JACKIE: Jackie & Julia

Recently, I have really developed a love for cooking. Now this may or may not be because I love food and this growing babe gives me an insatiable appetite, but every week I look so forward to my grocery trips and getting creative with new recipes.

My mom is probably my biggest real-life inspiration when it comes to cooking. You know how people have those secret talents, where you become friends with them and then find out they’re actually a super gifted musician or artist or something like that? Well, my mom’s secret talent is in entertaining and cooking. I’m not even kidding, that woman will come home after a long day at work without a plan for dinner, take a peek at her pantry and fridge, and throw together a delicious meal day after day. Every year for Christmas, she makes an amazing menu that usually includes some really fancy dishes like chestnut soup and Yorkshire pudding (which is absolutely DELICIOUS). She loves having people over for dinner, and always makes people feel so warm and welcomed by the atmosphere she creates and food she makes.

         

To be honest, cooking is really a family affair for us. With a huge extended family, we love to have big parties and love to plan delicious food and drinks. Every year we have our traditional Mexican tamale-making day (or days) before the holidays, when the women in my family all get together and make typically around 80 dozen tamales. There are so many great things about this tradition; it’s a time for all of us to get together and everyone has a different job—making tamales is a lot of work and we have a pretty efficient system to get it done. Not only do we have the opportunity to carry on a long tradition and have meaningful and productive time together, but we have a long list of friends and family who we make the tamales for as gifts. Although we freeze lots of them and reap the benefits of our hard work all year long, tamale making is also something bigger than ourselves.

I really think that my love for cooking comes from the same place within my heart as my love for nursing, although in a different capacity. Cooking for others is a way to care for them, a way of saying ‘I love you’. 

Well a few days ago, I was watching one of my favorite movies, “Julie & Julia”.  I love this movie for so many reasons (not just because Meryl Streep is one of my favorites and completely SLAYS her role as Julia Child), but I’d say the reason I love it so much is because I find it so relatable. Julia’s husband Paul worked for the government, and his job took them to France for several years. In one beginning scene, Julia and Paul are enjoying dinner in Paris, and Julia expresses to her husband the very same thing I have been experiencing myself over the past several months…

“Well what should I do…? Shouldn’t I find something to do…? It’s not me to not do anything.”

And Paul asks her, “What is it that you really like to do?”

“Eat!”

I mean, I don’t want to jump the gun here and say that Julia and I are soul sisters, but she’s definitely my kind of gal.

So soon after, Julia decides to start taking cooking classes in Paris, which eventually leads to the development of her renowned cookbook “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” and a very successful culinary career.

Now I don’t think I have any real desire to begin a culinary career or write a cookbook, but I so relate to her experiences—following her husband to live in a new place, and trying to find her own identity and where she fits in a new world.  I know that once our child is born, my role in the world will be much better established and I will feel much more purpose each day. 

At this moment, I feel that I’m in a waiting place, anticipating and looking forward to what is to come. So I fill my time best I can with things that I love to do, and embrace this waiting period before our baby is here and I have less time to do these things. For now, I’m expanding my hobby horizons, spending a little bit too much money on groceries (sorry, hubby!), and pursuing my love for cooking with the help of my mama and my awesome Food Network culinary instructors Giada, Ina, and Trisha! So stay tuned, maybe sometime I'll feel good enough about some of my dishes to share them on here with all of you! 

Bon appétit!