read a lot of cookbooks as a child.  We only had five and they were like crack to me.  There was a Better Homes & Gardens cookbook from circa 1970. It was covered in clumps of dried flour (also likely from 1970) and had a prominent soy sauce stain after my childhood attempt at making rumaki. Why a seven year old wanted to make a dish consisting of chicken livers and water chestnuts is beyond me. I just knew I always wanted to order it from the local Chinese restaurant Gongs, and my mother would not allow it.  We didn’t eat chicken livers in our house. So I took matters into my own hands.  There was another book I remember well.  I believe it was zealously titled 1,802 Ways to Make Chicken Breast.  I tried cooking from that book.  I never really liked it.