One of my goals for 2018 is to get back into the kitchen and start cooking properly again. Over the last 18 months, a combination of travels and house sitting has meant that I’ve not had access to my own pots pans and gadgets, I’ve been working with a limited moving larder and my beloved cookbook collection has been locked away in storage.
This year, it’s all change. In March we’re moving into our own place and all my books and kitchen stuff will be coming out of storage! I’m determined for this to be the year we get back on track with cooking properly and from scratch. I want to fill the garage with kimchi, kombucha, chutneys and jams. I want to bake my own bread, batch cook and finally learn to make pasta.
To help kickstart things, I’ve set myself a challenge ‘Cooking the Books’:
The premise is simple. Every month I’ll select three books from my embarrassingly large collection and post them on Twitter and Instagram. You, my readers, can then vote for which one you want me to cook from. I’ll randomly select a recipe from the winning book and post the recipe to my blog! Literally ‘cooking the books’!
This month I’ve selected three of my newest cookbooks (all acquired since my collection went into storage):
- Autumn & Winter Veg from Riverford
- Veggie Desserts & Cakes from fellow blogger Katherine Hackworthy
- The Indian Cookery Course by Monisha Bharadwaj
January’s selection is pinned to the top of my twitter feed here and on Instagram here. Head over to either one of them and comment to cast your vote now! You’ll see a recipe from the winning book here, later this month…
I love the sound of the veggie desserts and cakes. I’ve had a scrumptious cake with beetroot in as well of, of course carrot cake. Its a great way to get veg into your diet 😉
There are some really great and very unusual vegetable based bakes in that book – if you’re interested in that kind of thing you should definitely get a copy! 🙂
A great plan for the year and I love the idea of letting your IG fans vote. Off to vote myself (Indian 😉 )
What a great idea to let your readers vote! Also when you learn to make pasta, please let me know! My boyfriend has tried several times now – and every time the pasta becomes hard and chewy ! It is such a shame, because he really tries so hard to succeed!
X Louise
http://www.louiseloveslondon.com
Thank you Louise! Yes, definitely going to dust off that pasta machine and try my hand at it!