Wednesday 28 September 2011 - 16 Down

Monday night I ended up have a very late night cooking Shephards Pie.

Started with a batch of mashed potatoes which were very creaming and light but I might put a little more butter in next time.  They were just a smidgen bland.

Next was the Bolognaise Sauce which I have done before, so not a new recipe.

Then the sauce into the bottom of a pan, layered with mashed potato and a sprinkle of parmesan (didn't have cheddar cheese) and into the oven for a half hour.

Whilst that was cooking I whipped up another batch of anzac cookies for work.

Eek, won't be doing that on a week night again... took a couple hours altogether and was a very late night after class.

About to flick through the book for something to make tonight...

Monday 26 September 2011 - 14 Down

Apologies to all that I haven't been updating my blog.  Now that Nationals is over, I hope to be back here more often. 

A quick update.. I have attempted a more accurate count of the recipes and my current count is 211 recipes in total. A much easier challenge than I expected, but then again, given I've been struggling with something as simple as updating the blog... perhaps an easier challenge was needed.

Current stats to date:

14 Recipes Down
197 Recipes to Go

So far, I have cooked:

ANZAC Biscuits ..........................................127

Beef Stroganoff .......................................98

Bolognaise Sauce (Ragu) ..............................64

Pasta é Fagioli (Pasta with Beans) ............87

Pasta, cooking dry ...................................14

Potato & Leek Soup .................................72

Red Curry Paste ...........................................94

Red Thai Chicken Curry ...............................95

Rice, cooking ...........................................14

Sautéing Onion/Garlic/Herbs ........................14

Sorbet ........................................................149

Vanilla Sugar ................................................10

Vegetable Stock Concentrate ..................15

Vienna Cheesecake ....................................140

Sometime later I will upload the full list of recipes.

I'm hoping to attempt something tonight, but time will tell.  I do have the ingredients for Shephards Pie (which includes Mashed Potatoes but it will depend on my frame of mind when I get home from class tonight.

Questions and feedback always welcome!

Saturday 10th September - 3 down...

Just a quick (and late) blog... Saturday afternoon I made the vegetable stock. The stock didn't come out as green as I thought it would and from memory I thought it should have been a bit of a soft grainy texture, but instead was closer to a browny yellow and smooth like pumpkin soup. Tasted salty and vegetably, so all good!

I did notice that I should have put some in the beef stroganoff on Friday night, but given the stroganoff got a good review, it seems likely that I will make it again soon.

I will need to update this blog with an accurate recipe count.  I have noticed that a lot of the recipes in the index are repeated in several places, so I will need to go through and do a re-count of how many recipes there are.

Later on Saturday night I cooked a batch of Anzac biscuits. They were remarkably easy to make, although I doubt that they took less time than do do by hand... less effort, yes, but less time.. I don't think so.

The Anzac biscuits got reviews as per the following:

Mike Thornton: 9/10
Alan Stewart: 8/10

Note: recipe made about 20 biscuits and all bisuits were eaten in less than 24 hours by 3 people. Next time I will make the bisuits smaller and cook for a little less time.

My first recipe... a success!

Well, the tmx is officially christened.  The first recipe was a very hasty and very delicious Beef Stroganoff. I had forgotten to defrost the beef which added a little extra time to the recipe, but still managed to cook the whole meal in less than 30 minutes.

Critics review was 9 out of 10! (Note: Critic of the night was Alan)

Not bad for a first effort!

Tomorrow will be vegetable stock and something sweet... either muffins or biscuits.

Photographic evidence of my first Thermomix shop... all natural and nothing pre-prepared!

In the tradition of Julie & Julia...

I have decided to challenge myself to make every recipe in the TMX book "Everyday cooking for every family" in a year.  This will be my online diary of the challenge and I hope you will follow my progress and keep me on track.

My goal: 420 recipes in 365 days. 

 

As soon as I work out how, I will attached the index from the book which will list all the recipes.  In the interest of full disclosure I can advise upfront that some recipes are very simple (like boilng water.. yes, boiling water is a recipe!), some are two recipes for one (bolognaise sauce for lasagne) and some fish recipes (which I will make, but not eat!).

My rules are simple, make every recipe listed in the index at least once within the 365 days from receiving the TMX.

The TMX arrived yesteday, so my challenge officially started yesterday (8 September 2011) 
is scheduled to conclude at midnight on 7 September 2012.

Wish me luck....!