Somehow, over the past few years of married life, I have acquired the reputation of being a not-so-great-cook! I use the word acquired and not earned because I feel it a very unfair judgment. :) Perhaps it is because I order pizza for every potluck (it is actually my husband who insists, owing to his opinion that it is the greatest of the food groups!). Or perhaps it is because I am humble enough to admit defeat concerning who makes a better pumpkin pie, myself or Costco. Costco wins hands down every time and plus, it's $7 price tag makes it hard to beat in the cost of ingredients alone. Therefore it is the obvious choice when I am hostess! Of course, it could be my consistent inability to produce chocolate chip cookies to rival my friend Nancy even while using the same recipe and having her as my baking assistant. By my own admission, with four kids under foot and a busy schedule, sometimes popping in pre-made stuffed chicken breasts is unarguably the faster and easier solution to dinner.
But, that is not the real me! Truth be told, I am passionate about food and have a genuine obsession with recipes. As a young girl I used to flip through the pages of my mother's magazines, snipping recipes as I went. I would tuck them away in my Tupperware box, hoarding them away until I had an excuse for creating the desired concoctions. As a teenager just arriving home from school, I could often be found in the kitchen throwing together dinner for my family while my mom was still at work. I enjoyed baking so much that for a brief stint in high school I served as hostess for a chain of funeral homes, preparing a variety of desserts to be enjoyed while the grieving families gathered after a viewing. Suffice to say, many of my passions and creative outlets have fallen by the wayside owing to having gained five brilliantly engrossing passions in my children and husband. But good food can never be completely done away with! For it's power to incite exclamations of praise and tantalize taste buds, food should be chosen for it's deliciousness just as much as for it's nutritional qualities.
But how to incorporate great taste, high nutritional value, and easy prep for a busy family? Enter Jessica Seinfeld's new cookbook, Deceptively Delicious. So excited was I after pouring through the pages of this book that my next stop was the produce store where, in my overzealousness, I picked up every vegetable mentioned in the book and went home to have a steaming party. At the core of her recipes is the once popular and now almost extinct use of purees. I am giddy with expectation while preparing to try out all these new recipes and waiting for the verdict from the highly cultured taste buds of my five favorite critics! Just wait...my next contribution to a potluck dinner is going to masquerade as supremely delicious with a small helping of deception tucked away inside!
You can check out the cookbook at www.deceptivelydelicious.com. Now it's off to the kitchen for me!
