Ready, Set ... Blog

• Welcome to my new blog. I'm a wannabe foodie. This is the year I've decided to actually step up my game and become a "real" foodie. Well, as real of a foodie as I can be in rural Oklahoma. I've collected cookbooks for years... probably have more than 200 now. An entire wall in my dining room is covered with shelves, most filled with cookbooks. Anthony Bourdain, Thomas Keller, Dean & Delucca, Craig Clairborne, Mark Patterson, Martha Stewart, Hoppin' Johns, Emeril.... to name a very few. However, I've had a nasty habit in reading about it, thinking about, but never doing it. Just like I religiously read restaurant reviews of all the new and fascinating food places in Tulsa, but end up grabbing a BK cheeseburger on the commute home. Kind of like how I can look at seed catalogs for hours... but last year had not a vegetable planted in the garden. Well, since my birthday just passed, I decided this was the year to change things. My goal? First to get in shape and lose weight. So during the week, I'll be dieting and trying to eat healthy and save money, and hope to have extra money and time to spend on a food splurge on the weekend. It might be testing a recipe out of "French Laundry" or visiting some restaurant I've never been to before. My goals are a) to never eat the same place twice this year b) cook recipes I've never tried before c) try to grow a great deal of my own produce and herbs to cook with this year d) try to eat things I've never tried before and e) lose weight while doing it. To help me with this blog, for my birthday I got a great new digital camera, so I hope to be documenting much of my efforts with photos as well. I suppose I should add in here that... I'm a little food challenged. I was a very picky eater as a kid. Mostly a "textural" problem. I still don't like to bite down on onions or tomatoes in a sauce. I have issues with olives. I didn't eat gravy on mashed potatoes until I was in college. So as you can imagine.... this should be interesting. Thanks for reading, and I hope you find this entertaining.