Obsessed with: Everyday Food

Majority of my dinners are planned out of looking at a few blogs and with my collection of Everyday Food magazines. My mother gave me a subscription in 2009 and I quickly fell in love. They clearly know the audience (which I feel is me at times, specifically - how did you know I wanted to make lemon curd??). In the past I'd buy a few issues on eBay or buy some at a garage sale or thrift store. But I truly hit the jackpot a few weeks ago. I was with my mother in law in Sonoma cruising our favorite thrift store, the Church Mouse and I was done looking at the children's books. I looked around for her and found her standing in the food book area. I offhandedly mentioned that I am always on the lookout for Everyday Food magazines and she gestured to a pile sitting on a desk. She gestured towards them the way you would point someone to the bathroom, I mean, come on! My mouth dropped open, there sat 25 issues of Everyday Food in mint condition. I gathered them up and bought them on the spot. I mentioned to her as I bought them that its nearly impossible to find Issue #1 of Everyday Food and that they go for a pretty penny on eBay. We got into the car and headed to the second Church Mouse down the road. I walked into the store and started my usual perusal of kitchen gadgets and my mother-in-law walked towards me with a huge grin on her face and in her hands were issues #1-#10 of Everyday Food. I just about screamed with delight. I quickly purchased my beloved magazines for a whopping $2.50 (@ 25 cents per issue, take that eBay!)

At home I organize them by month and carefully wrote down which issues I am missing. I recently decided to place post its on all my favorite recipes so I can find them easily. The web site does not have a good archive at all, so I find the magazine is what I gravitate towards rather than the web site. When a new issue comes in the mail I pull out my issues for that current month and keep them in my kitchen for quick reference for that month. On Sundays I use them in my meal planning for the week and create a week's worth of meals from these magazines. Yeah, its a little OCD of me to do things this way, but I love looking at the recipes for whats in season right now and I always find a new recipe in there and wonder "Now why didn't I see or even try this last year?" If you have a chance to check them out, I really recommend it. So many friends think that because it's published by Martha Stewart that it's going to be full of difficult recipes. But that could not be farther from the truth, this magazine was made for working parents and people who have about 30-40 minutes to make dinner. Well done Everyday Food, I am officially a fan for life. And for the record, I missing issues #9, #19, #25, #29, #32, #33, #34, #40 and #47.