A long time ago, in a hot as hell town in the middle of nowhere, I watched a movie about a blogger. Julie was a writer in a job she didn’t enjoy and challenged herself to cook every recipe out of a Julia Childs cookbook. You might have seen it; Julie & Julia.

At the time my husband, baby boy and I had moved out to a small mining town in the Central Queensland. I was a stay at home Mum with dreams of…well, something. I’ve always had a thirst for learning more and wasn’t sure quite what.

But I’ve always had a love for reading. I’d start with grand plans of writing novels that would turn into short stories because I never knew quite where to go. I took a few online writing courses but after watching Julie & Julia, I realised that the best way to be a better writer is to just….write!

I was so inspired by the movie that I set myself a similar challenge. I decided cook all the recipes from Donna Hay’s ‘Season’s’ cookbook, but without the time limit. I didn’t have the stamina to cook all 200 recipes in a year!!

I started cooking and would tick off each recipe as I completed it, then would write a little passage about it, which you can still read here! I was turning out Creme Caramels, fresh pizza dough (pre-Thermomix!!), homemade jam and delicious dinners. Before I started I was a complete amateur cook, with very basic skills, but in forcing myself to create new recipes I learned so much more and gained the biggest appreciation for good food.

After a while I realised that writing the passages wasn’t where my heart was, even though the exercise had started that way. I’d fallen in love with cooking.

So though the book I went. Cooking and creating and eating and more eating recipes I would have previously just flicked past and thought ‘meh, one day maybe’. Many of these recipes I’ve gone back to again and again. Some are now family favourites.

I loved this challenge so much, I repeated it again years later with a Lola Berry Cookbook, but instead of blogging I was sharing what I cooked on instagram. Search for #thehappycookbookchallenge (click on the ‘recent’ heading).

The other day I shared on my Insta stories how I’ve been uninspired with cooking lately. Life has been hectic and busy and I find myself a little lost in it all. And I haven’t been cooking anything new. We eat the same 7 meals on fortnightly rotation with a few take aways thrown in and too many leftovers. But today I had some time. I pulled out one of my favourite books, some ingredients and spent time in my kitchen remembering who I am and what I love about food.

So I’ve decided to take the plunge again and do another Cookbook Challenge. I figured, I have to cook dinner anyways, right? Might as well be some fresh new recipes my kids can turn their noses up at!

Again, I’ve chosen a Donna Hay cookbook. I love her books because they’re so homely. I do take liberties and swap ingredients where I can’t find them but I don’t deviate from the recipes majorly. I’ve chosen ‘Life in Balance’ which seems so apt at the moment.

I already have two recipes ticked off, so keep an eye out for those posts coming soon. I hope to practice my food photography more this time, over improving my terrible writing. That and I’m pretty sure my husband has gotten sick of constantly correcting my grammar….

So, wish me luck! Pop around and share some food with me, because it seems there’s going to be plenty to share!