The Cookbook Challenge

Since I like to cook, I collect recipes like mad … magazines, google reader, pinterest and of course COOKBOOKS. I adore cookbooks with their glossy pages of photos and yummy yummy words. I own tons. Maybe not the 100+ as the famed Heidi Swanson did (does?), but a LOT. And yet, I find myself rarely cracking them, mostly making recipes that we already know and love or something I found on the interwebs.

So. I’ve decided to issue myself a cookbook challenge! My plan is to choose one cookbook every month and cook EIGHT (or more if I’m feeling masochistic/optimistic) recipes from it, or about 2/week, that I’ve never made before and report the results. I am planning to use cookbooks I already have, with one exception (more about that below). I am excited to try new recipes, but also excited because this will hopefully help me winnow out cookbooks that aren’t up to scratch. At the end of the month if the recipes weren’t winners, they’re gone. I feel like two recipes a week is pretty doable and will leave room for old favorites, trying OTHER new things, and nights off!

I plan to make the recipes basically as written, but I will do small modifications for health, since we are health-conscious sort of folk. I will also not be likely to choose, say, a Paula Deen cookbook as that woman has an unholy love for butter (which I admire on one hand but eschew with the other) and all things densely caloric. I have chosen Pioneer Woman and that is probably nearly as bad.

As noted above, I am buying one cookbook to be part of this challenge, a Zone Diet cookbook. My gym is doing a nutrition challenge in January and I will be taking part in this for the betterment of my athletic prowess and waistline, so Zone is the order of the month. Anyhow, here are my cookbook choices for the year:

1. January – Zone Meals in Seconds
2. February – Biggest Loser Family Cookbook
3. March – Moosewood Simple Suppers
4. April – Thai Street Food; my step-mom-in-law got this for me for Christmas and I can hardly wait to crack it!
5. May – Jamie’s Dinners
6. June – Colorado Colore, one of the awesome Denver Junior League Cookbooks
7. July – Boy Gets Grill (Bobby Flay)
8. August – Apples for Jam
9. September – Time for Dinner
10. October – Pioneer Woman Cooks
11. November – Donna Hay’s Modern Classics (at least I think this is the choice – I forgot to write down which Donna Hay book I picked)
12. December – The Illustrated Quick Cook

I’d love it if anyone wants to join me!