The Cookbook Shelves

I went to the bookstore with Jason. Recently, due to Jason giving me a much needed break from teaching, I have fallen in love with food of all types again, and cookbooks. Therefore, the second we hit the door I happily went to camp in the cookbook section. I found three books I will be adding to the collection. Two are on making doughnuts. Now I just need to locate our deep fryer and some willing test subjects. Bwah-ha-ha!

               

While I was looking, I came across a book I thought I had. That meant when I got home, I started scouring the cookbook shelves. I was unprepared for what I found. I found a ton of memories on those shelves.

I found Wookie Cookies. This was the first cookbook I ever got for Jason when we were dating. It is cute because I inscribed it to him, without knowing he likes his cookbooks permanently mint. To his credit, he never said a word about me writing in it. I love that book.

Tropical Vegan and Vegan Soul Food are the first and second cookbooks Jason bought for me.  Right after our first date, he bought Vegan Soul Food for me because it was on my wish list, but I had bought it the day before because I wanted to impress this sexy new Chef I met. We have both copies still, a testament to the fact that great minds think alike. Jason followed that up with the Tropical Vegan book as a gift. I had a hard time finding the ingredients for it in Flagstaff, but by then it was our fourth date and I was spending a lot of time in Phoenix, anyway.

Others, like Veganomicon, How it All Vegan and My Sweet Vegan come from a time when I was the only vegan I knew. Isolated and alone, I bought every vegan cookbook that came on the market because it was a way to know that I was not alone. I have a ton of cookbooks from that time, and they have sad and beautiful memories on every page.

Now, there are many more memories. My favorite vegan cookbook is the 21 Day Kick Start to Weight Loss. Jason did all the recipes for that book and it became a New York Times Bestseller. I started teaching our local classes because he needed time off to write, and now I am the regular teacher. But every time I see that book, I remember Jason’s look on concentration as he stared at his old Toshiba laptop and typed like his life depended on it.

New cookbook memories come usually about once a week, because we add them quickly. Some will be powerful memories, and some will make less of a mark. All will be artifacts of the amazing journey I am on with the person I love the most.