Today my 1st official day of learning to cook the right way and feeding my family more than the same old, I made Julia Child's boeuf bourgiognon.
Just for the record I am not new to cooking I have been a baker and cake decorator for several years now and I have always loved to try new recipes. With that said this recipe was very complicated in the fact that it had several steps. I can honestly tell you that I have made tons of beef stew or beef roast but I consider those my easy go to meals. You know 15 minutes at the stove then 2 hours in the stove and presto dinner. Not this it is defiantly not your everyday stew.
With all that said it was very good. When I handed my daughter her plate she said, "this looks fancy beef stew." It had a depth of flavor that you don't get in quick serve meals. lovely.
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sunday, December 20, 2009
food as I love It.
Today I watched Julie and Julia a movie I have wanted to see since its release. I can't think of a single foodie I know who didn't consider Julia Child the pope of cooking and now in death a saint. I decided that this blog I created almost a year ago and never spent another day on was sitting in cyber space wasting space.
I have always loved food, preparing it, reading about it, eating it. I can remember as a little girl with my dad watching PBS, he loved the cajun cook Justin Wilson and I loved Julia. As a teenager and even young adult I almost felt silly watching and reading cookbooks. We didn't have cable back then, I still don't, so I would go on vacation and want to sit in the hotel and watch the food network.
Its funny because I have food memories just like I have other memories. I can remember the first time I tried Brie, chicken marsala, creme brulee, and hummus. Food really isn't a meal its and experience. Think of how we surround ourselves. We celebrate with food, we fall in love over food, we sulk with food and even morn with food.
Today not only did I watch the movie but we celebrated Christmas together as a family and I over heard a teenage boy, utter in awe as he walked around the bowls of food, "big families sure do know how to cook."
That got me thinking about how lucky I am, I watched my sister and mom go from pot to pot, stirring, checking, watching as if it were a child. Then one by one family members came in carrying bowl after bowl of dishes they are famous for or new ones they just had to share. Perfection!
Just last week my mom and I were out shopping and I am always drawn to the cheese section, not the Kraft packaged cheese and deli meat section. I mean the cheese section. My mom and I bought a pound of feta, she went home and had it on a salad and I had a grilled chicken sandwich with peppers, feta and black olives, we split it then we stood over the sharp Cheddar wheel. She told me how her parents raised cows and other livestock and would sale their milk and make butter but they always went and bought there cheese. She could remember her dad coming in carrying a huge wheel of cheese and how her mom would keep it on the table lovingly wrapped in cheese cloth. I thought how little we appreciate food, our local markets and the art of food these days. My grandmother cooked for the love of her family and the love of food. She never came to dinner in work cloths and she never served from her stove or out of pots. I don't even have serving bowls, but I will have some. I was lucky enough to have my great grandmothers hand written cookbooks, I was amazed to find a recipe from the 40's for home cooked fondant icing.
So I began to think that food can be more than nourishment and life is more than fast food and microwave meals.
I can't imaging I could ever cook 500+ recipes in 365 days but I am going to cook 2 new recipes every week for a year. I have a obsession with cook books but i am going to cook out of a book that I love and have already cooked several recipes and its called The Cook's Book.
I have always loved food, preparing it, reading about it, eating it. I can remember as a little girl with my dad watching PBS, he loved the cajun cook Justin Wilson and I loved Julia. As a teenager and even young adult I almost felt silly watching and reading cookbooks. We didn't have cable back then, I still don't, so I would go on vacation and want to sit in the hotel and watch the food network.
Its funny because I have food memories just like I have other memories. I can remember the first time I tried Brie, chicken marsala, creme brulee, and hummus. Food really isn't a meal its and experience. Think of how we surround ourselves. We celebrate with food, we fall in love over food, we sulk with food and even morn with food.
Today not only did I watch the movie but we celebrated Christmas together as a family and I over heard a teenage boy, utter in awe as he walked around the bowls of food, "big families sure do know how to cook."
That got me thinking about how lucky I am, I watched my sister and mom go from pot to pot, stirring, checking, watching as if it were a child. Then one by one family members came in carrying bowl after bowl of dishes they are famous for or new ones they just had to share. Perfection!
Just last week my mom and I were out shopping and I am always drawn to the cheese section, not the Kraft packaged cheese and deli meat section. I mean the cheese section. My mom and I bought a pound of feta, she went home and had it on a salad and I had a grilled chicken sandwich with peppers, feta and black olives, we split it then we stood over the sharp Cheddar wheel. She told me how her parents raised cows and other livestock and would sale their milk and make butter but they always went and bought there cheese. She could remember her dad coming in carrying a huge wheel of cheese and how her mom would keep it on the table lovingly wrapped in cheese cloth. I thought how little we appreciate food, our local markets and the art of food these days. My grandmother cooked for the love of her family and the love of food. She never came to dinner in work cloths and she never served from her stove or out of pots. I don't even have serving bowls, but I will have some. I was lucky enough to have my great grandmothers hand written cookbooks, I was amazed to find a recipe from the 40's for home cooked fondant icing.
So I began to think that food can be more than nourishment and life is more than fast food and microwave meals.
I can't imaging I could ever cook 500+ recipes in 365 days but I am going to cook 2 new recipes every week for a year. I have a obsession with cook books but i am going to cook out of a book that I love and have already cooked several recipes and its called The Cook's Book.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
new pic
Poodle cake! I did this cake last weekend for a friend, everything is buttercream except for the bows and poodle, they are fondant. I'm doing a cake this week and I hope to take pics and post them in progress.
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
The beginning
Yesterday I was a wife, mom and baker, today I am a author. I have the privilege of being a stay at home mom. I once was a working woman and decided I could have the best job in the world if I would just do it. So I decided to take a pay cut and a work load increase and be a stay at home mom. Though my days can get hairy I love ever stinking, crazy minute of it. I dare anyone who thinks that a stay at home mom isn't making a difference in the world, to give up on making it big and start making it count.
Recently I found myself at a turning point, wanting something to do. I decided to take my talents and love of food to the cyber world. I know that there are tons of food blogs and baking sites, I'm just hoping that I can use this platform to inform others, express my creativity, have an excuse to buy decadent ingredients and bake non-stop.
I know this is going to be a great start to a great blog. I tend to be a little obssesive, not in the can't stop cleaning my house way, but when I love something I love it. So lets travel this cyber world together one bite at a time.
My blogs will be sporadic at best. I tend to love to talk about baking, food, decorating, kids, God, coupon clipping, traveling and fun.
Caution: Writer can get carried away, will post first and think later. Spelling and grammar; unreliable and never checked.
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