Project Julia

For those of you who don't know, I love to cook. I haven't always known how to cook, but I'm learning. Cooking is such an adventure and I love making new creations. I enjoy watching Saturday morning cooking shows and imagining the possibilities. One of my favorites is America's Test Kitchen. It's fun to see every-day recipes transformed into something lovely---and they make it easy to learn how to make delicious food.

Dirk gave me America's Test Kitchen: Best of 2008 cookbook for my birthday this year. I spent hours looking through it and drooling over the pictures. I couldn't wait to try making some new culinary delights.

Project Julia. Here's how it started. I watched the movie "Julie and Julia" and I was inspired. Deep down inside me is a little Julia Child waiting to be unleashed. I couldn't decide what to make for dinner tonight, so I browsed through my new cookbook. Then the thought came: What about cooking my way through this cookbook? So here is my new adventure. I admit, it's not as amazing as Julia Child's creations, but this is great for starters. I also wanted to do this project so that Kynli can be exposed to cooking and being in the kitchen at a young age. Even though she's not learning much right now, I think it will be fun to do something with her. It will create great memories---even if she can't remember. :)

I will be cooking my way through this cookbook. I don't know how long it will take, but I'm gonna do it. I will try to cook one recipe a day, so hopefully I'll get through it fairly quickly. I'm balancing being a new mom, going to school and will be going back to work full-time in a few weeks, so hopefully daily recipes will work out. I'm excited to try new recipes and learn new techniques. You can follow my adventure here. I will try a new recipe and blog about what I learned and if the recipe was a success. I will also be using at least one ingredient from our weekly Bountiful Basket. I hope you enjoy this journey with me. I will post what recipe I cooked, a few pictures, the corresponding page number in the cookbook, what I learned, what I'd change when I make it again and the BB ingredient.

However, I will not be posting the recipe. I don't feel good about that since no one would buy the cookbook if I'm posting the recipes for free. If you are intrigued with what I cook, then you can go out and get your very own copy for your collection. :) This cookbook is amazing because it has step-by-step instructions, so it's great if you are a beginner.

"Project Julia" began today, April 21, 2010! Hopefully 365 days from now I will be through this cookbook!