Company we keep.

My worlds collided today (as in, real life and blog life) as they usually do: in the kitchen.

For awhile I’ve entertained doing a blog post about the journals and notebooks I think everyone should keep. That’s right. Multiples. But while baking bread this morning, I realized that even in my brain mapping of the post, I had left out one very important journal.





These are the pages of my most used cookbook, Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I got it in December of 2009 and have seriously used it… well, a lot. It has kind of revolutionized my kitchen and now we eat homemade bread all the time. How very… uh, carb friendly of us. (Don’t judge me, Mister Atkins. I’m weak when it comes to bread.)

I’ve kept notes in the margins of this cookbook like crazy. When I first baked the recipe, how it turned out, any modifications I made, instructions on how to braid a loaf of challah the fancy way. (Because, you know, I’m nothing if not fancy.) I also mark the pages for upcoming holidays with complimentary recipes. Like fondue and pretzels (which so obviously go together).

And I’m not done yet. Two years in and there’s no end to my scribbling or love of bread in sight.

I’ve found that, since reading The Post Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook, that it works both ways. Many of my environmental lit books have recipes scribbled in the margins. Ha!

Do you scribble in your cookbooks?