The Inspiration

I recently turned the half century mark, which causes you to pause and reflect a little.  Fifty years is a milestone that not everyone has the opportunity to achieve and even though it is just a number I felt it needed to be marked in some way. 

During a recent conference keynote address the presenter mentioned how each year she tries a number of new things, the number of new things she tries is equal to her age that year.  It sounded like an intriguing way to mark a half century, and I have been mulling over what new things I could try since the presentation. 

One evening, while flipping through the pages of a cookbook that was on my coffee table inspiration hit!  Before we get too far into our story a little step back. I had won the cookbook  a few weeks early and I had placed it on the coffee table while I decided what to do with it. See the book been published almost a decade earlier and I already had a copy of it.  It was book that I had given many people, over the years.  (Maybe partially because as a  compilation cookbook, I had actually contributed a recipe to it, but also because it had many great recipes).  I felt I was familiar with the book and was not sure what to do with another copy of it.    

As I was looking through the book that evening, it was like looking at it for the first time.  I was seeing recipes that I wanted to try, that I had meant to try, that I had tried and would like to make again. 

Confession time, I enjoy reading cookbooks and trying new recipes, and have amassed a sizeable collection of cookbooks over the years.  When I first get a new cookbook, usually, I will make several recipes, but like when a child gets a new toy.  I sometimes forget about my other cookbooks when I get the next new one,  excited to try recipes in that book.  Oh, sometime the old one will get pulled off the shelf for a "favourite" recipe, but it is usual forgotten about once it is placed on the book shelf. 

Now back to the inspiration: Each week I would pick a cookbook already in my collection and prepare a recipe, actually a whole meal (3 courses - appetizer, main course and dessert) from it.  To make it a little more interesting I have also decided it can't be a recipe I made previously and if possible it should have an ingredient or technique I have never tried before.  

My 50 new things for this year, will actually be 50 new menus to mark my 50th year! Each week I will post a little about the cook book I have selected and once I have prepared the meal I will post the results. 

First I will feature the cookbook that inspired this blog: Dietitians of Canada Cook!  written by the incomparable Mary Sue Waisman, MSc, RD.  

Come back in a few days to hear about the menu selected.