I received the latest issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday Food magazine. (I love that my mom gave this to me as a Christmas gift. Plus, we got one for getting one, so I also gifted a subscription to my b/f! Score! All for a very reasonable price - double score! I could keep going - you know, like it's in my mailbox at the end of my drive. Score...! It's a gift that puts fun in functional ----> no clutter! --- Score!...)
Anyway ~ I know you've all been dying to know what came of 52 recipes in 28 days.
So, without further adieu...
*drumroll*
I failed.
Well, one could say I 'failed.' But really, I'd say I was incredibly successful. (There's always a way to spin - just look at the media and politicians...ahem - I digress.)
I succeeded because we tried a heckuva lot of new recipes. We ate shrimp. We ate chick peas. We ate ground pork. Maybe you and your li'l peeps eat these things all the time. We do not. Well, we did not. But certain recipes that we would certainly not have tried before were hits! And some were flops. And that's OK. I'm just grateful that there were some that the kids promised they would eat again. :)
I succeeded because I didn't go broke buying food...that was healthy. Spinach. Pineapple. Fresh thyme and parsley and ginger root. I am flabbergasted by how little my total bill came to each week (actually - I only shopped twice, so bi-weekly) despite how much food I bought! And the fact that I really only had to go to the store a handful of times - even for an item I missed here or there - was wonderful (no nightly heading to Schnucks to grab some vital something or other because I didn't know what I was going to fix until 5:12PM).
Speaking of which, I succeeded because I had a plan. And having a plan is actually quite liberating. Even if I changed my mind and decided paperdalle pasta did not sound as wonderful Wednesday as I'd thought Tuesday, at least I had a backup plan of bread and shrimp skewers that I could make while pushing paperdalle to Thursday...Relief. And less gas. You know - from taking fewer last minute trips to Schucks. *ahem*
And finally, I succeeded because I tried something extra-ordinary. It's not everday (well, it is Everyday Food) that just anyone will announce "I shall make every recipe in this cookbook"...aside from Julie Powell). I survived, my marriage and my children survived, it was fun, and I really didn't care if I actually made it through 52 recipes in 28 days. Sure, that was my ultimate goal. But I realized about half-way through the process/experiment that it didn't matter if I truly finished. I'd already won.
Now, in case you're wondering - and I'm pretty sure you are - I decided not to post the recipes after day 2 because I didn't want to be sued a la This Young House turned Young House Love. And I didn't post more pictures - even though I took pictures of everything - because I'm basically lazy. And since receiving the newest issue of Everyday Food, I have officially decided not to make every recipe in a cookbook again. Except cupcakes. Martha Stewart's Cupcakes now sits on my shelf. I'm pretty sure I'm going to make every cupcake in it in a year. One per week. Anyone want to help me eat them?
