Cookbooks Are My Crack

At childhood slumber parties, I could be counted on for two things: 1) I would always be first to fall asleep, resulting in a frozen training bra (you guys were sooooo original) and 2) I could be found tucked into a corner reading every single magazine in my friend's room. Put a Seventeen or Sassy in my midst, and I literally couldn't tear my eyes away. I'm sure there were times people thought I was being slightly anti-social, but hey, there are certainly more dangerous things to be hooked on than magazines. Heroin and designer shoes both spring to mind.

Now that I'm grown folk, I've substituted my magazine addiction for cookbooks. Cookbooks cost about 5 times more than a magazine, so I'm hardly a subscriber of the harm reduction model. I seek cookbooks out in friends' houses, and fill my own shelves with as many as I can. Big ones, small ones, paperbacks, vegan, ethnic, elaborate, rustic--I love 'em all. Martha, Giada, Tyler, Guy, Paula, Ina...the gang's all here!

I realized I had a problem this weekend when I literally couldn't leave Home Goods without checking the title of every single cookbook to see if there was one more I just had to add to my collection. Do I need one more cookbook? Absolutely not. Did I stop myself from buying another one? Just barely.

Cookbooks spark my imagination, tease my senses and trigger my appetite. I pore over instructions to recipes I have no intention of making and choreograph elaborate dinner parties in my head I know I'll never throw. I read cookbooks in bed, like novels. They're my make-your-own adventure books. 

My current favorites are Stop and Smell the Rosemary published by the Houston Junior League, The Food You Crave by Ellie Krieger, the Cooking Light 2009 collection and Bon Appetit Fast, Easy, Fresh.

What are your favorite cookbooks? If I had to add just one more to my collection, which one would you suggest? Go ahead. Enable me.