Cheery Saturday greetings, dear friends!
As the evenings draw in earlier and the air is crisp and leaves dance in the streets, I am ever more inspired to get in the kitchen. I crave warming foods such as chicken and dumplings or a chicken pot pie, a hearty chili or beef stew, veggie soup or a roasted chicken dinner with all the trimmings. I get a hankering for a nice, thick slice of homemade bread slathered with butter or biscuits fresh from the oven with strawberry jam or maple butter. I love those kinds of meals that simmer on the stovetop all afternoon long in a cast-iron Dutch oven and just make the house smell beyond amazing!
Autumn and winter are definitely my favorite times of year to be in the kitchen. Spring and summer have their own charms, but there's just something about being in a kitchen when it's cold outside and even better if it's raining or snowing out the window...that's bliss to me.
Collecting recipes has been a hobby of mine since I was a young teenager. I got my first cookbook for my eighth birthday from my grandparents. It was a Betty Crocker kids cookbook and I still have it. I was always helping my mom in the kitchen as a young girl and then when I was fourteen, that's when the cooking and baking bug really hit. I became obsessed and started my own recipe collection through subscribing to several food magazines and getting cookbooks at my birthday or Christmas or when I would go to a bookshop. Now, over a decade later, my collection is quite large, but it continues to grow all the time.
Cookbooks are one of my most favorites! I have a large collection, most of which I got at the second-hand bookshop for less than five dollars each. Some, however, we just a few quarters each! Those deals I just can't pass up, especially when it's a cookbook line or author that I know I love. My favorites include Taste of Home, which I collect each year and have been able to fill in nearly all the books going back to 1999 thanks to great deals at the secondhand shop; Gooseberry Patch is another one that I collect and I've been delighted to have a few of my own recipes included in several of their books; and then I also love collecting books by favorite authors such as Mary Berry and Trisha Yearwood and a few others. Special-occasion books or holiday books or other ones along those lines are also fun additions. I received a Gilmore Girls cookbook for Christmas a few years back and along with a Little Women and Anne of Green Gables book that I have absolutely loved going through.
Cookbooks are more than just a collection of recipes to me. They're full of inspiration and add fire to my imagination and give me countless ideas not only for cooking the recipes they share but also coming up with my own recipes. I read them as one reads books and find such pleasure in doing so. In my room, I have two walls of bookshelves- one for novels, biographies, nonfiction favorites, series, etc. and the other is for cookbooks.
Magazines and other subscriptions have also been a wonderful way to grow my recipe collection. And of course, you can't forget the internet! I am always copying or printing recipes from online. These recipes, from magazines and online sources, are added to one of my fat, bursting at the seams, notebooks. I just punch holes in the pages or slip them into sheet protectors and add them to my notebook. I think at the moment I have three of these notebooks going. My notebooks are divided into categories... soups and salads, breads, breakfasts, muffins and rolls, main dishes, sides and veggies, beverages, cakes, cookies and bars, etc. There are special sections for autumn/Halloween/Thanksgiving, Christmas, homemade cleaners, from scratch (sauces, dressings, seasonings, etc.), pets, etc. Then, on top of that, I have separate smaller notebooks for vegan/vegetarian recipes, tea party recipes and ideas, and cozy foods for autumn and winter.
As you can see, I am just a bit obsessed with collecting recipe sand am passionate about growing my collection. I love cooking and baking and trying new recipes, along with making my own creations. In our home, we meal plan every two weeks and it's always a mixture of favorites and new recipes to try. My mom and I do most of the cooking and we share the same love for cookbooks and recipes...it's from her that I learned to love being in the kitchen and was inspired to start my own collection after seeing and helping her with her own collection all my childhood. She has a large shoebox filled with recipe cards, divided much the same way I do my notebooks. And there are shelves in our kitchen and sunroom with her cookbook collection. They're also something we love picking up on our travels as special keepsakes from places we've been. We've got a collection from Amish country in Pennsylvania, the Smoky Mountains, Ireland, New Jersey/New York and New England...so far.
Cooking is a way of expressing love for those you love and there are few ways better to do so than by preparing a homecooked meal with love and thought and care. These are the ways that we love to grow our recipe collections, but I'd love to hear how you gather a collection. Do share below! What are your favorite foods to enjoy this time of year? Does your cooking change with the seasons, or it is basically the same all-year-round?
Happy cooking, dear ones!
♥