Food: The New Adventure

I am kinda obsessed with food right now. I am pinning food pins all the time on my Pinterest boards.  I am thinking up food combinations all the time. And this is one area that I can overspend very quickly and very easily. 

Words like prosciutto, risotto, Gorgonzola excite me. And I love shopping at our local Italian Centre. I just need to brush up on the whole shopping with heels and looking glamorous with two kidlets thing. 

There's this scene on Julie and Julia where Julia Child says to her husband (as she's trying to figure out what she will be doing in France), " I just love food." The first time I watched it, I teared up. I could so identify with her at that moment- my life seemed to be full of huge question marks, nothing was for certain, and the one thing I did know was that food made me happy. Not the eating of it but the preparing of it. The thinking about it, the creating art with it. The satisfying feeling of having people eat what I've made and say 'mmm, this is good'. 

My life isn't so unknown as it was last January.

But I still love food. 

And it looks like I'm going to have an excuse to push myself into my food goals even more this year. A couple weeks before Christmas, a co-worker of my husband's inquired if he knew of anyone who would cook dinner for her once or twice a week. Um, hello, play with food and get paid for it? Yeah! And so has begun this little adventure of mine. It's not been all sunshine and roses, preparing food for other people is a little different then your own family. And there's this little thing called balancing all the roles in my life.

But so far, it's been working out well and I'm catering my first dinner party on the weekend! I'm slightly nervous and excited.

I've always wanted to open my own cafe and now it looks like the door is opening a lot sooner then I ever dreamed and it's looking a little different as dreams tend to when they come in contact with reality. I was going to open the little cafe with my sister but we live in different provinces so I text her a lot about my ideas and she gives me the feedback and encouragement that I need. 

I can cook but I feel super shy talking about my food with other people, especially trying to sell it to them. But I have a husband who excels at marketing and talking to people. Plus he crunches all the numbers for me which he loves doing and I hate doing that. We make a great team. He is also my biggest fan and has (almost) always thought my cooking was great. Let's keep it real, there have been some epic failures. ;-)

And the other members of my team, well, one of them can stir a bowl of whatever really well and she makes a great taste-tester. And the other one provides lots of cute inspiration and her giggles are an important part of my kitchen. 

I'm a little nervous about this new venture, I'm not one to jump in and embrace something new right away. I tend to test the waters a little at a time, and then give it my all. But I'm all about learning and being pushed and growing.

What new area are you delving into this year?

all photos credit to my husband, the camera and I are having a little hiccup in our relationship and besides he takes WAY better food pictures then I do. =)