This Christmas changed everything for me! Picture it…There I was on Christmas morning, the whole family was in the front room gathered around the tree. My turn to unwrap a present finally comes! In my hands I have a small thin gift, and in my infinite wisdom I already know what it is… it’s hard, yet it’s bendable and sturdy… It’s a book!

The thing that I love ALMOST as much as cooking is reading…but that’s a story for a whole different day.  Back to that Christmas morning …Here I am thinking what kind of book would I enjoy that is so small?   As I open it a surprise awaits me… It’s a cook book! I already have a thousand, but now I have one more! In fact I have so many cookbooks that my husband actually bans me from buying any new ones even when I beg! So when I get one as a gift there is nothing he can say about it.

You’re probably thinking to yourself, “So what? It’s just a cook book, what’s the big deal?” Well  for starters I took the book home and showed my mom and she pretty much ripped it from my hands! Then she starts yelling, (as if I we weren’t in the same room), “Oh I love Chef Brad! I watch his show all the time, and everything he makes look SOOOOO good!!”. Whoa Mom, calm down. Then she starts to read the recipes aloud and make comments like, “Oh that sounds good!” “We should make that!” and, “Whitney doesn’t that sound great?”

During this whole time I’m thinking two things:1) I definitely need to get my mom out of the house more, and 2) These recipes actually do sound great! While I’m scanning through the recipes I notice that  my mom still can’t stop talking about how amazing Chef Brad’s recipes are! One of the reasons I chose this cookbook for my cooking adventure is the simple fact that it’s smaller that any of my others. Also there’s not one recipe that I think I won’t like. (This could be a serious issue for my wardrobe…but hey if that’s the price for eating tasty food then so be it!) Aside from all that, let’s be honest…IT’S PURE COMFORT FOOD! Every recipe is made with whole grains, so that makes me feel somewhat healthier…

I just graduated from college this December and have been looking for a little something more to fill my time other than just work. I also need to work on developing my cooking skills, and this cook book is the best of both worlds for me because it combines cooking and baking. In the end, it doesn’t seem like it will be such an overwhelming challenge to commit to cooking when I say I’m cooking  every recipe.

So yes… I am starting a new challenge! I’m going to work my way from the front to the back of this cook book and make every recipe in here! I will be blogging about each one, and since I firmly believe that in order for a recipe to be worthy of trying, PICTURES ARE A MUST! So I will be taking pictures of everything. Please bear with me in that regard, as I am totally camera illiterate!

Until next time…