How This Began

I hate cooking. I always have. The pressure to create something that everyone will enjoy in a short matter of time, usually accompanied by standing on your feet, chopping veggies and stirring pots, drove me mad. That was not who I was. I often longed to be that lovely 50's wife with her apron tied around her crisply ironed dress, a dab of flour on her nose, and her cheeks flushed from the steam. In reality, the scene was more similar to a horror movie--tomato sauce splashed across counters and small bits of raw chicken littering the floor, while I stand, eyes crazed and spoon poised, over an overflowing pot, yelling at it to calm itself down or else! My husband knew from the first time we met that I hated to cook and likely never would. So, he has graciously done most of the cooking in our household for almost 4 years that we've been married.

However, once in a blue moon, perhaps for his birthday or some other special occasion, the desire to bring forth a beautiful, tasty meal will awaken in my soul. Once, for his birthday, my husband had requested to do a Lord of the Rings marathon. This sparked my creativity and I decided that we would have a feast. I spent days planning and hours preparing. I made lembas bread from scratch and elven cordial from fresh fruit and spices. I made breakfast with tomatoes and mushrooms and second breakfast of apples and fresh rolls. I made lunch, tea, supper and dessert. It was my finest hour, if I do say so myself. When it came time to present my husband with his surprise, I was filled with pride at this great toil that I had undertaken for his sake. For that is who I did it for. My toddler, my little Puck, could care less what I made as long as cheese was involved. But my husband, my prince charming, looked at me in that moment and expressed sincere gratitude for this gift. It was then that I realized, I didn't hate cooking. I hated chores. If cooking was a normal evening activity then it held no interest to me. However, if it meant that I could traverse into a fantasy world and bring back food for my family, using every ounce of creativity I had in me, and creating a night worth remembering, well then...I would LOVE cooking.

It was my mother-in-law who first mentioned this idea as something I could do weekly. I thought it was an interesting idea, but again told myself that "wasn't me" and pushed the idea to the back of my brain. However, time went on and we added to our household. One of our close relatives came to live with us and now there were four people. At this point, we knew we needed to make sure that our eating out was at a minimum and that we cooked most of our meals at home. This would take a new level of creativity and will-power but we needed to do so to accommodate a new person. And now that we had our own family, we needed to start implementing some of our own traditions. Right then is when the thought that my mother-in-law had mentioned so long ago, sprang to the forefront of my brain. We could do something weekly. We could do dinner and a movie and make it a theme night.

So here we are, at the precipice of my journey. I plan on attempting to do this every Friday night, and posting about it over the weekend. This will be an adventure and adventures are never all pretty. Sometimes there may be horror movie moments, but my task is to have some fun. Let's see where it goes.