Meal 25 is going ahead on Sunday night (tomorrow). Sorry about the delay. Unforseen circumstances meant that this little chef was not fit for cooking and the meal had to be pushed back by a few days. In the meantime, here's something I prepared earlier...
Now that we've reached just about the halfway mark in our little challenge experience and so much has happened in the last six months, I decided I would put together a little summary blog post about the journey so far! And I've also included a list of my Top 5 favourite meals to cook (and eat!).
When we first decided to put this operation together, both Dear Housemate and I were all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. We were just super excited to have an excuse to throw dinner parties, to eat good food and to give me something to write about. After writing pretty avidly for years and years I had hit a bit of a slump in my creativity. I was halfway through a fairly significant writing project (just something I did in my own time, for my own enjoyment) when there was a dreaded computer crash that took my work with it. I was not fussed, knowing I had saved my work on my trusty USB stick.
Only I hadn't. Or at least, if I had at some point, it had since been removed. And so, completely devastated at the loss of my project, I resigned myself to a break from writing to recover from the loss and to find some inspiration for something new to write. Roughly twelve months had passed and no inspiration had come.
By Christmas time last year, Jamie Oliver and his 30 Minute Meals revolution had pretty much conquered every book shop and the show was all over the telly. I had only caught an episode or two when channel surfing, but always liked what I saw and made a concerted effort to point the book out everytime I walked past a store or saw an ad. I figured that eventually someone would pick up the hint and get me the book. Merry Christmas to me! It worked!
As Dear Housemate and I exchanged Christmas gifts, I was flipping through the pages of the cookbook and found myself getting hungrier and hungrier - it all looked so good! I couldn't wait to try the recipes out. I'm not even really sure how we came to the decision, but at some stage we discussed the idea of just making everything in the book for the sheer enjoyment of it. And that idea evolved into the weekly challenge night idea, which then snowballed into the Grove Cook Off 2012 challenge night and blog idea which you are now a part of. And the rest is history, I suppose.
The first few weeks were probably the craziest. We started out madly trying to complete the meals in the thirty minute timeframe. This usually lead to a completely trashed kitchen, a total mess on our clothing but a really awesome, hard-earned meal at the end of the day. It was fun and challenging, but ultimately we decided that there was more benefit, in our situation at least, in taking the time to cook slowly, enjoy the process and really celebrate the food. Now you're more likely to find me in the kitchen with a glass of wine in hand, casually stirring something on the stove while I listen to The Sundays, Bernard Fanning, Sarah Blasko or Bon Iver. What we've done is taken the recipes and tried to stay as true to form as possible, while still leaving room for our own twist on things.
There are some weeks when we're both a little bit over it. Occasionally it does feel like a bit of a chore, having to make sure the house is tidy, the fridge is stocked, the meal is edible. But usually by the time the groceries are done and we're serving up a meal any of the negativity we might have been feeling just falls away. It's pretty hard not to be happy and contented when you've got gorgeous food, good company and a nice glass of wine to get you through the evening. For every time I've had a thought about not wanting to cook that week, or not looking forward to the meal, I've had about a thousand more positive thoughts to replace it.
Ultimately I'm really glad with what we're doing here. We're not changing the world, we're not saving lives, we're just cooking and eating really good food and having a really good time doing it. We've shared 24 (soon to be 25!) amazing meals with our family and friends, had hours of conversation we might not have had otherwise and we've both learned stacks about cooking and food. We've even accumulated a few more gadgets for the kitchen!
So before I forget, here are my Top 5 Favourite meals from the challenge to date:
5 - Pregnant Jools Pasta (super, super easy, and so tasty! The leftovers taste amazing too!)
4 - Crusted Cod (really impressive looking food and so flavoursome, perfect for a dinner party)
3 - Cauliflower Macaroni (so versatile. I have made it a couple of times now and I just love it. Goes a long way)
2 - Duck Salad (really delicious, so much flavour, dead easy to make and just a little bit different from your average meat and salad)
1 - Chicken Pie (made countless times, so warming and delicious, the perfect hearty meal for a winter night)
So there it is! I can't wait to keep feeding everyone such amazing food, and to keep enjoying it myself. I hope you're all enjoying the blog and the photographs as well, but in particular I hope that all of this has inspired you to have a go at some of the meals yourselves. They're so much more satisfying (and healthier) than your average take-away meal, they usually end up being cheaper and who doesn't love an excuse to catch up with good people over a meal? Get cooking!
Til next time - Bon Appetit!
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