My first cookbook

Big news...I purchased my first cookbook this week!  I was able to spend some time with a good friend this weekend who is one of those girls that just lives "the life" - gorgeous country home with Southern touches, beautiful family, grows a garden, is getting chickens, pulled a cake out of the oven when we were there and served it up (it was a coffee cream cake and SO DANG GOOD,I was still thinking about it the next day).  Anyway, I actually went over to look at her collection of cookbooks because she had been telling me about how they were all of the farm-foods, NOT fancy, Southern-cooking variety.

I got looking through this one -

And knew that I had to have it.  There's probably lots of recipes I won't be making - like I don't anticipate myself stuffing my own sausages or making my own cheese - but the pictures were beautiful and the recipes just seemed so simple.  My girlfriend said that she loved the recipe for the Basic White Bread Dough.  Can't get much easier and better than that.

All this cookbook perusing definitely has me itching to buy more.  I have always been one to just cook out of necessity, to feed me and Brad, and while I don't dislike it, I usually don't take my time and search through recipe after recipe.  I try to pick things that are easy and not too fattening/rich.  But I have a new vision of myself getting a cookbook, sitting down with a cup of coffee and poring over it to find a recipe that sounds so good to me and then getting to work.

And because I would be remiss if I didn't post anything about my sweet girl, here she is sitting on my desk yesterday while I worked:

Is it possible that they can truly get sweeter and sweeter each day?  Because this peanut definitely does.