Every now and then you stumble upon something so amazing that you can not contain your excitement and you have to shout it from the roof tops. This moment, today, is one of those events. It started innocently enough, taking my kids to a movie. Yet we walked out changed, we walked out inspired. The movie, Julie and Julia. A new theater in town was showing $2 movies for charity to get things in order before their grand opening this weekend. What mom can resist $2 movies? Since the charity was The Greater Lansing Food Bank, I was all in for supporting an organization that has done so much for the community garden through their Garden Project. So back to the movie, it was not a new block buster, although they were showing those to, it was a 2009 throwback to food. Food Bank- throwback movies on food, clever. Julie and Julia is a reflection on the lives of two real life women, Julia Childs and Julie Powell. Julia being the well known cook and author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie being the author of a blog with the brave endeavour of cooking her way through Mrs. Childs cookbook.
Which brings me to our moment, to our challenge. For my daughter and I to cook OUR way through a cookbook. Definitely NOT Mastering the Art of French Cooking! We were still in the mall so we headed over to the bookstore to see what was there. It was still just an idea rumbling around but it was gaining steam and fast. In the first section we found Mastering the Art of French Cooking, The Joy of Cooking and other volumes of intimidating length. One thing we had decided was we would do the whole cookbook, every recipe. This made it easy to eliminate many of them. 1000 recipes, um no. We picked up some with recipes that looked so revolting that I can not even remember what they were. We fingered through a few that showed promise; potential. Then we found the one and we both knew it instantly, Rachel Ray 365: No Repeats. A Year of Deliciously Different Dinners. A 30-Minute Meal Cookbook. My daughter loves the Food Network, if she has control of the TV it is usually where you will find her, so Rachel Ray was familiar. 365 recipes, one year, that worked. 30 minute meals, yes please! It was settled Rachel Ray 365 it was. The book was purchased. We both literally skipped to the register with fits of giggles.
Then the rules poured out:
1. We will cook every recipe.
2. We will work our way through, beginning to end.
3. We will both be present for every meal. It does not have to be dinner, we can make it into a lunch and we will not fret if we skip a day here and there because of life. We will make it through the book whether it be in 365 days or longer.
4. We will try one serving of whatever we made no matter our previous opinions.
5. We will clean the kitchen completely at the end of each meal.
6. We will wear our aprons.
7. We will share our adventure with the world.
8. We will adapt all recipes to fit our gluten free needs.
9. We will learn to cook.
10. We will have FUN!
The food is purchased, today is the day, let the adventure begin!
Bon Appetite!
-Mom
I am so excited! I am going to expand my palette.
-Daughter age 10
No comments:
Post a Comment