New Cookbook Project

"A cookbook is only as good as its poorest recipe"...Julia Child.

We have been working on an addition to our cookbook project...adding recipe links to each of our cookbook reviews, so it's easy to match up recipes with the cookbook it came from.  We've been enjoying this so much, we are going to share the newly revised reviews as we get them done, on Saturdays.  We also plan to add new reviews as we finish the older ones.  As we have continued to acquire books, and even though we don't cook a week or two from them, we do make some of the recipes.

We love Cookbooks! Myrna and I have hundreds of cookbooks and cookbook leaflets between us. We have surprisingly few duplicates, but we share the others, often exchanging them at our regular coffee times.
My criteria for a cookbook is that the recipes "work", that they offer something new to try, and they not use too many convenience foods.  
Myrna likes old cookbooks too, but also likes to try new techniques and ingredients. 
 Too many "celebrity" cookbooks, where the authors don't have access to test kitchens, have recipes that can't be made successfully by cooks with a wide range of cooking skills.  That's why new cooks should look first to basic cookbooks from Betty Crocker, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, Southern Living and the like.  The entire goal of these "big" cookbooks was to teach basic cooking skills and give recipes that would be successful for most cooks, no matter their background.

Many of the older cookbooks we like, especially community cookbooks, have recipes contributed by women who were very experienced cooks, who cooked many more meals in a week than most housewives today, and they expected the reader to be equally experienced.  Myrna and I often simplify instructions or give extra information when we share these recipes so that you will enjoy making them too.  
One of us has personally made every recipe we share, making notes and taking photos as we cook.