Julie & Julia Self-Challenge

Well, memory lane is officially closed and I am back enjoying the present and looking forward to things in the future.

I have a confession to make – I am a flop in the kitchen.  I can’t cook.  I’ve tried, but I don’t enjoy it – especially when the results are less than edible.  (Not to mention the fact that I have LITERALLY almost burned down two places boiling water.)  However, I need to cut back on my expenses (I have been very fiscally irresponsible this year and am starting to pay the consequences) and I am trying to eat healthier.  So, I‘ve decided to try the cooking thing again.  (Please be prepared to send money as I may burn down the house.)  Stealing from the blog/book/movie Julie and Julia:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozRK7VXQl-k

I am going to make every recipe in one of my vegan cookbooks.

 

Granted there are only a 125 recipes, to the 500-600 in Julie and Julia… and I am only committing myself to make at least one a week, not every day... but it's still a challenge, right?

 

To make it official, I bought a new apron in St. Augustine, yesterday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am going to go in order of recipes rather than find some other reasonable order.  I know myself – if it gets too complicated, I’ll quit.

Lucky me, the first recipe is for hummus with roasted red peppers.   Hummus is one of the few things that I am able to make.  However, for this exercise, I followed the recipe in the book.  I even roasted my own peppers, which I've never done before... here's the garlic, black pepper and olive oil mixture for the roasting of the red peppers:

 

 

Peppers roasted and ingredients ready to be mixed:

 

 

The finished product: 

 

If I do say so myself, this is the BEST hummus I've ever tasted!  (I may be biased.) The challenge has started on the right foot.  The next recipe is Versatile Peanut Dip.