Happy New Year Resolutions

Resolutions.

So, a few weeks before Christmas, I am in the mall, searching for a gift for my mom. She wanted a nightgown. She is kind of hard to please in the nightgown department. she wants silky, but not sexy, sleeveless, but not spaghetti straps. She wants it to be floor length, but not to cling to any part of her body. There I am, in the nightwear section of JCPenney's searching thru the tons of cute pajamas for that nightgown. All of the sudden, another shopper, a very nice woman, said to me.. "they sure don't make cute ones for us, do they?" I quickly looked behind me to see who she could be talking to. And then my head swung back to her... The very nice lady, looking in the nightgown section, who just called me FAT.
Okay, she didn't actually call me fat, and she wasn't "fat" either, she was just a little on the plump side. BUT SHE WAS TALKING TO ME LIKE I WAS A COMRADE. One of the gang. In her club.
I was defeated. I hung my head and slunk away. (is slunk actually a word? Well, whatever-- I did it. I slunked away) But first, I snagged the perfect nightgown for my mom... everything she always wanted in a nightgown-even--PURPLE. Hooray for me.

Fast forward a week or so, and I get a box in the mail from my mom. She used it to send our Christmas gifts. All was fine, we were excited to open it and place our gifts under the tree. That is until....UNTIL I noticed the box.



She had sent our gifts in an Optifast box. Optifast!! The liquid diet that both my dad and Oprah lost some weight on a few years back. Of course, they have both gained back, but the point is not that. The point is....could this be a hint from on high? My mother? God? Should I be dieting? Should I be exercising? Hitting the gym?
But I like to cook. I like things with cream, and with butter. I like cookies!!
And, I just took a picture of and counted every cookbook I own...planning on making a resolution to cook one recipe from everyone of them in 2009. I was planning on a lot of cooking. Which leads to a lot of eating. Darn.

So, to counter that, I will also make a resolution to get back into walking. Every. Single. Day. If I am going to cook and eat, I have to walk. That's all there is too it.
I am an early riser anyway.... and I used to do it. I just need to get back in the habit. I like walking. It's good for a number of things. Physical health, mental health and the environment.

So there you have it. My new year's resolutions.
to cook one recipe from every cookbook I own this year.
to walk every day this year. (or 5 times a week)
and my old stand-by....send everyone's birthday cards to them on time. (big family, lots of birthdays)

And now my cookbooks (after seeing these in photos, maybe I'll add, organize to my resolution list)
Everyone always says "I have a cookbook obsession" or "I have more cookbooks than anyone person should be allowed to own". Well, I've always known....I've known that I have more, but it seemed like I was bragging or trying to jump on someone else's bandwagon, and I didn't want to do that. After actually counting them this morning, I don't think it's bragging....I think it's a sickness. I am sick. I really am obsessed.
I'm embarrassed.

Let's just jump in.....


I have 78 cookbooks on this shelf in my kitchen. 78. and 4 random little cooking magazines shoved in there.



I have 35 cookbooks on this wicker shelf and 30 assorted cooking magazines. My husband repeatedly tells me this shelf is about ready to fall over. I know that.



I have 46 cookbooks on this shelf. And 38 assorted cooking magazines.


and on this one? I have 47 cookbooks.


Among all the cookbooks, I have these notebooks---6 of them. They hold my collected recipes from 30 years of marriage, and from friends and family. They are all separated and in groups.

I have this file cabinet in my dining room....and the top drawer has a file with recipes torn out of magazines and printed off various blogs, that I have wanted to try. Also, 8 cookbooks that are new and 11 magazines that I need to go thru.

The magazines? Once a year, I go thru them and tear out recipes I want to try and then put them in the file and then if they are keepers, they go in my notebooks.
I am sick, I told you.

This brings us to....OH WAIT A MINUTE. In my pantry (right beside the lime-green tuppeware jello mold that I have used once in the last 15 years ) I have a basket of random cooking magazines. Those little ones you get by the check out counter.
I didn't count those.

Not counting those, this brings us to:
214 cookbooks
6 huge notebooks with hundreds of recipes from friends, family and Internet
83 assorted cooking magazines. (which I will throw away as soon as I go thru them one last time and pull out a few recipes from each)

And I have to make a recipe from every single one? I mean, I will make a recipe from every single one.
But the cook book of all cookbooks?

This one titled "How to Cook without a book" (and please notice my brand new--Christmas gift---cookbook holder. It's unique! I love it. Thank you my friend Robbie)

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