Creating a Plan of Attack - or "How Many Onions Do I Need?"

Over the past five days I've been working on my plan of attack for my self inflicted 101 Recipe Challenge (as inspired by Saveur Magazine's October Issue - see original post here).  Should I just run at it, should I start buying crazy ingredients willy nilly (which is a technical term, or so I'm told) or should I actually do some planning?

My first step was to take a look at the time that it took to cook each recipe and the number of ingredients that each requires in order to start a scratch schedule for cooking these delicacies.  I gave each recipe a base of 20 minutes for prep and non cooking work, then added the actual cook time and in some cases marinading, proofing or soaking time.  When combining these times with the number of ingredients, I think I can determine if the recipe is a "weeknight" recipe (Schnitzel a la Holstein - Recipe #34, 10 ingredients, 30 minutes) or a "weekend project" (Adobo, Philippine Pork Stew - Recipe #68, 9 ingredients, 11 hours) or "Why does this take so dang long?" (Sauerbraten - Recipe #47, 13 ingredients, 5 days and 3 hours).

I'm currently in the middle of my second step, inventory management.  I am cataloging ingredients for each and every recipe with the thought that I might be able to save some time and money if I can purchase ingredients in bulk, or possibly purchase perishable ingredients in a larger quantity, then prepare multiple recipes that use that ingredient within the period of usability.  In the case of the spices, I might be able to purchase the exact quantity needed for all recipes it will be used for, rather than have a pound of Chinese five spice powder sitting in my cupboard for the next 3 years.

Though I'm only about a third of the way through the recipes, I've found some things interesting so far:

• Almost half of the recipes thus far use onions - if the percentage goes through to the end, I'll use over 40 onions during the entire process.  (Think that's bad - using the same logic, I could be using over 30 hard boiled eggs...yuck).
• I don't remember 7th grade Home Ec as well as I thought I did.  I've created a conversion chart cheat sheet on measurements in order to make the tallying of ingredients standardized.  BTW- if you didn't know, there are 16 Tbsp in a cup.
• I know spices better than I thought I did. I've only had to look up a few spices, and there was only one that I have not known anything about.  Actually, I think the actual phrase I used was "What the hell is Asafoetida (it's a dried latex from a root found in Afghanistan and India)?"

I will continue to inventory the ingredients, hoping to pick a deadline for my challenge and start actually cooking next week.  The goal I set in my first post was to begin cooking by September 22.  Why am I waiting so long until I cook?  Two reasons.  First, I feel that if I take the time to plan this well, there is a much better chance that I not only finish, but that I will finish within my stated timeline.  Second, I asked my wife to pick the inaugural recipe for the challenge and while I might have picked a layup recipe (Chocolate Egg Cream  - Recipe  90, 3 ingredients, 5 minutes), she picked Kibbeh (Beef and Bulgar Wheat Meatballs - Recipe 11, 18 ingredients, 60 minutes) and I want to make sure that my first recipe is not a fiery train wreck, or at least if it is a train wreck, that it will be a tasty one.

Go Pack Go!