Final Thoughts - I Did It!

Well 2010 is drawing to a close and whilst I didn’t stick to my original ‘one new recipe a week’ resolution, I’m thrilled that overall I managed to create an entire 52 new recipes. It has been an interesting and useful experience for me. I have learned some new cooking skills and flavour combinations, which I’m using regularly now, and I have also discovered some brilliant new recipes that are now made regularly. I’m also pleased to have made some things that would have terrified me in the past – my personal highlight being the venison. It was something I was very nervous about cooking, but I managed to cook it exactly as I wanted, and felt very proud of myself.

I started this resolution in the hope that I would get out of the rut of making the same food all the time, and I definitely feel I have accomplished that. However, this has also given me more. Those who know me will know that I have had a difficult year with stress and anxiety, and whilst initially these difficulties stopped me cooking and completed sapped all motivation I had to get into the kitchen, cooking was one of the first things that helped me get on the track to recovery. The kitchen is where I feel confident, and where I can create happiness out of a few ingredients and some time and effort. Being able to immense myself in this world helps me feel like me again – and having 52 recipes to make certainly gave me the time to immerse myself!

I started this blog as a way to keep track of what I have cooked over the last year – and it’s done exactly that. Over the next year, I hope to keep trying new recipes to further my cooking skills, but I also want to revisit things from the year and cook more of them again. My other aim is to try and have one place where all these recipes are saved with easy access so that I always have plenty of options for what to cook.

Finally I would like to say thank you to those who have been following my progress. If anyone would like any of the recipes, then please let me know!