Watching Rachael Ray

…and they feel FINE! No clogged arteries, no heart attacks, no 800 pound weight gain, and a healthy new addition to the family…

I’m talking, of course, about the One Year Project blog, where they spent the past 365 days, one year, literally every day with Rachael Ray.

H and L, a British lass and Denmark bloke transplanted to the US of A due to work, both stayed here, where both their daughters have been born, because they could. Fascinated by the Food Network cult, and Rachael Ray, they decided to make one meal a day, every day, from her cookbook 365: No Repeats, a Year of Deliciously Different Dinners. They went from page one, all the way through the end, start to finish. They didn’t deviate, they didn’t once decide they wanted something else, and they faithfully blogged the entire experiment for us to follow along, through moving, house construction, and oh yeah - giving birth to Baby N! Which certainly makes the fact that they were able to meet Rachael Ray at a book-signing and get her autograph pale in comparison!

They documented every recipe with photos and comments, and let us know what they REALLY thought of each meal, rating them from 1-5 stars. While there were only 21 Five-Star meals, there was a significant amount of Four-Stars (180) and Three-Stars (131) and in the end, only 27 were Two-Star, and a paltry 6 were diagnosed as One-Star. You know, that seems a pretty overwhelmingly successful cookbook to me!

Says H and L:

People often ask us how we found the food, how we would rate Rachael Ray’s recipes. Overall, I would say that we ate very well this year. There were a few humdingers, but generally we ate better than we expected, and undoubtedly better than we normally would have done.

I did have to ask the one important question they didn’t address in the end of the year report - and as soon as I have that answer, I’ll edit and add it here.

And hey! They’re not done! Having enjoyed the experience over all, they’ve decided to move on to Food Network’s Nigella Lawson, and spend 2008 working through her cookbooks. The rules are a bit different, but the idea is the same - Celebrity Foodie, Cookbooks, and Good Eating. Who could ask for anything more?