With Apologies to Julie & Julia

Firstly, let me be clear that I know this idea is neither original or fascinating, but it's part of my attempt to make food fun and friendly. My relationship with food has been dysfunctional to say the least and this is my therapy to heal the inner (Julia) Child.

I started this process about 16 years ago when I decided to learn how to cook properly. When you grow up eating frozen fish sticks and traditional Ashkenazi Jewish fare from the old country all is good until you realize that there is more in the world of food - like cheeses that don't have a plastic wrapper. So I enrolled in the cooking classes in the Lasalle College Hospitality program when I was still living in Montreal. From then on I was hooked. I loved cooking, trying new foods and techniques...as long as I was cooking and NOT baking. Baking...I used to shudder at that word. Memories of failed attempts, soggy messes and inedible cakes sent my head spinning.

So now, at the age of 51, a little bit closer to having a normal relationship with food (we'll talk) I decided to embark on a project to learn how to bake. Who better to teach me than the ever tasteful Grande Dame of everything culinary and otherwise..Martha Stewart. I ordered Martha's Handbook of Baking (with free next day shipping) and voila..Martha & Me was born. Unlike Julie Powell who was determined to make each of Julia Child's recipes in Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the course of a year, my rules are a little more relaxed.

1. No time limits - it takes as long as it takes



2. I will not make every recipe - for example if a recipe has 5 variations, I will pick one of the five to make.



3. I will not make a recipe that requires expensive equipment that I will never use again. So Popovers (whatever those are) are off the list.



4. Rules may be added or changed as I go along.

Yesterday Chin (my boyfriend) and I set out to find much of the equipment that Martha suggests all bakers must have. Our first stop was Kitchen Stuff Plus. In spite of the wanting to be helpful sales clerks, we managed to find almost everything on the list except for a proper pasty brush and believe it or not biscuit cutters. Oddly enough they actually had an assortment of doughnut cutters, but no biscuit cutters to be found. So off we went to Williams Sonoma. It just occured to me that KSP is like the Tim Hortons of coffee and WS - Star$. There we found the other two items we needed (at an exorbitant price)!

So with my shiny new utensils I began this experiment .....