End of Year Announcement

Faith

Hi folks,

So tomorrow marks the last week of the Cooking Club for 2010. I think we can all agree that this has been a massively successful venture, and I'll like to thank every single person who has been involved .

After discussion between myself, Hill Billy and Mr Magnolia, we've decided to start afresh for 2011. One of the most difficult things for this year was that we got a huge amount of sign-ups from A) people who didn't realise that signing up meant the had to contribute a recipe, posters who only posted in the forums that one time and never returned, and C) New posters who just never returned to boards.ie at all. Finding replacements week on week was time consuming and frustrating.

So next week (ie. from the 5th of December), a new sign-up thread will be started for the Cooking Club 2011. Even if you've posted a recipe this year, you'll need to sign up again for 2011. We'll only be accepting sign-ups from posters with over 100 posts, and we'll use our discretion about accepting sign-ups from posters who've never contributed to the Food & Drink forums before. So signing up does not automatically mean you will be given a place. We will start another thread for people willing to act as stand-ins at short notice, and we will accept new posters for that.

The sign-up thread will run for 2 weeks. After that period, we will review how many contributors we have and we'll see if we need to extend the period. So if you're serious about contributing again next year, please try to sign up as quickly as possible. We may not schedule everyone in the order that they've signed up either - we may try and spread posters we know to be extremely reliable throughout the year. Feel free to post when doesn't suit you to put up a recipe when you sign up.

Please don't try signing up in this thread because you'll be ignored. Wait until the new thread goes up in a weeks time.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind people that it's not just main courses that we're looking for. I'd love to see more side dishes, desserts, nibbles, cakes, everything else. It doesn't have to be a big, long or complicated dish - if you feel you excel at making mashed potatoes, then by all means post that up for your week. Big or small, all recipes for all manner of foods are gratefully welcomed. And although it has become common, pictures are not necessary, so please don't feel under pressure to provide any!

Thanks again,

Faith, Mr Magnolia and Hill Billy.

The Black Oil

Kudos to everyone who has contributed to the club in one way or another. 47 weeks is quite an achievement. I look forward to more recipes in 2011.

Malari

This sounds like a good plan. Thanks for all the work on the forum, I'll be signing up again for next year. I'm not the best at trying all the new recipes but I have given at least half of them a shot and have found some great ones that I've added to my list of regular favourites.

BaZmO*

Now I know a lot of people probably won't agree with this but what about doing a recipe every 2 weeks? I think it'd give people a bit more time to catch up with the recipes. I'm so far behind with the recipes already.

Although, if you're suggesting that people put up slightly less complicated dishes maybe sticking with one a week would still work.

Another thing that I noticed was that I thought that one of the prerequisites of submitting a recipe, is that shouldn't the recipes be one of your own and not lifted from a celebrity chef book?

Faith

If the interest is there, then I think we'll stick with a recipe a week. I don't think anyone is expected to actually make every recipe every week any more. I know I fell behind months ago, but this is still a great resource when I'm looking for something new.

As for it being your own recipe, I haven't given that much thought. I haven't noticed many people copying and pasting celebrity recipes without at least editing them a little bit themselves.

Beanstalk

I'm looking forward to signing up! Well done on a class thread. One thing that excites me the most about it is the pictures, everyone should post pics it makes the community feeling even better.

The Black Oil

Presumably we will use a slightly different format for the thread titles to prevent duplicates. E.g., Cooking Club 2011: Week #X 'Pork Stew', etc.

Kimia

Where's the sign up thread? I'm afraid I can't see it and it'll be full by the time I realise where it is!!!

JPA

What about a poll to vote top recipe of the year?

Faith

Kimia wrote: »

Where's the sign up thread? I'm afraid I can't see it and it'll be full by the time I realise where it is!!!

Sorry, I've been away. I'll put it up now.

Little Alex

I just want to say thank you too to everyone involved!

The recipes have been really, really good so keep them coming!

Merry Christmas from Little Alex.