One year I wrote up a cookbook of favorite and easy "primer" recipes for my daughters and made it up into a nice binder for Christmas. They still use them.

WHERE WERE ALL YOU PEOPLE WHEN I TURNED 18, HMMM???

grumblegrumble people who have families who acually cook grumblegrumble...

We were here, waiting for you to put your clothes back on ;)

very cool idea glatt!

Nice. :)

Naked chef?

there are a lot of lovely cookbooks, and I buy too many. But every household should have an all purpose cookbook like Joy, or like the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, so you can look up how long to cook a turkey or how long to soft-boil eggs.

Gotta keep this one close...

http://www.thestonerscookbook.com/images/home.jpg

HA! That's great. Needs more recipes.

Do YOU have one to contribute?

I'd also consider "Mastering the Art of French Cooking: Vol. 1" by Julia Child and -- Simone Beck, I think.

This is Julia Child's classic cookbook, and my mother's basic cookbook. Many of the recipes are familiar from my childhood--beef bourganon, rice pilaf, aspic (shudder); pate . . .

Just cut the butter use a bit. I'm going to try some of the vegie recipes--like cold vegetables a la grecque; or braised onions.

Yes! Peanut butter cookies! I won't make them from any other recipe. I also noticed that Joy of Cooking calls for a lot of butter in many of the recipes...is that true of the newer one, too? Have the recipes changed, or have they been deleted and new ones added?

I haven't compared recipes side by side, but I know that some of the recipes have been deleted and new ones substituted.

Butter is good. The only substitute (in appropriate recipes) I'd ever consider is farm-fresh lard.