For years, I've bemoaned the fact that I have no central index for my large collection of cookbooks.  I decided to search the web to see if any anyone else had this problem, and perhaps a solution. I searched "cookbook indexes" and immediately found my answer here.  The answer is ingenious and I don't know why I did not think of it myself. It's as simple as creating a collection in Google Books (by scanning or typing in ISBNs) and searching within that collection. Many Google Book titles include the table of contents and index of a book, even ones still in copyright. What's more, in some, you can view and print entire pages  in the search results. 

     I was able to export a spreadsheet of all the books I'd already scanned into LibraryThing, including the ISBN. After deleting from the spreadsheet all but the cookbooks (by first sorting on the Tags column), I re-sorted on ISBN in order to separate those with ISBNs from those without them. I copy and pasted all of the ISBNs (as a column) into the box that Google Books provides for searching on ISBNs or ISSNs. When I ran the entire list against Google Books, some ISBNs were not found. I then redid the search in smaller batches of 20 books so I could check the hits against my spreadsheet and identify those missing hits. (Results list includes the title of each hit.)  Here is the resulting collection.  Alas, it cannot be sorted alphabetically by title or author, which sucks, but I suppose the presumption is that you should not need to so since you can search to locate book innards.
    It's a facinating event. To be able to ask the question, "Now which book had the turkey burgers with the jalapenos?" or "Where is the recipe for the African inspired chicken stew I made three years ago?"   I often use Epicurious, MealsMatter and Google for searching specific recipes or ingredients. They are lifesavers, to be sure. But I love cooking directly from an open cookbook with its spattered pages of meals remembered from years ago.

2 cups buttermilk

     Buttermilk is one of those "most wasted" ingredients in my kitchen, one that gets thrown out after using a half a cup for a recipe. It's typically not sold in quantities smaller than a quart so buying enough for a single recipe means there is always more than half a quart remaining. Who actually drinks buttermilk anyway? No one I know. The only person I've ever known to drink buttermilk regularly was my grandmother on my father's side. I do not know why she drank it. I do know this was way before the yogurt craze.
     What to do with leftover buttermilk? It lasts a long time, so fortunately, you can procrastinate about what to do with it. But my handy-dandy reverse engineering methodology kicks in well here. I decided to search on the entire phrase "2 cups buttermilk" with the assumption (and understanding) that this is exactly the format a recipe would use. I wanted a recipe (or two) that used a LOT of buttermilk. I hated to throw it out. What's more, I had the entire quart to use because my original intentions had dissipated into the ether of my memory. I think I wanted to make a cornbread recipe that used it, but then I forgot about it. So I ditched that inspiration. It had passed. I needed a new raison d'etre for the this entire quart of buttermilk.
    So to My Library in Google Books I went. The search results were encouraging. Every time I do this, I am amazed at the variety of recipes that incorporate a single ingredient. Most unusual, and perhaps a bit unappetizing, was a Chilled beet soup. I suppose I should not knock it until I've tried it. And it certainly looked pretty in the picture (of my book... it was not viewable in the online version.) Pancakes, waffles, and muffins (i.e. doughs) are apparently the predominant class of food that incorporates mass quantities of buttermilk. And cold soups run a close second.
     Ultimately, I selected an iced buttermilk concoction flavored with fresh orange zest and juice, and a wheat bran cereal muffin recipe.
     Tangy Orange Iced Buttermilk is insanely easy. It consists of just 3 ingredients: 2 medium oranges, 3/4 cup sugar and, you guessed it: "2 cups buttermilk".  By far the hardest part was churning it for 30 minutes in my gelato maker. Using an electric icecream machine would be easier, but some time ago, the chilling bowl in mine flew out of my grasp onto the cement of my basement floor when I was removing it from the freezer. (Alas, goop began oozing from it and I thought that might taint any subsequent creations....or perhaps poison me and my kin.) But even though I am relegated to using the hand churn, the effort was worth it. I managed to put the base between my legs and use the other hand to hold a glass of wine, so it wasn't that much work, really.
    The iced buttermilk with oranges tastes like orange sherbert, if a bit over-sweet. I think next time, I will lessen the amount of sugar. That said, the oranges I used were super sweet and might have skewed the sugar balance. The recipe suggests a topping of Homemade Chocolate Syrup (page 88 - no preview available). So I made that, too. Very easy: sugar, water, Dutch process powered cocoa, heat.
     But I still had 2 more cups of buttermilk left. So I made Ready-bake Bran Muffins. This is one of those bran cereal recipes you can refrigerate for a couple of weeks and use what you need as you need it. This particular version came from an (ancient) 1981 microwave cookbook published by Sunset, simply called Microwave Cook Book. Probably one of the first microwave cookbooks, it contains a fair number of baking recipes. This was a time period when microwave cooking proponents believed baking in the microwave would actually be adopted. Well, as far as I know, microwave baking has never been adopted by much of anyone. No one I know bakes in a microwave! Not unless they want to eat rubbery baked goods.
     But, being an engineering cook, I saw the potential for this recipe. I looked at oven-baked muffin recipes in another book and was reminded that muffins typically bake at about 425° in a radiant heat oven. That is fast and furious so as to zap the wet glop from which muffins arise. I followed the recipe exactly (for once!) minus the appliance used to cook.
     This recipe is not visible in my Google book library (typical of these older books), but I found the exact instructions at this link on Food.com.
     You have to mix the bran flakes with the boiling water and let that cool for a bit. Then you mix the wet stuff in with that. In a separate bowl, mix the dry ingredients and stir that in (a cup at at time) until just mixed. I used raisins. I have non-stick muffin pans but sprayed them with oil anyway because it seems like my muffins always stick, and I'm too cheap to use paper muffin cups. I baked two 12-muffin pans side by side in the middle of the oven at 425° for 10 minutes then switched them (left to right and front to back.) About 8 minutes later they tested done (I have a thin metal poker I use for that, but you can use a toothpick.)
     I had room for all the dough save two more muffins. I refrigerated that remaining bit. As I got in the mood to eat a muffin for breakfast this morning, I realized I'd given all the baked ones away! None for me. So cranked the toaster-oven to 350° and split the dough between two oil-sprayed Pyrex custard cups. Then I covered them each with a square of oil-sprayed aluminum foil. They were done in 20 minutes or so. (Actually, I have no idea how long it was since I sat down to write and sort of spaced them out until I smelled them. It felt like about 20 minutes.)
     They were really fabulous.

Lentils

     My first reverse engineering recipe experience took place on Tuesday 4/5/11. I developed this method of meal planning recently as explained on my website Remembered Meals. I'm just now getting around to posting the results because, funny, work and other things crowded out my time. My personal goal is to log these as they occur, but goals are just guidelines anyway.

     Tuesday is my day to cook lunch at the hip young company where I work with 5 others. Two people each share cooking duty Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.  Tuesday is my day and I share it with Marty. On Thursdays we work from home. On Fridays,  everyone eats leftovers, but since I just work 30 hours a week (and I am ever-so grateful to be able to do so), I'm not there on Fridays.  None of us are full-blown vegetarians but we eat vegetarian lunches. It's cheaper, and fruit, vegetables, legumes, and grains are the preferred food of most everyone. 

     I like lentils and had about a cup and a half left over from 2 weeks prior, when I made Lentil Nut Loaf from the venerable Laurel's Kitchen by Laurel Robertson. I searched in my Google Books cookbook collection for simply "lentils" and received about 50 hits, some with views of the recipe, others with just a page number. But it's wonderful to be able to go to tmy own physical bookshelf, open a book up a specified page, and see a recipe with that ingredient in it!

     After about 20 minutes of checking out various recipes, online and in books, I decided to use a recipe in Biba's Italy by Biba Caggiano and make some serious adjustments. The recipe was Zampone Sausage with Braised Lentils. 

     I didn't have overnight to soak the lentils, so when I got to work at 9 a.m. I put them in a pan with water to cover plus some, and brought it to boil, then turned it off. We aim for a noon lunchtime, so at 10:30, I chopped  2 cloves of garlic (recipe called for 1),  one onion and 3 carrots (recipe called for 1.) Note that the recipe called for a pound of brown lentils and I had half that. I wanted to "fill out" the amount with other things. I wasn't going to include the meat and I did not have any celery  or parsley, and I did not use butter, either, though I had some.  I sautéed the garlic, onion, and diced carrot in about 3 tablespoons of olive oil for at least 12 minutes. Then I drained the lentils, reserving the liquid, and put them with the sauté.  To that, I added a "grabbed" amount of  dried rosemary leaves all crushed up in my fingers. It was probably about a teaspoon and a half.  I let all that cook together a couple of minutes and then put the lentil soaking water in and a large (28 oz) can of stewed tomatoes.  It still looked sort of dry so I added enough water to cover it by half an inch. I then seasoned the mix with generous sprinkling of cayenne pepper and 3/4 teaspoon of salt (more or less.)  I covered it and let it bubble for 35 minutes or so. It was still pretty wet, even though the lentils were edible by then, so I cooked it another 25 minutes with the lid off.

     OMG, it was delicious, "if I do say so myself!" 

     My cooking parter, Marty, was unable to cook with me that day so I fleshed out the meal.  I made the slaw with half a head of  cabbage,  1 peeled diced apple, 1/4 cup of raisins, 1/4 cup of chopped pecans, 1/4 cup mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of celery seed (about 1/4 tsp.) A pot of brown rice seasoned with vegetable bouillon cubes "held" the lentils. 

     It was a fine meal.