Nervous with a new cookbook

Lest you think being nervous is something that applies only to my cooking, let me confess to also being: a speed-limit driver, a noticer of newspaper bylines, an on-time-library-book returner, and the type of person who reads every word of every instruction manual that comes with every new piece of electronic equipment.

That is all to say that yes, I'm the type that reads cookbooks cover to cover. You know, just to get a feel for the thing before diving in.

I mean, I read everything in a cookbook: editor's notes, dedications, nutritional information, sidebars, substitutions, the whole kit and caboodle. You'd be surprised how much you learn about a cookbook author by reading his or her work as though it were a novel. Although, I guess a novel isn't the right comparison -- autobiography is more like it.

My latest used-cookbook purchase is Healthy Cooking for Two (Or Just You), by Frances Price, R.D. I picked it up for $13 at Powell's Book Store in Portland, Oregon, this weekend, and it was fully dog-eared by the time our plane landed in New York's La Guardia airport. I now know that the author once owned a successful restaurant in Virginia, that she is twice divorced, that two of her daughters are vegetarian and that she's not above "borrowing" other folks' recipes, trimming some of the fat and turning them around for waist-watchers like me (I know, eye roll).

I also learned that there is a typo on page 1, that Baltimore has had farmers markets since 1751 and that I am really excited to finally be able to cook based on an exact recipe, rather than halving the usual "Serves 4" situation.

Stay tuned for more nervous misadventures with a new-to-me cookbook…