The Loose Recipe Challenge

I've always been intrigued by stories of people who have challenged themselves to do a project or task for one year: work on a Happiness Project, have No-Impact on the environment, follow Eleanor Roosevelt's lead, cook all of Julia Child's recipes or try to avoid buying things made in China. Recently, I read an ARC of The Happiness of Pursuit, which posits that projects like these can greatly enhance life. But until this week, I have never selected a project of my own.

This Monday, I had a self-proclaimed "scathingly brilliant idea" (to quote Hayley Mills' character in The Trouble with Angels): a loose-recipe challenge, where I focus on cooking each of the recipes in my recipe box or binder over the course of a year. Initially, I thought I might be able to do it in less time, but when I actually counted up my recipes, I realized that I have approximately 130 of them and doing 11-12 per month sounds challenging, but will also allow for me to cook my standard recipes or those from other cookbooks. It will also give time for any summer ingredients (e.g. fresh tomatoes) to come into season again. Any recipes printed off and prepared since September (pumpkin scones, borscht or smoked salmon chowder) count as completed already. Any print-out/clipping that does not taste good, I can recycle, though I will probably keep handmade recipe cards given by friends and family.

I've also given myself a few exemptions: if I photocopied a particular recipe from a cookbook, I don't need to make the other recipes on the page - but I get bonus points if I do. If there is a recipe featuring an ingredient that is unavailable, I will excuse myself from it only after looking for appropriate substitutes. And in general, I can make substitutions, as long as I generally follow the recipe.

The challenge appeals both to my love of cooking and to my minimalist side.

I've chosen three recipes for this weekend. The first, apple pie biscuits, I made last night. Not wanting to purchase any self-rising flour, I used her suggested mixture of baking powder (though mine had aluminum, unlike the directions), salt and flour. My biscuit "squares" also ended up being rectangles when I started cutting 2 rows of 6 instead of 3 rows of 4. Overall, they turned out deliciously, though the biscuits are a little tough, probably due to overmixing (unless it was that flour substitution). I can tell already that the loose recipe challenge will inspire me to share desserts with friends and co-workers, so that next year I don't have to do the "lose my loose-recipe challenge weight" challenge instead.

Today, I'll make Paris Mushroom Soup, photocopied in 2010 or 2011 (and not yet made) from Dorie Greenspan's book Around My French Table (which after my loose-recipe challenge, I see that there is a whole website devoted to French Fridays with Dorie) for lunch and Bierocks, clipped from Cooking Light back in 2004 when I still had a subscription.

Earlier in the week, I also randomly made cornbread from the recipe clipped from my Albers cornmeal box to serve with my slow cooker vegetarian chili.

So far this has been easy, though I suspect it will get more difficult as time goes on. Now to plan out the coming week and weekend's recipes! This may be the impetus for me to finally add photos to my blog, so that you can cook along with me.