The story is, I am retired. It took a couple years after the incident of retirement, but I finally found the time to organize all of my cookbooks. I counted them: I have 250 cookbooks! (Never, ever get me a cookbook as a gift. Please. Well, maybe one more . . . )

I not only counted my cookbooks, I entered the titles, publication dates, authors, and more into a database. The oldest, from my grandmother, was published in 1905. I have my mother’s cookbooks, from small pamphlets to large cookbooks, with her notes written on many of the recipes. I have the books I got before we had kids, when I was looking for “natural” foods. And then the ones I accumulated through the eighties, nineties, and oughts. The newest is dated 2009. That’s over a hundred years of cookbook recipes.

My plan is to cook one recipe from each cookbook and share the results in this blog. A big project! Join me in my journey through this shelf of books.