Joy of Cooking--the original-- is my most used cookbook, hands down. I've gone through two until they are falling apart. Not necessarily for cool recipes, (although the chili con carne and peanut butter cookie recipes are staples) but for basic reference.

I occasionally make something from Julia Child's MTAROFC Vol. 1, Andrew Weil's cookbook (I forget the name); and the local women's club "Seasoned with the Sun" book which has a lot of Mexican/regional recipes. I have a lot of other cookbooks -- I rarely use them now. The Internet has replaced them.

Hi - 1 of my go-tos is The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I use her recipes for hummus, pesto, fruit crisp, eggplant Parmigiana & Mexican Pepper casserole (a sort of chiles rellenos) frequently. Betty Crocker's family cookbook (& Cookie Book) is also a well-worn standby for me - esp. the 1 bowl cake recipes - they are foolproof!

The Best of Bridge series.

I was getting bored with the same old-same old from my cookbooks and so now I avidly peruse the internet for recipes. I print them off and if they fail I throw out the piece of paper. I found the best lemon snap cookies on the internet, a great rolled oat cranberry cookie, some great stir-fry sauces, easy to make flavourful casserole dishes.

Like you, I most often use Ina Garten's recipes. I don't think I've ever been disappointed in one. For Mexican cooking, I can recommend Rick Bayless' cookbooks. He has recipes from around Mexico so there are lots of different taste profiles.

I'm flattered, Olliesmom. I'm just heading out to the grocery store now but will post my Posole (poh-SO-lay) recipe here for you later. And a few others, as well.

Love Ina's recipes-- all I have tried are crowd pleasers with my family
and friends. True, though, they are not generally the most healthy.
While I generally take others' recipes and adapt them for my tastes,
health interests and cooking style, I generally make Ina's recipes as
printed. They are accessible, predictable and not over wrought. Yes,
some are very calorie rich-- but I am inclined to adjust the pairings
and other food for the day to accommodate.

I have been in the
process of clearing my cookbook collection. I have given them away,
donated and sold at garage sales. I still have more to purge. I used to
enjoy reading cookbooks-- for ideas, techniques and little gems of
stories. I still love to read them but they take up too much space and I am more likely to reference the internet than a cookbook these days.

Some of my favorites for recipes/ideas (vs. photos and stories) have been the cookbooks from Mollie
Katzen, Patricia Wells, Chez Panisse, and those published by sunset magazine. For bread/baking, my go to resource are blogs and King Arthur's flour.

I am a big fan of Mark Bittman. I still use Joy of Cooking, Julia Child, some Martha Stewart cookbooks, and an old SIlver Palate book.

That said, I almost always use epicurious or the NYtimes anymore. I prefer to be able to search by ingredients and type of dish online, and then to read all the reviews and improvements.

My wheat-free friend loaned me a couple of books when we cut out the wheat.....I LOVE both of Melissa Joulwan's " Well Fed" books. If you get it, stock up at Penzey's first!

I have a great book from New Mexico called "Savoring the Southwest". It's a fun read, with art and quotes from antique newspapers.

I have many cookbooks--- love looking through them especially for dessert ideas. but, I usually have an idea of what I want to make and then look online for different recipes and select one that looks the best. I am a pretty good cook and can choose recipes well and alter if desired. I am absolutely terrible at organizing my 'favorites' tho and sometimes it takes too long to find what I'm looking for and I just end up having to find it online again!

I am SO loving this! I've been checking the cookbooks out-now to decide-there are some good ones.

Funky, I did a major downsize of my cookbooks when we moved to this smaller house-but I could use a couple of more.

blfenton, I have only found a couple of recipes online that have lived up to my expectations-but I still try.

carol, I am really intrigued by The Moosewood Cookbook. Should I get the one that has the top 250 recipes? It seems like it would have some good vegetable side dishes, which is what I need.

tish, I am getting My Paris Kitchen for sure. There was a recipe while I was looking online of steak with mustard sauce and oven baked French fries I think my family would like. I hope that recipe is in there. I would love to read that one too.

violet, I need to revisit my Joy of Cooking, I haven't looked at it in a long time.

fun, I always forget about Rick Bayless, and then I hear about him and reminded. I can't believe I never got one of his cookbooks.

MtnRd, actually the couple I have found online came from epicurious, but I didn't think to read the reviews about the improvements.

spring, "Well Fed" has great reviews! And, I have been stocking up on Penzey's!

busy, I do the same thing, but I'm obviously not a good enough cook to alter things. I do leave things out that I know we won't like, but wish I was good enough to add something in, because a lot of times the recipes I find, are really bland.

I love to cook, but don't get into baking much at all. I have two cabinets filled with cookbooks that I've collected over the year

s . . .

And use often! Here's just one of my cabs. My all-time favorite cookbook? It's so hard to choose! I love Giada's cookbooks. The Silver Palate cookbooks. The Chez Panisse Café cookbook by Alice Waters is fantastic. I've taken pictures of my three favorite New Mexican cookbooks for you. I love them. But, my Posole recipe comes from one of my dear friends whose family dates back in New Mexico to around the time of the Conquistadores, who came over from Spain.

For chicken recipes, my all-Time favorite cookbook is Chicken Cookery by Ceil Dyer. I've had it for 20 years and use it all the time.

Darn it! I'm posting this from my iPad mini and don't know how to turn the pictures the right way before they post. I'm sorry!

Ina has a Blueberry-Lemon coffee cake recipe I got from the food network site. It is wonderful & I usually don't even like lemon flavored foods!

Thanks a lot Lynn! I'm off to look for them. Can't wait to get started on a few recipes for my DH and DS-they will be my guinea pigs!

My DH volunteers at our local library book sale. He sells the leftovers online, but brings cookbooks home for me to look at. Most are priced at $2-$5. I have hundreds of them as a result. My favorites for daily living are (I am vegetarian): Bittman-- How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and others; Mollie Katzen--you should be able to find hers second hand without difficulty and I like them all; anything by Deborah Madison, especially Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone (now revised); Jack Bishop (the man who conducts the taste tests on America's Test Kitchen and Cooks Country)--Italian Vegetarian Cookbook and A year in a Vegetarian Kitchen; Heidi Swanson--Super Natural and Super Natural Every Day as well as her blog, 101 Cookbooks. I have one called the Flavor Bible, not a cookbook per se but an aid to combining foods in pleasing combinations so that if you have, for instance, an abundance of broccoli you can look up the food and see lists of compatible flavors. It's very helpful when I feel stuck in a rut food-wise. I have a large collection of Sunset specialty cookbooks as well as their large hardbound ones and use them frequently. Their first Favorite Recipes contains some of my favorite recipes.

I second the Ottolenghi books, he has a new one called Plenty More. I have just sent for the new America's Test Kitchen Vegetarian cookbook, out on Mar 1.

Lynn--one of the books I have here for consideration is the Santa Fe Recipes one you mention. Do you have a favorite recipe(s) to recommend? I remember the Silver Palate books fondly, but haven't used them for a long time.

I should probably seek employment in a cookbook bookstore.

Sara

My two favorites are Maryana Vollstedt's Big Book of Soups and Stews and Big Book of Casseroles. I also use the Lean and Luscious cookbooks (I have 3) quite frequently, but they are no longer in print. I do adapt those recipes though to be less processed and more natural. My vegetarian GF recently got the Chopra Center cookbook and she's very pleased with it. I took a look and it looks interesting. I too frequent online sites for recipes, esp those that are rated. If a lot of people have given it 5 stars, I figure I'm more likely to like it and less likely to screw it up.

My go-to's are Joy of Cooking ... I used to be afraid of it lol but then I realized it is full of basics and quick-n-easy meals, as well as more detailed instructions and recipes ... And Pease Porridge Hot, one of those fundraiser books. It's from our "drop-in center" for young children, so some of the recipes are very family-friendly and busy-mom-fast ... And Menu Mailer from Saving Dinner! Weekly menus with shopping list and recipes saved our mealtime from "mom, are we having chicken or fish with the rice and peas tonight?", words spoken by my 7-year-old. And now I can improvise and cook-on-the-fly. Oh, that 7-year-old is now 21, and on moving into his apartment he said he was intimidated to cook because of having two parents who are good cooks. Me? Wow! I gave him a couple of Menu Mailers.

Another wonderful cookbook is Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking by Marcela Hazan. It's got a great recipe for chicken stuffed with lemons. Sadly, I lent my copy to a "good friend" and never was able to get it returned.

Withoutanh: in my Santa Fe Recipe cookbook, my very favorite recipe that I make a LOT is on page 249: The Shed's Ensalada de Garbanzos (Garbanzo Salad). They serve it as a side with most of their dishes and we love it. Quick and easy to make. Delicious and very healthful, too. The only substitution I make ( or that they conveniently forgot-LOL) is fresh cilantro instead of parsley. Other favs (and there are many) are Francisco's Steamed Mussels, Rancho Encantado's Wild Rice with Pinons, The Shed's Huevos a la Mexicana and their Carne Adovada. OK, all this has gotten me very hungry!

I can second the Hazan recommendation. In have several Moosewood cookbooks and one that I like for quick and healthful is Moosewood Cooks at Home. I also like the recommendation above for Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. There is an Asian flavored eggplant dip that I make several times every summer, it is one of my favorites. There is also a rhubarb custard tart in the book that is well received when I take it places.

I highly recommend checking your local library for cookbooks. I always check out at least one cookbook every visit and try one recipe. I really like trying new recipes. I love the Moosewood series, the new classics is great. Mark Bittman's books are wonderful. The Eat Local Cookbook is small but has some lovely recipes that have become family staples.

I love the Ottolenghi Jerusalem cookbook, as well as Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Italian Cooking. And, yes, we make the chicken stuffed with lemons recipe, too. It is the simplest, best roast chicken ever! We cook Spanish food frequently, and love anything by Penelope Casas, but most of the dishes on our regular rotation come from her book, Delicioso!

I also have the New Mexico recipes cookbook-- and Lynn has sparked me to go pull it out of the "get rid of pile". It's been 17 yr (eek!) since I took my grand new mexico trek and my tastes and cooking style has changed. I am sure there are many great recipes I haven't yet tried -- like the garbanzo side dish! Yum!

Also love the Hazan cookbooks. An old italian boyfriend gave it to me along with a great olive oil as one of my gifts our first Christmas together.

Love Mark Bittman-- and his viewpoint I usually see his recipes via NYT but I'll have to seek out one of his books

(See what this has done? Now I want to not only keep my remaining cookbooks-- I want to buy more! So much for downsizing!)

Lynn, the recipes in Santa Fe Recipe cookbook sound delicious-I think I had to order a used one-couldn't find one new, but that's ok to me.

Great! Hope you enjoy it, OM.

I still use my old Joy of Cooking (now working with two---an old and a relatively updated one) and still have my old Silver Palate cookbook. Although I haven't used the Silver Palate in a long time, that Mediterranean Chicken was my go to recipe for years. Too many, probably!

Love Craig Claiborne, James Beard and current fave is the New York Times Cookbook, which I've been using for ten or 11 years. But for new recipes I mostly troll the Internet, like everybody else.