Ok, please forgive me for whining in the very first post.  I promise that this will be a rare occurence… you guys don’t understand, I mean, this is going to be REALLY hard!  I mean, cooking all of the recipes in Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions cookbook, possibly THE best cookbook ever written.  I mean, ever since I read the cookbook from cover to cover three years ago I have been making the recipes.  The traditional fare that our grandparents and great grandparents ate every day of their lives.  I basically learned how to cook again through this cookbook.  But, now that I’ve ‘decided’ to do this, to cook ALL of her 773 recipes, I’m getting nervous.  I mean, here’s my situation:
- My husband (Shawn) could eat American-style Chinese food daily, and swears by canned Nalley’s chili (I cannot break him of this).
- He also refuses to eat anything homemade resembling a soup or a stew, except for clam chowder.
- We have twin 13 year old girls that were brought up on McDonald’s, Easy Mac, Tuna Helper and anything that resembled a nugget. Â (I was a single mom at that time, but really I should have done better).
- Daughter #1 (Zoie) will eat some ‘weird’ food (as they like to call it) and has the potential to be a great cook.
- Daughter #2 (Allie) refuses to eat most vegetables and could live on mac & cheese, milk, and quesadillas.
- Luckily we all like meat, although Zoie refuses to eat seafood.
- The only vegetables that are ‘popular’ are broccoli, green beans, cauliflower and potatoes. Â They do prefer fresh over frozen or canned, which is something, I guess!
- However, Zoie is ‘obsessed’ with onions, since she has recently discovered them. Â I agree with her wholeheartedly, but the other two only like the flavor of onions, not the chunks.
To sum it up, It is really difficult to make a meal that everyone likes (I have about 5). Â So how am I going to get them to eat the liver, sweetbreads and quail that are a part of NT cookbook? Â I can’t just ignore these recipes, can I?
Well, I could but I won’t. Â This will be a good experience for them AND for me. Â They will be trying new things, so will I. Â And if they don’t eat certain things, then oh well! Â Rome wasn’t built in a day, right?
Just to give you a preview of the future of this blog, here is what I will be posting:
- Every post will contain a recipe (or two) from Nourishing Traditions and my family’s experiences in preparing and eating the meal or dish.  This will include shopping, tips and tricks, any changes we made to the recipe, cute anecdotes, you get the idea.  I will also share who ate the meal and liked it. I will declare the ‘stats’ in that day’s posts.  If our family gives a meal or dish four ‘forks up’ then I will show that on the post for that day,  Special ’4 forks up’ days with extra love for the meal will receive the rare but coveted ‘empty plate award’.
- I will cook ‘in season’ as much as possible (we are in the Portland, Oregon, US area). I like to do this to keep the costs down and also I like to shop from local farms (we belong to a CSA), farmer’s markets, and our co-op.  So you will not see fresh tomato and zucchini recipes until the US summertime months.
- There are 773 recipes in the NT cookbook, not including variations on one recipe. Â My goal is to cook 700 recipes out of the book by December 31, 2011, which is just over two years from today. Â That comes out to about 1 recipe from the book per day. Â Repeat recipes do not count toward the total.
- This challenge is for learning and for fun, and my goal is to not stress too much about it but to make progress toward the goal of feeding my family non-processed food as much as possible.
Thanks for reading about my family’s new adventure! Â Please comment and share your experiences, they will be very welcome!
{ 1 trackback }
{ 31 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh, this is wonderful! I’m looking forward to reading about your experiences and maybe trying a few more recipes that I might not otherwise have tried. I see you made the gingered carrots; that one was in the back of my mind. I’m going to put carrots on my shopping list right now. Yogurt is draining on the counter (ok, in a bowl).
Best of luck!
Betsy… thanks so much! So glad you’re going to join us. Yes the gingered carrots are great, aren’t they? I like how easy they are, and how I can just make a half recipe if I want. Why people say that old fashioned cooking takes a long time is SO not true! I am out to debunk that theory in this blog…
I’m looking forward to reading on! Two years of a cookbook – that’s a long time…. I haven’t cooked them all, although I use a fair amount of the methods to convert other recipes. Thanks for doing the recipe testing for all of us!
Durga… no problem, and thanks for following along! I will definitely need some support here. But luckily this cookbook has such a wide variety of foods for all types of meals, so that will be good!
Wow!! Way to go you! I actually considered doing this very thing right after I saw the movie ‘Julie and Julia’. I will be curious to see how it fares for you. I just whipped up some ginger carrots last week, and some whey and am about to make some of the tahini salad dressing. I haven’t delved too deeply into much of the recipes but I try one or two new ones every couple of weeks.
Well have fun with this, I most certainly will enjoy following your blog!
Thanks Lydia! It’s funny, I haven’t seen the movie yet (I think we’re watching it tonight) but I read the book a couple years ago when it came out and LOVED it, of course. If you have any area of the cookbook you’re especially interested in someone ‘testing’ please let me know. thanks for your interest!
Hey Kim – amazing journey ahead.. I’ll be watching your successes.. I have the same problem with a pickey eater husband. Anxious to see how you overcome..
thanks Tracy! good to hear from you. Yes, I’m anxious to see how I do with him too! And DD2 is following in his footsteps. But she’s younger and more pliable.
This looks exciting – I use NT but it’s not my favorite cookbook; I think Sally Fallon is a better writer than chef so I’m following your reviews and marking recipes to test. I wonder if you’ve gotten the publisher’s permission to reproduce the recipes on your blog – just a thought so you don’t get into copyright trouble with them when they get wind of this. You’ve inspired me to make some whey!
Shannon… good question! Yes I did get Sally Fallon Morell’s permission to blog on the book. And she said that I could even put the recipes in the blog, which I was very pleased about! Sally did comment this morning so she is reading this and will also add tips and tricks. thanks so much for reading and supporting!! I’m glad you were inspired to do the whey. I will be using more of mine here in the next week and posting about it. I just ran out of sauerkraut so that will probably be the first thing…
I’m excited to follow your journey. I was just thinking last night that it would be great for someone to take this challenge.
I made the tapiocca recipe last night & I thought it was going fine, but blending in the egg whites didn’t work right, I think & it was too sweet for my taste. I wish you better luck when you get there.
Best wishes! Bon appetit!
Jessie… thanks for your kind comments! Too sweet tapioca huh? I bet that would go over very well at my house! They are already looking over all of the desserts and cookies. We are going to be baking next weekened for Christmas so I should have some posts next week on those. I will let you know how it goes though with that same recipe…
Fascinating adventure! I agree with Shannon; I’ve always said (“always” since 1 year ago when I first bumped into NT) that Fallon is a better nutritionist than baker, especially. Best of luck!
Katie
I am so excited about your endeavor! I’m putting you on my blog roll to keep abreast of all your great, wholesome cooking!
Jodi
How exciting! I just found you through Katie (above) and can’t wait to come along with you on your journey, so I just subscribed!
Kelly
WOW! I think you will have a fun and challenging two years. My girls sound like yours in many ways. They grew up eating whatever quick food I could throw on the table without having to think about it and then about a year ago I turned everything upside down and started saying “here try this”. Some things have went over great, some not so good. I am fortunate though that my husband is a very adventurous eater. It will be interesting to see how your family does.
Millie, Kelly, Jodi, Katie… thanks so much for your support! I think over the next couple weeks I need to plan the schedule a bit better to make sure that I’m doing a ‘hard’ recipe at least once/week. It’s amazing how many extremely simple recipes there are though. But I guess I wouldn’t have classified them as easy a short time ago…
Hi Kim,
This all sounds so delicious. I don’t think anyone is going to bed hungry at your place.
Congratulations on joining Blog Engage. I look forward to hearing how well (or not so well) these meals go over with your family. Have a great 2010!
@Ileane
We just watched Julie and Julia last week, and I bought Nourishing Traditions with my Christmas money…I thought about doing this same thing, not REALLY doing it, but I thought it sure would be cool! I’ve skimmed over your blog and just love it! We’re in the middle of a 21 day Daniel Fast and right now the mere mention of changing our eating habits turns my hubby into a growling bear ready for a fight! I’m so excited about keeping up with your recipes and how things go!
Way to go! I wish I was doing what you’re doing. I love NT and have tried some of the recipes. My children range from 4 years to 20 years and most of themprefer junk food anyday. I feel like I’m outnumbered and when there’s little $, it’s hard to stay on healthy food. Thanks for the inspiration.
Can’t wait to follow the blog! I just discovered Sally Fallon’s book recently so this sounds like a great idea.
Wow this is awesome. Ever since I saw Julia & Julia I thought someone should do this for Nourishing Traditions. It’s a momentous undertaking, but I eagerly await the results!
I am so excited to see a fellow Portlander….I am anxious to follow you thru the journey and will be learning where you are shopping and your tips. I too have the NT Cookbook and love everything about it, even though I have only used a few of the recipes. Good Luck and Good Eats to you and your family. This will inspire me to continue on my journey of Real Food.
You go, girl!!! I’m so excited to read about your experiences with NT and your family. I have a picky family, too. My husband will only eat carry-out and my four year old is a carbaholic. My 18 month old will pretty much ahything – yay
Anyway, you are my hero for doing this! Good luck and I can’t wait to read more!!!
This is so exciting! I have been cooking from NT for a while, but it’s only my husband and me so one meal can last forever. I am looking forward to learning from your experiences. Thank you.
Yay! How fun! Blessings…
I am so glad you are doing this and so excited to read about the recipes and your experiences. I too have thought that someone should do this ever since seeing J. & J.
Good luck with the family and picky eaters!
Everyone… thanks so much for checking out the blog! Your comments really do keep me going. It has already been quite a learning experience (for my whole family) and we really have just started.
If you haven’t already, please take a sec and read about the rating system. Even recipes that only have one pink fork next to them are good, that just means I was the only one that would eat it.
Remember I live with picky people. I should have given two more ‘honorary’ forks for my parents because they live with us and they like most of the things that I cook.
Also please look to the top right of the blog and see the subscription options. I’m on twitter and facebook too, and you’ll see things on there that you won’t necessarily see on the blog. But please also subscribe to RSS or email.
If anyone has questions about anything, just email me at kim@thenourishingcook.com. Just remember that I’m a non-expert regular person, and I’m not medically trained.
Good for you! I worked my way through it years ago, pre-blogging era. I had some good and bad turn outs, but it was a great way to find family favorites! I’ll be back regularly to see how the plan is going.
Good luck! and Have fun!
This is the organic version of Julie and Julia! What a great idea. I found your website after reading a book about Weston A. Price. I am embarking on a journey to heal my youngest son’s teeth! This book was recommended. I can’t wait to get it and start using some of the recipes. I wholeheartedly encourage you to press on and continue your culinary adventure into the past. It’s time we all get back to eating food as it was intended.
Kim – I’ve loved your blog from the start.
Each of us has family that’s not necessarily on the band wagon of “Real” Nutritious ” Food”! I think it’s a rare family out there where everyone in a family is 100% on. I love the way your doing your blog and don’t feel like you need to meet that goal by the end of 2011. There will be so many variables between now and then and so many things that can squeeze in and you won’t be able to do one each day. It’s a big undertaking……be sure to give yourself slack.
My “Real Food” cooking is complicated – in that yes my husband is for it 100% most (???) of the time. But I have to also cook !00% Gluten Free / Dairy Free for him. He’s got a complex digestive health that is under doctors care and that complicates things even further. I often make a very healthy meal and his digestive says “NO”. It’s discouraging at times. He will also bring home from the store items that I say I won’t use…they don’t meet nutritious standards. It’s a battle to say the least. Thankfully as time has gone by he’s begun to eliminate items one by one. You can be an example but you can not force the healthy food changes upon anyone.
So PRESS ON Kim…….you’ve done wonderfully already.