I have a kind of long term project that I am going to start in the month of November and since I want to document it I am going to be blogging about it as I go.
Today I thought I would steal a few minutes of your time and tell you not only about the project but also the history behind me wanting to do this.
So first you are probably asking what I am up to, so in a nutshell I have picked a cookbook and I want to cook my way through the book from beginning to end. I know this has been done before, heck there is even a movie about someone doing this. But it has been on my list of things I want to do for many years. So a bit of background first.
I remember I first brought up the idea when my daughter was just a baby. (she turned 30 in May of this year so it’s been a while) I actually shared the idea with someone in my life who by the nature of our relationship should have been supportive of my dreams. Instead this person told me that cooking through a cook book was the dumbest thing they had ever heard of and that I had to be stupid to even think of doing it. So instead of following my dream I did what I normally did at the time and just let it go. It really wasn’t worth fighting about and there would have been many fights it I had continued with the idea.
So why did I want to do this, I think it is because first of all I love books and reading. But most of all I love cookbooks. Some of my earliest memories surrounding books are of me curled up somewhere with one of my mom’s cookbooks flipping through the pages and looking at the pictures. This was way before I started to go to school and learned to read. But I loved those cookbooks so much. Then I learned to read and a whole new world in those books opened up. I started reading them. Yes, you read that right and I still do it, I will sit down with a cook book and read it from cover to cover just like you might read a novel.
My love of cookbooks grew and I started collecting them, mostly older cookbooks. I have weeded my collection down a lot but I still have a many old cookbooks that I have found over the years. I also love new cook books too by the way.
A few months ago I was looking for something to watch on Netflix and saw that they had the movie Julie and Julia available. I watched it and loved it. That sparked the desire to go back and follow that old dream of cooking through a cookbook. But which one? I was originally going to start the project in January of 2024.. I figured that would give me time to find the perfect cook book and time to prepare to do this. Then one day a week or so ago I had to fix one of my favorite books in my collection. You see I had left it on the table and during the night my cat had knocked the book on the floor. This was just enough to make the front cover finally let go of the rest of the book. It was already just barely holding on but now I had a front cover and book as 2 definitely separate pieces. So grabbed the book and some tape and started the repair job. As I was fixing the book I was also enjoying the art work in it. I realized I haven’t cooked much out of it although I since I love the artwork I look at it often. Then I started to wonder how old this book is, I had a pretty good idea but decided to check to be sure. To my surprise, I found the book holds a copy-write date of the same year I was born. Since my birthday is this month I decided this is the perfect book for this project. And that starting in November just made the most sense, kind of a birthday present to me. I finally am doing something I have wanted to do for so long and I am very excited about it.
So a bit about this book, it is not set up like a lot of normal cookbooks where there are chapters that have different types of foods in each chapter. Instead it is set up with chapters that are themed (American Favorites, Quick & Easy, etc) and each chapter has menus that reflect that theme. Each menu is a full dinner menu fitting the rough theme of the chapter. Hopefully that makes sense. If you follow the blog posts as I post them it will make a lot more sense if you are currently confused.
I know there are a couple of recipes that I might not be able to find key ingredients for. I am going to do my absolute best to either find the needed ingredients (within reason) or find substitutions for ones I can’t find. I really want to experience everything in book if possible.
There are a few foods that I don’t normally make because they are foods I don’t really like. Those I have decided I am going to make anyway and eat. I think part of this journey to eat things I might not normally eat and there are really very few foods I don’t like.
I am planning to make 1 menu a week or so for however long it takes to get to the end. I figure it will take about a year and a half to two years to get through it all at that pace.
So I hope you all enjoy the journey with me. If this is as much fun as I think it will be I might even do it again
with a different cookbook in the future.
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