Cooking the Whole Book

OK, so one of my goals that I intend to share with who ever reads this far is my cooking through one of my cook books, "Fields of Greens" by Annie Somerville.

YIKES!

Well, there is a very good reason for this. All of us who have a real interest in food, have a huge pile of cook books. Books that we turn to for inspiration, and books that we look up old favourites. Often we make one or two, things from a book.

So, this being my favourite cook book, I intend to cook EVERYTHING in it. I will of course make substitutions for ingredients that I can't get, or for things that I just don't like.

Since I have owned this book, I have made just two things out of it, the Winter Vegetable Curry (page 190) which was delish, and I had a little spate of making my own sourdough bread, including starting my own culture (page 312-315). I don't intend on repeating these.

I would also like to add that my kitchen is tiny, and to have two people in my kitchen area is a stretch. I know that you can make spectacular food in a small area, you just have to be creative with space, and meticulious about the order in which you do things.

OK, so the actual book is 3.7cm thick, that's including the cover. The pages measure 3.2cm, so that's not too bad. Let's be honest here, cookbooks have nice thick pages. Without the appendix, that's 2.5cm of pages to cook through. Doesn't sound too hard.

So, where to start?

This week I will try to do two, maybe three things.

I will make Polenta (page 278) and Roasted Peppers Filled with Eggplant, Summer Squash and Basil (page 268) and possibly Fall Risotto with Chantrelles and Late Harvest Tomatoes.

Seasonal everything would be fantastic, but because I don't have a car, I am relying on local high street supermarket, I will make do with what I can lay my hands on!