Creating in the Kitchen

This entry has nothing to do with my beautiful son or wonderful husband. This is about me and my love affair with my kitchen and creating a meal. For anyone that knows me, I LOVE cooking! I haven't had the time for the past nine months to cook the way I used to. I would plan out the weeks dinners at the start of the week and loved every second of whipping up the meal, except for the cleanup part. I miss it, I knew I did, but it wasn't until last night that it really hit me.

Myself, my future sister in law Jen and my little brothers girlfriend Rachel planned to do a dinner and a movie night. We decided to watch "Julie and Julia". I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a warm, good for the soul kinda movie, especially if you have a love for food. In honor of the amazing Julia Child I decided to make a French inspired dinner.... Coq au Vin and Jaques Pepin style potatoes. I must say the meal turned out wonderfully. The chicken that had simmered away for several hours in a bottle of red wine, broth, mushrooms, carrots, pearl onions and of course herbes de provence (which I did actually buy in Nice France) was just falling off the bone and filled with flavor. the potatoes were simple, simmer in a saute pan with broth, butter, salt, pepper and garlic then once cooked through, pressed down to make flat ends and browned on each side... then just to make it extra yummy.... extra butter and fresh parsley at the end. As Julia said, you can never have too much butter. It was delicious. Then to top off the night.... homemade crepes filled with nutella, strawberries and bananas!

There is something about being in the kitchen, no sounds except the sound of bacon and vegetables sauteing away in olive oil.... the scent isn't so bad either! I am in a completely different world when I am in the kitchen, it is peaceful... the troubles of the day seem to just fade away and my only concern is making a beautiful and tasty dish that will be enjoyed by people I care about. I am consumed by slicing, chopping, browning, sauteing, deglazing, simmering.... In the end, besides that yummy food, there is a sense of accomplishment, of satisfaction, I am proud of what I created.

When it came to the crepes, the guys were back from their dinner out, Jack included (now sleeping soundly) so they joined us for dessert. I couldn't help but smile every time I successfully flipped a crepe in the air with a perfect landing back in the pan. Steve could see the joy on my face and every time I flipped, he smiled along with me. He said to me, "I love how excited you get". He's right, I do get excited and I miss that. Cooking can so easily slip into a slump where its just a matter of throwing something together because you need to get dinner on the table. Last nights meal was planned out, cooked carefully, slowly and with love.

I need more nights like last night. Watching the movie awakened that in me again. You could see the joy and passion that Julia had when she was creating something beautiful, thats how I felt last night. Julie, who took on the challenge of creating every recipe in Julias book in one year was feeling a bit lost, and some days thats how I feel. While I know for sure that raising Jack is the most important thing in the world, I sometimes feel like I've done nothing that gives me a sense of accomplishment. I see people I went to high school with that have good jobs, that are going to grad school to become lawyers, doctors and then theres me. Don't get me wrong I LOVE LOVE my life, my husband, my son... I just feel like I need something that is just for me... and thats what cooking is to me.

So my goal.... plan and create delicious elaborate dinners... at least twice a week. I know, not nearly as ambitious as 524 recipes in 365 days but Julie didn't have a 9 1/2 month old baby at home :-) I do have tons of cookbooks and I will use those as inspiration for my meals. If I find anything good... I'll share!