Note to Self...

I've had a scrap of paper sitting on the bottom crevice of my bathroom mirror for nearly a week now and it's pestering me every time I see it. This tiny slip has two different ideas that I wrote down so I wouldn't forget them during random moments of inspiration. I think I was brushing my teeth when the second one hit, thus an inopportune time to sit down and work on my blog. Now I'm able to sit down and type and my brain feels like a twelve-week old labrador puppy running through a field. I can't focus. Sigh.

It all started with the infamous movie, "Julie and Julia" that made me want to run to the store and buy the items for that beef bourgignon that I saw in the movie. Man, I could smell it just sitting on my couch! I did actually cook chicken cacciatore last week from Giada's recipe and it rocked. The only way that I could accomplish this task was to pay my neighbor's teenage daughter to come play with my kids so I could have my kitchen to myself for an hour. It was so worth it! There's something therapeutic about cooking when it's done with care and detail. I actually enjoyed it.

While I was breading my chicken in flour, I pictured an exasperated Julia Child in her kitchen with an infant crawling at her feet and a two year old running around and asking to be picked up so she could see what was happening on the stove. I could hear her high pitched voice calling out, " I cannot cook under these conditions!" It didn't seem feasible to accomplish the culinary masterpieces that she made in this scenario. I laughed and then added my white wine to the pan. Ahh, the smell of the chicken cacciatore was intoxicating. I was so excited, I was cooking real food and it was working. No short-cut recipes or frozen mixes, just the real deal from scratch. Who knows when this will happen again but it was fun and my family liked it too.