eat, pray, love

I read Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert a few months ago (I listen to the audiobook) and I have been thinking about it lately. I loved this book! Maybe it is where I am in my life right now, but I have never been truly been inspired by a book by the way I have with this one. It is a cross between a woman's growth into an independant self that she likes, her travel experiences, and learning about cultures and foods from around the world. The book is separated into three parts. Eat: she is based in Rome and explores Italy. Pray: she is at an ashram in India learning about herself. Love: she is in Bali winding up her adventure and setting her paces for the next step in her life.

I want to listen to it again and maybe I will. The book was different than I thought it would be. I thought it would be more about her travels, not about a woman finding herself. So I kind of tuned out some of the first parts when she was in Italy. But I got completely caught up in her and her experiences once she got to India. She practices meditation and she goes through thinking how tedious some of these practices are and how unrealistic they are in every day life. But then she gets swayed over by her guru. I found her path very interesting.

Some of my favorite parts is how she described her relationships and the people she meets from all over the world. And when she goes to these places she lives there for four months each so we find out what life really is like. The foodie in me absolutly loves the way she describes not only the food but also the culture and why their food is an important part of the culture. The audiobook is read by the author herself and she seems like someone who thinks and feels the same things as me. I want to be her friend :)

2007 foodie resolutions

An interesting question was posted over at Save Your Fork... There's Pie! What are your food resolutions for 2007?

I had not even thought of making something like a "food resolution". But like my fellow food blogger, I too have some goals regarding food for the coming year. So I have listed my food resolutions below . . .

1. Actually READ my cookbooks. Many of my cookbooks have some valuable information in them aside from just recipes. Until now, I have just passed over that "fluff" and went straight to the recipes.

2. Make at least one recipe in each of the cookbooks I have. I'd like to do this before I purchase any additional cookbooks. I have many cookbooks that I bought for the novelty of it or because they were on sale at Costco and I thought I had to have it. Many I have not even actually made one single recipe from. This goal will pose especially challenging for The New Book of Middle Eastern Food by Claudia Roden which I have cracked open several times but have always been discouraged and confused about deciding what I want to cook. I may also have some issues with a sushi cookbook my friend gave me.

3. Cook food that I can take for lunch. I have a plethora of recipes for all sorts of good salads, breads, tacos, etc. I should be able to find several things to throw together that won't cost an arm and a leg.

4. Become conscious of the food I put in my mouth. I am not necessarily going to go on a diet, but I want to be aware of foods that are very fattening. I plan to add all the recipes I make to the Weight Watchers online recipe tool because I like using their points system to determine how fattening or healthy something is. I get confused with calories, fat grams, etc.

5. Blog the results of each recipe I cook. That's what I started this blog for afterall. I'm using it as a food journal of sorts.

6. Food & Wine's 100 Tastes to Try in '07. Do my best to try as many foods on this list as possible. I think it will be a fun way to try some new things.

So what do you think? They all seem like reasonable enough goals to me.