chef in training

I love cooking. I'm not sure how it happened -- I mean, my mom is a great cook and we grew up eating really well, so that probably had something to do with it, but it wasn't like I was raised in the kitchen putting omelettes together at the age of six or something. We helped our mom in the kitchen occasionally, and I flipped the pancakes on Sunday mornings (until I discovered the joy of sleeping in), but that was about it. Although I did have a thing for cooking shows, they appealed to me far more than the Power Rangers.

Now that I'm married, I get to rule my own kitchen and choose my own groceries... it's been quite exciting. My dear younger sisters bought for us (well, me) as a wedding gift Julia Child's set of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". They're so pretty, I had to take a picture of them.



So far I've been pretty successful with my creations (Wayne is a very fair and honest judge). My first Julia Child attempt was to make Hollandaise sauce from scratch. Quite tricky, but it tasted nice.



We then used said Hollandaise sauce to create a Saturday brunch of eggs benedict. It looks pretty, and tasted good, but... we learned that we're not enormous fans of poached eggs. Too slimy.



I've made quite a few things from Julia so far (a good sauce can do so much for a meal!), but I also like using my crock pot. Ingenious -- sometimes. Last week I made a horrendously awful soup in it. It was from a recipe too yet! I blame the recipe entirely. "Hearty Carrot Soup" sounded so promising, especially on a snowy cold night. Alas...



It was, to put it plainly, gross. We forced down half a bowl each, then fed the toilet with the rest and went to Applebee's for 1/2 price appetizers instead. You win some, you lose some. From now on I shall stick to Julia Child and my tried and true recipes... like my mom's chicken pot pie. Romantic chicken pot pie...