First post

So here is our first post. I suppose we should tell you a bit more about who we are and our ‘Britain in our kitchen’ challenge for 2012 (we have already started but have not had time to post about it).

So we are M and N – a thirty-something couple living in Herts, with pretty normal jobs, a mortgage, no dog and no kid. May be worth saying that N is French (brought up in France in her Grandma’s kitchen) and M is half French, half British (brought up in Britain). In our working lives we don’t go near a kitchen, or talk cuisine. We are no chefs, we are in fact average cooks although getting better through the challenge).

So what is ‘Britain in our kitchen’? This is a project we have been discussing since last October. It is pretty easy really, we intend to live on food coming from Britain at home (so not at our work canteen for instance) the whole of 2012. So yes, that means no chocolate for a year, no olive oil, dry pasta, mangoes, bananas, and nothing out of season. Oh and ready-made meals are now officially banned.

There a few exceptions. First of all, we can finish the food that we have bought in 2011 – no we did not stock it up, but that may have helped. Secondly we are allowed herbs and spices from outside Britain – although if there is a British version we will obviously use it. Oh, and we are allowed coffee and tea – so we are not totally miserable for a year. We are also allowing processed foods that are made up of British products – and make a strong statement about it (so crisps are officially allowed – some not all of them).

So in this blog you will be able to follow us on our food adventures – or disasters. We will share recipes, substitutes, highlight some obscure products that we would not even have looked at before (rapeseed oil or Jerusalem artichoke anyone?) – and maybe some restaurants that try to reduce food miles as well (that will be good, cooking everyday can become tiresome).

We would love to hear from you in the comment box, your tips – the recipes you think we should try, or the products we may not have seen.

Expect a lot of excitement when we find produce that we have been craving (like rhubarb a couple of weeks ago). This is our journey to learn about food again.