The Thing I would Save if the House was Burning

Sometime during middle school or high school I became a little bit obsessed with cutting things out of magazines. Early on it was pictures of cute boys, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, trendy Forever21 clothing and funny sayings (which my friend Raquel and I fashioned into extremely elaborate decoupage boxes), but through the years it has evolved to images that make nice additives to wrapped gifts (think:  adorable little girl dressed as a ballerina glued to a gift bag housing a tutu for my pregnant-with-a-girl friend) and (dun dun dun!) recipes. I know you are shocked.

For a while I was keeping these recipes in a box and sifting through it when I wanted to find something, but ultimately I decided it would be much easier to just flip through a book to find what I was looking for. So, I visited my local Barnes & Noble, found a small black book with empty pages (on sale for about $5 if I remember correctly) and got to work gluing and taping.

The end result is this: my DIY cookbook that is never really finished and always evolving.

The cover of the book says “Dinner” but really I just loved the way that particular magazine clipping (from Real Simple) looked. In reality, the book houses recipes for not just dinner, but also breakfast, lunch, snack and dessert. Out of all the cookbooks that I own, this one is my favorite because it includes only recipes that I have chosen to suit my particular tastes in food. I probably cook more from this little book than from any other source (in fact, this soup, this dinner, and this curry all came from the book).

Typically I rip things out of magazines while reading and then cut them down to size and tape them in during lazy evenings or weekend afternoons spent watching a DVD. But, I also keep a small binder clip in the back of the book to house recipes that are waiting to be cataloged (sounds super fancy, I know!). It probably sounds silly, but this little book is pretty dear to me and I would be really sad if something happened to it. It sort of feels like a pre-family heirloom that my great-grand something will be cooking their Christmas pie out of one-hundred years from now. (Gosh, that is dramatic!)

Anyway, here are some of my favorite recipes from the book, which I’m sure will find their way to the cyber-pages of this blog in the days and weeks to come! 

A page devoted to citrus:
 lime in the coconut drumsticks & mini lemon and lime pies.

THE BEST butternut squash salad. I will be sharing this sometime soon.

Slow-cooker pulled pork tacos. Simple & delicious!!

Cheeseburger Skillet Pie.
The Worst Cook Ever could impress with this meal

Lemon Cream Pie w/Gingerbread Crust.
This is essentially the equivalent of heaven for me - lemon and cream. 

This is an economical and fun project to work on, and I hope you will consider starting one too! If nothing else, it helps you de-clutter your magazine stash and keeps your hands busy while you watch TV. 

Enjoy your Wednesday! :)



p.s. Many of the recipes come from Real Simple, Rachael Ray & Martha Stewart Living, but I don't discriminate either!