Getting Started ~ how this blog began

"What's for dinner?"  One of my least favorite questions ever.  I hate when my husband asks it.  I hate when my kids ask it.  For some reason I hate it even more when someone ask it while I'm cooking.  And there is inevitably some point in every day when I must ask it of myself.  It is one of my goals in life to learn not to react poorly when this question arises.

Some time ago my husband and I watched the movie Julie and Julia.  Pretty much the whole way through I found myself thinking one of two things: 1-yes, just about every yummy thing ever made has butter in it, and 2-that Julie must be crazy to want to cook everything in a cook book.  Any cookbook.  I have yet to find a cookbook that would tempt me to try every recipe it contains.  Apparently, I am quite picky when it comes to food.  Most of my cookbooks (and granted, I don't have many) have one or two favorite recipes that I make over and over, although I do consult them from time.  (That's how I learned to make a rue, for instance, and where I go to remind myself how long to cook fresh vegetables.)  But I am also easily bored and constantly find myself looking for new recipes and new ways to cook the same old foods.

Recently my kids were playing in my desk and I found a recipe that I clipped from somewhere a very long time ago, and it brought back the movie and reminded me of the fact that, while I don't have a lot of cookbooks, I do have a lot of recipes.  And I mean a lot of recipes!  I have been collecting them in one form or another since I made my first foray into the “real world” by moving more than 2000 miles from home.  I also subscribe to several recipe websites and blogs.  But out of the gigantic collection of recipes I've acquired, there are very few that I have tried.  I'm thinking it's time to change that.

Another thing I should share ~ my husband hates when I try out new recipes.  He is always asking me why I don't just make things I know everyone (read “he”) likes.  My answer?  There could be the perfect food out there just waiting to be discovered, but you will never find it if you don't try new things from time to time.  However, since I love him and want to continue to live with him, I am going to have to consult him somewhat throughout this experiment.  So I am letting him chose an old standby least once a week.

So, this is my blog.  It's my own form of Julie and Julia ~ my attempt to try every one of the recipes in my vast files ~ or most of them anyway ~ and either keep or discard them.  It's my attempt to expand my experience and my family's experience with food, to boldly take our taste buds to places they have never gone before, to cut down on the things slowly rotting in the bottom crisper of my refrigerator, to find the perfect food (or combinations of food).  It is my attempt to finally answer the dreaded question, “What's for dinner?”