Introduction

Ahh, the inaugural post of a brand spankin' new blog.

So, my name is Kay, I'm 26, and I just moved to the west coast of Canada. I have been vegan since June 2003 and over the years I have managed to amass quite a collection of vegan and vegetarian cookbooks. Unfortunately, when I need a recipe, I have this habit of turning to the Internet instead of to my cookbooks. I think the reason for this is that recipe websites often have sections for comments and ratings; I can tell right away if it's a 5-star recipe that people are raving about, or a 1-star flop that leaves people reeling in horror. With cookbooks, though, there's no such luck unless it's a second-hand cookbook and the previous owner was prone to scribbling notes in the margins (a practice I heartily endorse, by the way.)

This project is my attempt to change that – and to justify the number of cookbooks I own. It's about time I start using them more! I haven't decided yet how often I'll update this thing, but every so often, I'll grab one of my cookbooks at random, pick 5 or more recipes from it, cook up a great big meal, and tell you how it went. If you own the book and have been hesitant to use it, at least you'll find out here if some of the recipes worked for one person.

So, here's the deal. Each cookbook is going to get two ratings, a recipe rating, and a rating for extras.

Recipe rating: Out of five stars. If I test five recipes, then each recipe will potentially earn one star depending on whether or not my family and friends and I enjoyed eating it. If I test more than five recipes, I'll bust out my math skills and make it work.

Extras: Also out of 5 stars. I'm looking for the things I want to see in cookbooks;

1. A kick-ass introduction
2. Nutritional information for each recipe
3. Photographs
4. Sample menus, a meal plan, or serving suggestions
5. This last point will be a little arbitrary, but I'm looking for things like clear instructions, easy-to-find ingredients, a nice layout, etc. This point will allow me to reward anything that really stands out, or deduct if something random gets under my skin.

Then I'll add the two up for a final grade out of 10. Ta-da!

So that's it. Hope you'll have fun reading about this project. If it inspires you to buy a book, or avoid a book, or use a book that you already own, or try a recipe that you've been meaning to, then I'll know that I've done a good job here.