But then again I don’t relax. I just don’t. So I had to do something.

I found this box of recipe cards at a local Good Will, you know me and my love for a good thrift store, and for only $3 there are hundreds of recipes in there. Awesome.

It even had little tabs to separate each section. I must have spent hours looking at all the recipes and getting ideas for new things to cook and different methods of cooking different meats. Besides it was a great way to relax, having the fire place going, covered in a blanket and reading through new and interesting recipes. Ah, heaven.

Even though there were hundreds of recipes in there, at the moment there are only a handful that I wanted to try. So I pulled them out and off to the side so I could go through them and hopefully make them soon.

Plus one added bonus to the recipes is that they are all low fat ones. Many call for margarine but I think I’ll stick to “real” food when I cook from now on. I like me some butter.

I love thrift stores and their unusual finds.

This is a project that I’ve been working on for the past few years. It’s something that I hold very dear to me and I think I use it almost every time I cook.

This unmarked binder is something that is almost like another limb to me. I have a hard time opening up to others and showing people what I love to do and how I express myself… This book is a huge part of who I am.

Does the title look familiar? I hope so. This was the main inspiration for actually starting this site. I wanted some where to keep all of my favorite recipes in one place. My family recipes and other ones that I’ve either found, modified, or just created when I got a bug to make something new all find a home here.

It also has more functions. By getting me into photography more, finding a passion for something, and keeping up on my graphic design skills that had gotten a little rusty since college.

Part of me can’t help the fact that I want to design this into a real book. I love books. I will generally read all of my cook books cover to cover like a novel. Plus the title pages help me remember what I know how to cook.

I get a little absent minded sometimes.

It is definitely a work in progress, and while I have tons of recipes in there, not all of them are perfect with pictures.

I also tend to change my mind on how I make things. I like to continually “improve” my recipes, and it helps to keep it in sleeves so I can write on them and replace them as needed, which is something I couldn’t do if I had actually bound it into a book.

I also love to print out recipes from other places. I like the inspiration and it reminds me “oh yeah I wanted to do that”. There are so many times I found something online and bookmarked it but never got around to making it because I forgot.

Like this recipe for spinach and puff pastry finger foods. The recipe itself doesn’t call to me, but I have ideas on how to make it into something I enjoy. Recipe from Pete Bakes “mini spanakopita wonton-thingers“.

I also like to keep a pad of paper in the back of my book for those times where I’m just winging it and want to remember what I did later so I can either recreate it or change it as needed. This has really saved me so many times when I have these great pictures to add to the book but had no idea what I actually did to make them.

I really can’t help being scatter brained sometimes.

Like I said, this is my own personal project. My baby. I probably will make a few bound copies through Lulu or Kinko’s for friends and family, I don’t know if I’ll post it up here or not. Slightly not that confident I guess.

I’m not here looking to get rich from being a famous blogger, cookbook writer, or some other such thing. I’m here as someone who generally is afraid of people and what they think of me, and am trying to put myself out there. To somehow let others get an idea of who I might be and maybe make a few friends in the process.

Some people may not understand, and thats ok. But some do, and I do. And thanks for wanting to.

That’s happened to me this past week. I’ve been stressing out severely about getting my blood drawn for the first time in 8 years. Now to normal people this isn’t a big deal, but to a needle-phobic… It’s a huge and terrifying thing. Too many bad, bad experiences…

So while I was trying to get through the neurotic stress of waiting for the time to come where my schedule will allow for it, I found other ways to occupy myself.

I’ve been “adopted” by my husbands Grandma, which is pretty awesome since I haven’t had one in my life since I was about…12? If that.

What’s awesome is that she likes sending me recipes in the mail. Not even like links in email. She’s old school. Its clippings from the newspaper and magazines.

Granted some of those on top are the food section to one of the local papers here, but still the most are from her.

Who can complain about the inspiration and different techniques that can be found in news papers or other random places? Its awesome! I didn’t actually realize how much I had until I started pulling it all out.

I haven’t made any of the recipes yet, shame. But then again I haven’t made any of the recipes that I’ve clipped myself, double shame.

I do have to admit there is one part about it all that is my favorite. Notice all the little post-its and little notes paper clipped to some of the pages? Those are from Grandma. It makes me smile that she likes to write little notes, its just another one of those things that makes me feel squishy inside because she thought about me enough to write me a little note and put it in the mail.

That’s right Grandma.

After going through so many of my books, I took the recipe from Better Homes and Gardens new Cook Book circa 1953. And now just reading the fine print I realize that the book is a fifth printing, first edition. Huh, cool. I guess that is rather fitting since this is the book that Grandma has used for years and now has given me. I don’t think I could get rid of this book really.

I like the fact that it is an old book, since many recipes that you find in the older books you can’t find anymore. It’s almost as though they are disappearing for the next newest and greatest thing. If you don’t have a really awesome Grandma like we do, then you’ll probably have to get this one from a thrift store or antique mall.

I love this book for sentimental reasons, the overall layout, the fun little additions like a huge list that converts everything into different measurements. But since I have only done one recipe out of it so far, I don’t think I can judge whether or not its the best on the planet. But I still love it!

I worked in a craft store for more than two years, and I was given the task of ordering, organizing, and keeping track of all books in the store. You could be sure that I knew exactly where each book was, how many we had, and where to find certain things in each book. I really am a book nerd.

Now that I have started doing the cooking adventures, my love of cook books has expanded. I can read them cover to cover like a regular novel and be completely entranced.

One of my favorite books is my Joy of Cooking book. It was given to me by a friend after my husband and I started hanging out with them more on weekends and grilling together. This was the first cook book anyone had ever given me; at least that I can remember. This was the first book I ever made something out of that turned out great, a blackberry and raspberry pie.

Needless to say this book has a great meaning to me. Especially since the friend who gave me this book passed away not long before my wedding. Even though I know it would be better to have a hard bound book and not one that could easily fall apart (like it is starting to do at the edges) but I really can’t see myself ever getting rid of it.

Now, not all the reasons why I love this book are purely sentimental. This really is a good book to have on hand. It will show you how to do almost everything in the kitchen, from how to cook meats properly, to pie, to everything. It even will tell you how to cook things that I don’t think I will EVER try.

I’m not a fan of how they lay out the ingredients and directions. They put the ingredients IN the directions so all of your ingredients are spread out. In a sense that’s nice since you don’t have to refer to a list for what you have to do and can just read the recipe, but i guess i just am used to the traditional way of doing things. It is definitely one of the books that every chef needs to have in their collection, especially beginners.