"He Had Me at Hello (insert British accent here)"

So, since this is my blog's five year anniversary...my "blog-iversary" I'm spending a bit of time reminiscing and looking back at old posts and thinking of what was going through my head 5 years ago. Let me set the stage for you. I was frustrated. It was February 2010 and for New Year's one of the resolutions I had made was to cook more. I was a mom with two kids that couldn't and didn't cook. I should be feeding my family better. Now, there is more to this story of course but I'm saving that for a book, or when I sit down with Oprah some day. 

I had made this resolution but for the life of me I had no idea how I was going to accomplish this. Soon after New Year's we had watched Julie and Julia and the idea to do a similar exercise was still whirling in my head. But how would I go about writing a blog? And who would read it? And wasn't taking on cooking enough of a challenge without adding a blog to the mix? And there was no way my kids and husband were going to put up with a year of French cooking. And on, and on, and on.

So, the first thing I thought I would tackle was picking a book. I’d worry about the blogging part later. So, when I came across Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook in the bookstore that day in February of 2010 something took hold. The back of the book says:

“This book is inspired by all the people I've met who thought they could never and would never learn how to cook. I believe that good home cooking is one of the most essential, fundamental skills that every single person on this planet should have in order to look after themselves, their families, and their friend. This food revolution is all about people learning how to make a recipe, then teaching that recipe to their friends and family…if enough people do this, pretty soon everyone will be cooking.” 

And that's where he had me. I knew then if I was going to do this crazy thing that it would need to be Jamie Oliver that would teach me and it would have to be this book. I totally got it. It was like the back of that book was him writing a note specifically to me.

Of course, now I know that I wasn't the only one of my generation who had skipped out on kitchen duty and now stared at the pots and pans with toddlers under their feet not knowing where to begin. Now I get it. Now I get that my problem was a bit of a generational one. We had lost the skills that had been passed down and that knowledge was replaced with factory frozen lasagnas and drive thru windows. I bought the book on the spot (along with a Max and Ruby book for my toddler). I didn't even open it. Who says you can’t judge a book by its cover? That day I definitely did.