My day and sometimes night job is a children’s department lead at a bookstore. One of my responsibilities is to run a once a month American Girl event at my store for little girls and their American Girl dolls. I enjoy it most of the time. Sometimes I can’t help but get flustered because I feel ill prepared. Anyway, if you’re not familiar with American Girl, click here: American Girl

So what I usually do, is I pick an American Girl character, we discuss her and then we do a craft based on the girl. We have fun, the girls make new friends, the parents feel validated and everyone’s happy. Only, this month we were forced by corporate to do a “Just between us” event. Just between us, “Just between us” was between us and EVERYONE ELSE IN THE STORE. My company wanted us to host an event about helping little girls communicate with their parents about their changing bodies. Way to go! One of the most intimate discussions you could ever have in your young lifetime and you’re going to have it in a store…with people drinking a latte to your left and reading a gajillion magazines to your right.

It was the night of the event and I had decided that I’d start the “just between us” event and if things got weird, I’d jump into our regular american girl stuff. i.e. a craft…immediately. So this is how it went:

Me: Hey everyone thanks for making it to this month’s American Girl!

(kids and parents clap. I still don’t fucking understand why)

Me: Does anyone have this book?
(I hold up a copy of ‘The care and keeping of you’, and american girl published book for girls on how to clean themselves and to always wipe front to back and stuff)

(a few girls raise their hands)

Me: Cool! I’m asking because American Girl just put out a second book, which is great because we’re getting older and our bodies are changing and that’s ok!

Me: Okayyyy…so we’re making lucky penny buttons tonight for our craft!! Who needs help?!!

So, I like cookbooks. I mean, I really REALLY like them. I can’t pinpoint when it started, but I know that I just love cookbooks, and cooking magazines, and cooking websites. I’m intrigued by different takes on classic recipes. I’ve even been through a strange Amish recipes phase. But now I’ve been eyeing more cookbooks and I now have a storage issue. In between books I’ve accumulated over the years are books that were given to me and books that are known as ‘Advanced Reader Copies’. Since I work at a bookstore, I get ARC’s to read an review. It’s a wonderful perk really. Anyway, there’s NO MORE ROOM! So I made a promise to cook through most of the recipes in these books before buying another cookbook.

There’s just a weird sense of pride that I get from cooking. Especially if what I cook tastes amazing. It’s a comfort thing and I don’t need to eat it to be happy from it. Sometimes the joy is from seeing the person I cook for enjoy their meal :)

The first book I want to try is this one:

a bird in the oven and then some by Mindy Fox

 I bought the book because of it’s great reviews on a cooking website I’m into. How can you not want to cook some amazingly crispy chicken?

The second book I want to try:

Poor Girl Gourmet by Amy McCoy

I wanted this one because I’m broke and it seemed fitting. My point is, I’ve challenged myself to actually use the stuff I have before I try to get more. I will upload and blog what I can about this little project. Btw, this wasn’t funny at all. Haha, sorry.

No I’m not.

A! Then A!