Great Kitchens: the book that started me on twitter today,)

...In case anyone was wondering.
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Other books, I´ve generally been unpacking, stacking, sorting today, onto bookshelves from their hidden boxes. I sort by theme, subject, to my mind, not by author. One shelf are sorted by either "Great Britain", "France" or "Italy", including architecture, culture, travel/living, cooking/travel; with cookbooks all together, no matter what, and just sorted by which I use most any given month.

Another shelf is sorted by particular historical novels, memoirs, and such. A further 8 shelves are sorted by miscellaneous, eclectic arrangements of travel books, women´s historical stories and memoirs, science and maths historical discoveries such as "Mauve". The rest are mostly still in boxes sorted in a closet understairs, neat and tidy, left for the kids when they get older for them. Their current books line several bookshelves and cases, ranging from bedtime stories, fairy tales, historical, usual and obscure.

My cookbooks are sorted neatly in a large closet, filled to the brim, but all organised. Most of these are obscure, old canning, jarring, Blue Ribbon state fairs, women´s organisations, coastal, sometimes handprinted recipes from books I found rummaging thru library sales, bookstore sales, and flea markets. The cookbooks I usually use take up several shelves inside the actual kitchen, including along the inside, deep window, and the tiny cupboard I keep the espresso and Prosecco glasses inside.

My handwritten recipes, from my experience of cooking, self-taught, range from bound spiral notebooks, to fancy leather bound books, to pieces of scrap paper with such delicious recipes as "Great Grans gingersnaps", and an tiny book of old recipes in Italian I got in the airport for a Euro.

So, am a bit excited to follow on twitter, and see what I learn, maybe share a thing or two. Living abroad most of my life, and in so many places, I´ve learned so much from watching others cook, sharing with new friends their recipes for making food from their cultures, and just trying. A few horrible, nasty mistakes, but surprisingly not many! If you have good ingredients, a keen interest, some time, a fork maybe a bowl and a pot or pan....and an oven or fire...it´s amazing what one can come up with to bake, stew, grill, bbq, or throw together!

I appreciate all those who´ve uploaded obscure clips onto Youtube of such as Julie Child or The Frugal Gourmet, or the "oh it´s so good" tv chef....or how their own clips of how they make this or that. I´ve tried a few videos, but still am not so good making them and uploading them whenever I get to that bit where I´ve got to edit...as I end up erasing the main parts! Then get frustrated, mad, curse, and give up...and go do something else----like watch a new recipe, or read a new book about the recipe, or the place it came from, or the people/culture it relates to in some way.

Travel, it´s in there too. Right...must.get.back.to.study! I knew this blogging, and twitter was not a good idea,)

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Paige