What's New?

I am so excited about what I have in the works for February (and the following months, too!). Let's get to all the good stuff...

For the first time since starting my blog, I am going to participate in NaBloPoMo (National Blog Posting Month). The requirements of this is to post something on the blog every day for the entire month. This isn't the first time I have posted every day, but it is the first time that I will "officially" do it and I am ready to get started!

To help get me back into the groove of posting I have a few new features that I want to tell you about. I will be posting more about each one as the month goes on but I wanted to give you an idea of what to expect.

1. COOKING WITH ANYA: Anya, as most of you know, is my 4 1/2 year old daughter. She absolutely loves being in the kitchen with me. The other day I was making something and she asked me if I was going to put it on my blog. I have never really talked to her about my blog and was so shocked to realize she not only knew the word "blog" but that I had one. She asked if she could put stuff on my blog, too. At least twice a month, I will put up a post from Anya (she will dictate; I will type!).

2. GUEST BLOGGING: A few of my friends have graciously agreed to take part in my blog. I am lucky to be surrounded (in cyberspace, anyway... I miss my friends!) by people who not only enjoy cooking, but are GREAT at it. They will make a recipe, take pictures, write up a post, and I will post it here. I hope to be able to feature my friends at least twice a month, but that will be dependant on how many emails I get. :)

3. FOREIGN FOOD FOCUS: My wonderful husband, Nathan, came up with the great idea of having posts specifically dedicated to foods from other countries. My goal is to feature one meal once a month - more if I get carried away!

4. CIA-Homeschool: This one is more for me but I am hoping it will be entertaining for you! Nathan bought me one of the books that is used by the Culinary Institute of America. The book is "Baking and Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft". It will be a few years from now until I am able to go to culinary school (I want to be home with my kiddos right now!), so I figured I would "homeschool" myself by baking from this book. It is 880 pages, so I narrowed it down to a few recipes from each section. I will be making a total of 92 recipes (not including the mini-recipes inside of each one). While I am big on sharing recipes, I will not type them up in my CIA posts. The reason for this is because I am going to be making a LARGE number of the recipes from this book and I wouldn't feel right posting so much of the cookbook. I look forward to sharing my progress with you all and will have the list of the 92 recipes in my first CIA post. Because there are so many recipes and I don't want this to take 10 years, I will be making at least 2 a month, but I really hope to do more.

And, yes, I will still be maintaining my TWD, SMS, and Daring Baker committments. I know that I am crazy, but I hope you will be here to watch all the craziness unfold!

Happy February!