Better Late Than Never

Welcome to my first foray into the blog-o-sphere! Back in January I decided (or rather resolved since we are talking about New Year's Resolutions) to cook through a cookbook and blog about it. So, the plan was to cook an amazing meal every Sunday night and invite friends over to share it. And yes, I was marginally inspired by the movie Julie & Julia but more so by my need/desire to have something interesting in my life to call my own. I had the book all picked out (Ad Hoc At Home by Thomas Keller), secured a promise from my spouse that Sunday afternoons would be my time in the kitchen, and invited guests over for Sunday dinner. I was in my crazed obsessive mode and hunted down this cookbook (which was out of stock everywhere in January) visiting numerous bookstores in Houston until I found the very last copy.


I figured since we're talking Thomas Keller here, I'd better start out with an easy recipe for my first attempt and so I choose chicken pot pie. Chicken pot pie is homey, kid-friendly, honest - how hard could it be? Well, Thomas Keller's chicken pot pie kicked my butt! It wasn't difficult but just so fussy!!! The vegetables needed to be cooked in 3 separate pots each with 8 peppercorns, etc. For someone who cannot follow recipes, it was killing me to execute all of these persnickety instructions. The end result was delicious, there's no question about that, but I was exhausted --- and all for Chicken Pot Pie!!! I didn't even take a photo because I was in dinner party mode and just plain forgot.

That was 7 months ago. Since then I haven't made anything from Ad Hoc; however this is one resolution that I'd like to keep - with a few modifications that is. So here are my rules/goals:

1) I will cook 2 Ad Hoc recipes per month. My original every Sunday idea was utterly unrealistic.

2) I will follow the recipes to the letter. Why torture myself like this? First of all, I don't want to mess with Thomas Keller and second, I think that it will be a good lesson in discipline for me and will make me a better cook all around. By the end of this I will have made my own freaking mozzarella cheese and taken a blow-torch to a prime rib!

3) There's no timeline... I will cook everything in the cookbook at least once, but it could (and most likely will) take years!

Let the wild rumpus begin - we'll start with crabcakes this Sunday!