CHUsday, and We're Waiting For You

Last Tuesday I introduced you to a new idea.  If you're like me, you have lots of cookbooks you haven't used in a long time.  You are, in short, a cookbook hoarder, and quite possibly instead of using your old cookbooks, you're still collecting new ones.  It's time to change that.  So I proposed that all who want to participate choose one of their "unused" cookbooks, either an old one or a new one they haven't yet opened, and make a recipe that's new to them from the book.

Are you with me so far? I hope so, because at the end of the month, I'll choose a cook who has commented on any of our CHUsday blogs, and that person will receive an autographed copy of one of my novels and a silly kitchen gadget. And trust me, having said this and done the research I can say there are MANY silly kitchen gadgets to choose from. I have my eye on several.

So all you have to do is:

Choose an unused cookbook from your collection (a new one, or an old one you haven't used in the past year or so–no one's counting).
Choose and make a recipe you have never made before.
Comment on this blog or any CHUsday blog and tell us what you made, the name of the cookbook, and any other details you'd like to share.

Clearly since this was my idea, I had to lead the way.  I'm at my summer cottage, but I brought three cookbooks with me, two that have never been used, one I love and haven't used for a while.  I decided to start with The Healthy Hedonist, by Myra Kornfeld, a recent birthday gift, but between writing and teaching a writing class this week, the recipe I chose was too time-consuming to make in time to write this blog.  I'll make it by next week.

Instead, I broke out an old Cooking Light Cookbook from the year 2000.  This is an old edition, which I hunted down from a rare bookseller (talk about hoarding) because I loved my daughter-in-law's edition.  I also have the newer edition.  (Unused as well, I'm sad to say.)  This afternoon I hunted for something to make that fit into our meal schedule and settled on a Romaine Salad with Tangy Lemon-Dijon Dressing.  I didn't have high hopes.  I chose it because I had all the ingredients and salad went with the "market dinner" sitting in my refrigerator from Wegman's Grocery Store, in nearby Jamestown.

Imagine my surprise when not only did both my husband and I love the entire salad, the dressing went right to the top of our list.  I've never found one with so little fat and so much flavor.  There was plenty left over for another meal, and paired with whole grain croutons I made on my panini grill, the salad was simple and terrific.

So chalk one up for CHU.  If the other recipes in this cookbook are half as yummy, I'll be using it a lot more.  Tonight was proof that cooking new things can be fun and sometimes a roaring success.

So what's your recipe?  How'd it turn out?  Just tell us here by clicking on comment above, and you'll be entered in the giveaway.  Plus, best of all, you may discover a new favorite recipe.  And even if you find that at long last, you're ready to give away a cookbook, isn't that progress.

Have fun and tell us how it goes.