Have we talked about this? I write in my cookbooks: dates, love notes to myself, substitutions, impressions. This does not strike me as odd — I write in all of my books — but I will say this: my cookbook annotations might make me happier than all my other marginalia combined. I like to flip through them and think back to the meal, the evening, heck, even the kitchen in which I last prepared a particular recipe. You can see my notes on Heidi Swanson’s Sun Toast in the picture. Here’s the toast:
I made it again today, and snapped a cast iron pan picture:
So simple, and seriously delicious. I may rub garlic on all future toast.
Somebody is excited for spring. (And so am I!) It is getting harder and harder to stay inside and read, grade, and write. A few more weeks of this pace. Just a few.
barefoot rooster 
I started writing in the margins too…mostly just so I could remember what I’d cooked, but you’re right, it becomes a journal of sorts! I’ve never made sun toast but i might hafta try now.
Isn’t that what the margins are for? I mean, how can you keep track of changes if you don’t make notes!
Love the toast, we call it “egg toast” in our house and is what Jake, my 6 year old, wants for breakfast most mornings.
Let’s hear it for SPRING!!!
I think when you leave messages to yourself, you’re making those recipes your own. They become the tried and trues you return to over and over……I also highlight in the back where the pages of the recipes I love best are.
Glad it’s almost spring somewhere….Seattle is still cool and dreary.
When you get to be as old as I am, you will love all those notes even more. I’ve been keeping notes on recipes–more often in my own recipe book of favorites –for over 30 years. My notes include the source of my recipe, guests at meals, menus, any changes I’ve made, etc.
I’ve never thought of myself as a journal keeper but I guess my recipes might qualify. My favorite recipes used to be kept in a red plaid blank book, but now I keep my favorites on the computer.
I love this. You inspire me to cook more, which I hope will one day lead to me actually cooking more — because it all looks delicious.
My god, that toast! (be still my heart). I do annotations in my cookbooks, too! Came across one the other day that made me laugh in Cooking Light Crockpot Recipes–some sort of tagine we made (had tons of prunes) I crossed out the whe recipe and wrote, “Ugh! Tastes like Old People!!!”