This is a silly rant.

I realize there are more important things to talk about on a blog, but I really need to vent my aggravations towards modern cookbooks right now.

Being a conscientious omnivore has its serious setbacks - including that, for the most part, cookbook-searching is limited to vegetarian publications. I can't just round up a side of beef or a few chicken breasts for an evening, so my recipe selection more often involves tofu and cheese.

Sometimes the cook calls for items that I do not have. A cast-iron skillet, for example, or a pizza stone. Sure, you can do without these items, but you're left feeling a little like your food will turn out mediocre instead of how good they say it will.

The problem with most cookbooks is that they are written by well-intentioned cooks. Maybe this is obvious, but I am not a cook. Therefore I do not have access, as cooks do in big cities, to the variety of international ingredients often gracing the pages. True, these recipes often sound delicious and I would love to try them out, but I'm not roaming all over God's creation to find these items. 

Furthermore, many recipes call for a very small amount of a certain ingredient - say fresh cilantro. Cilantro, where I live, does not come in 1/4 cup servings - it comes in a bunch weighing about .5-1 pound. Most of it, sadly, ends up going to waste. You can only have so much dried herb, and that's if you remember you have a pound of herb in the fridge before it goes all black and gross. 

These two factors - the not-easy-to-locate ingredients and the ones that will sit around in a house like mine - frustrate me if for no other reason than because on a limited budget, wasting food makes me nauseous. We are a simple people. We want simple recipes. Something like, "50 Ways to Eat a Potato" or "50 Ways to Eat a Noodle." Something written by people who do not get paid to cook - who work all day and want something healthy but easy to make and simple ingredients-wise. Maybe a cookbook where there are two or three recipes in a row that use most of the same ingredients so you can be sure to use everything. 

Someone like myself also needs an easy introduction into other types of food groups. Growing up, we had pasta, pan-heated vegetables, and meat - usually meatballs, pork-chops, or chicken breasts. This did not prepare me for something like "frisee salad with lemon-miso dressing." It sounds good, but upon reading the title, I couldn't tell you what the hell it is.

Erin is a potato and Indian food person. I am a pasta and pizza type person. I just want something with a bread factor, a tomato factor, and a cheese factor. I realize this is a terrible way to eat all the time (so I don't), but what could possible be better than these three foods together? 

I know this is stupid. I can't help it. We try to make interesting food all week long so we're not always eating the same stuff, but going through these cookbooks makes me want to tear my hair out sometimes. I suppose this is the price you pay if you want to eat healthy and keep the food choices fresh at the same time. I promise I'll keep trying.