Over the years, my love of collecting cookbooks has gotten out of hand. I’ve let go of a few of them, but for the most part, I can’t part with them because they hold memories of trips, restaurants, recipes I made when our daughters were small…there seems to be a compelling reason to keep every one of them.

Years ago, having 3 daughters and lots of art created by them, I started tucking their artwork into the pages of my cookbooks, knowing that one day, I would open the cookbook and out would fall a sweet memory. Lately, since I’ve been cooking more often, these precious little memories from years past have been turning up more often. It’s one of the things I love most about my cookbooks.

I’m not sure if you could call me a true collector, because I don’t go out of my way to find vintage or out of print cookbooks, I just buy what I love. I do have a vintage copy of Julia' Child’s Mastering the Art of French cooking that my daughter Rebecca gave me for Christmas several years ago. One day, maybe I’ll find the time to work my way through it and learn a little more about French cooking, but for now, I love to see it on my bookshelf and know it’s there for when that time comes.

So many of my cookbooks have a bit of sauce or strawberries, or remnants of dinner on them and it makes me love them all the more and gives them a patina that a new cookbook just doesn’t have! It means that they’ve been well used over the years!

Cookbooks serve as little time capsules depicting cultural food trends, and for me, my memories of wonderful times in my life!

Here are a few of my favorite all time cookbooks…what cookbooks do you love?

I hope you’ve enjoyed by trip down memory lane this morning! What are your favorite cookbooks?