#1 - And so it begins...

The idea for this blog came out of a jumble of things... a significant life change, a love of cooking, an overabundance of cookbooks and random recipes, and of course Julie and Julia.

I recently transitioned from cooking for two to cooking for one,  and as a result I've found myself eating some really dull stuff because it's easy to prepare (or pick up).  Turkey burgers, grilled chicken breasts, take-out, blah.  Over the years, I also have accumulated -- in technical terms -- a crapload of cookbooks and recipes.

Today I relentlessly pruned my cookbook stash and made a deal with myself that for each cookbook retained, I would need to commit to cooking at least one recipe this year or it would wind up in the Goodwill pile next year.  I also have a bajillion recipes cut out of various food magazines, and many of them have yet to be tried.   I don't have the intestinal fortitude to commit myself to one cookbook for an entire year a la Julie, and my crazy collection of cookbooks have many, many recipes that I'm really not up for attempting.    I've also seen a few blog posts about committing to reading 52 books in 52 weeks, but frankly, that seems like too much commitment for this point in my life.

First, I decided I would keep a list of the recipes I tried on the fridge... then contemplated putting the list on Facebook so that I could share with others... then decided, "What the f***, I might as well try blogging about them!"  If I don't submit myself to public shaming/ridicule, I'll inevitably slack off.  The only rule is that it can't be a recipe I've tried before.  It can be a dish I've made previously, but in order to count towards 52 it needs to be a recipe from a cookbook or magazine that I haven't tried yet.

So here goes, #1 for 2011 is Steak au Poivre from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything.  I was really in the mood for a steak and Bittman's cookbook has become my go-to first stop any time I'm looking for a jumping off point.  I can't resist the urge to meddle, so I added mushrooms, some Penzey's Shallot Pepper that my friend Joan gave me, and a dash of Tuscan Herb olive oil that was a Christmas gift from Nana.  It was delicious.  I would love to make it again, but given my imperative it might be a while before I can get back to this one.