Cookalong With Gordon

I've not caught any of the channel 4 Big Food Fight Season (probably because I find the presence of Jamie Oliver on screen too irritating to bear) so didn't see "Cookalong Live with Gordon". I can never really make up my mind about Gordon. I love his "proper" books like "Desserts" & "Passion for Flavour" and his series "Kitchen Nightmares" - though this particular passion probably has an element of open-mouthed catering schadenfreude. I have never got on with his more "Gordon as Celebrity" programming like Hell's Kitchen. I've eaten at Petrus, which was bloody marvellous. So my jury is out on Gordon. Or maybe the verdict would be Chef Ramsay - innocent, Sweary Shouty Gordon - guilty m'lud.

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When I moved in with my husband, obviously some of the cookery book collection moved in too. Cue round, saucer eyes and many comments of "just how many cookery books do you have ?". There are 82 in our marital home. He counted them and stated the figure in a voice pregnant with meaning. I replied "yeah, that's just the ones I can't live without. There's loads more at Mum and Dad's". I'm now not "allowed" to buy more cookery books. Little does he know that it's quite easy to continue my Amazon habit in secret. I get them sent to Mum and Dad's and pretend I've had them for ages. To set the record straight, I have about 170 cookery books. Not bad, but certainly not as many as some other people. And I was a pastry chef for 4 years, so those 30-odd dessert & baking books don't count because they are professional equipment...

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But where does this fit in with Gordon ? One of Dear Husband's complaints is "you never cook anything out of any of the books anyway". So, dear readers, my New Year's Resolution this year is this...

I am going to cook every dish from "Chef for all Seasons"

I am going to try and source each and every ingredient exactly as stated, not fiddle with the recipes, and try some new foods. It should be a real learning curve and will take me out of my "comfort" zone of the same repetoire of dishes. I'm planning to cook a 3 course meal once a week, seasonally. I will post up pictures of the cooking and the finished dish, but won't be posting up the recipes.

. I am probably mad. And if anyone has any idea where I can source crosnes in Sussex, well, I'd be very grateful....