I can’t be the only person who went on a cookbook buying spree this past year. Prior to the pandemic, I fell into a boring routine of salmon Mondays and Tacos Tuesdays. To break from my dinner doldrums, I would make reservations at restaurants serving a kind of cuisine I didn’t feel confident cooking myself, such as Indian or Thai food ⁠— or perhaps a nice steak. Unfortunately, with so many restaurants shuttered during this time, my ability to venture outside of my culinary comfort zone was greatly limited. Instead of giving up and resigning myself to a lifetime of Taco Tuesdays, I bought cookbooks.