Cooking Crazy

I finally saw Julie and Julia over my Christmas Holiday and despite some of the negative reviews, I thought it was worth the $1 that was paid to view it ;).

While watching it, I kept thinking how I wish I would've thought to do what Julie Powell did: pick a cookbook and cook through it in a year.  Now I must be honest with you - I probably wouldn't have chosen Julia Childs cookbook - no, I would have gone for something entirely more sinful and heart attack worthy:

It's sad but true - I just think that everything this woman makes is amazing. {stand up here} My name is Kari Corsi and I am the fatty that would run at the gym while watching her on the food network.  There - I said it.  Unfortunately for my tastebuds (but fortunately for my thighs) my new husband actually detests the taste of unhealthy foods.  Cheese?  He doesn't like it in high quantities.  Fried foods?  "No thank you," he'd say.  Heavy creams or butters? These tend to make his stomach hurt.  I wish I thought/felt this way - however I don't.  But because I now have to worry about him and take into account his likes and dislikes I myself have started to pay attention to these things.  Because of this (and his Italian heritage) I've become very interested in this cookbook which I purchased last year at my school's book fair:

She's Italian (hence her name and the name of the cookbook) and she makes a lot of dishes with "healthy  fats" in their ingredients (I like unhealthy fats way better...Outback Cheese Fries?  Don't mind if I do!).  So tonight we're venturing to the grocery store (every trip to the grocery store is an adventure here) and I'm going to purchase items that I need to make one of her dishes:

Whole-Wheat Spaghetti with Lemon, Basil and Salmon

This is what I'm planning on making for New Years Day dinner.  My mom always makes the same dinner for New Years Day, however her's has a purpose (black eyed peas: luck, steamed cabbage: money) - I've decided that maybe I make a fancy (fancy is totally in the eyes of the beholder here) meal every New Years Day.  My side dishes will be a spinach salad alongside Zucchini & Sweet Peppers with Feta.  I'll let you know how it goes - you can pray that I am a good manager of my cooking time as this is one of my weak points.  I'd like to become an adventurous cook and feel like I need to take advantage of my time before I start grad school.  In the meantime, I'm going to search for a cookbook that I feel would be worthy to cook through - a girl can dream, right?  Bon Appetit!