Back to the cookbooks - I just picked a few off my shelf to talk about -

1. The 100 Best Tapas - these are very simple recipes and all are listed in English and Spanish and there is a picture for each one! Did you know that Tortillas in Spain are an omlette/potato item? Here in Texas a tortilla is a bread substitute and we joke that we can go for days eating everything in a tortilla and not have to use silverware! Anyway a Spanish tortilla (pronounced Tor-tee-ja) has sliced potatoes, onions, cooked omlette style in olive oil.

2. Rezepte - German-Texan Culinary Art by Nevilee Maass Weaver - back when everything was Hausgemacht. This simple cookbook tells as much a story of the Germans who settled in Central Texas as it does recipes. Also included are German expressions like 'Man soll dem Tag nicht vor dem Abent loben' - One shouldnot praise the day before the evening, or 'Don't count your chickens before they hatch'. The recipes are simply written, ex.

Kohlsuppe (Cabbage Soup) - put some chopped bacon, potato slices, chopped cabbage, salt and other seasoning in a pot. Cover with water and cook till vegetables are done. (me? I need more direction than that!)

3. A Kitchen Safari: Stories & Recipes from the African Wilderness. Barbara gave me this after our group safari a few years back and it is one of the most beautiful cookbooks ever. It could be as comfortable on a coffee table as in the kitchen. As you can imagine - beautiful photos of the food, the people, and wildlife of Africa. Recipes come from a number of game lodges like Kichwa Tembo Tented Camp, Lake Manyara Tree Lodge, Ngorongoro Crater Lodge, Ngala Game Reserve and more. In addition to recipes, there are scattered pages printed on onion skin, copies of handwritten recipes or notes like

-- Fresh Tomato and Fennel Soup with drawings of each ingredient, signed by Elneck Loverboy Mabumda

-- A note to the Maintenance Team: The baboons came to the kitchen this morning and broke a wondow, so can you come and fix it please?

4. Round the World Cookbook: 200 recipes from 30 foreign lands I found this in my mother's collection with the inscription 'Best Wishes to Anita from Dot Smith. 1944.' Maybe a shower gift. Under Australia is a recipe for Sweetbread Supreme! The Mexico section has Chicken Mole with: wide chilies, brown chilies and narrow chilies! South America is all rolled into one section with no distinction as to what country a recipe came from. It is filled with sweet little line drawings and has a wooden cover!

Cheers!