I May Be Going A Tad Overboard...

...but like I said last week, I have been completely inspired by the movie "Julie & Julia"...

Now see, I normally do the cooking around here, not because Brian doesn't want to, doesn't like to or is incapable of cooking (in fact, he's pretty good, if I may say so)...no, the problem is me. I have always thought of myself as a fairly non-picky eater, but that, alas, is not true. I'm also pretty bad at hiding my emotions, so when I put something in my mouth and I don't immediately think, WOW, whoever has done the cooking is bound to notice my less than appreciative response (this despite 25 some odd years of theatre training and experience)...

That person is, of course, Brian...and my sorry reactions to some of the things he has cooked has led him to avoiding the kitchen most of the time, at least when it comes to food prep...

This is not just my (very) public apology to my husband,...but my confession too, because, as has been mentioned (just a few times), we went to see "Julie&Julia" last week and since then I have become a wee bit obsessed with learning the proper way to poach an egg, make hollandaise sauce (no blenders, thank you very much), and discover the difference between shallots, green onions and yellow onions (I was under the impression, for some reason, that shallots were more like green onions than yellow ones, but it turns out it's the other way around) and I have spent a chunk of every day attempting to expand my repertoire of recipes...I have my usual lasagna (that the kids and Brian rave about) and ice cream cakes and meatloaf (ground red peppers added to it for extra moisture and flavor)...but like most people, I have the same few meals that I make over and over, especially the ones I know the kids will eat without too much fuss (and yes, they do have to try the food, even if they look at it and pronounce it "the most disgusting thing that has ever existed on the planet Earth"-thank you Ian)...

This week, however, has found me with my nose buried in more than a few cookbooks, mainly the Martha Stewart Original Classics that has been on my shelf for over half a year, but whose spine has barely been cracked...Brian, who gave me the book (and has picked up at least four more cookbooks from the library), has not complained about how much time I've spent cooking, mainly because he has been the willing and eager recipient of my experiments (even a few that I've made up myself!)...

The strange thing about all of this has been that I actually feel like sharing all of this with my husband...not just the eating part of the food, but the actual cooking of it...

Our only problem now lies in the fact that our kitchen is so small two people cannot possibly cook comfortably in there (unless bumping into one another and doing the "pardon-me-excuse-me-you're-in-my-way-dance" is your idea of cooking heaven)...but maybe, just maybe, I can ease up on my control freak tendencies enough to let Brian regain his joy of cooking too...

And all of this from one little movie...

I Made...

...MAYONNAISE!!

Yes, I know I'm yelling...but hey, I MADE MAYONNAISE!

From scratch people...

I told you I was inspired...

In case you're wondering, I used Julia Child's recipe...but since I really like Martha Stewart (I don't care what anyone says), I'm going to try her recipe next...that way we can do a side-by-side taste comparison...but let me tell you, the homemade stuff is fantastic...

With all due respect to Hellman's and Kraft, I am never buying the stuff again...

Mummy In A Modern World...aka...My Sister...

My sister...ok, I should qualify that...one of my sisters (because I have two) has her own blog...I read it today and have to say thank you to her. Shelley wrote about feeling guilty about sitting in front of the computer while her three year old watched some tv, and I want to say thank you for something she wrote...

I'm saying thank you, because she used the phrase "work outside the home" mother to describe herself and others who hold jobs outside the house.

I love it.

I love that particular phrase because the usual term is "working mother"...and I take issue with that...ask any stay home mother if she works and the answer is, damned right I do...in fact, my husband has told me on more than one occasion that he couldn't do my job (and sometimes he tells me this even when I haven't been nagging him to help out a bit more!)...

"Working mother" implies that those women who go off to jobs are working hard, while those of us who, for whatever reason, have decided to stay home with our kids are sitting around on our behinds all day doing nothing but watching Oprah and eating bonbons...and I think that the term does a huge disservice to women, because then suddenly the work outside the home mothers are pitted against the stay home mothers and everyone ends up with their feelings hurt and feeling defensive about which choices they've made...

So kudos to my sister...and go check out her blog...mummyinamodernworld

Julie & Julia vs. Martha...

I went to see "Julie & Julia" this week with my husband and came out of the theatre feeling inspired to get back into the kitchen. Although I usually do most of the cooking around here, mainly because I'm a pretty picky eater, in summer, I generally develop an aversion to slaving over a hot stove and we end up eating endless amounts of salads and anything - and I do mean anything - that can be grilled on the bbq...

And so, with Julie Powell (she of the "Julie" in the title of the movie, book and original blog) in mind, I started hunting around for my own copy of "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"...and in the process picked up the Martha Stewart book that Brian had given me for Christmas last year...

As I perused the pages of Martha's tome (The Martha Stewart Living Cookbook - The Original Classics), I came to a conclusion...

Julie Powell was a wimp.

Her story is pretty well known now, what with Nora Ephron and Amy Adams bringing it to life. She decided, back in 2002, to attempt every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. That would be 536 recipes in 365 days.

Martha's book?

Over 1100 recipes.

More than double what Julie Powell did.

I thought about trying every recipe in The Original Classics, but I don't think I'm really that crazy.

Yet...

Inspiration Strikes At The Movies...

Last night Brian and I went to see "Julie & Julia", the new Meryl Streep/Amy Adams movie and absolutely loved it...the only problem was that we went to a 10 pm showing and when the movie let out at 12:15 am, we were both hungry (all that food!) and wanted to rush home and start cooking something, anything! Brian also thought a glass of wine would be nice (french cooking and wine on display...do you think we're maybe a little prone to the power of suggestion?), but alas, we had no wine in the house and I thought cooking up a large meal at that time of the night bordered a little on crazy, so we let the dogs out and then went to bed...

This morning, however, I am still itching to get into the kitchen and so I am heading off to Chapters (apologies to die hard fans of the small, local bookstore, we have no such beast in my end of town) to scope out "Mastering the Art of French Cooking"...I don't think I'll go as crazy as Julie Powell did and try to cook every single recipe in the book in a year (I still have four very picky eaters to feed here), but who knows?

So, if you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it...it's one of the few movies I've seen where I want to go back and see it a second time...come to think of it, that was last summer when I went to see "Mamma Mia" (another Streep movie) with my sister ...maybe there's a reason that woman has won so many Oscars, hmm?

Trust me, go see it...you'll either want to move to Paris, cook up a storm, drink a glass of wine, eat or all of the above...

Bon Appétit!

Is Hell Freezing Over?...

...because we are going on a date...an actual-just-the-two-of-us-no-children-anywhere-in-sight-date...

Ok, it's just a movie, but it's one that is not animated, does not require four backhoes worth of popcorn to get through and is one where we won't have to answer fifty million questions about what that guy said and why that girl is holding a stick...

It will be a very strange experience, to say the least...

I wonder if I'll still be awake at the end of the previews?

Meet Max...

...the latest member of the Lilley clan who joined us Sunday afternoon...

For a few years now, Brian and I have talked about getting a second dog. Murphy, our rottweiler/border collie cross, has been with us since November 1997. She will be 12 years old next month and we thought (ok, I thought and eventually Brian came around to my way of thinking) that a second dog would be a good idea to ease the pain of separation from Murphy that is coming sooner rather than later...

Last week Avery, who turns seven on Saturday, came to me and said, "Mommy the only thing I want for my birthday is a puppy..."...spoken very winningly and with sad, puppy dog eyes I might add...

So I spent last week looking around and trying to convince Avery that getting an older dog might be a better way to go. Without going into the gory details of what happens to dogs who don't find homes, I told her that quite often older dogs don't get new families because everyone always wants puppies.

She didn't buy it.

On Saturday morning, Brian was talking with a neighbour and jokingly told her that if she knew of anyone who had puppies for sale to let us know...

Joke's on him...she did know someone. And gave him the phone number. Which he called. And told the guy on the phone that he would like the last puppy he had. (See, he tells everyone that the reason we have Murphy is because of me, things I said...he's not pinning this one on me, people!)

So yesterday we piled the kids into the car and told them we were going out. "Where?" they all wanted to know. "It's a surprise," we said.

Just over an hour later, we pulled into a driveway, got out of the car and met the most adorable little black lab puppy and fell instantly in love...

Look into those eyes...come on, you're falling for him too, aren't you?

On the drive home we tossed around a bunch of names (including street names as we passed under their signs) and finally settled on Max. (Jamie wanted to give him the middle name of "Pablo", but the others quickly nixed that idea)

Murphy has accepted the pup with all the grace of the grand ol' dame she is...and it's very cute to watch little Max following along behind Murphy and copying everything she does. And I've never met such a quiet little dog...we actually slept through the night and didn't hear him whimper once...he slept right through the night...

Maybe he can train the kids to do that...

Why There's Been Nothing New For Two Weeks...

So it's been nearly two weeks since my last post and to the six followers I have, I would like to apologize. Brian got home Saturday, August 1, and since then we have been trying to make up for the "worst summer vacation ever" (as proclaimed by our oldest, Ian)...to be fair, the weather has played a huge part in this summer's lack of activities that the kids want or can do...going swimming being the highest priority for all four of them. Call me crazy, but I still hold to the belief that you shouldn't be anywhere near water while lightening cracks and thunder rolls across the sky...my children do not agree with me.

Yesterday, the sun was not only shining, it was actually hot here in Ottawa...something that has not occurred since the end of June...and so we took the kids over to the wading pool by the public library to enjoy some summertime fun. Well, Brian took the kids, I dropped the five of them off and went to pick up a few groceries without having a constant tug on my arm or shirt and listening to one of four kids tell me why we absolutely have to have Dunkaroos (which, by the way, I have tasted and find truly disgusting) or any other form of junk food (don't get me wrong, we're not some sort of fanatical-we-only-eat-100%-pure-preservative-free-make-sure-no-one-was-harmed-in-the-making-of-this-food-people...I personally think that Cheetos are just fine on a Saturday night while we watch a family movie, I just don't happen to think kids need junk every day of their lives)...

On top of this, we spent the day Saturday at my sister and brother-in-law's cottage and have now been listening to lots and lots of requests for us to buy our own summer home (read: Ian, especially, won't stop asking, "Can we buy a cottage too?")...and now Avery is asking for a puppy for her upcoming birthday ("It's the only thing I want for my birthday...")...

And in the next week or so, despite Ian's very vocal objections, I am going to have to start shopping for back-to-school supplies. Our school board here in Ottawa has decided that school should start on August 31, instead of one week later, and Ian is absolutely beside himself with the knowledge that summer vacation is rapidly coming to an end...

I've also spent the last few days writing an article for Mercatornet.com, which will be posted next week. My editor (ahem, Brian) nagged me, I mean, asked me, to finish the article for this week...only to find out that the big boss wants it for next week's edition...anyway, the thing's done and when it's posted, I'll post a link for it here...ooh, look at me, being all fancy writer-like...ha!

So there's your update, folks...now I'm going out to enjoy some of that sunshine...at least until it starts raining again...