Monday, March 25, 2013

Alavida Madhur! (Goodbye Madhur!) & Ottolenghi Updates

It's that bittersweet time again. Time to say good-bye to Madhur Jaffrey, the chef we have spent the past six months cooking with. As excited as we are to welcome our new chef, Yotam Ottolenghi next week, it is always sad to leave a talented chef behind.

So join us in saying...   Alavida Madhur!


On our last week with Madhur Jaffrey, anything goes. You can make one of those last dishes you had tagged and didn't get around to cooking, repeat a special Jaffrey favorite and/or round up your top Madhur recipes of the past six months. It's up to you!

Just post your Madhur Jaffrey recipe no later than Sunday. March 31st.

Don't forget to link your goodbye dish up to Linky Tools below.  Please remember to leave a comment after linking so that we don't miss out on your dish.

New to IHCC?  Need help with Linky Tools? Please visit our Welcome page if you need more information. Also, if you have a question regarding IHCC please feel free to leave a comment and we will get back with you.
 
If you missed those delicious One Pot Wonders last week, please head over to check those dishes out!  


***Ottolenghi Updates***

Hopefully you are liking our new look as we get ready to cook with Yotam Ottolenghi. Sue did a fabulous job designing our new header and making a cool Ottolenghi button to grab for the sidebar. 

As many of you have noticed, our first two months of themes have been posted on the sidebar. There are a couple links to online recipes for Ottolenghi there too--in case you don't have any of his cookbooks yet. BTW--Sue found an Ottolenghi iPhone application in case anyone wants to purchase it. I checked and the cost at the Apps store in the U.S. is $6.99 for what looks to be about 44 recipes currently (I'm not sure of the cost in other countries but it looks to be available in several). 

Here is a link  http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/lp/ottolenghi-app

Pay special attention to next week's welcome post as we will be introducing you to a couple of fun new IHCC features. 

Are you getting excited?!?! We sure are!  

Monday, March 18, 2013

One Pot Wonders and Two Exciting Announcements!

This week is all about those fabulous One Pot Wonders.  One Pot Wonders are a life-saver on weeknights when you want something comforting, quick, and easy.  A little of this and a little of that, some time in the pot, and you're ready to go.

What will you put in your pot?  Please make and post your One Pot Wonder by Sunday, March 24th.  Please remember to link up with Linky tools, below, so that we don't miss out on your recipe. If you're new to IHCC, please see our Welcome page for more details and/or leave us a comment below and we will get back with you.

If you missed out on Kebab Krazy, please head over for a sneak peek!


 Announcements: The Future of IHCC

Dear IHCC Friends,

We have two exciting announcements for you today! 

You know how sometimes you make a decision and then you have second (and third, fourth, and even fifth) thoughts about the choice you made? Well, after thinking long and hard about giving up IHCC and hopefully finding it a good home, we thought longer and harder, emailed back and forth and actually talked, (how fun is it to actually get to speak to a long-time blogging friend?!) and finally decided that we still want to cook together and we would like to cook with all of you. And... we want to cook Yotam Ottolenghi.


Some of you may be saying "Yotam OttoWhoee????" If you haven't come across this Israeli-born, London-based and super-hot right now chef on various blogs, we are excited to introduce you to him. Yotam Ottolenghi has successful restaurants in the U.K., two stunning cookbooks Plenty and Jerusalem out in the U.S., (a third, Ottolenghi, is out in the U.K. and other countries and is coming to the U.S. in September). He has a U.K. television show and writes a regular vegetarian column in The Guardian newspaper in the U.K.,--although he is a meat-eater, and has recipes (including those with meat, poultry and fish) on his Ottolenghi website. We think you will find many recipes to choose from if you decide to join in and aren't ready to commit to buying cookbooks (although you will probably want them once you see them--they are beautiful!).

If we were going to change our minds and take on at least another round of hosting IHCC, we wanted to cook with someone who interested and intrigued us. With spring approaching, we were inspired to cook with all the fresh and vibrant veggies, and Ottolenghi fits that bill with a fresh Mediterranean flair. We will still have our IHCC weekly themes to make it fun, but will try to keep them loose and easy. We are switching to a picture linky tool--so you will be able to add a thumbnail picture to your entries, and we will be featuring a recipe or two from each round on the following week's post to better highlight the fabulous dishes that you make the effort to cook as well as get to know each other even better.  There will also be a few more changes coming up, so stay tuned!

We really think you'll enjoy cooking with Ottonlenghi and hope you will cook along with us either regularly, or drop in when you feel like it and enjoy the flexibility and community of IHCC. Themes for Yotam Ottolenghi, who will start just after Madhur Jaffrey ends and run April 1 through September 29, will be posted soon and the the look of the site will start to change for our new chef shortly. (We are thinking clean and green!) Let us know if you have any questions.

Now for the second announcement! We are very excited to announce a new IHCC host, the lovely Sue of Couscous and Consciousness. Sue lives in Nelson, New Zealand and writes has a fantastic blog about living and eating mindfully. She is a long-time IHCC participant as well as a big fan of Ottolenghi, and we look forward to adding her ideas and positive energy to the hosting team. A big welcome to Sue!!

Here's to great cooking, eating and discovering new chefs and recipes!

Kim, Deb, & Sue

Monday, March 11, 2013

Kebab Krazy!

What's more fun than food on a stick???  

Not much! So this week we are going Kebab Krazy!


Find a Madhur Jaffrey recipe for kebabs or just find something to make that you can "kebab" yourself and post it no later than Sunday. March 17th.

Don't forget to link your kebabs up to Linky Tools below.  Please remember to leave a comment after linking so that we don't miss out on your dish.

New to IHCC?  Need help with Linky Tools? Please visit our Welcome page if you need more information. Also, if you have a question regarding IHCC please feel free to leave a comment and we will get back with you.

If you missed March's Potluck last week, please head over to check those dishes out!  


****Reminder Announcement****

If you missed last week's important announcement about IHCC's future, please take a moment to read it. We are still looking for hosts to continue the IHCC fun. If you are interested in hosting IHCC, please leave a comment below. Just three more weeks of cooking with Madhur Jaffrey and cooking along together at IHCC. 

 




This linky list is now closed.

Monday, March 4, 2013

March Potluck and a Special Announcement



 We're coming to the end of our time here with Madhur Jaffrey. This is our very last potluck with MJ!  We are in the final stretch here at IHCC, with exactly one month left to cook through all of the Madhur Jaffrey recipes left on our to-do list. With one month left, which recipes are going to make the final cut?  

Please make and post your March Potluck recipe on or before Sunday, March 10th.  Please remember to link your recipe to Linky Tools, below, and to also leave a comment so that we don't miss out on your recipe.

If you are new to IHCC, please check out our Welcome page for additional information.  If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below.  

If you missed out on Meat-Free But Flavorful last week, head on over to check out those dishes!

Now, for a special announcement.


 I Heart Cooking Clubs was started nearly four years ago, back in September 2009.  Back then Natashya, Deb, Heather and I were all fairly new bloggers with a new found passion for cooking and blogging.  We had a goal to create a casual and carefree cooking club that allowed for lots of flexibility. Through the years,  I Heart Cooking Clubs has been such a wonderful way to share our love of cooking with all of you and has bought us lots of joy.  During our time we've explored the recipes of Nigella Lawson, Mark Bittman, Giada De Laurentiis, Jamie Oliver, Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless, and finally Madhur Jaffrey.  Together, with our participants, we've cooked and shared hundreds of recipes and explores many cuisines. We've shared endless success stories and we've also shared in our fair share of failures.  We've learned and we've definitely grown.  However, after much soul searching, we have recently decided that it is time for us to move on as hosts. We want to take this time to thank all of you who have participated along with us over the years.  We couldn't have done it without you!

I Heart Cooking Clubs will be running as normal through the end of March.  Deb and I will continue to share the hosting duties until our last day, Sunday, March 31st.  

If anyone is interested in picking up the hosting duties, please leave a comment below.  (BTW--We think teaming up is always fun and builds wonderful blogging friendships!) We would love to see IHCC continue with new hosts bringing fresh energy and ideas. If not, we will end the club at the end of March after our final week of Madhur Jaffrey.   






This linky list is now closed.