Welcome 2016

It has been a while since I have shared on the blog and I think it is about high time that I get back to blogging. I am going to try and use that to keep me on track and accountable for the goals I set and track progress.


So... with that being said here are the current goals I am working on:

1. Auditioning for MasterChef Canada - which means baking and cooking a LOT which I am super excited for because well I LOVE TO COOK and I LOVE BAKING (I mean that is probably obvious right?!)

but what does this mean aside from that?  It also means pushing myself to learn more - learn knife skills, cooking techniques, different ingredients and as much as I can to push myself before I audition.

So I got a fantastic cook book (The Professional Chef) for my wedding Anniversary. Not to mention I may have gone a little (ok maybe a lot) crazy with Boxing Day sales on some other great cook books (Gordon Ramsay's Home Cooking: Everything You Need To Know To Make Fabulous Food, Gordon Ramsay - in the Heat of the Kitchen, Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 2, In The Hands Of A Chef: The Professional Chefs Guide to Essential Kitchen Tools, Math for the Professional Kitchen)

In addition to that I recieved Canadian Living: The Ultimate Cookbook for Christmas from my husband (which I have taken a quick peek through and marked at least two or three dozen recipes).

In addition to this I got a pressure cooker and two knives to add to my wonderful collection of knives. (So far I have my 8" chef, 8" vegetable knife, 5" hollow santuko by Wusthof, a paring knife and a 7" Santility Rain Knife by Ken Onion. This Christmas I received the Wusthof boning knife and the 10" Super Slicer) Yes I'm very spoiled - this also explains some of my choices for books.

But what does this ultimately mean as a goal for the year or things that I want to do. I did take one course last year at Red River Community College on knife skills (sharpening to be specific) and I think I may one to take another class or two (braising or pies and pastry).

Ultimately with 52 weeks or 366 days in this year I should be able to accomplish at least something.

So my goal for cooking are:

1. 52 new techniques to try in the kitchen - now this can count from anything like using a pressure cooker, to trying something knew with my knife skills to making an element of a dish in a manner I have  never done - I am going to give myself a fair amount of room to explore this challenge. 
2. 366 new, never tried recipes. I would suggest that I am going to try for roughly 1/3 of them to be in the baking category. 
3. 52 new ingredients - I want to force myself to explore what's out there (not that I don't want to do that any old time - but with the enormity of the other two challenges I don't want to limit myself or find myself falling back to things I know. 

Putting all of this together - I want to ensure that I work and home my audition for MasterChef Canada. 

I have more goals but this is the one I will post for toda. 

Cheers!