.............I was standing in my kitchen this afternoon, putting away recipe cards that I get in the mail twice a month, into their looseleaf binders, wondering if I was ever going to acquire the entire set. I have been receiving these recipes for three or four years now and am certain that I should have the whole set by now. But, I don't. So, I'm done putting them into the binders and go to put them back into the drawer that they live in, only to find I need to rearrange the drawer. This isn't really that big of a deal, I only have the two big binders, two recipe boxes and about five or six small paperback cookbooks in this drawer, so I get that task done rather rapidly.

.............I walked into the living room, only to notice that the cookbook I had been looking at this morning is still sitting on the coffee table. So, I pick it up and go back to the kitchen to put this away. Piece of cake, you say? Of course you do, because I had just rearranged the drawer with all the cookbooks in it. Wrong. This book goes in the cupboard above the sink on the top shelf. Now, this shelf is not the neatest shelf in my house. Not all of the cookbooks fit right, so some are stuck in front sideways and some are laying on top of the ones standing. This book went in sideways. But as I was contemplating on where to put the book, my mind had started calculating the amount of cookbooks in the cupboard and the drawer.

.............I quickly shake this thought out of my head and head for the computer room. But as I walk into the room I notice the books sitting on the shelves in there. Oh my god! More cookbooks. I am not kidding you. Am I obsessed? Obsessed with cookbooks???? Do I need to join a self-help group? Is there a self-help group for people who collect cookbooks??

.............So I start to mentally count the books. By just estimating, I figure I have at least 75 cookbooks. If I started now and picked a recipe from each book for every meal, by the time I died I would still have not gotten through all of my recipes.

.............Does one person need this many cookbooks??

.............And as obsessions go, this really isn't a bad one, is it??

.............I love getting cookbooks as gifts. You'd be surprised, not once have I gotten the same book.

.............I have books on canning, cakes, pies, cookies (lots of cookies), main dishes, side dishes, drinks, candies, etc. I even have a replica of the old Fannie Farmer cookbook. That one is a hoot to just sit down and read for fun. "The evening meal must be healthy and hearty and on the table when your husband returns home......" Give me a break. I laughed soooo hard when I read that. If I had dinner on the table when my husband walked in the door every night he'd have me shipped off to some psychiatric hospital. I'm lucky if I get dinner on the table before we go to bed. Especially in the summer. Just the way I was raised. We never ate at a specific time. This really freaked out alot of my friends.

.............My two very favorites out of all my cookbooks are Farm House Cookbook and Cookies for Christmas. I use the cookie book all year round. Just because it says Christmas doesn't mean that these cookies are just for Christmas. It has a gingersnap cookie and a great sugar cookie recipe that I make all the time. One of my other favorites in the book is a cookie called Sandbakelser. It has butter, sugar , egg and flour in it. And you can put in whatever flavor of extract that you want. And if you double the recipe it makes a ton of cookies. Which in my house do not last very long so I have to double the recipe. A single recipe of cooke dough is called dessert around here. Because that's about how long they would last.

.............The Farm House cookbook is really cool too. It has recipes for canning and vegetables and breakfast, lunch and dinner. I use the tomato sauce recipe in it to can tomatoes and it has a great gravy recipe for biscuits and gravy. I've never screwed it up. And if you saw most of the gravy I made, you would think that it's a miracle that I've never screwed it up.

.............I also have this really cool cake cookbook. It's called 'A Piece of Cake'. It teaches you how to bake every cake imaginable from scratch. So when I'm feeling creative, and have the time, which isn't often, and want to make dessert, I sometimes try some of the simpler cake recipes. They have all turned out well. Of course the frosting job is not as well done. I have never gotten the knack of frosting or decorating a cake. Maybe, I just haven't learned to be patient yet.

.............I do know, however, that my very first cookbook was a Nancy Drew cookbook. Which I still have. And I still, on occasion, use. Ssssshhhh, don't tell anyone.

.............I also have some cookbooks that were my grandmother's. Some of them are marked with items that she has substituted things for. I write in my cookbooks too. I've underlined things I've made, starred things I want to try some day and written down things I've added to recipes.

.............Not all of my cookbooks are just page after page of recipes. Some have wonderful stories, poems and anecdotes in between the recipes. These are some of my favorites. After all, a good book is very enjoyable to read, so why not make cookbooks enjoyable also? You never know what you may miss if you don't read through one.

.............Some day I hope to pass on my cookbooks to someone in my family who will enjoy them as much as I do. And by then, who knows how many I will have.

.............So am I obsessed? Yes, I believe I am.

.............When did my obsession with cookbooks start? I don't really know.

.............Do I think I need help? Probably not.

.............And if anyone is ever looking for a particular recipe, feel free to call and ask. Chances are, I have one.