I have mentioned before that I love a good cookbook. Right now my baker's rack is filled with a variety of cookbooks, some very old and some fairly new. I have received many of my cookbooks as gifts, which I think is THE BEST GIFT, but I could use some new ones for my upcoming birthday. {Hint hint wink wink, honey}
If you are looking for a new cookbook, here are ten of my favorites:
1. The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl.

2. The Whole Foods Market Cookbook. Given to me by the same wonderful sister-in-law, who knows my love of foods and cooking, this cookbook has provided several recipes that I make on a regular basis: the Sonoma Chicken Salad (always a hit at church potlucks and showers); Eight-Layer Tortilla Pie (everyone loves this one-dish meal); and Mashed Potatoes with Jalapenos & Cheddar (yum yum!). Plus, I love that all of the recipes are based on whole natural foods that are healthy and flavorful. Because of this cookbook, I have ventured out and tried ingredients like quinoa, couscous, and flax seeds.
3. Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics.
My favorite Food Network cook is Ina Garten.

4. The Big Book of Potluck. My mom brought this cookbook back to me from Maine in 2003, and for many years, it set idly on my bookshelf. Recently, though, I was desperately searching for a pasta salad recipe, dusted this cookbook off, and fell in love. It has some wonderful salad recipes including a great Cobb Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette, Chicken & Pasta Salad, and, my favorite, the Big B Salad (with blacked chicken, butter lettuce, bacon, blue cheese, black beans, and buttermilk herb dressing). How can you ever go wrong with bacon? Also, there is just about every salad dressing recipe in here too. The homemade enchilada sauce recipe I make is from this cookbook. You will never go back to the canned stuff after making this!
5. Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics.

6. The Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook. I bought this cookbook from a Southern Living party {kinda like a Pampered Chef party but with home decor} and have never regretted my purchase. This baby gets pulled from the shelves at least two or three times a week simply because it has such a vast variety of recipes that have proven successful time and time again. A classic like the Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook, I started subscribing to the Southern Living magazine just to get more great recipes like the ones in this book. My favorites are the Sourdough Starter and Country Crust Sourdough Bread, Baking Powder Biscuits, Peanut Butter & Chocolate Bars, and Sweet & Sour Shrimp {I need to make this again soon, too!}.
7. Better Homes & Gardens New Cookbook.

8. Serving up the Harvest: Celebrating the Goodness of Fresh Vegetables. I typically only pull out this cookbook during the gardening season when I have fresh produce coming out my ears and need some new ideas for ways to prepare or preserve it. This cookbook is organized by growing season beginning with asparagus in early spring and ending with winter squash & pumpkins in fall and winter and I love how for each crop, there is information on how to grow, sow, cultivate and harvest it as well as different basic methods to prepare it. Right now we are overrun with the cucumbers, so I am planning on making the Raita and Quick Crock Pickles from this cookbook.
9. Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home: Fast & Easy Recipes for Any Day. I picked this up on a desk outside a professor's office one day after hearing he was giving away free books. What a prize! I couldn't believe any one would give away a good cookbook, especially a Moosewood. Like The Whole Foods Market Cookbook, this cookbook has really challenged me to find and try out new, healthy, whole ingredients in my cooking. This Moosewood cookbook features only vegetarian meals but now that we do Meatless Wednesdays, I usually look here to find a recipe to try out when I do my menu planning for the week. We love the Muffin Madness and Multigrain Muffins recipes and make them pretty often these days. Also, when we have a garden full of fresh veggies, I like to make Pasta Tutto Giardino in which I can unload the whole garden. Super rich and delicious! One of my favorite features of this cookbook is its menu option: for each recipe, there is a recommended menu to accompany it. This makes meal planning much easier!
10. My cookbook collection.
I don't remember when I started this collection of recipes, but it is filled with clippings from newspapers and magazines as well as photo copies from other people's cookbooks and handwritten recipes from family and friends. It is simply a large photo album with recipes stuck inside photo pages and organized using divider tabs just like a cookbook. Right now it is in desperate need of reorganizing, and I probably need to start a new cookbook collection. But it is very handy when I need to find a good recipe like Grandma's Sugar Cookies.
What are some of your favorite cookbooks?
This post is linked to Top 10 Tuesday at Oh Amanda!

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