How it all began...

Around three years ago, on a trip to New York, I bought a book called "Julie and Julia" to read on the journey back to Blighty.

Well, technically this is a lie: my deep-rooted aversion to aviation meant I was never actually going to read it on the plane. As we bounced over the Atlantic, I was far too busy squeezing the blood supply from my husband's hand or waving my arms about my head in a state of panic to think about holding a paperback. But the book was in my hand luggage so there you go.

"Julie and Julia" is the story of a blogger (Julie) who vows that over the course of a year she will recreate every single one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's classic "Mastering the Art of French Cooking".

That sounds like fun, I thought. Not the French cooking per se, given I do not eat rabbits or lobsters or cream or oeufs en cocotte or half the other things necessary to complete the task.

So I considered the UK equivalent.

However, arriving at the conclusion that I could be faced with a year's worth of Fanny Craddock's "Common Market Cookery" I decided to abandon the project and grill, bake and fry my way through the works of Nigella Lawson instead.

I am aware that "Cari and Nigella" doesn't have quite the ring of "Julie and Julia", but as I am loathe to change my name to Nigel it will just have to do.

So - dietary exclusions and aversions permitting - this is it...