The Game Plan

Disclaimer: This is not my original idea. I was inspired by the courageous Julie Powell, who as many of you may know, has now been immortalized in the movie Julie & Julia. I admit, though I have read parts of her blog, I have never seen the movie. However, being the avid foodie that I am, the concept of the movie drew me in to no end. Cooking and baking has been an important part of my life for years. From gaining 20 pounds when I realized I was a good baker (and later taking the weight off!) to running a small home bakery service for my teachers and the cafeteria the last two years of high school, being in the kitchen has always been a joy. Add that to the fact that I love scheduling, love starting absurd projects and love doing things in a methodical, linear fashion, I seemed destined to take my own twist at the Julie/Julia project.

Now if I could only find the right book...

Desserts are of utter importance for me, so whatever the book ended up being, it had to have a good dessert section. However. I was not going to cook through a dessert cookbook. I did that once already, with the Hershey's Chocolate Lover's Cookbook. Remember those 20 pounds I talked about? Yeah. I wasn't going to do that again, as decadent as it was. I am also a vegetarian. Though I probably would have martyred myself and cooked some dead animals from time to time for the sake of the project, it'd be nice if I could actually eat everything I cooked. My third condition was that it had to include food from different regions. A year's worth of Indian food? Not my cup of tea.

That's when I stumbled upon Tassajara Dinners & Desserts by Dale and Melissa Kent. The book called to me from the shelves of the book store. It passed through all the hoops, and then some. This isn't just a regular cookbook. It speaks of cooking as a meditative, zen activity. I am a very high strung person, who is always multitasking in some way. It seems this book will be more than just a culinary challenge.

So here's the Game Plan. My challenge will be easier than the Julie/Julia project in a few ways. There are 121 recipes, plus a section on basics that has instructions on making different vinaigrettes, vegetable stocks and things like that. If I plan to cook through this book in a year, that means I can cook two, if not three times a week and stay on track. That's great for me, because at the moment I live in a dorm without an ideal cooking situation. I will also not cook through this book front to back. It would start out ok, but then I would get to where I was cooking two desserts a week for a few months, and... no. I will cook one recipe from each section consecutively, except for the basics section, since a lot of these dressings and such are included in other recipes and I will include them along the way.

So, on with the show!