What is the #Shelfie Project?

Shelfie /Shɛlfɪe/ noun A picture or portrait of your bookshelf. Showcasing literature IN ALL IT'S GLORY! (This term was originally defined by author Rick Riordan). Not to be confused with selfie. (Source: Urban Dictionary).

This is my shelfie (well, the cookbook half of it). As my interest in cooking and baking has grown in recent years, so too has my collection of cookbooks. Okay, so it's hardly the NSW State Library, but as someone with the unfortunate tendency to impulsively buy things that I hardly need or have space for, it is getting to be quite a lot. 

Yet I think I like the idea of cookbooks more than I like actually using them. Mostly it's because I'm not sure exactly how reliable the recipe is, nor how it actually tastes. Why bother using a recipe from a book when you there are numerous websites that act as not only a consolidated database of every kind of recipe imaginable, but have user comments from people who have actually tried the recipe? 

Thus, the cookbooks sit proudly on my shelf, read but hardly used. 

While adding two new (signed :D) cookbooks to the collection yesterday (shelf adjustment was required for Mr Zumbo), I felt a sudden burst of motivation and decided that  it was about time I actually started using them. Besides from actually using stuff I've spent any money (the books were kind of like that pretty dress you buy knowing full well you have nowhere in mind to wear it to, but you just have to have it), I'm hoping this 'project' will help me develop my cooking further and allow me to discover new heights of deliciousness :D. And also give me something to do in the holidays besides sleeping 'til midday and consuming five times the recommended daily intake of sugar and saturated fats in front of the TV/interwebz.

By the end of the year, I hope to have cooked at least one recipe from each book (it doesn't sound that exciting but considering I am yet to try anything from several of the books, it'll definitely be an achievement for me!!).  

6 months,

18 books,

1 kitchen.

Wow that sounds like the start of a melodramatic cooking show advert.

Aaanyways.. Hopefully I am motivated enough to actually blog each recipe (that's seriously the hardest part of this. Cooking is fine, it's just the writing-uppy bit that I lack motivation for) so all my fans (fan) can follow my adventures. 

The books are (from L - R in the photo above):

1 Zumbarons - Adriano Zumbo

2 Lantern Cookery Classics - George Calombaris 

3 The Starter Kitchen - Callum Hann 

4 Balti: Step-by-Step Indian Recipes - Padmini Mehta 

5 Cakes - Marina Neri 

6 Simple Essentials: Chicken - Donna Hay 

7 All New Meals in Minutes - Ainsley Harriott 

8 How to be a Domestic Goddess - Nigella Lawson 

9 Nigellissima - Nigella Lawson 

10 Planet Cake - Paris Cutler

11 Nigella Express - Nigella Lawson 

12 Taste: Cupcakes - Hinkler Publishing

13 Baking Made Easy - Lorraine Pascale

14 Marion - Marion Grasby 

15 Cupcakes and Bakes - Recipes selected by Jonnie Leger (actually not in the photo but this is where it usually sits on the shelf ;))

16 My Favourite Food for all Seasons - Janelle Bloom 

17 Family Food and Weekend Feasts - Janelle Bloom 

18 Zumbo - Adriano Zumbo (click the photo to enlarge, I promise it really is there!)