Day One

     Today my husband (we'll call him Coco for this blog  - It's a nick-name he's acquired for his errand and clean up services he provides to me, especially when I'm cooking, so it's appropriate.) when he heard my thoughts this morning about this blog asked me to make him Beef Stroganoff, Page 439. It became my first endeavor of this project.  (really my fourth since it ended up being the last thing I made today).  I have made Stroganoff before but not from this recipe.  This one is not very heavy and a a nice little tang of mustard to it.   I did leave out the dill in the recipe however. I am not a huge fan of dill.
     That actually brings me to a very good point about my cooking and this blog.  Where I am a copy cat to Julie Powell and her Julie/Julia Project, my purpose is somewhat different.  I am not doing this to honor Ruth Reichl and mimick every recipe verbatim as a tribute.  I think the book is an amazing guide, but I am using it as just that, a guide on my own journey.  I am not afraid to make my own changes to the recipes based on my taste or experiences from cooking other recipes.
     So today is Sunday and here in Hoboken it was hot an humid and seemed to threaten rain.  After I went to the store to stock up for the week, I was particularly ambitious to start this project.  I stayed in and cooked since I was home alone. I ended up with 4 recipes for today.
     I actually started with dessert first.  I decided to make the first dessert recipe in the book.  Tiny Chocolate Chip Cookies, page 662.  The goal is to make them tiny like petit fours. I changed up the recipe based on my favorite chocolate chip cookies from Tates Bake shop in the Hamptons.  I found a recipe online sometime ago for that cookie.  So I changed this one by using salted butter, using a combination of light and dark brown sugar and a tiny bit of water.  This makes them, thin, crisp and salty.   The recipe calls to make 12 -1/2 dozen though, and I only got about 4 dozen out if it.  I wish I had used mini chips, I might have been able to have gotten the cookies smaller.  They still are delicious, however.  As always, to make Coco happy, I leave the bottom rack in a couple of minutes longer, as he actually likes burnt bottom cookies. 
    I went on to try Rosemary Foccaccia, page 606, it's been a new favorite of mine avaiable by Ace Bread in the local A&P.  I also recently have been through a more advanced bread making phase from Amy Silverton's book, so this seems relatively easy compared to other endeavors.  It just finally came out of the oven and my house smells a lovely aroma of Rosemary and Olive Oil.  I'll have to let you know tomorrow how it turned out. It looks beautiful, hopefully it lives up.
     My Stroganoff needed and side and I felt it should be a vegetable.  As I paged through the vegetable recipes, one finally caught my eye.  Not only a favorite of my husband's, but something my Nana cooked all the time.  Braised Red Cabbage, Page 528.  I thought it was the perfect way to remember my Nana as I start this project.  As we were eating Coco even commented that it always made him think of her. It was a perfect combination of tangy and sweet and was braised to just short of caramelized.
    As I close for today, I finish this with a very strange piece of information I just found out. I referred to Julie Powell's original blog from 2002 to see if I am doing this right.  ( I have never read it, or her book), and realized the date she began was Sunday August 25.  Seems to make me fated to have started this 7 years to the day after.