On My Way to Greatness!

Have you seen this movie?

I recently viewed it at the recommendation of my blogging friend, Pennie.  There's not much I can say besides I LOVED IT.  So did Monte, in fact.  He loved it so much that he watched it twice.  Not necessarily by his choice, but more because I fell asleep the first time we tried to watch it (we started the movie at 10pm, I should've known I wouldn't last through it!).  He watched the movie through that night and then he watched it again with me the next night.  It is SO good.  So good, in fact, that I'm bringing it to my mom's house to watch with her soon.  It will be a blast!

However, this movie inspired me a little bit.  You see, I have wanted to learn to cook a lot better than what my current capabilities allow.  My family very likely gets extremely sick of the same ol' same ol' that we have week after week.  There is not much variety in our menu because there is not much variety in my cooking abilities!  In this movie, Julie is inspired by Julia Child and wants to cook her way through one of her cook books in a year.  Well, I went and ordered this same cookbook and have begun my new cooking trend a la Julia!  While I'm definitely not intending on cooking through the entire cookbook, I am finding new recipes to use with the basic staples we have in our home (beef, chicken, rice, etc).  It has been fabulous!  Thus far, I have made two recipes with much success!

The first recipe I made was filets (mignon) in a cream sauce.  I had one word upon my first bite of this: YUMMMMM!  My loving husband documented our first recipe in pictures.  This is some of the ingredients, my brand new cookbook, and my beloved 'Ove Gloves (the best hot mitt in the entire world!  Spent about $40 on the pair, but completely worth it!).

The steaks have been cooked and are on 'warm hold' in the microwave!

As the steaks are sitting, I am preparing the sauce and OH BOY did it smell amazing!

Working hard (I apologize for my appearance!  This was my "getting ready to the minimal amount" day!).

The final product:

I think the best part of it was that even my pickiest eaters were happy with this meal (though almost all of my kids did scrape the mushrooms off of the steak)!  It was fairly easy to prepare and absolutely delicious; I would make this recipe again in a heartbeat!

So, am I on my way to greatness?  I truly hope that my experience in cooking will lead me to better culinary skills and, hopefully, one day having the ability to expand my menu!