Random musings from a scattered brain
Cooking
Culinary Challenge #1: Cooking the “vile weed.”
Aug 18th
Hey guys. A few posts ago, I mentioned that a viewing of The Meryl Streep/Amy Adams film Julie & Julia had inspired me to try a cooking challenge of my own: Once every two weeks, cook a dish containing an ingredient I normally detest. Granted, since I’ve started cooking regularly, that list has shrunk considerably, but there are plenty of candidates out there.
Case in point: the ingredient I chose for my first challenge: The Dreaded Brussels Sprout (*cue eerie music*)
Whenever I ate Brussels sprouts as a kid, they were always served the same way: boiled. The smell was nauseating and the taste, well, there are very few things I’ve literally gagged on while eating them. Brussels sprouts is one of them.
So, when I announced that I’d be attempting to cook something with this evil miniature cabbage, the reaction wasn’t surprising. Oh sure, there were a few people who proclaimed their love, even a couple who gave me great ideas on how to cook them. Most, though, reacted with sheer horror.
One friend told me I was on my own, even refusing my request for a prayer, saying “sorry, you brought this evil upon yourself.”
One said that the only way he’d eat that “vile weed” was deep fried and dipped in chocolate.
Even my dog thought I was crazy.
More >
Allow me to cook you a story…
Aug 7th
Today, I watched Julie & Julia. I added it to my NetFlix queue because it had Meryl Streep and Amy Adams in it. I had a vague idea of the story, but never any of the specifics.
The “Julie” half of the movie is about Julie Powell (real-life writer) who has started several writing projects but has never seen them through to the end. She likes cooking – a lot, actually – and uses her time in a kitchen as a way to come back to herself after a day amongst a Government run cubicle farm.
She decides to give herself a challenge – and a deadline. The challenge because she needed more from her life and the deadline because she’s afraid that without it, she’ll never get it done.
The challenge: To cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking – all 524 recipes – in a year.
Her husband gives her the idea to blog about it. He thinks it would help her get back in touch with her writing. She eventually relents, and off we go.
So, yeah….she’s a writer at heart who loves cooking, uses it as therapy and blogs because it gives her attainable, short-term goals where her writing is concerned.
Basically, she’s me in a skirt. More >