A is for Apple (and "AHMYGODWHATAMIDOING?!")

Welcome to my first ever blog.

My name is Travis Richards. I have a nose, two eyes, and enjoy eating turkey sandwiches. I also like to cook. And, after watching the movie 'Julie and Julia,' I have decided to create a cooking challenge for myself and blog about it.

I have no formal cooking education, but people have always said that experience is the best teacher, and so I hope that through this undertaking I will learn a lot of things that I never knew as well as solidify my current cooking knowledge. On top of this, I would like to make good food, but we will see how that goes.

So here it is. My cooking challenge:

I will be spending the next 26 weeks (starting today until the week of October 17th) making three different courses (a Beverage/Appetizer, Entree, and a Dessert) with a common ingredient found within each course. Each week will also have a letter of the alphabet assigned to it, and the main ingredient of the week must start with that letter. For example, if the letter is 'B' and the ingredient is 'Banana' then the beverage/appetizer, the dessert, and the entree must all contain banana in some way, shape, or form.

Also, I will be creating the recipes on my own (with inspirational help from the interwebs, as necessary).

At the end of the week, I will be having friends over to taste the food (Lord, bless their souls.). I will publish their thoughts, as well as plenty of (hopefully) appetizing pictures of my journey through the week.

As is the nature of blogging, I will be updating you on my progress throughout the week, and will be checking in with updates on my recipes, what has/hasn't worked throughout the week, and how much closer I will be to killing myself if the eighth recipe I've tried to create fails.

Now that the premise has been established, I will be announcing that for the first week, my letter will be the letter 'A' (What a surprise!) and the ingredient I have chosen to start off with will be 'Apple'.



I decided on the Apple because it seems to be a versatile ingredient, and is a relatively easy one to start with. I could have picked something weird like Arugula to make it interesting and then quit this project before the next update, but I resolved to actually continue this endeavor into the 'B' week.

Thus, 'Apple'.

Let the challenge begin (and hopefully not end until the week of October 17th).