month.
What I can see from this is
- that I eat very little meat,
- probably too many carbs and
- after nearly 40 years of thinking and cooking for up to five people - I'm a very lazy cook.
- And the only things from my Vegetarian Taste Tests that have become regular purchases are the Co-op Lattice bakes and the Linda McCartney burgers
( I do add vegetables or salad stuff to most of these meals and usually eat 3 portions of fruit a day so it's not all bad!)
My folder is also full of all my cake recipes, preserve recipes and dozens of other things I used to make, but many of the recipe books haven't been opened for years, and ought to be passed on to a charity shop although some are so old and rough they are only fit for the recycling bin and I just know that if any of them leave the house they are sure to be the ones I need for some reason a week later.
Back Soon
Sue
When we downsized in 2016 I let go of lots of cookbooks some to my daughters and others as giveaways. I have a recipe book too of recipes I've invented or taken from the newspaper or internet. Of the cookbooks I still have some are used only for one recipe so I probably could jettison them if I copied the recipe. Nah. I think I'll keep them.
ReplyDeleteI need to have a very big sort out of my folder, the plastic pockets are falling to pieces
DeleteI have a pile like that too. Sigh. I do sort through them once in a while, but I shall add it to my list again. Now that the children are grown and aren't at home it doesn't seem worth it to keep some of them. The things they like I have already passed on how to cook them!
ReplyDeleteMy children used to ring up sometimes for a recipe but they've not done that for a while so I guess they know how to do the things they like now
DeleteYep! I have the same problem. Lots of “saved” cooking ideas but little interest in branching out beyond the regular stuff. I have have over 50 years under my belt of cooking - and I can honestly say, the least favorite room in my condo is the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteI always have plans to try the recipes in the cuttings - but never do
DeleteI find that very few cookbooks have more than one or two recipes I would like to make. I've Xeroxed a few, then donated the books either via free cycle or the local library sale. But I do have a great big three ring binder of recipes, too, and have at least tried most of them. Maybe once!
ReplyDeleteThat's better than me as my folder has dozens I've never tried or even looked at since the day they were cut out
DeleteI have a bookcase of recipe books (literally) plus my own book of favourites. Hubby and I used to spend afternoons reading cookbooks! A lot of them have come from charity shops and some are over 100 years old. I don't use them much now, but I still like to look through different ones every now and then :)
ReplyDeleteMy husband used to look worried if I said I was trying something new!
DeleteI have more cookbooks than I need - but I do like to re-read them. And sometimes make a different recipe, especially if I am entertaining a guest. Since I began gardening in earnest, I've appreciated having fresh ideas for using my veg.
ReplyDeleteI really need a sort out - specially the folder - it's falling to pieces.
DeleteI think many of us are like this. I did have a BIG cull when we downsized but I still have plenty, all my old favourites - mainly baking books, and preserves, which I turn to regularly/seasonally. If I had to cut it down to one it would probably be Farmhouse Fare - if I was stuck on a desert island, I think I could manage with that book!
ReplyDeleteLike you, I have a small repertoire of favourite recipes, which I can make without thinking. Main meals have never been my main interest. Baking is.
My Preserve books are probably the only books that get looked through for new ideas.
DeleteI don't even have any variety in baking now I'm only doing it for myself.
I have two books with recipes stuck in from over the years plus I am a bit of a cookbook addict! When we moved four years ago I had well over 100 so had a good cull but I've just had to have another as my shelves where I store them were full.
ReplyDeleteI need to have a sort out........sometime
DeleteIn my previous house/life I had over 100 cookery books. When I downsized I got rid of at least half of them. And then recently when I took away a bookcase I got rid of even more. Now we can look up any recipe we need on the internet, do we really need cookery books at all now? I rarely look at mine as like you I make the same things all the time
ReplyDeleteI've definitely never had 100.
DeleteDon't do it! They are part of your family. x
ReplyDeleteThe folder stays but need a tidy. The books- I'm not so sure
DeleteWhen I married, my mother gave me The Young Housewives' Cook Book!
ReplyDeleteI still have it. I had a huge cull of cookery books years ago and I haven't regretted it. Like you, I have a book of recipe clippings. As They're all tried and tested, I won't be getting rid of them.
I had the Huge Good Housekeeping Cookery book when I first married but must have passed it on to someone years ago
DeleteI donated most of my cookbooks to the charity shop when we moved, although I still have six left on my kitchen shelf, plus a (now much) smaller folder of newspaper/magazine recipe cuttings. Like you, however, I never refer to any of these as I tend to cook the same meals all the time!
ReplyDeleteMany of mine are suffering from sitting in various kitchens on window sills - very tatty and faded - the charity shop would throw them out
DeleteIt all looks very familiar. Lots of cook books and only three used regularly - my Mum's old BeRo book, a falling to pieces Cranks recipe book and once a year Rose Elliott's Christmas book. We too have an older folder full of recipes and there are about four or five of those we use often:)
ReplyDeleteSomeone somewhere must use cookery books all the time - so many are sold
DeleteMy daughter's partner is a very good cook so any unwanted recipe book heads in his direction. I've given him a good selection of different varieties and I still have a lot of cook books which I must get rid of as I don't cook any more. My husband generally goes on the internet trusting their recipes to tried and tested from my books.
ReplyDeleteThousands on the internet for every occasion - but I rarely look there either
DeleteI think that describes most of us who have been cooking for awhile. I weeded some books out last year but it needs another clean out.
ReplyDeleteCathy
My folder needs a drastic clean and tidy
DeleteI don't have very many cookbooks. Just a few old ones that I like the best. It is so easy now to google recipes if I can't find what I want in a cookbook. I bet that's why your children don't ask you for recipes much anymore...
ReplyDeleteYes I expect you are right although they probably cook much the same things all the time, being always short of time and feeding children
DeleteI have just lost my husband and am finding cooking for one very strange, so I haven't been bothering very much but must do something about that - I'm only 61 so I assume I am going to be alone for a long time - I must make batch cooking a priority so my recipe books will stay for the time being.
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear of your loss, I was 63 - over 4 years ago now - doesn't seem that long. Colin loved his mashed potatoes - I don't - so I'm quite happy not to have to cook them anymore!
DeleteBatch cooking and freezer is my best plan, makes things so easy.
Thanks, Sue. It's too young to lose one's life partner. He was 2 years younger than me, as well.
DeleteI'm not a very adventurous cook, especially now there's just the 2 of us and I donated all but one cookery book when we moved home a year ago. The only one I kept was a Hairy Bikers one because there are a few cake recipes I like in there. We eat quite simple food now. It keeps down the cost if I don't have to buy a lot of ingredients or have the oven on for ages.
ReplyDeleteI have two shelves of cookbooks and I have not opened these books in years. I also have a small box file with 3 x 5 inch cards holding more recipes that I have not thought about until today. Holiday meals are traditional and the same recipes are used. I know them by heart. Breakfast, lunch and dinner are all easy prep meals. No recipe needed.
ReplyDeleteI've been in recipe hell of late because my four-shelf cookbook bookcase broke. (That didn't count all the ones I've copied!) I've rehouses most of the keeper cookbooks and need to find homes for the others ... but I don't use them as much as I should. I love cooking, even though mostly (not weekends, but otherwise) it's just me and I cheat with easy dinners and probably not the best. I suspect many of the books will go to the charity shop and many other printed recipes to cull... there's always something to do.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest daughter asked for my basic bread recipe. She also asked for my applesauce cake recipe. I wrote out my recipe on a recipe card, but wss thrilled to find that my recipe for applesauce cake was actually my mom's recipe. It was written in her hand. I tucked both my daughter's letter. I know it will mean a lot to her.
ReplyDeleteI used to be in the habit of printing off recipes that I found and thought I would make and snipping things out of magazines, but then, like you, I realised that in reality I do mostly make the same things over and over. When we moved last time I chucked out most of my folders, it took me ages to go through them and get all the paper out for the recycling bin before throwing the tatty folders away.
ReplyDelete