Recently my husband and I went to Jamaica to celebrate our one year anniversary.  To distract the jittery nerves I always get from flying, I brought a book along for the ride (as I normally would).  This time, I had borrowed Julie and Julia from the local library.  That book combined several of my loves: cookbooks, food, cultural cuisine, cooking, etc…  Ultimately, I became inspired.  I adored her idea to cook through a cookbook in order to master a type of cultural cooking – in Julie’s case, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child.

This book has led me to this new journey.  I have always loved browsing blogs, especially cooking blogs.  There is something so satisfying in seeing single ingredients mesh together in many different forms into something so beautiful like steamy vegetable soup or crispy chicken fried steak paired with lumpy mashed potatoes.  My love for different foods has not always been so vast;  I grew up in a very picky (southern) household where our staple foods were chicken casserole, green beans, and mashed potatoes.  It wasn’t until I entered college and began studying Nutrition that I really opened up my mind to different foods.  Luckily my husband is not a picky eater and is up to this project… until he finds out about the calf brain and lamb kidney…. stay tuned…

Instead of working my way through the French way of eating, I have decided to try my hand at mastering Italian cooking.  After doing some research, I landed on the cookbook, “Essentials of Italian Cooking,” by Marcella Hazan.  Her spirit comes alive in the words she wrote in her Preface, “I believe with my whole heart in the act of cooking, in its smells, in its sounds, in its observable progress on the fire.” She captivates the essence of cooking.  I truly think of it as the finest art – one that you can enjoy the whole way through.  Food charms our vision, smell, hearing, touch, and taste.

This project will be challenging.  I live in a small Tennessee town where we don’t have many seafood options.  I work full time and am about to embark on graduate school.  I may be a glutton for punishment, but I truly believe this project will be enlightening and enriching.