My family loves having breakfast for dinner. We do it about once a week or every other week at least. For some reason it makes us all happy. Breakfast for dinner usually falls on our busiest night of the week and last night was that night. The fact that there is even a recipe for scrambled eggs and smoothies in Jamie’s book reminds me that this “mission” of his is to get people to do more of their own cooking. When I first looked at the book, I was a tad relieved to see these recipes, knowing that it would be something easy to check off my list. I can already make scrambled eggs and smoothies. Usually my husband and I tag team this and he does the eggs and I do the smoothies but last night I did a little more of the work (notice I didn’t say all of the work.) Even though this is already a constant in our cooking repertoire we still enjoy reading Jamie’s method and suggestions. He doesn’t add milk. Interesting. I usually do. He talks a lot about the temperature of your pan and cooking over a slow low heat, stirring constantly. This is good for me too since as I’ve wrote before, I’m an impatient cook at the stove. One of his suggestions is to add fresh parmesan cheese, I’d never done that, so we give it a try. This dinner did make me feel like maybe I’m not a complete idiot in the kitchen, I CAN make scrambled eggs. And, like I said, breakfast for dinner makes us all happy. I poll the family at the table while we enjoy our dinner, well, the ones that can talk at least, to ask why they like breakfast for dinner. The kid says, “Its different.” The hubby says, “Its easy.” I imagine the toddler would say, “It involves smoothies.” I think I like it because on a hectic Wednesday it reminds me of the weekend. Scrambled eggs and smoothies also reminds me of two of my favorite people. My dad is the king of breakfast cooking. He makes the best everything with love and gusto when it comes to breakfast. Smoothies remind me of my sister, its one of her specialties. Our happy dinner also reminds me of something my good friend told me this past week when she checked in with me to make sure I wasn’t doing this blog for all of the wrong reasons. “Amy, you know the fact that you get SOMETHING on the table every night and that your whole family is around that table is a HUGE accomplishment. You should be proud of yourself.” She’s right and she’s really reiterating what Jamie’s book is about. Having your family around the dinner table makes every meal happy no matter what’s for dinner.
Recipes cooked: 3
Recipes left: 170
Days left: 360

I made my first recipe! I decided to start with “Mini Shell Pasta with a Creamy Smoked Bacon & Pea Sauce” on page 52 if you’re following along at home in your book (or you can find this recipe on Jamie’s website, although its in UK measurements). I decided to start with this one because in his description he says that this is one of the dishes he cooks for his kids. I read through the recipe quickly before I rushed off to the store. Because of a scheduling conflict, I’ve had to adjust our schedule and make this for lunch and I’m running behind to get food on the table before the kids get impatient for lunch. My two hiccups at the grocery store are that there is no fresh mint unless I buy a whole plant, so I buy the plant, and there are no mini shells! This one sends me into a bit of panic because that is the whole point of the recipe! I quickly calm myself down, in the interest of time, and pick up some mini wheels instead and pat myself on the back for being flexible. I rush home, throw some water on to boil for the pasta and get going on the sauce. The toddler is at my feet in front of the stove taking everything out of a nearby cabinet. He is hungry and won’t leave my side. Neither my daughter or husband can pry him away and I yell inside my head, “This is why I don’t cook.” We put him in his highchair and give him some pretzels to snack on. My daughter volunteers to pick mint off of the plant, yay! I chalk this up as a victory in the “cooking as a family” department as the baby sits nearby and asks for some “Mooooo” (chocolate milk) to go with his pretzels. Once 1/3 of the leaves are picked she bails. Sigh. I cook the bacon, toss in the peas, add some cream and the now chopped mint (using a new Pampered Chef gadget this is super easy and I applaud myself for using one of my gadgets).
Now, don’t laugh, but I’ve always had trouble boiling water. I’m impatient. I’ve remembered this and put my water and pasta in a very large pot to try and compensate for this but as I add the mint to the sauce, the pasta pot boils over. Seriously? I can’t boil water? I clean up my mess, add the few final ingredients along with the now al dente pasta and voila…my first Jamie meal!
My daughter likes it, hubby likes, I think its super yummy…the baby rejects it but hey, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad?
I’m super happy and know that this will definitely be a new staple recipe in our house.
Thanks, Jamie!
Recipes cooked: 1
Recipes left: 172
Days left: 363

Inspired by the movie, Julie & Julia, I will complete the 173 recipes in Jamie Oliver’s book, “Jamie’s Food Revolution,” in the next 365 days.

So, I figure the next step is to open this book. So many of my cookbooks go unopened for years, unless it is to look at the pictures. I remember getting for a wedding present a subscription to a popular cooking magazine. The first issue came just a month after we were married. I really loved this magazine! I was working from home at the time, didn’t have kids yet and I read that first issue cover-to-cover and made ALL of the recipes in it. But that was it. I made a few recipes in the issues that came over the next 5 years and then finally let the subscription run out.

Uh-oh. I’m nervous. I’ve posted this blog, told the world and haven’t even looked inside this book! Time to get moving!

“Jamie’s Food Revolution. Rediscover How to Cook Simple, Delicious, Affordable Meals.” (Sounds good so far.) “By Jamie Oliver.”

The opening pages are done on old wallpaper patterns. I glance quickly over the Contents, “Twenty-minute meals,” “Quick Pasta,” “Comforting Stews.” Exhale. Okay, I can do this.

Jamie’s introduction speaks to me just like the back of the book grabbed me in the bookstore. He asks for “a favor,” that he needs help with a food movement he’s started. Okay, a bit dramatic but I’m on board. He goes on to explain his inspiration and also the person to whom he dedicates this book, Marguerite Patten. She was a woman that worked for the British Ministry of Food during WWII and she motivated her countrymen to eat well, even during the war. She taught them that even with their food rations, they could eat healthy and provide for their families. They began to cook smart, healthy meals and the movement even crossed the ocean where Americans started Victory Gardens. Then he talks about the modern-day war of bad health and the rise of obesity. His plan is a “pass it on” pledge where you learn just one recipe from each chapter of the book and teach it to at least two more people. Hey, this blog can do that! So I turn to page 15 in my book, sign the pledge and also go to Jamie’s website to sign the pledge too. While I’m at his website I see that his show starts on Friday, March 26 on ABC.

I’m pumped! Now, it’s time to start thinking about some deadlines.

Deadlines due TOMORROW.

Did you know its National Procrastination Week?

It really is!

I don’t cook. I’m not even a “wanna be cook” because I feel like that implies that I have some experience and have dabbled in cooking. Of course I have prepared meals, I’ve even cooked a few recipes but I wouldn’t say I’ve done enough of this to have dabbled in the vocation of cooking. I just think about it. I’m obsessed with figuring out HOW to WANT to be a “wanna be cook.” I have tons of cookbooks. I am constantly looking for new things for the kitchen to make preparation faster, stronger, better. I am always talking to friends and family about how they accomplish the task of preparing meals. And I am on a never-ending quest to find the right motivation that would encourage me to get with the program. Don’t get me wrong; my family eats dinner together every night, except Saturdays when we go out to dinner because I feel like its good “manners” practice for my kids. But during the week, our meals are thrown together, always the same and never “homemade.” I’ve never cooked a chicken. I can’t remember a recipe to save my life and there is no way I’d be able to “browse the aisles” and come up with something without a recipe.

I’m not really sure how this happened to me. I really have no excuse. I come from a family of great cooks. Both the men and women in my family worked hard in the kitchen to prepare home cooked meals for their families and guests. I mean, good old-fashioned home cooked meals from the Eastern Shore of Maryland. My two great-grandmothers were incredible matriarchs that lived in their kitchens. My Mom Mom Maggie made crab cakes that can rival any fine restaurant. To this day, I will not spend money on a crab cake because it will only disappoint me compared to her recipe. My other great-grandmother, Lena, lived next door to me and was always in the kitchen, garden, or cellar working on her culinary creations to feed her family and guests. Crab and lobster feasts were a regular occurrence at her house and everything was farm/bay/ocean fresh.

In 1998, my mom gave me my second favorite Christmas gift of all time (my first favorite is a teapot painted by my daughter). It was a homemade cookbook of all of our favorite family recipes that had been passed down from all of the amazing cooks in my family. In the front of the book she writes, “I always thought that since there would be years and years where you were responsible, in part at least, for preparing meals, that I would not force you to ‘have kitchen chores’ at home. I wanted you to have the luxury of being waited on, having your meals prepared and, as you know, I wanted you to concentrate on your schoolwork….Anyway, since you rarely volunteered for kitchen duty, the years slipped by without you learning to make some of my favorite dishes.”

But, my mom did ask me to help in the kitchen and I never did. I don’t know why. Just like I’m not sure why I never offered to help Mom Mom Lena in the garden or Mom Mom Maggie pat out her famous crab cakes. I wish I had. With each of these recipes, my mom has added a story along with it, talking either about the person who gave it to her; like a favorite Aunt, a teacher, who wrote the recipe on the back of a school paper, or a favorite recipe that my grandfather ate when he was battling cancer. The story could have something to do with the “missing ingredient” that can no longer be read because my sister colored on it or family lore that a gingerbread recipe was made for a U.S. President. We always tried to get my mom to “organize” her recipe box but she could never part with the memories, stories and handwriting of those that had left us.

So, I know that while I go through countless cookbooks, buy gadget #213 and read one organizational blog after another, deep down what I’m trying to do is get back into Mom Mom Lena’s kitchen with her big steamer pot, black and white checkered floors and boisterous laugh. My quest to be a good cook is to reconnect with them and build memories for my own children. Needless to say, the only cookbook I ever use is the one my mom made.

So, now, here is idea #10 which involves cookbook #28 and gadget #213.

AMY AND JAMIE

About a month ago my husband and I watched Julie & Julia. It was a good movie. I liked it, I wouldn’t say it was my favorite movie of all time but the idea for this movie has been haunting me for weeks. It seems to be what I need to get my kitchen life on track. I work well with goals, to-do lists and order. Peer pressure and accountability are huge factors in getting my butt in gear too. So, that’s what I need, work my way through a cookbook, write about it, get my friends to read it so they can cheer me on and make me finish.

But whose cookbook should I tackle? You’d think based on my need to climb back into my great-grandmother’s kitchen that I’d pick Paula Dean or the Barefoot Contessa. I thought about picking a Sneaky Chef book in hopes of killing two birds with one stone and getting the picky eaters in my house to eat. I have spent weeks thinking about this and I just keep coming back to Jamie Oliver. I’m not sure why. I’ve always been a huge Jamie Oliver fan. I love when he’s on the Today Show. What I love about him is his enthusiasm about food, his zest for fresh simple ingredients and his ability to talk to cooks or non-cooks at all levels. I only had one of his cookbooks though and I’ve never seen any of his shows so I started doing some research. I checked a couple of books out of the library and downloaded his itunes app. Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making you a Better Cook seemed like the obvious choice but the shear weight of the thing could kill a small child and I knew I’d never take the challenge. I really liked his Jamie at Home: Cook Your Way to the Good Life book but there just seemed to be something that was holding me back. And then, this past week, I saw the commercial for his new show, Food Revolution. Then, come to find out, there is a book by the same name! I go to the book store chasing my toddler. Snatch the book off the shelf as I jog after him to the kid section. I flip the book over to skim the back while I’m reading him Max & Ruby. And this sentence catches my eye, “This book is inspired by all the people I’ve met who thought they could never and would never learn how to cook.” Gasp. Is he talking to me? I put down Max & Ruby and read on. “I believe that good home cooking is one of the most essential, fundamental skills that every single person on this planet should have in order to look after themselves, their families, and their friends.” I catch my breath. Keep reading. “This food revolution is all about people learning how to make a recipe, then teaching that recipe to their friends and family…if enough people do this, pretty soon everyone will be cooking.” Sigh.

OK, done. Sold. Jamie Oliver, you’re on.