WFMW - Sorting Cookbooks

I have a cookbook obsession, I love to cook, I love to try new things, and my MIL would hate me if she did not love me so much because she says that everything new I try works, and looks just like the picture in the cookbook. She exaggerates of course, but you get the idea!

But my cookbook bookshelf is FULL! (The movers even commented on the sheer number of books we own!) I buy them, people give them to me, they are fundraisers....I have a cookbook from the synod of the church denomination I grew up in when they raised money to help others, from the church my husband's aunt and uncle attend, the one my maid of honor attended, the 4-H group I grew up in, along with a whole host of others. The problem is that my bookshelf is overflowing. Alarmingly so. Plus, the file of to be tried recipes from magazines and the web is 3 inches thick. Then there is the stack of Kraft Magazines, Gourmet Magazines, Bon Appetite Magazines, Fine Cooking, and Cooks Illustrated (I just pick up the ones that interest me, usually at Costco where they are discounted).

It is time for some kind of intervention!

So here is my plan.

1. I no longer print out recipes. I can save them as PDF files to my computer. I go through my recipe file once a month or two with the "slash and burn" mentality. If it no longer sounds good, I delete it!

2. Pick one cookbook that really did not work out for me because it really only had a hand full of good recipes, that is a candidate to be passed on or put in storage because it is a great reference book and I cannot quite part with it yet. Once I have picked this cookbook I mark every recipe I want to try and work through it, trying to fit in two or three recipes a week depending on what is on sale and our schedule. If I like the recipe I type it up into the cookbook compilation I have on my computer, if not I move on and do not think about it again.

3. If it is in a magazine or online, I try it, if it is good, it goes into the computer cookbook, if not I just toss it into the recycling.

4. I try to use the slash and burn method to go through magazines and such as well to cut down the leaning tower of potential great recipes.

So far I am making some progress, but there is a long way to go yet....

....And Williams Sonoma Cakes is calling my name.....

So, getting through my "to be tried" pile of recipes and making room for new cookbooks most certainly works for me!