Do you ever get frustrated when looking for a recipe in a cookbook but can’t ever find it? Or you think that a particular recipe is in a particular cookbook but end up being wrong?  Or do you completely live on the internet and find that you haven’t even opened up one of the many cookbooks lying on your shelf?

Well if you are the techsavvy person I think you may be then boy do I have a treat for you, what if it was possible for you to be able to see all of your favorite cookbooks online, just like a virtual bookshelf, where all the cookbooks were searchable and cross-referenced by ingredient and keywords.

That could be pretty cool… Right?

Well then let me introduce you to Eat Your Books.

Eat Your Books is a place where people who love to cook can come and cook their favorite recipes from their favorite cookbooks.  You can browse and find your favorite cookbook authors and their cookbooks with ease.  Eat Your Books (EYB) has indexed over 800 of the major cookbooks, which is more than 200,000 recipes, and are updating everyday.

As a EYB member you can virtually create your own bookshelf, called My Bookshelf,  with your favorite selected cookbooks.  If you find that you have trouble locating a certain cookbook then you can make a request for it online.  The easy thing is that all of the books can be searched for recipes by the recipe name, the ingredients it uses, the book it’s from, or the author.  You can even create your own shopping list that coincides with the chosen recipe.

This tool can really come in handy if you have a ton of cookbooks and are looking for that particular one.  Although it cannot take the place of sitting down at the coffee table with a nice cup of joe reading your cookbook, it could possible help in finding a certain recipe that has been lost and not found in months.

To use the service it will cost $25 per year, or you can buy a lifetime membership for $50.  Not bad if you think about it, a virtual cookbook shelf right at the tip of your fingers!

How do you feel about Eat Your Books? Does this interest you?

Though we all already know about the sudden ending of the notorious Gourmet magazine, we are all wondering what is next for all of the fabulous writers, editors and tasters at the magazine, especially known other than Ruth Reichl.

Well, do not fret guys because Reichl will not only be continuing the book tour for the new cookbook “Gourmet Today,” before she commences on writing her own, and on Oct. 17, the public television show “Gourmet’s Adventures With Ruth” debuts.

Reichl states “It was exciting to be able to change the magazine into something that has a conscience and understood that eating is an ethical act,” she said. “When I got here the staff had a real appetite for doing that.”

Although sad and exhausted Reichl also states that “This magazine invented the epicurean category in the U.S.,” she said. “You read the magazine and you get a picture of America through its food. For almost 70 years it chronicled what America was like. My little piece of it was just at the end.”

Are you one of those people who tags and bookmarks all types of recipes in your cookbooks or magazines?

I know I am….

If you walked into my kitchen you would find all my cookbooks have either ripped out colored paper or colored sticker bookmarks sticking out of them on every side.

The only bad thing about all my colorful bookmarks is that it doesn’t let me know what categories each of the recipes belong in which is a bad thing.

But check this little nifty creation out…. The Chef Set.

The Chef Set allows you to not only bookmark your favorite recipes but to also be able to see them in different categories (appetizers, meats, vegetables, seafood, and so on).

You can purchase them for $5.95 at Spoon Sisters.