I got some pictures from a friend, and it included her kitchen. There on the counter were her cook books. Right where mine are, too. I don't want them there, but, where else can I put them??? I don't really like much of anything on the counters, I like to keep them clean and clutter free.

Where are your cook books?? And, how often do you use them???

__________________
Doing the right thing isn't always the same as doing the easy thing.

I rarely use cookbooks. We cook most every meal from scratch... but, for instance, French toast doesn't really require measuring, ya know? Crack and egg, add a little milk and a little vanilla, stir, and it's ready to soak the bread!

I do have quite a few, though, and I keep them up above my fridge in a cupboard. If I used them more often that would be an inconvenient place for them to be.

Mine are on bookshelves on either end of my island. Except for when I am using one. Then it is on the counter.

__________________
I've had a Foreman Grill for about six years. I've done about 85% of my cooking on it, but I've never burnt myself. Probably because I don't use it as a pillow.

I have a buffet on the wall of my eat in kitchen/dining area. I have my cookbooks there unless I am using it, then it's on the counter. I also have a couple on the shelf under my coffee table in the family room because I was reading it. I like to read cookbooks more than actually use them (weird, I know). I probably have 40 cookbooks but I really only *use* maybe 5 of them...and that's a rarity

__________________
Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

Not weird...I do the same thing. I have them in a wrought iron bookshelf in my kitchen. I do use several of them, but I do like to read them too. My favorite ones are from my grandmother from a long time ago. It is hilarious to read the things in there, like how you should have the children sit quietly while you wait at the door with a cocktail as your husband returns home from work!!! (like that would ever happen!)

__________________
*******If life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
But if life gives you limes....make margaritas!!!*******

Cookbooks on the counters would drive me batty. Mine are in the island, in the cabinet. I only have them out when I need a recipe. Thank goodness I have a huge kitchen with tons of cabinets. I have cabinets and shelves with nothing on them.

__________________

I keep them down in the basement. When I want a recipe, I just go to allrecipes.com or recipezaar.com anymore.

I do have one paperback Betty Crocker cookbook (the one with the red and white checkered cover) on top of the fridge for quick reference for things. Unless I am baking, though, like wowitsdark, most of my cooking just comes out of recipes in my head..

In the past week, I think I grabbed my BC Cookbook three times: for baking powder biscuits, for chocolate chip cookies, and for a puff pancake recipe. It didn't have the recipe for a puff pancake, so I ended up at recipezaar.

I love allrecipes! I own a lot of their books

__________________
Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

I keep mine, I have about 5 or 6..on my kitchen countertop using some Dale Earnhart bookends.

__________________
Live, Love, Laugh

Crack and egg? Wow, that's some recipe!

Oh, I forgot to say -- we keep our cookbooks in another room. My husband, who cooks a lot, hates it, but I there's no place to put them in the kitchen. He has all his canisters of stuff all over the counters. I decided a long time ago that it is better to have a husband who cooks, than an uncluttered kitchen!

__________________
If this is going to be a Christian nation that doesn't help the poor, either we have to pretend that Jesus was just as selfish as we are, or we've got to acknowledge that He commanded us to love the poor and serve the needy without condition, and then admit that we just don't want to do it.

- Stephen Colbert.

Wow, I thought my sister and I were the only ones that did this. I buy cook books at yard sales, swap meets and the book sale at the library and after I've paged through them I pass them to her and vice versa and then they get donated.
I do have a small collection, but most are ethnic cuisines which I keep to learn the techniques and seasonings. I also have a few that are the older ones that some of my hometown churches printed for fundraisers. Those I keep mostly for the old comfort food recipes of my younger days and out of sentiment.

__________________

Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass
It's about learning to dance in the rain.

I have a few on one of my side counters, but it no where near where any cooking actually goes on. Looks like I have about 6 of them out....and they are more for looks thank action.

__________________
I'm the kind of woman when my feet hit the floor in each morning, the devil says "Oh crap, she's up."

I keep mine in my dinner bar. It's a 2 door cabinet with 3 shelves and it's LOADED!

Geez, that makes me so jealous

I have a very nice kitchen but because of the way it's laid out, I don't have nearly enough cabinets or countertop space

Oh, and I don't own a cookbook -- I use the internet if I need a recipe.

I too use recipes from my head or look online. However I have a collection of cookbooks either gifts from Mom or MIL or bought for a charity fundraiser and yes they are on my kitchen counter (opposite side of the kitchen from the sink) with knick knacks. I like the look of a row of cookbooks in the kitchen.


May I please have the recipe for the crack and egg? I am not sure how much crack to how much egg and do you add cinnamon?

__________________
The political system is broke and it's a joke.

The few I have are in a cabinet. When I was a young teen, I used to spend hours reading them. I now don't use recipes, but once in a while from online. I think I might take them out tonight and read them. I used to enjoy it.

As for my counters.....nothing there but a bowl of fruit. I hate clutter!!!!!

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I have some in the cabinet and some on a small, decorative iron book shelf that sits on the counter.
I only use them for special occasions or if I really feel like trying something new. For everyday meals, I cook from memory.

Sarah......

Mine are now in a cupboard above my stove. I have a cookbook stand that I keep one in on the counter. I don't use cookbooks very often, though I have a ton of the Taste of Home ones. I tend to just pull up recipes on the laptop, if I need one.

__________________
Nicole

sexysmurf, my first thought was , oh the irony...

It did happen. It was quite common back then, too.

I love cookbooks with beautiful pictures of the prepared recipes and have a lot of them. I rarely use them but I like having them in case I ever want to. Usually, I just admire the images of the food and put them away again but occasionally, I'll actually make the recipe. Sometimes, I make the extravagant recipes for the holidays.

I'm always drawn to the ones that are so visually appealing that they really are 'art'; recipes like a realistic Easter basket made of chocolate and filled with decorated, marzipan or hazelnut truffle eggs or a tabletop Christmas tree cake, decorated with extremely ornate, edible ornaments. I'm usually too lazy to spend hours and hours making something like that but every once in a while, I enjoy using food as a creative outlet.

I store all my cookbooks in a large bookcase that has doors over them so they won't get damaged. I have some that belonged to my great-great grandmother and they're in (except for discoloration) almost pristine condition. She must have done the same thing I'm doing because her cookbooks couldn't have stayed in this condition if they'd been handled.
.

I have a 4 shelf wooden baker's rack in my kitchen to hold all my cookbooks/cake decorating books. I used to keep them in the back hallway (kitchen has 2 doors) on a 3 tier shelf that dh had in our old house but I hated not having them near me, so I bought the baker's rack.

__________________

Friends are like butt cheeks.
Crap might separate them,
But they always come back together.

At our old house they were in the cabinet above the store. It made DH nervous, he said the weight could pull the cabinets down. Whatever...

In our new house I had a book shelf built into the end of the center island. It's great.

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Mine are in storage - not doing me much good there! I have LOTS! I used to keep some of them on a small bookshelf in the corner of my kitchen, but we put most stuff in storage when we put our house on the market. Our house is now back off the market, but I find that I like living with less clutter. It's much easier to clean. I will have to go through all my stuff eventually and get rid of/find a home for it. I do have a few cookbooks in my closet.

I agree with clutter-free countertops. I love it. I have a relatively large kitchen and I only have a bowl of fruit and 5 cannisters on the counters. I even put my coffee maker back in the cabinet every day. I love the way it makes the kitchen look and it encourages me to make sure everything has a home (even if the home is a storage building lol...)

__________________
Kim

My daughter laughs at me for putting the toaster up every day. I just hate that stuff all over the counter and it only takes a second to put it away.

__________________
"When you're drowning, you don't say 'I would be incredibly pleased if someone would have the foresight to notice me drowning and come and help me,' you just scream."

John Lennon

I have a small desk in my kitchen with a large cabinet above. It has three shelves, behind doors, loaded with cook books, But as mentioned, I seldom use them anymore. If I want a recipe I head for the computer.

Not being the neatest housekeeper . . most when not in use are in the bookcase. Right now I have 2 here in my bedroom (where I plan my weekly menu) and one on the table that is sitting in my kitchen. I put the one that was on the counter away after sitting on the counter for 3 days. Oh and I have 5 recipes on my refrigerator.

__________________
Laura
Please visit my blog
http://mylifeinlaurasworld.blogspot.com/

Mine are in a cupboard in the living room, which is kind of inconvenient. I find myself looking up recipes on-line because it's easier and quicker. I agree with the clutter free counters. I keep the toaster in the cupboard also.

We have a microwave cabinet that has 2 shelves and it has doors that close to hide them. I keep my cookbooks in there. Also have the phone book in there.

The other shelf has all the seasonal place mats

I keep my cookbooks on my bookshelf in my living room, which is right off the kitchen. If I'm going to make something out of a book, I either bring the book into the kitchen and put it on the counter temporarily or copy the recipe by hand onto a piece of paper (using my own abbreviations). I especially copy the recipes for any of my cookbooks that don't lay open flat (my Pillsbury paperback one particularly).

However, I find that I don't cook from my cook books regularly. Normally I find receipes on the internet. If I find something that looks interesting, I copy it into my Google Notebook. Then, when I'm ready to make the recipe, I print it out, but it in a plastic sheet protector and keep it on the counter while I'm cooking. After using, I often make a few notes in my Google notebook and, if I think I'll use the recipe regularly, I put it into a file folder in one or my kitchen cabinets.

I have a bookshelf in the kitchen for our cookbooks. DH and I love to read them, too. We have about 80 cookbooks right now, plus 13 years of "Cook's Illustrated" in a cabinet, plus several binders filled with recipes people have given me, ones I've cut out of the newspaper or ones I print from the net in another cabinet.

If I had to get rid of all but one of the books, I'd keep The Joy of Cooking. I'll be getting rid of about a dozen of the books soon though because they are books we picked up at yard sales, library sale, etc. that were fun to look at but we'll never use them.

__________________
Cecilia

"We must love them both--those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

Years ago I snagged a five shelf cherry wood bookcase from Office Max for $15. Nothing wrong with it, just a display model. It is standard height but only about 12-13 inches wide so I call it my skinny bookcase. It is in the area between kitchen/dining room. On the bottom shelf are kids' art supplies, the top two shelves display my Coke and Dough Boy collections, and the other 2 shelves house my cookbooks. Used to have around 45, now have 15 after selling 30 in a yard sale. Cookbooks are a serious weakness of mine, lol.