52 Weeks, 52 Recipes: a 2010 project

I have been in a major cooking rut lately. Chicken. Chili. Pasta. Chicken. Pancakes. Chili. Stew. Pasta. Pizza. Chicken. Pasta. And so on. Sitting down each week to write the meal plan has been kind of depressing, because I fill out 4 days (chicken, chili, pasta, pizza) and then run out of ideas.

I've also been thinking about some sort of 2010 project. I was initially thinking about Project 365, where you take and post one picture per day, but after the 24 days of Christmas thing I just don't want the pressure of having to post every day, and the added pressure of keeping my camera charged (more challenging that it should be, really).

And then it hit me. A project that I think I can do for a whole year, and will force me to expand my cooking horizons. For now I'm calling it 52 Weeks, 52 Recipes, where I will try a new to me recipe every week, and post about it on the blog. I'm going to start by focusing on recipes involving beans and lentils, since I'd particularly like to add more meatless dishes to our menus, both for health and monetary reasons.

The rules:

1) One post a week, with a recipe, photos if they turn out OK, and my thoughts on the recipe and results.
2) If I make more than one new recipe in a week, I am allowed to 'bank' the spares for a week where for whatever I reason I don't make something new
3) Failed recipes may be reposted later if I make major changes to improve them. Minor tweaks to recipes I will edit the original post with my comments.
4) Main course recipes only. Desserts don't count.

And it will let me practice my photography skills, too. Taking food pictures and having them look good can be tough, especially with the sun setting so early these days, by the time dinner is ready the sun has vanished.

First recipe post goes up tomorrow!