Welcome

I painted The Cooking Shop, pictured above, about ten years ago when I was contemplating all the various "shops" of my life, a metaphor for the way I spend my time. Of the 13 shops I painted, only this one was always Open. "Open" in this context means that I am always cooking, writing, and blogging, reading cookbooks, sharing dinners with family and friends, eating delicious food at home and while traveling around the world, and much much more. As you can see, my head is popping out of the top of the shop saying "Yum, yum..." The shop is still wide open. And my latest addition to the shop is this blog.

Welcome to Keepers: The Cookbook. It contains the same recipes as my original Keepers: Recipes Worth Keeping and many of my favorite stories. But it is superior in a number of regards. Here are some of the features:

• All the useful information comes right at the top of this blog: tips on creating the kitchen you want, pantry suggestions, and my favorite cookware, small appliances and tools.
• It is arranged in cookbook form starting with Appetizers and working through to Dessert.
• Each recipe is a separate entry. When you scroll down to the very next entry entitled Table of Contents, you will see all of the recipes listed, chapter by chapter. When you click on one, the recipe will be there. No fuss, no muss.
• You can also click on the Labels to the right to find recipes with a particular ingredient, in a particular chapter (like desserts, for example), or part of an ethnic cuisine (like Persian). As you will see, there are many vegetarian and gluten-free recipes included.
• The font is large and easy to read.
• You'll find a lot of suggestions for putting together dinners, with links to the appropriate recipes. And you'll find a number of "How to..." instructions, with the appropriate link.
• I'm continuing to add more photos to help you "see" what words can't convey.

I want to turn Keepers: The Cookbook into an e-book and perhaps into a bound book in the not-too-distant future. In both cases, I have technology hurdles to over come. But I'm game. Just look at what I've accomplished over the last two and a half years of blogging!  If you're interested in having a copy of one sort or another, please let me know and I’ll add you to the list.

Meanwhile, I am so glad you’re here. Please leave me comments and do let me know if there is anything you spot that needs fixing. I'm pretty good at that too.