July already?

What happened to my year?  Here it is July already.  And my blogging intentions have obviously gone right out the window somewhere along the way.  I was unemployed until mid June and all I did was ONE blog post in January?  Pffft.  I doubt I will entertain any followers that way! 

In any case, I am feeling very timid about linking my blog anywhere people can actually find it....

So what did I do for those unemployed months? 

I joined a gym for women but my timing on that was wonderful as it has now closed down - lack of interest by enough women in this small town to make it a viable business.

I did manage a small weeklong vacation to Las Vegas in the middle of the time off.  It was an ok trip but Vegas was much quieter this time than last time.  Last trip (which was my first trip there) was before the 'ECONOMIC CRISIS' so there were tons of people and lots going on.  This time...plenty of people but many businesses had closed or disappeared.  Less frenzied which doesn't really suit that big glitzy crazy city.

The other thing I did which is partly what prompted me to join a gym was taking up COOKING.  In capital letters.  In one of my first blog postings I raved about Julia Child but said I had not taken up cooking her recipes because I didn't have her cookbook.  That problem was remedied at Christmas when I received that book as a gift.

Oh that was a wonderful gift.  For the first time in my life I had plenty of time to cook.  And here is the interesting thing - I thought I knew how to cook.  I figured I had all the basics down pat and making anything fancier was just a matter of cooking that on a weekend when I had a bit more time to spend.  Well...!!!  I learned so much cooking her recipes.  Apparently I have been cooking the crap out of my chicken for years!  I always figured 40 minutes for pieces.  Not so according to Julia.  I learned how to cook chicken breasts in about 10 minutes and have them turn out tender and very juicy, but cooked!  Which amazed me completely.

I adventured on with more of Julia's recipes, avoiding some of the less familiar foods, and had a riot.  Setting off smoke alarms and generally making quite a mess while producing some othe best meals I have ever had.

I even took up wearing an apron.

I also became addicted to cooking shows and have developed quite a crush on one guy in particular and follow him on facebook.  I feel a bit like a stalker doing that but I guess that's why they make the fan pages.

All this immersion into cooking got me interested in branching off to other cuisines.  My family is pretty game for trying new stuff and we have lately been into East Indian cuisine.  Fascinating cooking methods - particularly the quantities and combinations of spices...ahhh.  Though we did find it was easier to buy samosas already made.  We had interesting fillings but have not yet come up with a dough/method that seals well and they are pretty disgusting if they burst open while you are frying them.  They become little oil sponges and that's pretty much yuck.

All that fun is on hold for now though since I am limited in my time for food preparation after work and with the summer heat, a person mostly wants to barbeque or have a salad anyway.  huh.  Maybe not...  I did stumble across a phenomenal raspberry vinegarette recipe which I have modified to make it mine and I am thinking up new salads to try as I write this!  Maybe not Julia so much in the summer but maybe not the end of the creativity either!