Cookbooks and magazines

In the age of the Internet people seem to think we can throw away our cookbooks and cooking magazines and just download our recipes. I regularly use the Internet to find recipes and let's face it I wouldn't be writing a blog (or for that matter about to publish a novel as an e-book) if I wasn't one to embrace the change.

For me however cookbooks tell a story of your life. (And I really hate to part with books. I adore books!)

This is my cookbook shelf. It isn't all my cookbooks because some are on coffee tables or on a different shelf but this gives you an idea. As you can see I didn't tidy it up to impress you!

On this shelf you will find a wide array of books that I have collected over the last twenty something years and they tell you alot about me and my culinary history. On that shelf you can see the Dean and Deluca Cookbook my sister gave me for my 30th birthday, the Marie Clair cookbook my mother-in-law gave me a few Christmases back and a number of Australian Women's Weekly cookbooks I have bought myself for their combines affordability and reliability.

You can also see the Taste of Oregon cookbook my friend Molly gave me when I spent 12 hours with her back in the early 1990's in Portland on my way to Boston to surprise a bride and groom for a wedding. (Who does that from Sydney? The answer is me!) That cookbook has some of my favourite recipes ever - including the best ever apple cake and several pies that I made for my daughter's Christening (Who invites 60 people to their child's baptism less just two months after the birth and caters the event and bakes seven pies? The answer is me!)

Jill Dupliex's Old Food is on the shelf. It's dust cover is faded and a little floury. That book has the best baked cheesecake you will ever eat. One of my closest friends and I took turns bringing it to dinner parties for several years. It was the make perfect make-ahead dessert for twenty-somethings who were likely to have had several glasses (or bottles) of something by the time dessert was served so simple service was essential.

Also on the shelf is a small recipe folder my bridesmaids put together for my kitchen tea. They sent each attendee a page from the folder to write a favourite recipe on and then compiled them. So I have recipes from old school and college friends, neighbours from my childhood and relatives.

The book contains three recipes hand-written my my paternal grandmother - Nanna Maureen. It's lovely to see her scrawly handwriting on the page especially now that she has passed. Here is her Vanilla Kirpels recipe.

I haven't even begun to tell you the stories about me that the many magazines...I guess that is another post.