CrumbSnatchers, Knits and other $hit: cooking

I have been hung up on the movie Julie and Julia lately. I don't know if it is born of my innate love of all things Nora Ephron, my latest increase in cooking, my recent foray into blogging, my love of watching Meryl Streep play anyone over actually watching the person she is playing, or my borderline tolerance of Amy Adams' squeaky voice and upturned nose.

That bitch is always the right choice.

But I have been watching it endlessly (much to PR's chagrin), and I have convinced myself of the following things:

I am dying of hunger within the first ten minutes.
I could be a world class blogger and have a book.
I want her friend. Not the bitchy cobb-salad bitches, the other one. The bitchy real one.
I could be a Julia Child-esque cook:

end up with my own TV show,
and cute little francophile husband who adores my every utterance.

I can cook! I could do that! If whiny little Amy Adams's persona in real life (from rumors in the mills, she isn't the nicest person - hello she cheated on her long suffering husband while on her book tour!!!! but I digress) could make amazing meals, even while falling apart and crying like a maladjusted child, I could too! (hey I have that crying thing down already).

What was I s a y i ? Oh, yeah, so the cooking thing. . .

In an effort to manage my Crohn's and IBS better, I have been drastically reducing my gluten intake and eating better; cleaner. I am working on having a better awareness of where my food has come from. This is a challenge.

Challenging to do while ~~broke~~ on a budget. And, I have found few recipes that meet my difficult and specific GI needs, that the crumbsnatchers don't hate and that are inexpensive enough to afford to feed all of us. It had taken no small amount of effort, researching recipes, finding ingredients within budget, shopping the supermarket fliers, and then hoping the recipe is enjoyed by all of us, and doesn't cause GI distress. Luckily I'm unemployed, so what else do I have to do with my time (you know, besides 2+ kids, full time school, etc)?

I have had to be pretty adventurous in my cooking attempts. I like to cook and I am good at it (despite what some of my relatives may try to tell you). But I have never cooked so much from scratch before and I am loving it! In tonight's effort I made Eggplant Gratin with Herbs and Creme Fraiche. The sauce and the Fraiche were both from scratch. The eggplants, while not organic, were from a local farm, the herbs were on hand, either from my spice cabinet or my garden, the cream, again local but not organic, and the only parmesan in my budget had the unfortunate associations of having an Italian flag on the label, and a green plastic lid, but c'est la vie.

It was delicious and filling and I enjoyed making it!!!!! And. . .. (drumroll) 4 hours later, still no GI complaints! That is the test of a recipe for me. I can sometimes tell from the smell of something whether or not I can tolerate it, sometimes the first bite, the first few bites, but always by 4 hours gone. Tonight - no issues. Success!

Oh yeah other semi-sorta-maybe important factors: PR liked it. The crumbsnatchers asked for hotdogs.

It's staying in my recipe log.