Some of you may have heard of the
Julie/Julia project. It all began with a blog and one woman's goal of cooking all 536 recipes in Julia Child's book
Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I find the idea quite intriguing and I suppose other people did as Julie Powell's
memoir is one of the two books that inspired the latest Meryl Streep movie - Julie & Julia. The film is scheduled for an August 7th release. Anyhow, as intrigued as I am and as related it is to my own much less ambitious goal I have one question. How in the world did this Julie woman afford it?!?!?!?! I just opened my credit card bill and good grief, this is already costing me a lot of money. And so that is why this is my dinner tonight:

It is just regular whole wheat rotini, on sale at acme 10 for 10 this week, with some jar sauce and cheese and olives that were already in my cupboard/frig. Now, I will admit that cooking since I moved into the new house has been a challenge. You would think it would be the exact opposite, but no. You see, when I moved out of the Roxborough house I gave a lot, a lot, a lot of stuff to charity. And Anna took the items she won in the "custody battles." :) So you see, it has been a costly endeavor to work my way up to a functioning kitchen. One of the first meals I tried to prepare were some sloppy joes. Nothing fancy. I believe I was speaking to Anna on the phone, happy to have a house, browning away the ground turkey. Well when I went to pop open that can of sauce, realization struck. I no longer owned a can opener. That had been Anna's. Luckily I dug out one of those punch contraptions and that was sufficient enough for that scenario. In anycase, with each recipe I review not only must I be carefully checking my pantry for spices, but I must be carefully inspecting drawers and cabinets to make sure I have all the contraptions required. Thankfully, I finally have all the needed accessories to make a quick spaghetti dinner now. And it was good.