Stacks of Recipes

Larry returned from the Los Angeles Central Library the other day with an eclectic mix of cookbooks for me to peruse: two books from wine country and one from Australia, a guide to eating seasonally in New England, and a book of fire-hot recipes by a Harley-riding vegetarian.

You never know what you will find at your local library. Wandering the stacks, browsing titles, flipping pages -- it stretches the imagination and opens an array of possibilities. And you can borrow the books for free. Libraries are a true civic treasure.

(I became an even bigger fan of libraries post 9/11 when librarians stood up for our privacy in the face of the Patriot Act. All those “meek librarian” cliches had to be discarded then.)

When I lived in Montreal, I walked to the Fraser-Hickson Library on Sunday afternoons, strolling past the old Portuguese men playing bocha in the park in summer, clambering over snowbanks in winter.

Now I walk to the Pasadena Central Library on my lunch hour. It's a beautiful building from the 1920s. Carved into the stone above the front steps is a quote by California poet Mary Davies "Be made whole by books as by great spaces and the stars."

While its cookbook selection is not as extensive as that of the LA Central Library (which has 39,000 books on food and drink), it has kept me entertained and inspired for years.

There are the hippie granola books from the 70s, the ostentatious picture books of the 80s, and the growing commitment to organic and local in the 90s.

I relish the diversity as I haul them home to browse through in the corners of my day. (My Aunt Colleen and I are the only people I know who read cookbooks in bed.) I imagine what a recipe would taste like, or when I could serve it. I’ll try a couple of the recipes, noting the ones I like. When the three weeks are up, I drop them back at the library. No commitment. No expense.

This afternoon I’m going to try a recipe for whole wheat bran muffins with a little cayenne pepper added. That will surprise Larry when he comes home and asks me what's cooking.