Purging

It's only a few, but they are leaving the house. I've got about 60 cookbooks - which sounds like far to many, but really, it's not. I like to dream about the cooking I'd do if only people would come visit me on a regular basis. There are some that I like just for the fabulous photos, and some I like for the timeless and normal, sturdy cooking they show you how to do. Food when I was growing up was not something you particularly enjoyed - you ate to eat, not because it was good. Slathering the pancakes with peanut butter and drowning them in syrup - because that was the only way you could actually eat the inch thick burnt puddles of goo. There were a few things that turned out well - split pea soup is one of my favorites, but mostly, it was food.

So I look to the books to learn how to cook. Even simple things like pancakes, or pizza, or believe it or not - how to boil an egg (do you put the egg in the cold water, or do you put it in when the water is boiling? How long will give me soft set, hard set? For whatever reason, this just will not stick in my head!) And I watch too much food TV. But, now, I'm a pretty darn good cook. Oh, I still cook the same things week after week, but I'm not afraid to try something new, especially when it involves new gadgets. And I look to the books to try something new - a different kind of ice cream, a new cookie, something good for dinner.

The books that are heading out the door fall into two categories: 1) somebody else bought them for me - while I appreciate the thought, they just don't inspire me. 2) diet cookbooks - I'll admit, I bought most of these. I thought that maybe a different cookbook would inspire me to cook healthier. Right. They are full of weird foods and weird combinations and that just won't work for me.

So off they go. To the library for their library fund, and a tax deduction for me.