The Other Molly

I've been in a bit of a foodie-mood lately. And I can't say whether it has informed my decision to finally read Molly Weizenberg's, A Homemade Life or the other way around. It's been sitting in my mental 'read soon' list since Eileen and I went to her book signing 2 years back (has it really been that long?). Something made me grab it as I was shoving things into my bag for our yearly camping trip to Eastern Washington last weekend, and I tucked a few chapters away each night after wrapping the kids up in their sleeping bags or in the late afternoons down at the beach. At any rate, I'm now full of fresh inspiration. I want to try new recipe's, I want to start making the things I grew up eating (just made a pan of brownie cake this afternoon, Mom) I want to grow the food my family can and will eat and I've even been thinking about food movies that I want to see; Ratatouille, Julie and Julia, Tampopo, Babette’s Feast, Like Water for Chocolate, Big Night and Eat Drink Man Woman have all just have made their way to the top of my Netflix queue.

Her book is a memoir with recipe's and most sound fabulous. In fact, we tried her french toast at the campsite. Good. I've read/enjoyed her blog for years now and I, likely along with many others around here identify with this Seattle based witter (and come on, she was a fan of Fugazi, and The Longshoreman's Daughter restaurant in Fremont, both a substantial part of my dating history with D). I was also tickled pink to sit down with a book that uses just about as many comma's as I tend to do. It's been a pleasure to get a bit more of her back story, and hear about the food has been present throughout her life.

She says it best:

"I write about food and cooking, and in that sense, I aim to be informative, but I write about my life some, too, since it intersects with food roughly three times a day. I don't think many of us are terribly interested in recipes that have no stories or real-life context. For me the two are inseparable. One is pale and boring without the other."