I am Prepped!

This morning marks a small achievement. Several weeks ago, I was luck enough to have been invited by the lovely Vanessa Kimbell to the launch of her first cookery book, Prepped! I travelled to Northampton for the day to meet Vanessa and her team of Preperatti. I can now safely say that I have become firm friends with some of the wondeful ladies I met there. Including the wonderful Vanessa. You can read more about the launch party on my Hello! Magazine.com blog here:

http://blog.hellomagazine.com/freefromkitchen/2011/06/free-from-kitchen-is-prepped.html

I waited to pick up a copy from the launch, and Vanessa very kindly signed my copy for me. I sat on the train back to London engrossed in the book. I had to put it away for 5 minutes when I hopped off the train at Euston to change connection, and then out it came as I hopped on the Victoria line. All the way back to Brixton. By the time I returned home, I had read most of the book, cover to cover. But more importantly, I had formulated a plan. The very next day, I practially cleared Lakeland out of Le Parfait jars and glass bottles. I bought every pack of caster sugar on the shelves of my local shop. I kid you not. They did look a little perplexed seeing me purchase roughly 26 kilos of sugar on a friday night. Very quickly, I started to build up a collection of flavoured sugars and syrups, and I set out to cook my way through Prepped!

And I've now done it. My cupboards are now even more stuffed full of bottles and jars. I even have some presents made for Christmas. My personal favourites are the jams, elderflower syrup, the caraway soda bread and the spiced lamb and rhubarb tagine.

So Vanessa, I am officially Prepped! and have loved every minute. I just hope my own cookery book is half as good!