So I was minding my own business today, when the new Sundance Catalog arrived.

I’ve talked before about my insane love of this catalog.  Not that I order from it very often, since I’d probably have to take out a second mortgage on my kidneys to get what I want, but I’m inspired — a LOT — by the style in those pages.

I found this inside:

It’s a set of draper’s cabinets for some insane price (like Used Car Insane) that I can’t afford at this time, but what got me wasn’t so much the cabinets themselves (though those had me drooling a little bit, too), but the display.

Do you see those books and magazines?

They’re all backwards on the shelves.

Now, I know this is fully impractical.  I mean, searching for a book when you’re not looking at the spine is like trying to remember what all’s in your refrigerator with the door closed.  You’re going to have some issues with retrieval.  But the look of it… with the much more uniform-of-color page-sides out… is much less cluttery feeling than a whole lot of books tend to be.  My collection (which is still insane, by the way), is pretty eclectic, both in size and color, and I’m thinking that something like this, for the shelves with the most often-used stuff, that is, might not be a bad idea.

I might try it with a few shelves and see how it works for a few weeks.  If I forget what I have, I’ll turn ‘em back around.  It’s a quick fix.  (And if I forget what I have?  It also probably means I have too many books, but that’s beside the point.)

So we left off the A-Z list with my baking Issues, but C…  C is always for Cookie:

I’m all about the cookies.  As anyone can probably tell by looking at the size of my hips.  But cookies are THE ONE THING I can bake relatively reliably.  Sugar cookies, snickerdoodles, bar cookies — I usually don’t screw those up nearly as badly as I do cakes, pies, or breads.

That said, there’s usually one batch in there somewhere that comes out like little brown hockey pucks.   And I’m okay with that.  Means I’m human, right?

My favorite all-time recipe is one that I got from my mom’s Better Homes and Gardens Cooky Book (the one I recently re-found in the bookstore, rereleased for this new generation of bakers).  It’s the “Mary’s Sugar Cookies” recipe, and it’s in there, if you have that book.  (Since it’s re-released, I’m probably not going to list it here, just to avoid copyright infringement.  Not that I’m above using excerpts for review purposes.  I’m just sayin’.  It’s BH&G and they have Big Hairy Lawyers.)

Actually, that whole book is nothing short of fabulous, so if you’re looking to have more cookies in your life, pick it up.  It’s cheap and great to use.  And it connects you with generations of women who have gone before, making cookies for families before we were born.  I like that.

Off to see if I can’t make the bookshelves prettier, if not less functional…