Tuesday, April 12, 2011

NEWS

Good morning!

Today is an exciting day. Tonight is the premiere of season 2 of Food Revolution.
ABC, 8 p.m.
Be sure to watch!

Also, my second cooking class at Whole Foods in Annapolis is just under a month away, Tuesday, May 10. This will be a hands-on cooking class. Below is the link. They have the wrong description up so here's the correct one. I hope you can come.

http://wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/annapolisculinary/store-calendar/


Tuesday, May 10th
Amy and Jamie - Amy's Food Revolution, Final Days!

7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Hands On $50

AMY AND JAMIE

A year ago, Amy, a reluctant cook, started a Food Revolution in her own kitchen by cooking her way through Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution cookbook and blogging about the adventure. Its been 365 days, did she make it? Did she cook all 173 recipes? What did she learn and what can you learn from her adventure? Come meet Amy, hear her story and learn to make some of Jamie Oliver's recipes.

Amysfoodrevolution.blogspot.com

Recipes:
Sweet Potato and Chorizo Soup
Lasagne
Fruit Scones

One last thing...Amy's Food Revolution website is now on Facebook. Check it out and "like" it :)

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Do I Know How to Cook Now?

Reading back at my first blog entry there are a few things my pre-revolution self thought I should be able to do. If someone asked me "What do you mean you can't cook?" These are the examples I would give as to things I thought a "good" cook should be able to do.


1. Make something without a recipe. I think my exact words were "there is no way I’d be able to browse the aisles and come up with something without a recipe."

2. Have a go-to meal that I made to give away. Like when your friend is sick, has had a loved one die or to welcome home a new baby. I remember having this conversation with two friends in particular and I was baffled and felt like this was something I needed to be able to do.

3. Know how to roast a chicken.

4. Have a couple of dishes that I just know how to do that don't involve a jar of pasta sauce or tortilla shells and taco seasoning.

So, I decided to test out #1. I went to the grocery store with no list, no recipe and the baby in tow. I picked up chicken breast, a butternut squash (something I never would have bought pre-revolution) and some broccoli.

When I got home, I cubed the butternut squash, tossed it with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, two cloves of garlic, a dash of cinnamon a little bit of brown sugar. I put them on a baking sheet, put them in a very hot oven (400 I think) and roasted them for about 20-30 minutes.

For the chicken I cut them into tenderloins, rubbed them with sea salt, pepper, and squirted a little lemon juice on top. Then I grilled them in my awesome grill pan.

I served the squash and chicken with some steamed broccoli and it tasted really good. It wasn't a super fancy meal but I made it up and it tasted great. I would never have been able to do that a year ago.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

FAQs

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.