Hello. Long time no see.

Last week I completed my self-set challenge of cooking all 115 recipes from the first Thug Kitchen cookbook within a year. This has been an amazing journey, full of good food, broken plates and banana peels.

The last few days I’ve been pondering the blog, where to go next, and what my favourite recipes were from the book. I wanted to compile a Top Ten favourites list, even though I knew it would be hard to narrow it down to so few. I’ve also been wondering what, if anything, the Thugs themselves make of this crazy challenge I’ve set myself. They gave me a few ‘likes’ on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter over the course of the challenge, and at the start asked me to keep them posted, but they are seriously busy people so I don’t flatter myself by thinking they’d actually have read any of them. But there’s a tiny voice inside my head whispering…But what if they did? Were they annoyed? Amused? Sleepy? Who knows.

All I can say is that I have the utmost respect for Thug Kitchen for their hilarious approach to getting some good, healthy food into as many interested people as possible. I feel like I’ve lived and breathed Thug Kitchen recipes the last full year of my life, and is it such a testament to their amazing recipe skills that out of 115 recipes, there has only been one recipe that I honestly did not like. (Horchata, you can go fuck yourself.)

I’m just a normal girl, in a normal kitchen, with my very own personal taste buds. Sometimes I’ve substituted ingredients because I couldn’t get my hands on the real shit, or been in a state of kitchen desperation, or just plain lazy. Because I’m a human being, so that shit happens sometimes.

This last year has been great fun, I’ve had a blast, and despite still being the clumsiest person that ever existed in a kitchen, I feel like at least now I can make a good salsa with my eyes closed.

It was just too hard to choose 10 favourite recipes, when there were so many more that I loved. I could’ve gladly made a top 50 list, but who the hell has time for that? So I based my Top Ten on which ones I’ll be making again the soonest, and what recipes I crave the most.

So my Top Ten Favourites from the Official Thug Kitchen Cookbook, Eat Like You Give a Fuck are as follows (and in no particular order):

Grilled Eggplant with Soba Noodles (p. 60)

Roasted Potato Salad with Fresh Herbs (p. 45)

Coconut-Lime Rice with Red Beans and Mango (p.72)

Mixed Veggie and Tofu Chilaquiles (p. 4)

Cold Citrus Noodles with Cucumbers and Carrots (p.75)

Smoky Black-Eyed Peas with Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Collards

Black Bean Tortas with Coconut Chipotle Mayo (p. 142)

Pozole Rojo (p. 90)

Corn and Basil Chowder (p.95)

Spicy Pickled Carrots (p. 118)

 

I’d also like to give a Special Award to the To-Go Breakfast Bars (p. 16) for having saved my life on several occasions. In my world, all you need in the morning is one of these bars and a big cup of coffee. After that you feel equipped to conquer the world!

The Award for Most Difficult Recipe in the Cookbook goes to the Creamy Ravioli with House Marinara (p. 147)

The Award for Most Disastrous Kitchen Event goes to the moment I melted a massive hole in my wax table-cloth, with a close second place going to when I set off the fire alarm during a fancy-as-fuck dinner party.

I’d also like to Award the Quinoa Oatmeal (p.3) the Special Award for being the recipe that really got my blog going, and creative juices flowing. This is when my special brand of crazy truly started to blossom and I feel I really found my groove. Nothing like cooking to really help you find yourself.

Last but not least, for the Game of Thrones lovers out there, my accidental take on the Tortilla Soup Recipe (p.98) might make you smile.

I’ve had so much fun cooking that now I’ve decided to do two things:

One is, keep the blog going by cooking TK recipes from the other books, and from their website. I’ll do this at an easy, chilled pace with no time pressure. As always, if you wanna know the exact ingredients and measurements for the recipes you’ll have to buy a GODDAMN BOOK OF YOUR OWN. I’m not breaking no copyright laws for you guys. (I suspect however, that if you love Thug Kitchen half as much I do, you have your own copies of all three books already – and maybe even their special camping edition: ‘Blazing Kettles’ too). I’ve got my eye set on the Chocolate Coconut Pie in the Party Grub book.

Second thing I’m going to do is, I’m gonna cook my way to bliss over at Crazy Hippies, Happy Food where my crazy hippy friend and I will be getting down in the kitchen with our bad selves. Feel free to check out our shenanigans here. So far the blog is doing well, and we’ve been asked to review a few food places already, so we are having fun. And that’s what it’s all about isn’t it? Having fun.

So, till I see you next, in whatever forum, have fun and keep munching.

And thank you so much for reading along with me,

Love, cookies, and gratitude,

Camilla