One month later...

It's hard to believe that it was only a month ago that I cooked my first recipe in this challenge, but I must say that, so far, I'm really enjoying myself. I've found quite a few new recipes I like, and tried things I never thought I'd do, like pastry or jam-making.


Of course, I've had a few disasters - almost without exception caused by my own blunders. I have thought several times that a possible alternative name for this blog might be "Learn From My Mistakes".

I resisted writing the blog at first, not because I thought I'd have any trouble writing one (anyone who's ever received an email from me can attest to the fact that I have no trouble rambling on and on about nothing), but because of the "it's been done" situation. I didn't want to be the girl who copied the movie - and once I found that others had already done the Edmonds book, I was even less inclined to do the blog.

As you know, I yielded on this point after a certain amount of persuasion. You may have noticed that the arm-twisting required to make me change my mind was not terribly severe. Once I saw that people were actually interested in reading about this, I started to think differently about the blog.

There's no doubt that, had I not been blogging, I wouldn't have thrown myself into the cooking nearly as enthusiastically. I keep on cooking so I have something to write about. I've got myself into a nice little routine - I draft blog entries in my lunchbreak, then when I get home from work, I first go for a walk, then sit down at my computer to edit and add photos. Once the entry's posted, I head back into the kitchen.


As the weather continues its chilly slide into Winter, I've found that my kitchen is a pleasant place to be. In colder weather, I put up a (not at all stylish, but very practical) curtain over the entrance to my kitchen. In the past, this has been to keep the heat from escaping into the kitchen. Now it handily keeps heat from getting out. The rest of my house might be an icebox, but the kitchen is warm and toasty.


One night last week, I spent the whole evening in the kitchen, roasting peppers, baking tea buns, and making jam. With the combined heat of the oven and stovetop, I was overheating in a T-shirt even with the extractor fan on. The cat, on the other hand, was in the lounge, sitting pointedly beside the heater. Not about to put on a heater just to warm the cat, I took her cushion and put it on the floor in a corner of the kitchen. She gave me a few odd looks when I did that, but eventually she got the idea and settled down quite happily in the cosy warm kitchen.

While I'm not losing any enthusiasm for this project yet, it would be unrealistic to suppose I'll keep up this pace. It's easy at the moment: I have hundreds of recipes to choose from and I'm always thinking at least half a dozen recipes ahead. I don't always manage to work them all in - there are some I've been itching to try since the first week, but a girl can only eat so much, after all. A few months down the track, when the novelty's worn off, I'll probably lose a little momentum. But don't worry - I still have every intention of seeing this through to the very last recipe - however long it takes!


So, to anyone who's following this blog: Thanks for reading, and I hope you're enjoying it. I'll try my best to keep entertaining you over the coming months. And if you feel so inclined, throw me a comment now and then: you've no idea how excited I get when I find someone's actually read what I've written!


Back to the kitchen..