Recipe 52 project

[sarahbhb]

On the LYM Dec. 27th blog post I talked about a few of the projects I was hoping to accomplish this year. One of them is a recipe project where once a week I plan on preparing a new recipe and documenting it. I just found the recipe I'm going to do for week one from a book called The Poor Girl Gourmet. I've never cooked anything from this cookbook and actually just got it from the library a couple of days ago. The recipe I'm making is for a sundried tomato walnut orzo salad and I will hopefully be preparing it tonight for dinner. I can't wait to start this new project.

I know a couple of people commented on the blog that they hope to do this project as well so I'm posting this so that we can talk about what recipes we're making, sources for more recipes, how we're setting it up as an album (or blog or what have you).

Right now I'm planning on cutting kraft cardstock into 5"x7" pages, punching 3 holes on one side and binding it with book rings. Trying to keep it simple. One side will be for a photo of the recipe and the other for the recipe itself. If I print the photo and recipe out as 4x6 photos there should be room for a little bit of journaling about the recipe if I chose to do that.

[teachermom]

Great idea, Sarah! I like the idea of having a recipe book filled with things I make on a regular basis...now to do more cooking, so I have some recipes to put in something like this! Would love to see pictures as you work through yours!

[sarahbhb]

Rachel I'm really hoping it turns out as I'm envisioning it. DH decided that he wanted takeout instead tonight so it may be next week before I get to do the orzo salad (thankfully everything will keep)...thinking about making a chocolate cake (weight watchers recipe) for dessert. If I do that at least I will have next weeks recipe already planned.

[eucalypta]

Love the idea Sarah and I will jump in later if that is possible. Right now, 5 months ago disaster struck and we we discovered a leaking dishwasher that probably had been leaking for months. The result was water under the laminate in the kitchen, family room, dining room and hallway (Don't you love those open floor plans? ;-))
Toxic mold and sewage was the result. Dishwasher water is considered sewage. We had to evacuate and live in our RV for what we thought would be 4 weeks. We're in our 5th month now and believe me it's getting a bit cramped. Cooking is a challenge, at least full meals. But to be honest I did not cook for a very long time. I am disabled and use a wheelchair. In my old kitchen I could not reach the stove from the wheelchair, or open the fridge or reach the sink

So when the whole kitchen was torn out to get to the mold we decided to make it so that I would be able to reach it all. When we moved into the house I was not a wheelie otherwise we never would have purchased it. The project is nearing the end and I think it will take another 3 -4 weeks before everything is put back in it's place and clean(inches of (saw)dust everywhere).

If it's okay to join you by than I would really appreciate it because I love to cook and bake my own bread.

[sarahbhb]

Christine...I can't imagine how difficult that must be. Hopefully you get back into your home soon.

Of course you can start this at any time, once you decide to do it it's your project, done whichever way works best for you. I think the thing that I like most about this is that it's about creating something one week at a time as opposed to how I usually think that I'm going to sit down and create a cookbook in a week. I have a project that I started 3 years ago in hopes of creating a cookbook for my daughter of her grandmother's recipes (my late mother in law), but somehow I get it in my head that I need to sit down and get it finished in a short time and that is daunting. I am hoping that doing this project teaches me that you can do a project like this in more manageable chunks and I get some of these other big planned projects done after I finish this one.

I can't wait to see what you cook and bake when you are back in your kitchen!

[maryeileen]

I like this idea & have desided to do it. I made a Talipia fish recipe last week. I took pictures but I haven't desided how I'll do a book. I'm the only one that liked the dish or eat it. I don't know for sure what I'm making this week yet but it will be something with chicken.

[sarahbhb]

Yaay so glad to have a few people joining me on this. I made my second dish tonight (the orzo one) and like the cake I made on Saturday I was less than impressed. Hopefully next week we'll have something a little tastier. I'm still going to document these and talk about what I liked and didn't like and what adjustments I made (or what adjustments I might make if I make it again in the future). Unfortunately I've decided to wait and order all of my recipe cards and pics of the food along with my project life photos which will only be about once a month or so, so I won't have any of that until sometime next month but I'll try to put together the album and print a cover sometime this week so that everyone can see the album base at least.

[sarahbhb]

I should have something to post soon. I went and broke down and bought a Canon Selphy CP800 over the weekend and have been printing like mad (including the recipes and photos I took for this project). I'm so excited to put everything together and share it with everyone. Still have to figure out what I'm cooking for this week though.

[MichiganDenise]

Love this! I have a lot of family recipes in my head that I use over and over each week, but I love to cook, so I like to try new things now and then (my kids...not so much!) Lately I've been trying recipes from Jamie's Revolution (inspired by the TV show/British chef). The layout of the recipes is a little confusing (it's all run together, instead of in list format), but the recipes are all pretty basic & a great way to build up a repertoire.
I've had a kraft 3-ring binder (from Paperchase...the Borders (sniff!) stationery line), with fantastic photo sleeves and pocket pages, that I have been meaning to fill with family recipes & photos for oh...about 4 years now! Documenting one recipe a week might be a do-able way to get it done.

[sarahbhb]

Denise, I've got the same issue with family recipes. I don't know if you remember that Devin's mom passed away while we were living in MI and I've been working on gathering up her family recipes to do a cookbook for Liz. I'm hoping to start trying to document those as well so that she has her Grandma's recipes. I was very lucky when I moved away from home that my mom made us all a cookbook of her family recipes, I'm thinking about including a lot of these as well and just having a family favorites recipes book (along with some of Liz's favorites that are from recipes that Dev and I have discovered). Not sure yet when this is going to happen but I really need to focus on trying to take photos when I make the dishes so at least I have that step completed.

If you get some of your recipes documented make sure to post them here. I'd love to see them!