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You are correct and no you don’t need to check your phone to see what day of the week it is. It IS indeed Monday and I am posting my Tasty Tuesday post a day early. No I have not lost my mind or trying to make the week fly by faster. I just have a special post for tomorrow and I didn’t want to skip Tasty Tuesday this week. This week I am talking about… Cookbooks! I seriously have a problem and slight addiction to cookbooks.

I counted them for you… 102. I have 102 cookbooks in my collection. Some have been passed down to me. Some of them are new additions to the collection. Some *ahem* I own for the sake of owning and have never made a single recipe from them. There! I said it. I am also sure that I am not the only one either.

It all started with a Gooseberry Patch book in my early 20’s and from there I have collected an incredible number of their books (and others but mostly theirs!). I don’t remember where I came across Gooseberry Patch but I remember saying to myself (as a poor college student), that I was ordering this book and I would figure out how to pay for it later. It wasn’t that expensive but when I was in college, an extra $20 was a lot of money.

Moving on…

I’m sure that aside from the craft projects and tasty recipes, what I loved most about this book was the Christmas aspect of it. That and it reminded me of my Grandma. She had numerous craft books and I would look at them over and over again, pretending that I was going to make it all and wishing that I really could.

I would also watch craft shows with her on TV and would write down all the instructions on how to make the things that I liked. It’s one of my favorite memories of my Grandma and something I haven’t thought about in a long time. Sweet, sweet memories!

I grew up helping my mom and my Grandma somewhat in the kitchen but I truly felt like a real adult (I was only 22) when I made something from a recipe and all on my own! My mom had recipes but nothing that I remember ever making on my own, so this was a first for me. The Cheesy Vegetable Soup is STILL one of my go-to fall recipes almost 20 years later.

I even have a couple of my “own” recipes printed in some of the Gooseberry Patch books that I own. Nothing that I can really take credit for since they were shared by neighbors and friends but still fun to see your name in a book, right? I can say for certain that this Peaches & Cream Cheese Crustless Pie is super delicious and the Straight from Buffalo Chicken Wing Dip is soooo good too! It’s perfect for game day or just any day really.

One of my favorite cookbooks is this Children’s book from (none-other-than) Gooseberry Patch. They have simple recipes and easy directions for the kids to follow along. When Shawn was younger and he saw me going through my books to plan our meals for the week, he would also grab his book and start picking out things he would like to make. It was so sweet… he doesn’t do that anymore, sadly!

These were from Christmas 2017 and Chippey, our Elf on the Shelf, brought us the supplies to make the Reindeer Cookies from this book. He made them all on his own with very minimal help from me. He has been baking with me since he was 2 years old (more on that another time).

So, do you have as many cookbooks as I do? How about any recommendations for books I should add to my collection? I mumbled to myself that I should look at getting a new cookbook and Michael piped up from the other room, I did NOT need anymore. But really… what does he know? lol

XOXO, Jules