Welcome to 52 Sweets

Hi there! In case you don’t know me from my donut blog, here’s a little about me, how this project came about and where it is going this year.

Last year, 2009, at the suggestion of my personal trainer, I decided to eat only one sweet every week. I have a hard time sticking with goals unless I can tie them into a larger project. I knew I needed to find some sort of project that would allow me to easily track my sweet intake and also keep it fun. I also knew I couldn’t go an entire year without donuts. I chose to spend the year eating donuts for my sweet each week and they had to be from a different donut shop each week. You can read all about the journey at www.52donuts.com.

Exactly half way through the year, I was diagnosed with gluten intolerance, which prevented me from eating most donuts but did not prevent me from going with friends, my husband or co-workers to visit donut shops across the country. I went to donut shops in 11 states, discovered many incredible donut shops and had more great times than I can count. The 52 Donut experience became more about spending time with people I enjoy than about the food. Perhaps that was the point of the entire experience, to learn that it never was about the food. But oh, how I miss donuts!

For the last six months, I have found a gluten-free alternative to a donut each week. Sometimes I’ve enjoyed it along side my donut friends, but more often I have eaten my chosen sweet on a separate occasion. While I understand now that it is less about the food and more about the fellowship, I still want to be able to share food, particularly sweets, with friends. I also want to stick with my Sweet-a-Week plan as it keeps me focused and also allows me to maintain my triple-digit weight loss. Additionally, I discovered in the first six months of the 52 Donuts adventure that I missed baking and if I did bake, I couldn’t eat it as it would be against the rules of my plan. So how can I have a gluten-free sweet each week, share food with friends and bake? I think I’ve found a way to do that!

In 2010, I am going to make a different gluten-free sweet each week and share it with a different friend each week. I’ll share the recipe with you (or the cookbook that it came from), photos and a bit about the person with whom I shared the sweet. This adds many new challenges for me and I am so excited about the upcoming adventures, most of which will start in my kitchen. I hope you’ll tag along!

(Mini baked apple cider donuts from Christmas shown in the pic above.)