I like to cook, lots. It was not always this way. When I moved in with T, I only knew how to make an omelet! In fact, I was not interested in cooking at all (except for the occasional baking of a Pilsbury cake..) until I started watching Food Network whilst breastfeeding A! I was inspired! Give me a recipe and I'll make it. T and I have a tradition, if we like we will immediately start talking about how we want to tweak it to our tastes. Friends used to think he was insulting me, lol. The problem though, to him, was that I have way too many cookbooks and I don't use them enough. I collect them, that's what I do. I use them as inspiration. T doesn't understand this concept...
Which brings me to 2011 New Year's Day. I was sitting there trying to think of a resolution. I want to lose weight, but don't want to pressure myself. I quit smoking almost 8 years ago, so that was gone too. It seems like people know that resolutions will be broken no matter what, so this year I decided to make a project for my Resolution. Like the author of Julie and Julia, I will cook. Only I didn't devote myself to a whole book, I vowed one new recipe a week, taken from any of the various cookbooks and magazines I've accrued. It's simple, only 52 mandatory recipes, taken from anything in my house. No pressure. If anything it will get T to close his yap and the family to try flavor combinations that we never would have.
So far it's working. 9 weeks down. I find that some weeks I use more than one.. I'm writing them down every week and at the end of the year I'll post them. We've run into one not so good one and several surprisingly great ones. I got adventerous with nachos for Superbowl! A and K look forward to new recipe night. A even likes helping out.
So in the end, the cookbooks get used, I learn something new, and my family enjoys a weekly judges' table about whether or not to use those recipes again!
If you're interested you can read about all I've been cooking on my Twitter feed.
