Dominica May

It’s the last day of May and I haven’t met my personal quota for posts made this month, so I thought I’d better think of something quick.

One interest I’ve developed over the last few months that I never really thought I’d be particularly keen on is cooking. If you haven’t noticed, I’ve been posting recipes I’ve come up with since January. One of the items Jeremy suggested for me to include on my list of “101 things in 1001 days” was to cook one new recipe a week. Early on in the year I slightly modified that to an average of at least one new recipe a week, because I was enjoying it so much, I was averaging two new recipes a week.

There are a few reasons my interest in cooking has grown so much over the past few months, and it’s not because I’ve been “forced” to through this goal. I actually really enjoy both the feeling I get when I taste something wonderful I made, whether it’s from a recipe from a book or the Internet or something I came up with myself, and the satisfaction of knowing my effort is appreciated. After years of having so many interests but never feeling like I was “good enough,” to be considered talented in those areas, finally I have something I almost always get complimented for, be it from my husband, family, or friends, depending on who I’ve cooked for. And most of the time the whole process comes naturally to me. Even when I make a mistake, the recipe still usually turns out all right. While it feels really easy for me, I know that’s not something everyone can do. Sometimes people following the recipes to the dot still manage to stuff up somewhere. For that I’m grateful for so few mistakes that have mattered.

However, after a while into the year, I sort of forgot my goal of one new recipe a week for a little while; too distracted by other things. I was well ahead of my goal, but determined to try to catch up on myself again last week, and attempt another cooking item from my list – make my husband a 5 course dinner. This was quite a feat, as I had to cook all afternoon, just about, to create and add 5 new recipes I had never made before. I’ve since heard people surpised at the fact I made a soufflé, not realising people consider it to be a difficult dish to make. Actually it turned out perfectly.

The meal went as follows:
1. Grated Courgette & Potato Soup
2. Watercress & Ricotta Soufflé
3. Boiled Beef & Carrots, with Yorkshire Pudding on the side (2 recipes)
4. Apple Batter Pudding
5. Cheese Platter (no recipe here)

This is something I am so incredibly proud of, I felt the need to record it for historic reasons.