New Year's Resolution

Mojito Cake

I really miss cooking and baking.  Back in NoVA I cooked all kinds of fun stuff.  At one point, Miss Mississippi and I had an unofficial "bake-off" going.  My specialties included Mojito Cake, Plum Port Tart, Cheesy Cauliflower Soup, Shepherd's Pie and Tikka Masala (ok- that may have been Mr. Ginger's specialty.)  Point being, we moved, I got knocked up which led to lots of food aversions, and then Grandma Steve started cooking in bulk so that I could survive what I fondly think of as the Dark Age and... I stopped cooking.  But I love, love, love to cook.  It's so therapeutic and rewarding.  I love using all of the gadgets and experimenting with interesting ingredients.  When I bought the Cake Love cookbook, I read the entire thing because Warren Brown not only provides the recipes to his cult classics, but he also includes lots of cooking and baking lessons between cakes.  If you have never experienced a Cake Love cake, I highly recommend a trip to D.C.  If that's not feasible, just order the cookbook.  You'll be glad you did. 

Now that I am a WAHM (work at home mom, in case you're checking me out in the singles ads), I want to get back into the habit of cooking.  Most days Grandma Steve comes over to help with daycare, and sometime around 2:00 pm she says, "So what should I make you for dinner?"  Is this awesome?  Yes.  Are you jealous?  More than likely.  And although I by no means plan to stop taking advantage of this glorious situation, I need to get back into the swing of things.  The reason my mom is the best cook ever is because she cooks.  I want the Dude to refer to me as the best (or maybe second best) cook ever, so I think I'd better step up my game. 

Here's the plan:
1) I am going to participate in my cousin's baking club called Bake 52.  When it is my turn to host, I will blog here about the recipe I have chosen.  Every other week I will post pictures/comments to that host's blog.  This means that in 2012 I will bake at least 52 items.  That's probably more recipes than I have cooked and baked in the last year combined! 
2) I am going to attempt to cook at least one vegetarian recipe per week.  If you have any suggestions, please let me have them because this is a big goal for a carnivore like me and other than Cooking Light I don't know where to start.

So, a month early, here is my official and public New Year's Resolution.  I am going to cook.  Often.  And if you bring the wine, I'll feed you.