The Beginning

This is a year in my kitchen. An ordinary kitchen, in an ordinary home, in an ordinary town (but not owned by skeletons - sorry, I'm just remembering a book by Allan Ahlberg... In a dark, dark street, In a dark, dark house...). Normally life ticks on and my kitchen feeds 3 or 4 hungry mouths with sometimes ordinary, sometimes exciting, sometimes special food. But this year, I wanted to record my kitchen’s life and develop my own knowledge and cookery skills. New food, new menus… I want to read about food, try new food, bake, steam, fry and grill in different ways with interesting ingredients I haven’t used before.

Cooking – I love cooking! I realised this first, when as an enthusiastic new mum, I endeavoured to provide my special bundle (and later two special bundles) with fresh, unprocessed food, like the food I had enjoyed as a child.

I was bought up by a wonderful cook, who produced wholesome, honest food for me. I remember the dark grey folders that held the ‘Cordon Bleu’ course recipes. I had, and still have, a lot to live up to!

In recent years, my cookery skills have slipped into the monotony of a few good, standby recipes that rolled from week to week… With busier lives, an increasingly progressive, and therefore more demanding career, and a family happy to eat, but not that bothered about what, my enjoyment for the art was disappearing. Until now.

This year I am going to log my endeavours in the hope that I will move away from the mundane menus I put in front of my family week on week, and that I will begin to push the boundaries, try new things and, in turn, develop my own skills and ideas, so that I, like my mother, can look at ingredients and conjure up a meal from my expanding culinary knowledge.

I have made a decision to buy less processed foods - go back to basics, back to fresh, honest food made with TLC not preservatives!

I’d just like to add a note of thanks for all the fantastic recipes from all the fantastic TV chefs and cooks I have followed over the years. Your books are packed with great ideas, just waiting to be tweaked by me, but they are also my bibles for the ground work. I will refer to my favourites of the moment as I dip into their books for advice and ideas, but hopefully will move into my own ideas as the year moves on.