I have two versions of Betty Crocker, too, and the early Betty Crocker is what my mother cooked out of most (and still does). It's excellent for cakes and cookies. One of the cookie categories is "Beau-Catchers (and Husband-Keepers)." The later editions are more enthusiastic about processed foods.

just find cookbooks exhausting

But the narrative! Seriously. Recipes are to cook from, cookbooks are to read. It's like my Cake Bible. I learn so much more about baking from the cookbook than I would from individual cake recipes from different people.

I wish I cooked more, so I could justify my CI paper subscription, because I love the articles and the talking about cookery. But instead I just flip to their website and rarely click on the collateral links, and later feel like I missed out.

I'm just exhausted by them right now. I'm cooking thanksgiving this year, and I don't feel like looking at all the books to see what's the best/easiest/whatever of all the recipes. I know, I know, I'll end up using CI for most of it. But what if Good Food has something cheaper/faster? Or my entertaining book has a timeline for prep?

Recipes are to cook from, cookbooks are to read.

This! My cookbooks aren't even in the kitchen any more, I moved most of them to the bedroom bookshelf.

For turkey, which is not my job this year as I have NO KITCHEN, I like Alton Brown with a side of Cooking for Engineers.

I like a lot of the Real Simple recipes, especially holiday stuff.

I started collecting my favorite cookie recipes a long time ago, and then started a recipe binder. I like my baking books -- Nigella's and the Magnolia Cafe one Perkins got me -- for browsing and reading, but everything else I'd rather have written up or printed off.

I don't web-source many recipes, because I don't trust them. And I don't have the energy to experiment--that's exhausting. Going to one source (like Bittman or the Cake Bible) I find much easier.

When I last had my fit of "proper" cooking, it was all CI all the time, and it was delish. But the "dragging" of the laptop into the kitchen got a bit tedious. Still, I do have a tablet now. I do refuse to do much more printing. I have a binder, and it is mostly clippings.

I don't web-source many recipes, because I don't trust them.

I rely pretty heavily on the epicurious reviews. If I'm not sure how something will turn out, and there's no reviews, I don't make it. I just made a squash chili [link] that I was skeptical of, but it had enough reviews, and even with tons of substitutions, turned out great.

I do a lot of cooking from the Epicurious app on my iPad - if I stick with the Gourmet sourced recipes, they're very trustworthy.

And for baking, I trust Smitten Kitchen absolutely. She has never steered me wrong.

Well, the bank thing?

Turns out that in advance of putting in the new system the bank sent me a new debit/visa card which I should have but somehow managed to not see. I'm sure it's at home.

I hope it is and that I can find it in the chaos.