The recipes of Love

In July ’08, for Jessica’s 25th birthday (and 11 days before we got married) I made her a cook book featuring a bunch of recipes that I thought she might like. It’s been on display in our new apartment for a couple of months, and recently Charlotte asked Jessica how many recipes she had made from the book. I think Jessica was quite ashamed to say ‘none’, and so she has resolved to cook all of the recipes (I believe there are 12) over consecutive weeks – which is very exciting for me!

Yesterday marked the first day of our new challenge. The very first recipe in the book is my mum’s recipe for Beef Stroganoff, a long-time favourite of mine. Despite lacking the patience to tend to the stew as it bubbled over, Jessica did a wonderful job and the food was delicious. I, meanwhile, realised that my directions were perhaps a little spartan for the non cooks of this world. But that’s what it’s all about I suppose – teamwork. Here’s to good food!

Nb I kind of forgot to take any pictures of the finished food. I think I was just too excited to get stuck in. Trust me, it was worth the oversight. Maybe next week…

Today

I bought this:

It’s just come out here, and the 6 part accompanying TV show debuts in September sometime.

I’ve not always been a Jamie lover, but his cooking finally won me over, and this is my third book of his. Flicking through it, I’m excited about trying loads of the recipes, but especially those dishes that originate from different cultures like Chinese, Egyptian, Mexican and Creole. Oh, and the cowboy recipes too. Let’s see how they turn out…