While I do tend to use my mom's recipes (we found a few tucked away in my dad's room a few months ago! yay!)
I also rely on The Joy of Cooking if I ever need a refresher or I'm looking for an old favorite of FH.
It's an older edition- so old it has recipes for cooking rabbit and squirrel along with the standards for cookies and stuffed green peppers.
What's your favorite cook book?
I use the website allrecipies.com when I really need to find something different or have certain ingredients that I want to use, it lets you put how many servings you need and customises the recipie for you. If you haven't looked at the site you need to at least once.
I don't use recipe books or anything. Whatever I can afford, I use and it normally works. If I have a question about something, I will just call up my mom and ask her or my stepdad. They're both great at cooking and I learned it all from them. LOL.
I've seen the site, and it's alright, but nothing like my good old book- the pages SMELL like the recipes! Open up the page for banana bread and you get a big whiff of it.
I use that book for the good old American standards.
I also have been looking into Korean cook books. Because FH's only real happy memory of his childhood is of his best buddy and his family- they owned a Korean restaurant and made him food when he went over. So, I'm learning how to make Korean dishes.
I pretty much have to piece together the family recipes by memory- I completely managed to make my mom's enchiladas! When the weather cools- we move to chicken & mole!
My husband uses "Betty Crocker" , LOL. I wish. I found a recipe online once and made marshmellows. It was quite the experience. I was a god in my childrens eyes.
I think my best recipes have come from Church cookbooks. Where all the little old ladies turn in their favorite dishes. I love those. I have betty crocker, and better homes and garden. But my church cookbook are the ones that get the most use. My grandma used to give me one everyother year at Christmas. I really need to find more.
I do use the internet as well, and my mom gets the Taste of Home magazine, she gives me some ideas out of there.
I love to cook...wish I had more time to do it like I used to.
I love using the Stuffed Cougar Cookbook; I think everyone in my family has a copy at their house.
I find I don't find myself limited to one book. I have so many and use them all. Some include Betty Crocker, Secrets of Fat Free Cooking, Pampered Chef just to name a few (I have many themed books too...Thai, Chinese, French, Mediterranean, etc). Then it is magazines...LCBO guides, Chatelaine, Good Housekeeping. Also anything online, I don't stick to a specific site, just whatever dish I feel like making and then get lots of ideas. And, I have a few cooking shows that I tune in to every now and then for new ideas. All of that on top of my fav dishes I have created or changed from existing recipes and tried and true family recipes, the ones that don't even have measurements on them passed down from generation to generation. One of the greatest gifts I got for my bridal shower was 2-3 recipes from each person attending that they love to make and eat, my sis transferred them on to cards and put it in a lovely box. It is my own personal guide book, and I know who each one came from. I have found some other people's favorites to be some of my favorites. I just love to cook and know that I can do it well. I am no chef, but I can whip up a meal, and I just can't stand having the same thing from week to week. I get bored very easily with cooking it and eating it. I think that is also why DH seems to handle my cooking better than MIL. Far more choice, a lot less grease, and properly handled food. What a concept!