mission statement?

Okay, I might as well admit it right off the bat. I saw Julie and Julia last weekend and was inspired. I like writing and I like cooking. and I don't really even care if no one reads this but me. Like Julie, I need a goal, a purpose, and I want to improve my skills in cooking.

Unfortunately, I would never be able to make my way through the Julia Child book, much as I'd like to give it a try. My family would NEVER eat some of the things in that book (and, I admit it, I would be hard-pressed to make myself eat some of it). It would be a waste of my time and money. However, it occurs to me that my cooking skills could use some upgrading.

For example, whenever you see a picture or a movie about a cook's kitchen, they always have this big bowl full of lemons on the counter. Why is that? I buy two lemons and one of them goes bad before I can use it. Perhaps I don't really know what to do with lemons? I hear there's hundreds of good uses, but I have no idea what they could be. This needs exploring.

Another thing, They (the cooks) always have a small pot of herbs growing in the windowsill. Now, of course I use herbs and spices in my cooking, but usually only what the recipe calls for. I never go get a pinch of oregano to "fix" the soup, if you will. And I've NEVER experimented with changing the seasonings. Another opportunity for improvement, I think. Although there's only so much bending you can do when you're a perectionist.

I've been giving this quite a bit of thought today. There are several areas of cooking that I would like to explore and learn to do better. (One of them might have to be finding the energy to get up off my lazy rear end after work and actually cook a real meal--we seem to do a lot of Top Ramen around here, if you know what I mean.)

So here's the plan: Once a month find a new area of cooking to explore and improve in. This will most likely involve lots of cookbooks and research, but that's OK, I enjoy that almost as much as the cooking. Some of the things I'm thinking about are, of course, lemons and herbs. I think I may also explore ways of adjusting recipes for wine-free cooking. I'm Mormon; I don't drink the stuff, so why would I cook with it? There must be other, just as tasty ways to enhance the flavor of a dish the way wine does without the alcohol. Garlic probably needs some exploration, too. So, that's the plan for now. Any ideas or requests, of course, will be gladly considered.

Now I need some kind of catchy closing phrase....Hmmm. Bon Apetit is pretty much the property of Julie and Julia. Good cooking? no. well, something will come up, I'm sure. Until then....