5 favorite cookbooks

Cookbooks combine my three favorite things in the whole world - the written word, art, and food. While the Internet has provided such ease of access to so many venues for recipes, there is a lot more to cookbooks than just recipes. Seeing photography of foreign places and reading about different cultures... being able to display a beautiful coffee table book to show your friends and family... life doesn't get much better. In the mode of BEAUTIFUL books that focus more on explanation and art versus just recipes... 1. The Culinaria Series - I can't pick one- they are all great. These books are huge and printed in the finest style possible. They have Culinaria Greece, Culinaria The United States, Germany, Spain, and so forth. These hardcover books are not what you would want to slop down next to the oven as you drip sauce all over them... they are definitely geared more for leisurely reading on the couch with a plate of brie, olives and a good glass of Shiraz. The wealth of information is nearly overwhelming, but the articles are broken up by gorgeous photography in full spreads. They explore not only cooking and regional cuisine, but the history, people, myths and legends and give full descriptions of spices and originations of recipes. Culinaria recently reprinted all into paperback format - it totally destroyed the point for me. The hardcovers are over 500 pages each so be prepared to spend a month at home, learning with watering mouth. 2. In a totally different vein... The Magic of Microwave Cooking paperback from the 70s. The reason I adore this book which most of the pages are taped in, and it is nearly illegible with food stains is that hey have a section of every vegetable and the best way to microwave it. Please don't knock it until you have tried it... no nutrients are lost, it is fast, easy, with minimal clean-up and you will be shocked at how fresh with vibrant colors all your veggies turn out. 3. The I Hate to Cook Book by Peg Bracken. This was really the first cookbook that I read in my life with the intention of cooking the recipes as opposed to just learning the jargon of foodies to prepare myself for a fancy dinner out on the town. Totally hilarious, Ms. Bracken makes fun of herself, her friends and mainly you - but in such a light-hearted way that you feel encouraged to go ahead and have some fun with cooking and to heck with it if you mess it up. 4. The Olive and the Caper by Hoffman. Similar to the first book I listed this is more of an educational book of Greek cooking but also has all the info you need to cook Greek food authentically and beautifully. Great formatting, easy to read and broken up into small blurbs, tips and info bites to keep you reading. 5. Fix-it-and-Forget it slow cooker book. I wish I was independently wealthy and could cook and read all day long, but alas not. I find the slow cooker or crockpot to be really useful... I am never quite sure of seasonings and amounts of liquid versus dry and this book provides so many recipes in an easy to find format.If I have pork, i just flip through the pork section and then kind of combine all of the ideas from 2 or 3 of the best sounding recipes - probably not the recommended use but it works for me. I really appreciate this thoughtful question and look very forward to hearing more people's favorites so I can look them up and grow my collection. Happy reading & eating!

Well, my favourite cookbooks is my mum..HEhe She is great! I dont really get into cooking, but cooking is relaxing for me :D Whatever how bad my dishes was, I still eat it :D