It all started when seven Biba Caggiano cookbooks began arriving at my door. What started, you wonder? The day of reckoning with all cookbooks already inside the door, plus a super hoard of old magazine issues of Bon Appetit, Gourmet and other food related publications, acquired over years.
If you are a “foodie” like me, you will open up a magazine, see one or two great recipes inside, and then tuck the magazine away for future use. The problem is that I had a burgeoning stash of these boxed away in the garage. Once boxed, they were rarely seen or glanced at again. As a “foodie,” it has been difficult parting with those. I look upon recipe books and cooking magazines with the same reverence some folks do sacred text.
However, on the first rainy day this week, I came up with a solution. I brought the boxes into the house, and placed them next to the couch in the living room. I shoved a movie into the Blu-Ray, and beginning to open the covers of each old issue one by one. When I found a recipe inside that I deemed worth keeping, I cut it out, and put it aside. There were dozens and dozens of these cooking magazines, so it took awhile.
Once I had retrieved and clipped all recipes of interest to me, I brought them into my computer room, and began scanning, and saving as files to a folder. The beauty of this method is they are now all indexed, so I can easily retrieve a recipe, when I want and need it.
As for the Biba Caggiano cookbooks however, they are sitting in a place of honor on the top bookshelf in my pantry. My interest in her wonderful recipes began a couple weeks ago, when having lunch with fellow ActiveRainers, Elizabeth Weintraub and Cathy McAlister. The gathering spot was Biba’s Restaurant here in Sacramento. Biba Caggiano is well respected as a primier Italian cook, who has produced several cookbooks and appeared on television shows over the years.
There will be no cutting and dicing up of her special publications. That procedure was devoted only to the overflow of magazines out in my garage.
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