It appears I've been hoarding magazines. It's not that I wasn't aware of this fact.....it's just that I wasn't sure what I was going to do about it. Actually, I hadn't really considered that I needed to do something about it.

Until this happened.

I'm blaming it on this issue of Gourmet magazine. It's the last one. Forevah. I know, right? I couldn't believe it either. But, it's true. November, 2009 is the LAST issue of my beloved Gourmet magazine.

According to some, Gourmet is too "highbrow" for our dumbed down food culture these days. Seems we've become a Hamburger Helper society and the writings and recipes of Gourmet are no longer relevant. Huh? Not in my kitchen.

I've been "collecting" (hoarding) cooking magazines for years. According to the stacks I assembled today, about 15 years. Which means I've moved said "collection" about five times through several states and a few continents. Scary.

Scary to some, but somehow really important to me. I have gone through spurts throughout the years when I've thrown issues away. I had probably watched one of those Oprah episodes about those really insane hoarder people that can't actually live in their houses anymore from all the junk and was afraid that's who I'd become with my cooking magazines. So I guess I decided to throw out some issues because I have very few entire years of any one magazine.

Although, I have every one of these. They just started publishing, so I'm committed to owning all of them.

I have no plans of entering a 12-step program.

Luckily I collected some of these. According to my scale I should consult them much more often.

And personally, I think "Fine Cooking" sounds much more highbrow than "Gourmet". I'm just sayin.

I love the thought of this magazine, mainly because I l.o.v.e. Italy and all things Italian, but I don't ever think I've cooked one recipe from La Cucina Italiana. I should definitely change that.

For some reason, I was most diligent about keeping copies of Food and Wine and Bon Apetit than all of the others. I have no explanation for that.

I consider Gourmet, Food and Wine, and Bon Appetit the "Big Three".

But to me, they're more like BMW, Mercedes, and Lexus than Ford, GM and Chrysler. Again.....just sayin.

Like I said, the oldest edition I have is a Food and Wine from 1995. The price, even back then, was $3.95. I'm sure I shouldn't have been spending that in 1995.

But take a gander at Mr. Fine Cooking and his $6.95 price tag. I guess since I have subscriptions, I haven't been paying attention. I am now. That's steeeeeeep.

So, I sorted all of these into months. Twelve stacks. Twelve large stacks.

Here's some of what I have for the month of November.

I have 29.....yes, twenty nine.....magazines for the month of November. If I was the least bit dedicated or committed that would be a recipe per day. (minus one....I get it) But, rest assured, I'm not near that ambitious.

But I have to do something with these suckers, so other than my previous commitments to Barefoot Bloggers and TWD, anything I make will come for the pages of one of these magazines

Every month for the next twelve months.

We're not even getting into this stack.

Or the cookbooks.

Nope, not talkin about those.