Let the Cooking Begin...

So as obvious by the fact that you have made your way here… I have decided to start a blog. A few weeks ago I received a gift card to one of my favorite stores (HOMEGOODS) as a birthday present. As I began filling my cart with things I didn’t need I came across a cookbook.

If you ask anyone who truly knows me, cookbooks are my weakness! If I see a cookbook or even a cooking magazine in a store I HAVE to buy it. After the cookbook or magazine has been purchased I typically can be found camped out on the sofa or bed with paper and a pen flipping through each page, looking at all the pictures, and creating weekly menus that I plan on one day cooking for Matt and Emma. As Matt will tell you though I have too many cookbooks to ever cook all of my planned menus.

However, this cookbook was different. As my mom exclaimed “There are no pictures!” only 750 pages filled with “1,100 quick dishes for everynight cooking” as the cover proudly displays. I sat on my bed for hours writing down the names and page numbers of all of the recipes that I would want to try out. As I was finishing up my third or forth page I exclaimed to Matt that all of the recipes sounded so good that I should just try to cook everything and he suggested that I could write a blog about it. I have to admit that the blog idea was not truly an idea that we came up with on our own. Just the day before, at the movies for my birthday, we had seen a preview for an upcoming movie Julie & Julia http://www.julieandjulia.com/ where a young wife cooks her way through Julia Child’s legendary mastering the Art of French Cooking while writing a blog.

While the idea for my blog can be partially due to the preview for the upcoming movie mostly it is inspired a cookbook unlike one that I have ever purchased. As a former co-worker would say it is an “aggressive” cookbook and while I will not be cooking “Filets de Poisson Bercy aux Champignons and Poulet Roti” like the Julie in the movie cooks I am now vowing to cook 500 recipes within a year from The Bon Appétit Fast Easy Fresh Cookbook.

This blog will not only reflect on the dishes prepared but also my everyday life acting as a mother to a beautiful 5 year old little girl, Emma, and girlfriend of 2 ½ years to an amazing guy, Matt.

So here it is... my Menu for the first week! It is still a work in progress as I will be adding a few sides, breakfasts and July 4th plans are still up in the air. I will update the menu as things are finalized.

Monday 6/29:
- Crab & Corn Chowder with bacon p. 71
- Spaghetti all Carbonara de Zucchini p. 212

Tuesday 6/30:
- Layered Chicken Enchiladas w/ Salsa p. 264
- Guacamole

Wednesday 7/1:
- Grilled Shrimp with Pineapple Salsa p. 343

Thursday 7/2:
- Ginger-Soy Grilled Steak p. 375

Friday 7/3:
- Bourbon-Molasses Chicken Drumsticks p. 249
- Grilled Corn with Smoked Paprika p. 469