Just a Fool for April's Food Holidays

I've been thinking a lot lately about last April's "Thirty Days of Grilled Cheese Challenge" - a fun way to enjoy grilled cheese and experiment with new recipes. And since Team Blais won and I can actually allow myself to be a Top Chef believer again, I'm thinking I need a Top Chef inspired challenge for April 2011. (This is also prompted by the fact that National Grilled Cheese Month basically changed the illegible ink household forever. While my cholesterol miraculously remained in tact, my weight did fluctuate and not in a Morgan Spurlock kind of way - it took my nine months to pack on these pounds.)

So this year, the new little man and I have agreed to mix things up and take on the following challenge:

1. The National Food Holiday Challenge runs from April 1-April 30, 2011.
2. For 30 consecutive days, illegible ink will honor each day's specific National Food Holiday with a blog post and photo of the food being celebrated. To be clear, the photo is of the actual food item illegible ink has eaten. (Posting of recipes are optional.)
3. illegible ink must adhere to a strict $40/week or under budget and 80% of these foods must be created by illegible ink at home. (That means if an item is eaten at a restaurant, illegible ink must deduct that amount from the weekly budget. With tax and tip, spend wisely!)
4. In Top Chef style, once a week an invited guest judge will throw some sort of additional challenge into the mix. For example, for National Pineapple Upside-Down Cake Day on April 20th, a guest judge might suggest that illegible ink make the cake with only one hand. (Please do not suggest I bake something while actually being upside down.)
5. And I've saved the best part for last: in honor of my favorite April National Food Holidays, I will create a commemorative print available for sale on Etsy starting May 1st.

Let the games begin! Stay tuned for April's first National Food Holiday post.

Love this organic apron from Chef Republic on Etsy!