For the Love of All Cookbooks

I love all types of books. I guess you could classify me as a voracious reader. I also tend to buy books faster than I can read them (darn you, Amazon.com 1-Click!). There is one type of book, however, that I consistently, almost obsessively, purchase and almost never read - cookbooks. I'm addicted to them: their beautiful glossy pages, perfectly stylized photographs of succulent creations, dishes I'd love to be able to whip up after a long day at the office and look as though nary a sweat was broken. But, alas, I'm a flipper. I tend to only turn each page slowly and sigh, knowing the only pleasure I will ever produce from the book is the thought that maybe someday...

My tennis coach used to tell me, "If you want to become a better tennis player then play with someone better than you." So today I thought, "Yes, I will start to cook with cooks better than me!" I will bring those beautiful cookbooks down from their shelves, crack open their formerly only-once-or-twice-cracked spines and commence the next level of my education. Not that I'm a bad cook, by any means, I simply want to broaden my culinary horizons. Greatly. So tonight I have decided on Alice Water's Long- Cooked Lamb Shoulder. Except I'm going to change it to Sheri's Short-Cooked Lamb Shoulder and do it in the pressure cooker, because really, we do work during the day. But I promise I'll adhere to the rest of the recipe.