Cookbooks not just for the kitchen

I love curling up with a bedtime book, but I prefer slipping through the pages of something spicier than a romance novel.

Give me a cookbook.

Nothing prepares me for sweet sleep than recipes for rhubarb and pictures of pie. Even if I know I'll never prepare a recipe, I read with delight each measurement, every serving suggestion.

I especially love the little stories that authors sometimes include. A cookbook from my hometown celebrates one grandma's lifetime of cooking by showing how each dish was made – and by dishing up stories behind each casserole and meat pie. Several recipes come from her time cooking for the local jail. (Her husband, the sheriff, sacked her after realizing how good the inmates were eating). And another recipe is somehow tied to a story about a snake getting loose from a traveling circus.

Those printed words taste just as sweet as any cookie or cake.