A Recipe-Book-Holic's Challenge

Some people have an uncontrollable urge to shop.  They buy shoes and clothes until their wardrobes are bursting at their pun-intended-seams.  I do not have such a love.  I gasp in shock at the vast amounts of hard earned pounds spent on the latest must-haves.  And, in the past, it was easy for me to scoff at the self-indulgence of it.

But I have surprisingly discovered that I, myself, am an addict.  It was during our recent house move, as I carried my 4th box of cookery books up the stairs to our new flat, that I came to the realisation that I am a recipe-book-holic (and, after a 10th box for the kitchen was maneuvered into the tiny apartment, a sucker for all the paraphernalia that goes with it!)

Here you can see the current extent of my collection.  I say current, because I am in no doubt that it will one day need a room of its own.  In our previous home my books were organised by cuisine and author, with a special section for haute cuisine, but the organisational inspiration was not quite there as we desperately tried to clear floor space in the box room/office.

In a bid to justify the expense of my addiction - and regain my smug superiority over other shopaholics - I have set myself a Julia & Julia style challenge.  If you wear each pair of shoe at least once, they were worth the $600, right?!


The Rules

1. The thought of cooking every single recipe from every single one of my books is a daunting prospect, so I should start with a more realistic and achievable goal.  Bringing me to rule number one: I must cook one recipe from each of the cookery books that I own by 4th May 2014.

2. As I have not been totally neglectful of my books until now, there will undoubtedly be some books that I have already cooked a number of recipes from.  In these cases, I shall choose a recipe that I have not yet tried.

3. If I buy or am given a new book within the year, this book is included within the challenge (let's hope I don't have a sudden urge to splurge at the end of April 2014!)

4. I must blog about each cooking challenge (in the broadest sense) throughout the year, with photographs where possible (I love taking photos, but if it's a choice between a good picture and eating my dinner at the temperature it was meant to be, I know where my loyalties lie!)

And so the challenge begins!  I am particularly looking forward to the cocktail books.  And as my Heston Blumenthal book has a whole section on cooking sous-vide, I shall restart my campaign to get Dave to let me buy a water bath! (Though goodness knows where I'll put it...)