I wrote in my last guest blog here, about my massive recipe collection. I have been collecting recipes for over ten years and I have to say that I do try most of them. You’d think I would randomly pull out recipes at every chance I have but I’m actually quite selective. Any recipe wishing to join the ranks of my collection must only contain ingredients that I can find easily. Of course the dish has to look incredibly scrumptious and/or be very ‘kid-friendly’. And any recipe that requires a massive amount of preparation is likely out of the running, unless it looks especially interesting.
So just where do I get all these recipes? Cooking magazines. I love cooking magazines. In fact, I started tearing out recipes because the magazines were too big for me to keep and I couldn’t bear to part with my recipes. So here are a list of my favorites:
What I Love About Cooks Illustrated
This is the modern magazine full of grandma’s recipes. Traditional lasagna from scratch, apple brown betty and traditional cobbler. What I like is that they often have traditional recipes but with a new twist. This is also a great place to hone cooking skills.
What I Love About Taste of Home and Simple and Delicious
These have recently gotten a face lift and a name change. Just the same, these are the best because they contain no advertisements and they are full of recipes from readers. They also offer fun little contests and coupons with each issue. Taste of Home Magazine tends to have more complicated recipes while Simple and Delicious is great for week nights.
What I Love About Choclatier Magazine
Well, for starters it’s titled after my favorite food. But truth be told, if you like creating cookies, pastries, and desserts in your kitchen this is the best magazine that I have found. This is not a good magazine for just your average bake sale cookies and brownies. The recipes require some skill and know how. On the other hand, some of my best dessert recipes have come from this magazine.
What I Love About Rachel Ray
I have to admit that I almost never pull out recipes from Rachel Ray but I still love her. (How can you not love someone who got the word ‘EVOO’ in the dictionary?) What I do love about her magazine is that if you’re into picking up tips in the kitchen there’s no one better to go to than Rachel Ray. Her recipes do look tasty but often require ingredients that are either not easy for me to find or would undoubtedly cause grimaces from several family members.
What I Love About Favorite Brand Names. . .
You may have noticed as you’re buying stuff at the grocery store that stacked right before you check out are these “special interest” pocket book sized magazines like Pillsbury, Eagle Brand, Kraft, etc. I am a sucker for good tasting desserts and saving money (and of course recipes.) So often while I’m waiting in line, I’ll pick up a magazine. If it has good coupons for the brand they’re trying to promote. . .I’ll buy it. Some of these are the yummiest recipes on the face of the earth.
What I Love About Family Fun Magazine. . .
I have to include this magazine because in every issue they have a cooking with kids section. I actually use this section of the magazine to fulfill the ‘practical arts’ requirement my daughter has for home schooling. They also usually have great recipes that are super kid friendly in addition to the one recipe they are teaching kids to make. So although it’s not strictly a cooking magazine, I always rip out at least one recipe from here every month. (Their website has a plethora of kid friendly recipes as well.)
So now you know where I got my recipe collection and what I use to expand it. Maybe in my next guest blog I’ll get to sharing some recipes. . .
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