New cookbook = cooking frenzy

I admit it. I have a bit of an obsession with cookbooks. I have crammed as many as possible on the one available shelf in my kitchen. My favourites are readily accessible.  There are boxes and boxes of cookbooks in the basement, a year and a half later, yet to be unpacked.  When we eventually get to renovating our kitchen, like 10 years from now, there will an area to display all my cookbooks. Most are tattered and worn, some are still in near mint condition. Let me be clear: Near mint condition doesn't mean unused.  It means that I treat it as a brand new novel, carefully turning the pages and salivating over the pictures, as I work up the nerve to try the recipes within. Unfortunately, I have had to stop buying cookbooks as our budget no longer allows my obsessive shopping.

With that in mind, I recently took a few cookbooks out of the library; Gordon Ramsay's Passion for Seafood, Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Kitchen, and The Pioneer Woman Cooks.  Gordon Ramsay's book is an excellent and inspiring read but has me intimidated to the core.  Jamie Oliver's book has me wanting to turn my entire backyard into a vegetable garden.  The Pioneer Woman.  Well.  I am in love with her! What a read. Her writing style has me convinced that she's a long lost BFF (best foodie friend).  Her recipes have mouth watering constantly.  I have been cooking maniacally from her book. Yesterday I made a double batch of her Chicken Spaghetti, froze one recipe and split the other into two pans. I took one half recipe to our neighbours; they have 8 week old twins!!  (As an aside: The babies are absolutely perfect.  Their skin is stretched to the limit by the most adorable baby pudge. So sweet.  I still don't want another.)  Today's cooking adventures included her Simple, Perfect Chili and her Grandma Iny's Prune Cake.   The chili, unadorned, is perfect.  I could eat the entire double batch myself.  First I'd have to beat my husband off with a blunt instrument as I made the mistake of letting him taste it.  My next attempt will probably include the addition of beans and maybe tomatoes but maybe not.  I may not risk tampering with perfection.  I can't yet report on the prune cake.  It smells divine and is covered with a dark and luscious caramel icing.  Icing is a bit of a misnomer.  This particular caramel icing is really just delicious caramel poured over the top of the cake.  How bad can it be?


I see the final 10 pounds of post baby weight coming back for a more permanent visit.