#18 A Simplicious Challenge: The Winning Dishes

The Simplicious Challenge: I cooked all 306 recipes from Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious, to see the impact it has on the way I buy, cook, consume and waste food. Read the first post here, if you missed it.

18 posts for 18 months. This actually IS the final Simplicious Challenge post (I promise!). From all 306 recipes in Simplicious, these are my favourites. I don’t need to dwell on the low-points: we all know that was the fermented mackerel (i.e. untinned sardines). None of the offal-y dishes have made it into my winning dishes either – though this isn’t to say they were unpleasant. I enjoyed most of them more than I thought I would! Anita (who is also doing the challenge, check out her Instagram here) asked what I thought the most challenging dish was. Although I thought several of them would be really tricky – like the beetroot cheesecake, or creating the offal meatloaf – they turned out to be quite straightforward. I keep thinking I must have missed some – because where are all those ‘scary’ recipes I was dreading at the start?*

*With the exception of the fermented mackerel, which we will never mention again. Continue reading →

#17 A Simplicious Challenge: A Celebration Meal

The Simplicious Challenge: I’m cooking all 306 recipes from Sarah Wilson’s book Simplicious, to see the impact it has on the way I buy, cook, consume and waste food. Read the first post here, if you missed it.

When the idea for this challenge first popped into my head in late 2015, I mentioned it to my husband. He looked at me like I was mad (I get that look often) and told me to sleep on it for a few days before making the commitment. I didn’t, I was too excited. I jumped straight in – got to eat anyway, right? This past weekend I had a celebration lunch with my family to finish off the final 8 recipes from Simplicious, including the Cardamom and Sea Salt Ganache Tart. And to have a put-Simplicious-on-the-bookshelf ceremony (my husband forced me to, barely able to conceal his delight that the book would no longer live on our kitchen bench). Continue reading →

#16 A Simplicious Challenge: A Sustainable Giveaway

As this challenge draws very nearly to a close – I will be finished in the next couple of weeks – I’ve been planning to host a little giveaway, as a way of saying thank-you to you for sticking with me through it over the last 18 months. Including through my more intense phases, like when I turned into the Christmas Grinch and went all weird in IKEA!

I realise it sounds hypocritical to host a giveaway when much of this challenge has been about re-thinking my relationship with ‘stuff’, but – hear me out! Continue reading →