Validating my cookbook collection, one damn recipe at at a time

Introduction: Why is this happening?

Introduction: Why is this happening?

I didn’t want to put all of this into my About page, but also, I’m a talky bitch, so…

Here’s the deal.

I love food, and I love cookbooks, as they are books about food. I have a pretty sturdy cookbook collection, despite having repeatedly thinned out the herd. There are just too many quality cookbooks out there, by which I mean “in here, taking up space in my apartment.” It also helps that they are an extremely easy thing for other people to buy me as gifts, hence my public Amazon Wishlist is mostly just goddamn cookbooks.

What I’m saying is, I have so many cookbooks and I don’t use them.
“If you don’t use your cookbooks, then what do you use as a reference when you cook?”
Um, internet recipes. Because it’s 2018.
And then I take them as a loose guideline and do whatever sounds better to me because I’m a fucking rebel.**
Or I just put assorted items together and hope for the best, because who has time to make actual well-thought-out food for a single person on a weeknight?

Also, I love to talk a lot about food.
“Do you love to talk about food so much that it has been a problematic element in your past relationships?”

This has gone off the rails already.

“Hey, Dana, isn’t there something more worthwhile you could be pouring all your energy into in this turbulent political climate? I mean, is the world really crying out for another food blog or podcast?”

Hi, Nagging Voice In My Head. I hear you. (I am you.) But I’m doing this for my sanity. For other people’s sanity too. Because we all need to eat. Because we need to nourish ourselves and others. Because we need to show others that we care. Because we need to communicate with each other about the things we have in common. Because we need to come together more than ever. Because if we stay angry and scared all the time, we will fucking die. I’m not pretending the bad shit isn’t going on. But in the midst of doing everything I can think to do to be an engaged and active citizen resisting the shitshow our government is shoveling us into, I occasionally need to take a break in the form of things that inspire me in a positive way. Like food, the people who write about it, and how fun it is to cook (and eat).

** I am not a rebel.

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