A Little Addiction

(my cute little bookworm)

I have always loved books and reading since I was a young girl. I remember reading my very first Nancy Drew book in the first grade. I would read every chance I got, on the bus ride home from school, while watching TV, in the car, at breakfast, anywhere and everywhere. Every free moment I had. I read mysteries, classics, award winners. I have boxes and boxes of books. I still remember vividly many of the books I read and others I can’t recall.

I continued to love reading up through high school. Not only the assigned books for school but all sorts of novels.

Then as I got into my college years it was a lot harder to find time to read. Between working and going to school and keeping up with assigned reading for classes- there was no time for personal reading. I would buy books over the years wanting to read them but never getting around to it.

But now, now I am hooked again. Eric and I have been obsessed with reading and collecting books we hope to read. We scout out new and more specifically, used bookstores looking for bargains. My stack of summer reads are getting taller and taller. I have promised my self that I won’t buy any more books until I get some of mine read; but when you can find good books in great condition at amazing prices I can’t pass it up (I want my dream house to have a library in it where the bookshelves go from the floor to the ceiling and are packed with books). Will there ever be enough time to read the thousands of books on my list? Oh I do hope so!

Not only have I picked up a bunch of great summer beach reads, I have acquired quite a few new cook books too. When I started this blog one 0f the features I wanted was to have cookbook reviews. However, my cookbook collection is growing so fast, that I don’t have enough kitchen time to keep up with the growing cookbook collection.

I then stumbled upon the blog “Taste and Tell”. The author Deborah takes one cookbook and names it her cookbook of the month and then posts one new recipe a week for the entire month from that cookbook. I liked this concept because it would help me not feel so overwhelmed by the said cookbook collection. If I focused on one book a month, then I could really focus on it. You see when I get a new cookbook I have to dive right in and start picking it apart and studying the recipes (and of course start making them). But when I go on cookbook over load (as I have done lately) I get overwhelmed and what to start reading and cooking from every book; and there is just not enough time in the day (or meals to be eaten) to keep up with that.

So starting next month that is my goal- to pick ONE cookbook to focus on and to challenge myself to cook up one recipe a week from the honored book and (here is the difficult part) post each weeks selected recipe that week.

Since this month is almost over (man if you think about it the year is half way over- where does all that time go!) I will finish up the month with a couple of recipes from a recent cookbook read (do people actually read cookbooks or is that just a weird thing that I do- actually sitting down and reading a cookbook from start to finish).

Anyways, this post is just dragging on and on so let me get to it. I recently read Rachael Ray’s cookbook 30 Minute Meals 2. I know this is an older book but since I get the majority of my books (cookbooks or not) from used or discount bookstores I have to get what is on hand (but at $1 or $2 dollars a pop I don’t mind if they are a year or two old). I don’t know why I have been on such a Rachael Ray kick lately (I guess since her books are so popular and they have been the only cookbooks worth picking up lately at the used bookstores). But I guess I also like her because most of her recipes come out good and they are easy to make. I do have a few complaints about her cookbooks, but I will save them for another post (because this one is way too long any way and I just keep typing away).

The first recipe I tried from this book was Israeli Spice Chicken. Rachael says that the Israeli rub is pretty neutral and can be used on any meat: chicken, turkey, steak. So since I still had pork chops I had to use I tried it on them. It was good and had a lot of different flavor (but it was not nearly as good as MY pork chop recipe). The recipe makes a lot of the rub and Rachael writes that it can be stored for 6 months in a cool, dry place; so I think it will try it again on chicken.