About a year-and-a-half ago, I started using a service called Farmhouse Delivery. One of many small businesses that've popped up in the last 10 years focusing on locally grown food. I love it. They deliver a bushel of veggies (and other items I might order, like farm fresh eggs!) to my door once a week. I'm supporting local farmers; I cook much more often; I'm cooking with new produce that I'd never bought before; and I cook with the seasons. Love it. Of course, a delivery service isn't absolutely necessary. Anyone can go to the farmer's market and get locally grown fruits and veggies. But the delivery service is what makes my life so much easier. I get a box of fresh food dropped at my back door once a week. I'm a nerd, but I get excited about opening the box and pulling out the fresh carrots with their leafy tops, and small potatoes that are purple. And since I live in walking distance to a Whole Foods, I can walk to the grocery to pick up a protein for dinner at the spur of the moment. It's easy-in, express-lane checkout. And I don't have to drive since I'm not carrying 5 bags of heavy groceries.
With Farmhouse Delivery, they post a list of what's to be included in your bushel for the coming week. It's the type of deal where "you get what you get." As a result, I found myself searching cookbooks and online to find recipes for things like kohlrabi, persimmons, turnips, beets. I wanted to use the cookbooks on my shelf, but it takes forever to open each book, check the index for an ingredient, scan the recipes, and then try another book. So, I started searching for an indexing tool to help me organize better. Low and behold... I found Eat Your Books. Ingenious. They have thousands of indexed cookbooks, blogs and magazines. You simply select which books you own (cooking magazines, etc.), and get a searchable list of recipes and ingredients used in each recipe. Suddenly, I can pull up 164 recipes, in cookbooks I own, that use kohlrabi. (That's actually amazing that there are 164 recipes with kohlrabi. Seriously? Wow.) You can of course refine the results further for a more management list of choices.
Anyway, this created a renewed love of cookbooks. Which is to say, I went a little crazy on Amazon buying new cookbooks. In the beginning, I'd hear about a new cookbook or see one at the bookstore, and just buy it. As a result, I have a number of cookbooks, from my phase of impulse buying, that are pretty to look at, but I really don't like cooking from them. Too complicated, or too froo-froo. Through the Eat Your Books website blog, I started reading reviews by Susie Chang. Then, I discovered her app. It's a cookbook rating app that's brilliant. She rates each book on skill, newness, giftworthiness, and whether or not she thinks it's a keeper. I'm addicted to the app now, and am relentless in checking it before I buy a new cookbook. It makes for a great combination with the Eat Your Books website.
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