The holidays are coming and soon, it will be time to start baking.

November marks the official start of what I call The Kitchen Season. Housewives know what I mean. From November through December, we baked and cooked our sweet little selves silly, showing love from the kitchen. A feast in November was followed by weeks of holiday baking and Christmas dinner. 

Honestly, I loved it. With a “leave me alone, I’m in the kitchen” attitude, I’d roll up my sleeves and cover myself in flour.

That said, I miss cookbooks. They’ve joined the long list of things that now live online, and the digital experience doesn’t save me any time. Instead, I tumble down a rabbit hole of endless options, pop-up ads and clicks. 

I prefer the old-school method: pick a cookbook, flip to the table of contents and find the recipe I need. All I want is a list of ingredients, clear directions and, if I’m lucky, a photo to inspire me. 

The only downside? Cookbook pages tend to get messy. If you invest in a cookbook stand, trust me—get one with a splatter guard.

In my kitchen heyday, I relied on two books and two books alone: “The Fannie Farmer Boston School of Cooking Cookbook” and “The Pleasures of Your Food Processor,” which carried me through 21 years of full-time housewifery. Everything I ever wanted to make was in those two books and it would take a lifetime to try every recipe they offered.

Now, when I look for a recipe online and follow the 21st-century mantra of “just Google it,” I spend more time searching than cooking. If I type in “chicken marsala,” I quickly learn that half of Europe has a version. When I finally click on one, it’s not the recipe — it’s a demand for my email, password, mother’s maiden name and zip code. I also know that in less than three minutes, I’d have found the recipe in a cookbook.

The online recipe experience isn’t all bad, though. I’m genuinely impressed by the mouthwatering parade of food photos. There’s no better proof that we’ve reached the pinnacle of career specialization than in food photography. But it makes me wonder: how does one become a professional food photographer? Why aren’t they photographing babies, families in matching sweaters or models wearing next to nothing? Who chooses food? And do they arrange what’s on the plate, or just the lighting? Retired minds want to know.

Our world is complex, and we’ve become a species of specialists. Take desserts, for example. Within this single food category, you’re faced with cakes, cookies, puddings and pies—and that’s before you even consider subcategories like wedding cakes or fruit versus cream pies. Philosophers and astronomers no longer need to gaze at the night sky to contemplate infinity. They can just do a single online dessert search.

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