Recipe Book Challenge and this Blog

A few weeks ago I overheard some talk in the office that interested me. A colleague of mine (hi Maggie) was talking about a recipe challege she was going to undertake, and how some of her friends were interested in the concept.

Basically you choose any cookery book you like and aim to cook every recipe in it over the course of the year. I think the originator of this idea is Helen Hare who blogs under The Sacred Art of Eating

I liked the idea of this. I am of the Jamie Oliver generation and back in the day I loved making a 'pukka' meal for my girlfriend and wished I had a VW camper to head off to the beach in have a impromtu barbie with my mates. Now we have both grown up a bit, have young families and take a big interest in mealtimes and the food we eat. Having said that you would probably think I would choose something like Jamie at Home, or Cook with Jamie but I think I am going to go with Ramsay's Sunday Lunch (forgive me if you are reading this Jamie!)

I basicall took some of Maggie's advice:

• No massive cookery bibles, as it simply isn't practical to cook from the book every day! So something with about 200 recipes would be ideal
• No single cuisine - much as I love Italian or Japanese, I don't want to eat it three or four times every week
• No 'dinner party' cook books with nothing but rich food. I'm fat enough as it is!
• I love to cook with the seasons, so something that reflects this approach would be great
• Not all the food should be complicated - a good blend of simple everyday with more challenging stuff would do

Sunday Lunch fits the bill. It has 25 menus which each feature a starter, main and dessert. There is a good mix of family favourites and traditional roasts but will also introduce me to some new dishes and ingredients such as morel mushrooms, pigeon and oysters. I also like the whole books approach to try and encourage families to eat together, using fresh ingredients and to take the intimidation out of cooking.

The purpose of this blog is to chart my progress along the way, I dare say it will stray off subject every now and then!