The Start of Something
A note to the four people who inspire me most...
"…no one is born a great cook, one learns by doing."
~Julia Child
~Julia Child
Just Looking…
For years I have been collecting cookbooks and cooking magazines with great intentions. I always wanted to cook the beautiful things in the magazines, but I never did because I didn't think I could pull it off. I would take one look at the long list of ingredients or the seemingly complicated instructions and end up putting the magazine or cookbook away for later. It wasn't until I found a Julia Child cookbook that I thought it might be possible that I could cook. Like many before me, Julia Child inspired me to cook, not just look at the pretty food. It was time…time to get the cookbooks and magazines out and try. That was a few years ago. I found a recipe and followed it and. Ever since then I have been cooking and its turned into something I truly love.
For years I have been collecting cookbooks and cooking magazines with great intentions. I always wanted to cook the beautiful things in the magazines, but I never did because I didn't think I could pull it off. I would take one look at the long list of ingredients or the seemingly complicated instructions and end up putting the magazine or cookbook away for later. It wasn't until I found a Julia Child cookbook that I thought it might be possible that I could cook. Like many before me, Julia Child inspired me to cook, not just look at the pretty food. It was time…time to get the cookbooks and magazines out and try. That was a few years ago. I found a recipe and followed it and. Ever since then I have been cooking and its turned into something I truly love.
"You never forget a beautiful thing that you have made,' (Chef Bugnard) said. 'Even after you eat it, it stays with you always."
~ Julia Child
~ Julia Child
I did it…
That cookbook I found as you know was Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Julia Child's cookbook got me in the kitchen and her direct teaching allow me to gain the courage I needed in the kitchen to cook new things, try new techniques and have faith that I could do it. The first thing I made from her cookbook was her Hollandaise Sauce. I had never made a sauce before...ever! But I melted the butter and sat it aside. I beat the egg yolks and lemon juice and water. Then tablespoon at a time, I added the butter. Then I whisked it and added more butter, on and on until all the butter was gone. The egg yolks had absorbed all the butter and I was left with this creamy concoction. I had made Julia Child's hollandaise sauce. That was March 14, 2010. I still have the post-it note in the cookbook and that is where it will stay! It's not something I make often, but I love that it's the first thing I made. The first time I made it, the sauce itself wasn't really what excited me. It was that the sauce actually separated into something unpresentable and I had to fix it. If you read the cookbook completely, she tells you how to fix it, and I did. I added a bit of cold water and back together it went. The next time I made it...it was perfect...it never separated. Julia Child taught me how to make perfect Hollandaise and I was completely inspired and we enjoyed it as Julia Child would have liked...on a boiled artichoke. It was so good! I now had a bit of confidence so I kept on cooking and you all kept eating. I stopped feeling intimidated by the long ingredients list or the two pages of cooking instructions. If the picture looks good and I think you might like it…I give it a try.
That cookbook I found as you know was Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Julia Child's cookbook got me in the kitchen and her direct teaching allow me to gain the courage I needed in the kitchen to cook new things, try new techniques and have faith that I could do it. The first thing I made from her cookbook was her Hollandaise Sauce. I had never made a sauce before...ever! But I melted the butter and sat it aside. I beat the egg yolks and lemon juice and water. Then tablespoon at a time, I added the butter. Then I whisked it and added more butter, on and on until all the butter was gone. The egg yolks had absorbed all the butter and I was left with this creamy concoction. I had made Julia Child's hollandaise sauce. That was March 14, 2010. I still have the post-it note in the cookbook and that is where it will stay! It's not something I make often, but I love that it's the first thing I made. The first time I made it, the sauce itself wasn't really what excited me. It was that the sauce actually separated into something unpresentable and I had to fix it. If you read the cookbook completely, she tells you how to fix it, and I did. I added a bit of cold water and back together it went. The next time I made it...it was perfect...it never separated. Julia Child taught me how to make perfect Hollandaise and I was completely inspired and we enjoyed it as Julia Child would have liked...on a boiled artichoke. It was so good! I now had a bit of confidence so I kept on cooking and you all kept eating. I stopped feeling intimidated by the long ingredients list or the two pages of cooking instructions. If the picture looks good and I think you might like it…I give it a try.
My post-it notes from my first attempts at Hollandaise.
"One of the secrets, and
pleasures of cooking is to
learn to correct something
if it goes awry; and one of
the lessons is to grin and
bear it if it cannot be fixed."
~ Julia Child
Needing a challenge…
I really have been enjoying myself over the past year or so. I am cooking all of the time, making new things for you and mainly the Yearwoods. However, I have also been feeling like it was time for me to try something new. I love being a stay home mom and wife. I love taking care of all of the little (and big) things that you all need to be the wonderful happy people you are, but I wanted to do something hard…well, hard for me that is. Then it occurred to me one day…I should learn how to do a blog. It would combine something I love with something that freaks me out…a lot! I can cook and cook, but I also have to learn to write, take pictures, edit the text and pictures then figure out how to get them into this blog so others (mainly you my sweet husband) can see them.
I really have been enjoying myself over the past year or so. I am cooking all of the time, making new things for you and mainly the Yearwoods. However, I have also been feeling like it was time for me to try something new. I love being a stay home mom and wife. I love taking care of all of the little (and big) things that you all need to be the wonderful happy people you are, but I wanted to do something hard…well, hard for me that is. Then it occurred to me one day…I should learn how to do a blog. It would combine something I love with something that freaks me out…a lot! I can cook and cook, but I also have to learn to write, take pictures, edit the text and pictures then figure out how to get them into this blog so others (mainly you my sweet husband) can see them.
"You'll never know everything about anything,
especially something you love."
~ Julia Child
especially something you love."
~ Julia Child
The Courage…
It occurred to me one day after we were having a discussion with Sam about the value of money. Sam was trying to figure out how much his trombone cost. He knew it was expensive but his experience with real money and buying things has been limited to his birthday money and a few trips to Target. He guessed that his trombone cost 2 million dollars. A trombone is expensive, especially considering it is being wielded around by a 7 year old who is no bigger than the actual instrument, but it didn't cost 2 million dollars. We told Sam how much it cost and then you said this, "If we had 2 million dollars I would be working for your mom, at her restaurant, where she can do what she loves to do, making great food for everyone and taking care of them." As I looked at you in it that moment it became clear to me that you could see my dream, maybe better than I could, and that you believed someday we might actually go for it. We have talked about it before but not seriously and who knows. There are a lot of things we hope to do together during this life, but if this is a possibility, it is time to start preparing for it. So I am going to cook and learn new things. Recording it all as I go. I am excited about the challenge and grateful for having a life full of possibilities. And if nothing ever becomes of this...it will be my legacy for you and the kids...a list of all your favorites and the instructions on how to make them. Nickolas, Ella and Sam will be able to share with their children why they make the meals they make and when this blog is no longer added too...it will still contain the love that I have for the four of you and for those who come along later.
It occurred to me one day after we were having a discussion with Sam about the value of money. Sam was trying to figure out how much his trombone cost. He knew it was expensive but his experience with real money and buying things has been limited to his birthday money and a few trips to Target. He guessed that his trombone cost 2 million dollars. A trombone is expensive, especially considering it is being wielded around by a 7 year old who is no bigger than the actual instrument, but it didn't cost 2 million dollars. We told Sam how much it cost and then you said this, "If we had 2 million dollars I would be working for your mom, at her restaurant, where she can do what she loves to do, making great food for everyone and taking care of them." As I looked at you in it that moment it became clear to me that you could see my dream, maybe better than I could, and that you believed someday we might actually go for it. We have talked about it before but not seriously and who knows. There are a lot of things we hope to do together during this life, but if this is a possibility, it is time to start preparing for it. So I am going to cook and learn new things. Recording it all as I go. I am excited about the challenge and grateful for having a life full of possibilities. And if nothing ever becomes of this...it will be my legacy for you and the kids...a list of all your favorites and the instructions on how to make them. Nickolas, Ella and Sam will be able to share with their children why they make the meals they make and when this blog is no longer added too...it will still contain the love that I have for the four of you and for those who come along later.
"When you flip anything, you really…you just have
to have the courage of your convictions."
~ Julia Child
to have the courage of your convictions."
~ Julia Child
Maybe someday…
I have this thought every once in a while. It is that I am sitting with you, a glass of red wine in hand, and we go over the day together. It will have been a day full of food and drinks and people. You will have bused tables and taken orders. You will have sat and had wine with the patrons we now calls friends, while I will have busied myself about the kitchen with homemade pizzas, pastas and desserts. Someday after our three children are grown, maybe this will be the future the two of us will share. I am truly blessed to have a husband who knew this before I did. I am so lucky to have you, my beautiful children and all my friends who support my crazy kitchen efforts everyday.
I love you. Bon Appetite.
I have this thought every once in a while. It is that I am sitting with you, a glass of red wine in hand, and we go over the day together. It will have been a day full of food and drinks and people. You will have bused tables and taken orders. You will have sat and had wine with the patrons we now calls friends, while I will have busied myself about the kitchen with homemade pizzas, pastas and desserts. Someday after our three children are grown, maybe this will be the future the two of us will share. I am truly blessed to have a husband who knew this before I did. I am so lucky to have you, my beautiful children and all my friends who support my crazy kitchen efforts everyday.
I love you. Bon Appetite.
"…nothing is too much trouble if it turns our the way it should."
~ Julia Child
~ Julia Child
