a culinary journey

I am passionate about food. It is one of the things that most enriches my life. I start each day wondering what I'll cook, and my happiest hours are spent flicking through recipe books, food markets, and kitchen appliance shops. I feel cheated if I have to grab "a sandwich on the run", as if one of the meal quotas for the day has been robbed from me and replaced with a hasty and inferior substitute. I believe in cooking with love and cherish days and nights when I am able to cook and bake for my family and friends. Christmas is a giddy day for me! I believe that if you can glean one really great recipe, one that you will recreate regularly, from any cook book then it is worth the purchase. The best present I can ever receive is a beautiful meal with friends.

So then, the purpose of adding to the already cluttered blogsphere is really to give me somewhere to store up all my recipes. I'm kicking off 2009 with a culinary self challenge. To master 52 new recipes in the year - one a week. Or, if I'm busy, two the following week. It's easy to get stuck in a cooking rut but I'm going to travel the world with my taste buds this year - from Asia to India to France, to Rustic Italy and all over Europe, to deep America, South America, and everywhere in between. Along with me for the ride will be my other half, who never complains at a cooking challenge, and is most accomplished at complimenting even my worst kitchen misadventures. And you, I hope!

Thanks for stopping by and happy cooking. dd.x