Out of the Fog!

I did it! I made it through the last weeks of pregnancy and have another wonderful little man in my life. I must admit the first 2 months have been rough, lack of sleep, dealing with colic and reflux, an overbearing big brother who alternates between acting out for attention to being a great helper and inamored with his baby brother. But I'm finally feeling like I can get some time for myself again. I was actually able to read a book this week! And I'm attempting to plan menus again now that we've officially depleted my freezer stock of meals. Which I'm happy about truthfully because I was getting tired of the boringness of just reheating our meals (not that I could have even mustered the brain power or energy to cook something before now). I'm excited about trying out new recipes and honestly I was inspired by the movie Julie and Julia to try to work my way through the classic books as well. I'm feeling more prepared for it than when I first started cooking but I think I'd still like to master technique, something that I'm sure I'm sorely lacking in.

Proof in point, I took a knife technique class 2 weeks ago. Until now I had considered my knife skills adequate, still a bit afraid of the knives, I knew I couldn't peel a potato or apple in my hand well, well with just a pairing knife . I made due with all things but still felt clumbsy about the whole process most of the time. So I decided to learn from the pros. It was great! I learned that sadly I wasn't even holding the knife correctly. Once I figured that out, things seemed to be almost second nature!

So I'm hoping that while I'm comfortable roasting a chicken or baking a ham, I can make crepes from scratch, have made homemade cinnamon rolls and pizza dough and regularly make my own stocks and sauces, I know that my technique is rustic to say the least.

So flipping through the pages of the classic book I realized too that it would be really really boring cooking one chapter at a time, can you imagine a week of eggs? So instead I'm going to do 1 recipe from each chapter a week, like in the Julie/Julia project. And just because I love sweets I might double up on the desserts. But because I still have baby weight to lose I will be adding light recipes and family friendly recipes to our weekly menus. As much as I love butter, cream and Julia I have to keep us healthy too!