Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I know we’re a few weeks behind, but Tiny Sprout Love is just coming out of hibernation. For us the holidays don’t end until Scott’s birthday on January 7th. December and early January were all about baking, spending time with family and friends, and searching for inspiration for our new year. We certainly found some.

In December we baked dozens of Christmas cookies, “sampled” some incredible meals, and cooked a new year's dinner for a crowd of twenty-two people. In January C and I tucked in with our impressive pile of cookbooks, found serious inspiration, embarked in some masterful meal planning, and finally baked the perfect birthday cake for S. Now we’re back, about 10lbs heavier and with so many ideas to share. I’m excited to be back at it for a new year.

Below you can see some of of my absurd cookbook collection. I may have a problem. I have at least four more cookbooks on my wishlist right now too. My collection grew significantly a few months ago when I agreed to go to a book sale at the library with my father.

My father has a book collection that could fill his own library and he still loves scouring used book stores and sales for new art books. My plan for the sale was to help him dig. However, when we arrived we realized we were in over our heads. There were dealers with crates all climbing on top of each other pouring over piles of books. The art section was too intense for me so I left my father to brave alone it and wandered through stacks of overflowing books until I found myself standing in front of the cookbooks. Before I knew it one of the volunteers had come up to me with a box and I realized that I already had an armful of five books. I think I restrained myself and kept my purchase to somewhere around 8 cookbooks. I rationalize it by saying that, for the most part I was rounding out my collection with books on specific types of food. I can always use new recipes to expand my technique and repertoire. Fully justifiable. I also look for cookbooks with colorful pictures that C can get into. Right now he’s too young to pick out recipes, but he loves looking at pictures of food. It’s another way I’m working on getting him involved in the cooking and eating process.

One book jumped out at me and demanded to be taken home, Dinner: A Love Story. The line, “It all begins at the family table,” spoke to me and I had to add it to my box. I felt like maybe I had a kindred spirit on the journey to feeding my family joyfully. I can not tell you how happy I am that I picked up that book.

Life got busy and I hadn’t opened any of my new books. We traveled a lot over the holidays and came home with a sick husband, sick baby, and a very tired mama. I was also out of reading material. The first day back I curled up in bed with my baby and on a whim picked up Dinner: A Love Story. For the next week, if I wasn’t cooking or playing with C, my nose was buried in that book. Jenny Rosenstrach has merged, cookbook, memoir, and parenting book, into one beautiful package that you can’t put down.

I won’t give too much away, but my favorite aspects of the book are below.

First of all, Jenny Rosenstrach has written down what she cooked or ate for dinner every night since 1998. She claims that it’s a little intense, but I thought it was the greatest thing ever and have tried to start adopting it. So far it’s helped with my meal planning and my writing, I'm in. I’m not going to lie, the nerd in me also feels like I’m getting a gold star every time I write down a meal. I love that feeling.

Second, the recipes are fantastic, it feels like friend is giving you her tried and true favorites over coffee, but they still include enough details for you to be successful while making them. No guess work. The whole tone of the book is conversational with zero judgment. I started this week by making two of the recipes from her book and using it as inspiration for my meal planning process. The meatballs that I made based on her recipe were amazing (and I don’t usually like meatballs). I also fell in love with her pasta with spinach, and caramelized onions. It was simple, made with things I already happened to have in the house, quick, and so tasty. I live for recipes like that.

Lastly, I loved her encouragement to adventure. It is so easy to get stuck in a rut with cooking. It’s important to branch out in order to keep the joy of it. I don’t have success with everything I cook. Honestly, some recipes I try, whether my own, or from another cookbook, just aren’t winners, but I have a lot more fun when I’m letting myself adventure with food and don’t get stuck in the rut of feeling like it’s a chore. My family has more fun when I’m excited about what I’m serving them too. I’ve found C is much more into trying something when I’m serving it with a smile and talking to him about the different things in it.

I would highly encourage you to check out Jenny’s blog and read her fabulous book. It was definitely the perfect way to kick off 2017.

If I've convinced you, pop over to the DALS blog for this amazing meatball recipe. I would love to share some pictures with you of the ones I made, but I was far too busy eating the entire pot of them to take pictures.

What books are inspiring you this year? Are there any cookbooks on your list?