Recipe Sources and Inspiration

"Where did you get the recipe?" people ask me.  Much of my culinary inspiration comes from foods I ate as a child--pork chops and sauerkraut, meatloaf, angel food cake and apple pie are all foods I've given modern twists to.  Food T.V. gives me lots of ideas and Pinterest is always a great place to find some inspiration when I'm in a rut.
While Pinterest is great, and food blogs are fine (yeah, here I go putting myself down a little), I want recipes with lots of reviews that I know have been tested.  Here are a few of my favorite places to find great recipes.  I've rarely, if ever, been let down by them.

• Serious Eats 
• Pioneer Woman
• Epicurious

The three of these sites are my most frequent go-to sites.  Epicurious has a great recipe box feature that allows you to save all your favorite recipes.  Out of the three of these I find they are the most hit or miss, but they are cataloging recipes from over ten years so I give them a little leniency.
As far as books go I find myself returning to the following most frequently.

• How to Cook Anything, Mark Bitmann
• Ad Hoc, Thomas Keller
• Betty Crocker
•  The Bon Appetit Cookbook

I may not always cook a recipe from these sites or books, but they're a great stepping off point.  As a side note, if you need a great gift for pretty much anyone How To Cook Anything and the Betty Crocker cookbook make wonderful, versatile gifts.  I usually have a copy of each in my gift storage box for easy gifting.