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

13 comments:

kitchen flavours said...

Good news are always exciting! Thank you, Kim, Deb, and to Sue for jumping on board! And to Heather and Natashya too! It is great that IHCC will be continuing on, and plans for the thumbnail linky and featured posts sounds wonderful.
IHCC has inspired me to cook from various chefs, which otherwise, I would probably have never tried on my own! I have travelled to Greece, Mexico, India and have enjoyed cooking from the recipes of Tessa Kiros, Rick Bayless, Madhur Jaffey, thanks to IHCC, and now am excited for a Mediterranean journey with our new featured chef Yotam Ottolenghi.
I have heard of YO and almost bought his book "Jerusalem" a couple of months back, the only thing that is holding me back is the somewhat pricey price.
I'm looking forward to read all about the changes and themes!
Great job, ladies, you ladies rock!

Heather S-G said...

Wonderful news! I'm so happy that you ladies are going to keep it going...and welcome Sue :).

I just bought Jerusalem a couple of weeks ago, so I'm excited to get a nudge to start cooking from it!

Kaye said...

Oh, good news! Santa brought me Ottolenghi this year. I've had a quick look but not used it yet.

Deb in Hawaii said...

Welcome Sue! ;-)

I made one-pan Eggs with Fresh Green Herbs after seeing them over at Kitchen Flavours. (Not as near as pretty as the ones Joyce made--but really good!) ;-)

Kaye said...

Glad to hear IHCC is going on! Welcome Sue!! Glad your life is getting back on the track now. :-)

Looks like we're going for eggs this time around! Another batch from me.

Couscous & Consciousness said...

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone. I'm very excited about getting involved, and doubly excited to be starting off with probably my favourite chef, Yotam Ottolenghi.

kitchen flavours said...

It's chickpea curry, a complete meal, served with paratha!

Michelle B said...

Great new look! And I like the changes to potluck week.

Made Spinach soup this week--really good!

kitchen flavours said...

The new themes are up, super great!
I've already bookmarked some recipes from YO, now I've just got to find the theme for them!
I like the theme of the Potluck!

Kim said...

A big welcome to Sue! So happy to have her on our team. I went with something light and healthy this week, turkey keema. It's getting to be bathing suit season...yikes!

Andreas said...

Yay for keeping IHCC going.
Double yay for Ottolenghi.
Triple yay for Sue. :)


Post is up.

Couscous & Consciousness said...

I'm a bit late getting to the party, but I really wanted to get this posted - better late than never. I made Prawns with Courgettes - very quick and easy, flavourful without being spicy.

Anonymous said...

I am so excited that IHCC will continue. Even though I didn't get to finish up with the last month of Jaffrey I enjoyed the months I did make it. Thanks for continuing on. Many Thanks. I am looking forward to doing what I can with Ottowhooee!!!