January 8th. My best friend's birthday. Day 1 of this blog.

I collect cookbooks. I have over 50 and the collection is growing. When I travel, I have to get a cookbook that characterizes the town, city, region or country I'm visiting. Several are from my late grandmother and some have been gifts. Most of the cookbooks have been read cover-to-cover, (yes, I read cookbooks like they're the new James Patterson novel) but I've only made a handfull of the recipes. So I've decided to cook my way through each book and try this whole blog thing. Like Julie Powell, I'm going to cook new recipes and write about my experiences. No, I am not looking to have a book published or have a movie produced about myself or the blog, but I love her idea and I love cooking, but it's pretty boring to take on a project like this and not tell people about your adventure.

I haven't decided which book or recipe I'm going to start with, and I don't know if I'm going to go book-by-book or just pick the recipes and books randomly. Stay tuned...