I thought I'd take a minute out from my cooking adventures to answer some frequently asked questions. Let me know if you have anymore…
The #1 question I get asked is…
Q: Did you gain weight?
A: No. I didn't! I actually lost weight. Although, Husband would say he gained a pound during the last week because we were eating so much.
Q: If you were inspired by the movie Julie & Julia why did you pick a Jamie Oliver book? Why not Julia Child?
A: I knew that with the two kids (ages 8 & 2) that French cooking was not going to go over well and I really needed my family to buy into my revolution too. I also knew that I needed to find something with a more manageable number of recipes. That being said, I didn't count the recipes until after I had bought Food Revolution.
Q: Why Food Revolution and why Jamie Oliver?
A: My first blog entry, The Missing Ingredient, does a much better job telling the story but the back of the book and introduction that I flipped through at the bookstore really just hit me and I could really relate to what Jamie wrote. Why Jamie? Why not? Honestly, I wasn't a Jamie fan at the time I was looking for a book. I had seen him on morning shows but that was about it. I had never seen any of his cooking shows. I owned one of his books but I had never even cracked the spine on it. The Food Revolution show started about a month after I started. But, I quickly became a fan and eventually, my whole family did too. I think the kids think he is a long lost uncle or something.
Q: Could you really not cook?
A: Yes, I could really NOT cook. I called my mom and dad all the time to walk me through making things. When I say that I couldn't boil water for pasta, I am not joking. My husband did most of the cooking. I could make scones, smoothies and a pot roast (but only with about 10 calls home.)
Q: Did you really make all of the recipes?
A: Yes. I have the spreadsheets to prove it.
Q: Had you ever written a blog before?
A: No.
Q: Are you a writer?
A: No. Some writing is required for my job but not the fun, creative kind.
Q: Why did you call your blog "Amy's Food Revolution?" Why not something more clever?
A: I wanted search engines to know that the blog was about food. Also, when I started the project, remember it wasn't really about Jamie. Two of my favorite blog titles that were rejected: "Amy & Jamie" (this one is now used for my cooking classes) and "Amy Does Jamie" (rejected by my husband. He says because of the search engine reason, I'm not so sure.)
Q: How in the world did the Whole Foods Cooking Class come about?
A: In Food Revolution's introduction Jamie asks that you sign a "Pass It On Pledge" and teach friends what you learn. I mentioned this in one of my posts and also the fact that I wanted to have a cooking party. SO many people said they wanted to come that I started to look for places to have this party since I knew they wouldn't all fit in my kitchen. When I talked to the manager of the culinary center at my local Whole Foods and asked if I could rent the space for a party she said, "Would you be interested in teaching a class?" She thought a lot of customers were in the same boat as me and that they would find my adventure interesting.
Q: How did you pick the order of the recipes?
A: I didn't really plan it out. There were some weeks that I'd plan out that Sunday for the week. Then there were some that I knew way in advance for example, cabbage for St. Patrick's Day, scones for the Valentine's Day tea for my daughter and the birthday cake for me. There were also many days when I flipped through the book, picked something out and went to the store that day.
Q: When and where would you write?
A: Most of the time I did all of my writing at a local coffee shop while my daughter was in dance class. This wasn't ideal and it meant the blog was about a week behind most of the time but it was usually the best I could do. I'd write all of the entries from the week before on Monday evening and then just post them one at a time through the week.
Q: Do you have a favorite food blog?
A: Yes! www.organicspark.com by Molly Chester.
Q: What was your favorite recipe?
A: Easy. Sweet Potato and Chorizo soup
Q: What was your least favorite?
A: Baked Leeks
Q: What recipe surprised you the most?
A: Fish Pie
Q: What was the hardest ingredient to find?
A: Believe it or not, red chiles. Jamie loves red chiles! They seem to be in everything. Grocers told me that there was some sort of shortage of red chiles. I had the worst time finding them.
Q: What did you do the NEXT night?
A: We went out to dinner :)
Q: So, can you really cook now?
A: Well now isn't that the money question. I think that is what I'm trying to figure out. Did my Food Revolution work? Tune in tomorrow.
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i have trouble finding red chilies around here, too!
ReplyDeleteI love Jamie's recipes because they really are written for the non-cooker (like me). I could barely cook at all two years ago, and gradually started to learn by asking knowledgable people (like a friend who went to culinary school and another who was a cook in a restaraunt) lots and lots and lots of questions. But I hate trying something and then having it turn out badly - that doesn't inspire me to try it differently next time; it inspires me to give up completely. So I really liked that Jamie's recipes are written with steps in the order that you need to do things, plus he explains what needs to be explained, like what kind of heat to use. So many other cookbooks use obscure ingredients, or twelve thousand ingredients in a single recipe, or take all day (bouf bourginon, anyone?) and Jamie's recipes are fast and yummy.
Love all the answers! I have found only one place in this town to get red chiles, and that is the farmer's market downtown. I don't know why none of the grocery store carry them, as there doesn't seem to be a shortage of them there! There are very few recipes in the book that don't call for read chiles...
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading about your future culinary adventures. And yes, I do believe that after cooking your way through the Food Revolution, you can actually cook. :)
One thing I've been wondering is how this has affected the economical part of the family's money spent on food, has it been more expensive to cook from scratch or is this something you've not thought about?
ReplyDeleteE
Excellent question, E! I should have included this in my FAQ's because a few people have asked me that. I did think about keeping track of the cost when I started a year ago but I decided it would be a bit too hard. I would also have had to be more strategic in what recipes I made at the same time so there would be less waste. My guess is that we did spend more money but a lot of this was because I wasn't doing great planning. We also switched to buying more organic food, so that had an impact on cost. We did eat much healthier and that was worth every penny.
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