While I have a very open mind and am open to trying new things – I’m often just a creature of habit. Often times, if I have few or no restrictions, I feel suffocated and just go with old standbys. This is especially true with food. I can’t tell you how often I just don’t know what to cook for dinner. At least when I was cooking for Emily, I would have extra input or instructions into the decision. Between her becoming pescetarian and working a lot of evenings, we usually end up cooking separate dinners. On one hand, it’s freeing as if I screw up a recipe, I don’t have to subject her to it. On the other hand – it’s just not much fun cooking for yourself. In the end though, I always have the same problem: “What do I cook for dinner?”
Some friends of ours gave me a copy of Alton Brown’s Good Eats: The Early Years
for stuffmas. Ironically, I almost gave them the same gift. Great minds and all that. Since I tend to do better with assignments and goals, I’ve decided to give myself one. Inspired by a post on the LiveJournal Cooking Community, which I understand was inspired by the movie Julie and Julia (which we have not seen) – I intend to cook each recipe in the Good Eats book – no less than one per week (I tend to be able to turn any one recipe into at least two meals and we usually eat out on the weekends). Keeping the tone of being an assignment, I will work through the book’s recipes in order as best I can. I may have to alter methods or ingredients due to availability (I’ve never seen duck available around here) or weather (I’m not grilling in a hurricane). I may also have to skip a few like Ice Cream – we don’t have an Ice Cream Maker, and I don’t know if I could justify purchasing one as we generally try to NOT eat it. Otherwise, I will do my best to preserve the concept and ideas of the recipe. This project will not only help me decide what to eat at least once or twice a week – but will also get me cooking totally new things that I never would have thought or bothered to try on my own. So next week starts with AB’s Pan Seared Rib-Eye and probably his Mashed Potatoes to go with it.
Sounds like a ton of fun, and a great way to try some new dishes. I have to admit I was almost tempted to try doing something in the same vein after watching Julie and Julia.
Curious timing – I’m about to do the same thing with a book that I got from Heather’s parents for stuffmas — Thomas Keller’s The French Laundry Cookbook. This should be fun.
I’m just curious, do you have a Kitchen Aid mixer? If so you can purchase a lot of the attachements, one is an ice cream bowl, and a meat grinder. that may help for some of the recipes.
Not yet. We intend to get one, just haven’t gotten around to it yet.
[...] was the start of my Alton Brown Cooking Project. Since the first recipe was just a pan seared rib eye, I went ahead and made the second recipe [...]
@Joe Coleman
Yeah we got lucky and got my mother in laws old one. The ice cream attachment and bowl are easy to use and nick likes his meat grinder attachment.
The pasta attachment for it is okay but we like our old crank shaft pasta maker better.
@Libby
my mother actually promised us hers, but never gave it to us. it’s one of those things that’s expensive enough that i’d feel bad asking, “hey..so.. uh.. can i have that?”