I hope I’m not the only one who gets stuck in the routine of cooking the same dinners over and over again. A revolving door of meals in my mind; spaghetti, tacos (Tuesday), chicken and rice dish of some sort, pizza Fridays, and repeat… And although there isn’t anything wrong with routine, (I know I love me some repetition for the sake of organization), I also have cabinets full of inspiring and beautiful cookbooks that are just begging me to dust them off and use them.
I remember watching the movie Julie & Julia probably 5-6 years ago, (where a girl (Julie) cooks her way through one of the Julia Child cookbooks), thinking I would LOVE to do that one day, then quickly proceeding to come up with 100’s of reasons why I would NEVER be able do it, or that it would be just to “hard”. Well, here I am now with even more reasons of why it would be just to hard, and I am challenging myself to at least TRY!
So 5 years later since watching that movie, I, Kate Easton, mom of two under 2, and wife of a husband who travels for work 5 out of the 7 days of the week, am going to cook my way through a cookbook!
Ok, I made the declaration that is half the battle right?! WRONG-like any challenge in my life, I tend to push it off because the anxiety around it makes me sweat just thinking about it. To help with this I am going to create some guidelines:
- I have to cook at least one meal from the cookbook a week, (I am thinking Sunday’s, I like the tradition aspect of it) However the day can change if need be in case of scheduling conflicts.
- I can go in any order I would like, as long as everything in made out of the cookbook at the end.
- I will post a blog about the recipe, with pictures, descriptions, stories my anecdotes while cooking, along with ratings from myself, husband, and children. ** I will not be posting the actual recipe with the ingredients and directions, because I do not feel that is fair to the amazing creators of the recipes or those who published the cookbooks. I would be more than happy to post links to the cookbooks so that you can purchase and cook along with me.
- I will try to post next weeks recipe choice/choices at the end of each post so that you can prep and be ready to cook along with me the following week. (Minus the first week, I want to try to start a little bit ahead)!
- Lastly, and this is a big one. I promise to have cooked through my first whole cookbook in one year! So that definitely means some weeks I have to double, possibly triple up!
Ok, so I feel satisfied with those rules, it gives me some guidelines and deadlines. Both of which I know I need to stay on track and kick my big butt in gear!
Where to start next… Naturally the big decision time! So exciting! Which cookbook do I begin with?! Queue the sound of my squeaking cabinet door opening to find my dusty cookbooks hiding inside.
Alright, not gonna lie I know which one, my amazing sister-in-law, Sam, got it for me as a gift, and I have heard my oldest sister, Sara, talking very highly about it, and I know somewhere within its freshly printed pages is a recipe for oatmeal cream pie cookies-I am all in!!!
Drumroll please….The winner is Magnolia Table Volume II by Joanna Gaines!
You can purchase the cookbook from Target, Barnes and Noble, or Amazon.
Flipping through the cookbook I have made my decision on what’s for dinner this Sunday, the recipe is…Chicken Piccata with Zucchini.
Jo’s Oatmeal Cream Pie Cookies are beyond AMAZING!!