Cooking, My Journey

I have this great group of friends.  We call ourselves Wine Women of West Virginia because we have a wine gathering at least once a year at this beautiful cabin hosted by one of the members of the group.  We also meet monthly here in town. The cabin in West Virginia is magnificent.  It overlooks these incredibly majestic mountains. When it rains you can hear the stream rush through the woods.  In the morning I wake up, make a cup of coffee and watch the sun rise.  Often I am accompanied by my fellow cabin mates. It re-energizes me. Metaphorically speaking I can almost feel my all too often empty tank fill up.  It is something not to be missed.  That is only my opinion but it is true. 

Most of these women are awesome cooks.  I myself am a functional cook.  I will give you my definition of functional.  I can cook standard dishes. The food is good but it is so boring.  I make the same things over and over. Blah, Blah, Blah dull, dull, dull!  So when I started spending more time with this group of women I started getting inspired by the homemade pizza and breads, the tea and nibbles , the B-B-Q, the homemade coleslaw. I can go on and on about their culinary prowess. It made me more aware that there is something lacking in my culinary skills.  I don't need to be a gourmet cook.  I just want to have some fun learn some new recipes and improve my skills.

I write a blog about books I read.  I started to write it because people knowing that I love to read kept asking me if I had read anything good.  So  http://ireaddontu.blogspot.com was born. I started searching for books to read and I often found books that were not cook books but that contained some great recipes.  With the inspiration of my wine women and the books that I found I thought I would start out on a journey to improve my cooking skills.  The goal is this, to find recipes that are fairly healthy, that my family enjoys eating and that when I entertain family and friends are more thanjust edible.  The recipes have to be moderately easy and must contain ingredients that are not hard to find. 

As much as I love to write, I have no plans to write a cook book.  I am just looking for good cook books that have good recipes.  And here is the kicker.  I don't want just a book full of recipes.  I want one that tells a story or that teaches me something .  I also plan to find recipes to make from sources other than books.  Hopefully I will find what I am looking for and I plan to share my journey with you.  I hope you come along for the ride.  I hope that there are people out there who are like me.  They like to cook but just need some inspiration to make them go from good to great.  My plan is to post at least once or twice a week.  See you soon.