Announcing...my project

Have you seen the movie Julie and Julia?  It is essentially a two-fold story.  One of the life of Julia Child, and one of a woman who decided to take her Art of French Cooking cookbook and cook every single recipe out of it and blog about it.  Cute movie.  Anyway, I had decided that I needed a project/hobby, and nothing has made me happier over these past few weeks than making jam, and putting up the tomatoes, etc. so I decided I was going to do the same thing.  Pick a cookbook, and every weekend, pick a recipe or two to cook and blog about it.  Let me tell you what...its hard to pick one cookbook.  Here's why.  I won't cook something if I won't eat it...there are plenty of things I will try, but I don't like fish, or eggs, and I don't care for most meats (duck, veal, lamb, etc).  So that eliminates most cookbooks if I want to cook it start to finish.  I could have picked the Martha Stewart Cookie Book, but that would be too easy.  I have baked many of the things from it, and while they  have all been lovely, its not a challenge (sorry Martha).  I have been baking all my life and am pretty good at it.  Plus, I am not sure that it would be in my best interest to make something out of a cookie book every week.  I am trying to actually reduce the size of my behind...not increase it...so....I have modified the plan a little. 

Every weekend, I am going to pick a recipe that I have never made and give it a whirl.  Entrees, appetizers, breads, desserts, side dishes...as long as it sounds interesting and good to me, I will cook it.  I have already looked through 3 cookbooks and have several recipes picked out to start with...if you have a favorite recipe that you think I should try, leave me a comment and I will add it to the pile!! 

Now, for those of you who might be serious bakers or cooks, you know that the standard Betty Crocker cookbook is a classic.  Betty knew her stuff.  If you want to learn to make good, basic meals, start here.  I make her banana bread recipe all the time and I get millions of compliments (although I made it today, and it just came out wierd.  I don't know what the heck happened...I digress).  Last night we had some nectarines and blueberries hanging around so Ami J suggested a cobbler for dessert.  I cracked open BC and she had a lovely, and very simple recipe for blueberry cobbler.  Since we had the nectarines, I used half blueberries and half nectarines for the fruit, and went from there.  I would post the recipe here, but I am not sure if they are copyrighted, so I am not going to....if you want it, leave a comment and I will send it to you.  Here we go...

1.  Cook the fruit with some cornstarch and a little bit of sugar.  I actually mixed the fruit and sugar up ahead of time to let it all mix together well.  I also had to go downstairs to cook it on Ami J's stove, as I flooded 2 burners on my stove and the tomatoes were taking their bath....anyway.  Bring it to a boil, for a minute or so, and then...

2.  Dump the fruit into a baking dish.  That's steam, not smoke coming off the fruit.  :)  If you can multitask, you can be making the biscuit topping while your fruit is cooking...BC is clearly not a believer in multitasking because she says to put the warm fruit in the oven while you make your biscuit topping...but I am a multitasker, so I had it ready to spoon on the fruit.

3.  Into the oven at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes...so the biscuit becomes nice and brown.

4.  Pretty, isn't it?  I wish you could smell it.  Heaven.

5.  Scoop some out, serve with or without ice cream..this is vanilla frozen yogurt, actually.  All dinner participants gave it two thumbs up.  Bonus for me...there is leftover fruit to heat up and pour over more yogurt tonight for dessert.   

So!  First recipe a success.  Granted, it was right up my alley, and not that big of a challenge, but who says that everything that is worth doing has to be challenging?  I made 4 people really happy last night with very little effort on my part.  Sometimes, that's what it should be all about.  Until the next time...