Looking for inspiration, my own Julia Project

What can I say, I'm easily influenced or inspired by books. Sadly, I don't read that often, so that means I have been going through life uninspired. During a trip to Good Will to look for snow boots and snow bibs for the kids, I scored a copy of Julie and Julia. The book was one that I looked forward to reading mainly because the author chose to do something for herself and stuck through it despite her failures. She was tireless about her quest to cook through Mastering the Art of French Cooking (MtAoFC). Just reading about her adventures cooking late into the night after a full day's work and commute on the subways of NYC in order to eat a sometimes poorly cooked dinner of offal at 10pm made my head spin.

The other cord the book struck with me was learning that Julia Child decided to learn to cook at 37. 2011 begins my 37th year and sometimes I feel so tired, too tired to think, too tired to be inspired, too tired to read, too tired to clean, and too tired to cook beyond sticking rice in the rice cooker (as for the rice cooker debate in J&J, definitely rice cooker). But hey, if Julia Child can learn something new at the age of 37 and excel at it, then so can this boring SAHM of two. To clarify, I have no aspirations to become the next Julia Child, I just want to get out of this meal rut I have been in and get my kids to eat more variety. If I can just try one new recipe a week in 2011, I'll consider myself successful. Doesn't have to even be a gourmet one or anything out of MtAoFC because if I can't eat brains or kidneys, I can't in good conscience feed it to my kids.

The first week, I decided to make enchiladas and found a recipe that seemed close to the dish another mom at M's co-op made for parent snack. Didn't turn out nearly as yummy as her dish, but it was not half bad and it was my first time ever making enchiladas. Didi ate some of the chicken inside, M did not touch it.

This week, I decided I was going to use turnips in something since I have never made anything with white turnips in my life. Found an easy recipe for Scalloped Turnips . In Julie and Julia, the author makes the distinction between simple and easy, I get her point that simple does not = easy. At this point, I'm all about easy. I still have to cook while refereeing the squabbles of two strong willed children. Dishes that require an enormous amount of prep and cooking time are out the window. To accompany my turnips, we had a roasted chicken with curry and butter rubbed on and made some homemade biscuits with the kids.

It was nice that Papa made it home to join us for dinner.

Hope I don't peter out by the end of January.