Amy & Ina

By Amy



I have a problem. I love to buy cookbooks. That's not the problem. The problem is that I love to read them but I hardly ever use them to actually cook. I have been in a funk with cooking lately. So I decided I needed some incentive. I bought this cookbook.

I decided that I would cook my way through it. Like Julie and Julia. Only it's Amy and Ina. And I'm not going to make every recipe. I thought maybe I could. But.....some recipes would just be a waste of time and money. Like....Foie Gras with Roasted Apples. Which includes prunes and duck. I am all for trying new things and experiencing new flavors. But I have to be realistic. And remain in my normal food budget. So I decided that I will make over half of the recipes in the book. I started with something that was semi-basic. Rich Beef Barley Soup.

It was good. Not fantastic. But good. And everyone ate it. Next I tried Old Fashioned Banana Cake. Which called for this.....

Thank you Trader Joes for carrying weird stuff at the right price!!! Creme fraiche is heavenly. It tasted like sour cream, cream cheese and butter.

I love recipes with banana's in it because my fruit bowl always looks like this.

My handy helper.

I let him frost. The cake was really good. Only bad thing is that I ate the entire cake. Honestly. Only two pieces were not mine. Not good for my jeans.

I have also made Bangers and Mustard Mash. Which is basically chicken sausages and mashed potatoes with mustard. I would have taken a picture but I burnt the sausages. Not pretty. The potatoes were like a creamy potato salad. They weren't to bad. I made Weeknight Bolognese. The sauce was incredible and I will definitely be making that again. Tonight we had Lemon Chicken Breast and Couscous with Toasted Pine Nuts. My oldest son said the chicken was "to lemony" and my youngest said he didn't like "nuts in his rice". Sigh. I thought they were both delicious and so did hubby. I have this cooling on my counter.....

It smells heavenly. There are eighty-nine total recipes. That means I need to make at least forty-five. Seven down and thirty-eight to go!