$91.64

Is exactly how much I spent on six, yes six, spanky new cookbooks that were on sale at Chapters today. I love that Chapters always has a huge table full of remaindered cookbooks. Sometimes its full of boring crap, but occasionally you can find something really cool for very cheap. Take, for example, this copy of Stephanie Alexander and Maggie Beer's Tuscan book that I bought for $9.99!

Or this sweet compendium of 200 bitsy bitesy foods for $7.99! I already made the mini polenta muffins out of it, which were just perfect for our midafternoon, impromptu backyard picnic.

Or this jewel, betwixt the pages of which lurk all manner of strange and wonderful recipes. For example, I can't wait to make the Sausage Filled Prunes or the Spam and Pickle Loaf! (just kidding) I swear I should have been a fifties housewife. I could have satisfied my love for gelatin in all sorts of colourful ways with frozen veggies and lime jello! Who knew you could make a whole filling family meal out of spam, Bisquick, apricot jam, mustard and cloves? Or that you could make a passable substitute for a crown roast of lamb by slitting hot dogs and standing them upright around a mound of sauerkraut?

I did pass up a copy of Strange Foods, but I think I will have to go back and get it, despite the photos of barbecued baby mice. I really just want to see what the hell they cook in the chapter entitled "Urine".

Comments

[anthony]

Crafty shopping, I just can't bring myself to spend big bucks on cookbooks (although a couple of exceptions). My faves are second hand ethnically focussed cookbooks.

Oh and BTW apparently if you drink urine, your asparagus will smell like piss. True.

[tara]

I bought nibbled on sale as well! I couldn't resist the mini presentations and interesting flavour combinations.

[Jena]

Have you seen James Lileks' "Gallery of Regrettable Food"? You can find a link to it at lileks.com. He's taken most of the best photos/descriptions and put them in the book, but there are still pages in the web version that make me snort out loud.

[megwoo]

Oooh, I hope you'll participate in our Virtual 40's-70's Party this weekend!! Spam and Pickle Loaf would be perfect!

http://www.iheartbacon.com/index.php?id=176
http://www.iheartbacon.com/index.php?id=277

[Zarah Maria]

My favorite past-time - spending money on cookbooks! I wish I would spend more money on quirky ones like that retro one, but I always stand there with something Jamie Oliver/Nigella Lawson/Donna Hay "standard" in one hand and the quirky one in the other - and end up going for the standard one, thinking I'd never make something from the weird book. But we all know that cookbooks are not just for making food from, they make for GREAT reading too! I'm just so unadventurous! (Or maybe I'm just stingy, ha!)

[Ana]

Dn't you just love Chapters and their remaindered cookbooks? I bought six the other day at prices between 7.99, 9.99, and 15.99. I always have to refrain myself otherwise I would end up with tons of books.