What to do with an extremely unfulfilled to-do list?

I have a very large kitchen-related to-do list.

This is not boasting.  It's huge.  Gigantic.  And getting bigger by the weekend.  I also have an extremely large cookbook collection (mostly care of my amazing chef of a mother), most of which has never been cooked out of, which is very sad indeed.  In my opinion, a cookbook hasn't truly lived until it's been splattered in heated oil, batter goodness and melted butter (and possibly a good vino)!  How unfulfilled they must feel up there on my shelf, gathering dust...

I guess cooking is well and truly in my blood.  There's not a single memory from my childhood that doesn't include my mother's wonderful cooking and her dinner parties.  From the time I was old enough to reach up to the table, I was excited to set out four-courses' worth of polished cutlery, crockery and wine glasses.  I learnt at my mother's apron strings how to boil an egg, roast a chicken, toss a salad and, finally, time a full dinner party worth of dishes.  But there are so many gaps in my repertoire and things I haven't tackled, and I am very much stuck in my cooking comfort zone.  It's only in the last few years that I have discovered that delicious combination of sweet, savoury and saffron that is Moroccan tangine!  I made my first pastry only a couple of months ago, can you believe it?   But as I grow up, I guess my eating and cooking tastes have grown up too.  If only I could expand them even more.

I love to cook, and I love to have my friends sitting around my table, eating and laughing and enjoying my food (and wine).  But I feel my cooking is simply not adventurous enough.  More than anything, I want to be utterly fearless in the kitchen.  This is my attempt to motivate myself to plow through the ever-expanding list of kitchen projects filling my shelves, notebooks and fridge-door.  So, get your mixers ready - here we go!