Cookbook collection

[vilasman1]

I just got through reading the "how many cookbooks do you have" thread...
I am collecting the Hermes House Series
I have
Vegetarian
complete baking
glorious desserts
cooking w/herbs and spices
cooking ingredients
soups starters salads
chinese and asian
italian cooking encyclopedia
bread and bread machines
and cooking course.
I am wondering how many are in the series and are they as good as i am thinking they are.
Any who, my question... my wife and my MIL are from the get some veges, meat and a starch and some spices and mess with it and as they shake their... I guess the most Politically correct way to put it is..shake their breast in it, till it taste good. And my wife is the best cook I could find, that I could marry.
They are also the type that can go out to eat and taste the food and come home and reproduce it pretty dog gone well. I would imagine that many of you have that talent or gift... to be able to taste something and figure out whats in it. So why amass all this cookbooks?

[kitchenelf]

It's a sad, sad addiction for which I find there is no cure.

[crewsk]

I love to read cookbooks & if I find something I like in one, I play with it & make it mine. I use them mostly for baking. When it comes to cakes & other sweets, I don't mess with those recipes too much.

[AllenOK]

Reference!

It also helps to know what some of the other "well-known" chefs are doing in their restaurants. Not only that, but since we change our menu about once a month, as product availability changes, my boss needs "inspiration". Since I work at a country club, we want to impress our members, so he looks for the really "gourmet" dishes as well as exotic stuff with lots of flavor and eye candy.

My boss actually took the Rueben sandwich OFF the menu for the summer, to force the member to eat something else and try other things. Most of the members would order a Rueben sandwich after they came off the course, and never get anything else.