Today marks the end of a short era for me. Whilst I've always loved eating food, I only became slightly obsessed and learned to cook about 3.5 years ago, not that long after me and the beloved moved in together and I found myself in a tiny kitchen with 3 saucepans and a pack of cutlery and 1 cook book. Now 97 cook books later, in a much bigger kitchen and all is great, I can now cook without burning (okay excluding yesterdays brownies!) and serve up edible, and cooked food!
I had never really kept a diary before, excluding of course the ones I had when I was much younger and had a padlock on the side, full of a 9 year old's secrets abouts boys I had crushes on! However one Saturday morning about 3 years ago, it all changed when I saw a cute, purple, 3 year diary out shopping and decided to start keeping one again. This time around not about crushes, but about what I ate for dinner (and the odd lunch and breakfast!)
Almost in a sad way, the 3 years are now full, stuffed with memories and recipes! I love reading back through and seeing what we had, on a particular date and also the occasional comment:
21/09/06 - Count On Us Lasagne - vile!
I can't remember what happened but the entry for 22/12/06 reads 'Me - carbonara. Went wrong :('
18/02/07 - First time I ordered a steak in a restaurant (bizarrely I thought I didn't like steak, I have since learnt the errors of my ways!).
This is The Diary:
Looking back now I can really see how my tastes and cooking has evolved (hopefully for the better!)
The very first entry reads:
16th January 2006
Battered Chicken Breasts
Vegetable stir-fry
The very last entry is:
31st December 2008
Breaded Camembert with home made cranberry jam and sweet chilli sauce
M&S Rib-eye steaks, with parmentier potatoes, roasted onions and finest peas, my steak glazed with balsamic vinegar and the beloved had chive butter on his
Followed by hazelnut brownie and extra thick cream (though I used 80% cocoa chocolate and unfortunately it burnt on the edges!)
....
Moving forward, for 2009 I have the River Cottage diary, which is really nicely laid out and full of useful notes, which I look forward to adding to!
May 2009 bring everyone happiness, health and good food!
Wish you a fabulous and healthy New Year!
ReplyDeleteOh Anne, I love the idea of keeping a food diary! In fact, I'm going to steal this idea, if you don't mind. It must be really interesting to look back, and useful too if you keep notes on how things turn out.
ReplyDeleteHappy new year, I hope it's a fab one for you!
Happy new year Julia and Anudivya!!
ReplyDeleteJulia - Of course I don't mind, just hope you enjoy keeping it! I am determined to write in it every day this year, as the last 3 years were a little patchy in areas, mainly after moving house and temporarily mis-laying it! ;-)
Kindest Regards
Anne
Anne - that first entry of battered chicken breasts conjures all manner of nightmares! So glad you kept at it. For me the blog is my diary really - it is so nice to know we are evolving.
ReplyDeleteHope 2009 is full of great meals
Bron x
Happy New Year 2009 !
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Anne! I hope your new diary with be packed to busting by the end of 2009.
ReplyDeleteHappy New Year Anne!
ReplyDeleteLovely posting letting us all know about your diary.
I am one of those people who write in their cookery books - I'm afraid.
What a lovely idea, to keep track of all your meals and to watch the progression over a period of three years. I'm certain we'll feel the same way looking back over our blog posts after a few years have passed. I hope we're all sticking with it then!
ReplyDeleteBron – I can’t believe I actually used to buy and enjoy them, now I won’t even let them in the house!
ReplyDeleteNina, Bron, Holler, Margaret, Apples and Butter, (sorry I don’t know your name!) – Happy New Year to you as well, hope 2009 brings you lots of delightful food!
Margaret – I just can’t quite bring myself to write in my cookbooks but I scribble on magazines and cut out’s, I seem to consider them different and use post-it notes in the cookbooks!
What a great idea, and lovely to look back on.
ReplyDelete