The beginning and a birthday

By way of introduction, I am a semi-serious home cook in the Duluth suburb of Atlanta, GA. Today was my husband's birthday and we shared a meal at Abattoir with his wonderful brother John and his equally wonderful wife Cheryl. We had a fabulous time at lunch today with John and Cheryl. Abattoir was fantastic as always, lots of dishes shared and a good time was had by all.



There was a fair amount of discussion about this project, so I guess this is as good a place as any to begin this journey. I want to challenge myself. To try new foods, to learn more about cooking and develop my skills. I am a home cook, no claim to chefdom, but I enjoy cooking and more importantly, nourishing the people I love (and some I don't even know) with food that is prepared with love and the best ingredients and techniques I can muster. To me, cooking is one of the most basic conduits of love, it has in essence, a spiritual element.



I am a devotee of Molly Wizenberg on Orangette I follow the local food blogs regularly and I have been looking for a project to challenge me and help me grow. I knew about Julie Powell's project when she was a blogger... before there was a movie. The idea intrigued me, but Mastering the Art of French Cooking just wasn't for me. I recently read Jimmy's "Eat It Atlanta" http://www.eatitatlanta.com/ post about a French Laundry inspired dinner party and my brain said AHA! Thomas Keller and all of his restaurants, especially The French Laundry have always excited me. What a genius, what technical mastery. What a stretch! (for me anyway). So I decided to cook my way through the French Laundry Cookbook. Very quickly I realized this has already been done, but that doesn't matter to me... it's a personal challenge. To see the amazing job Carol Blymire did, check out http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com And as a disclaimer at the start, I won't do every recipe, but I might supplement with some of Keller's other cookbooks. I can't see my self butchering a lamb.... but Jim is dying to saw a pig's head in half, so we will see!



I don't even have the book yet, but I am already planning. We have a busy holiday season coming up and lots of "normal" cooking to be done, but I hope to start soon, with baby steps.
And hopefully I will get better at this blogging stuff, and linking... I used to design websites fer crying out loud!! Getting old has its pros and cons....

See you soon.