I was going to start with Happy New Year but considering a month has already gone by in the new year, I changed it to Happy February! The end of last year felt like a mad dash. I don’t know why, nothing particularly busy was happening but it just felt like I was rushing around like a chicken with its head cut off. I’ve been able to feel a little more sense of control since the new year and I decided to become more active in the few cookbook clubs I had joined last year. I was mostly a lurker, wanting to participate but never getting my act together enough to do it. I was cooking a lot of simple or semi-homemade meals and cooking started to become a chore for a bit. But I’m proud to say that I made many delicious things in January and I’m super motivated to keep up with these supportive and engaging communities.
So, this languishing blog finally has some content! Yay!
The first thing I made was for the Food52 Cookbook Club. The book was Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume 1 by Julia Child and I made the Tranches de Jambon en Piperade. Basically ham with tomato? I don’t know because I took Spanish, not French but I was looking to use up holiday ham that I had in my freezer and I didn’t want it to taste like holiday ham. By January, I think we’re kind of all done with holiday food and we want to move on, right?? This was a perfect way to repurpose the ham so that it didn’t taste like the holidays. It was really simple and a great weeknight meal. The family was a bit skeptical about ham with tomato and bell peppers but I won them all over with this dish!
The book is a classic, so please do check it out. I got my copy from the library. I hope to share more of my cooking adventures through my cookbook club posts. I am in one Baking Cookbook club (next post) and it’s going to stretch me because although I’m a proficient beginner baker, I’m definitely on the newbie side of baking. My daughter is a great helper and we’ve committed to doing the baking cooking club together this year.
Stay tuned for more cookbook club entries. I hope I stick to this plan!!
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