I have become enamored by all things food and foodie. I've always been interested in cooking, but lately I've read a few things that have me wondering if food (and cooking) can fit into my life in a way that is bigger than "what's for dinner?"

First, I read Julie & Julia. I picked it up at a local bookstore on a whim, it sounded interesting. It's non-fiction, a girl in her late 20s/early 30s cooks everything out of Julia Child & co's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I don't always love the writing or the writer but it made me excited about food and left me wanting a "project" of my own (a desire still unfulfilled as I found this book while planning my wedding!)

After rating it on Amazon, the big A recommended Garlic & Sapphires. Now this book, I have SO MUCH LOVE for this book. It made me drool, I'm not exaggerating. It made me depressed that I have never had foie gras--okay now I am exaggerating--but Ruth Reichl has a fabulous narrative voice and her descriptions are amazing. I mean, okay okay, she was the restaurant reviewer for the LA Times, the NY Times and is now Ed-in-Chief for Gourmet, so I guess she oughta be good.

From there I moved in reverse to Tender at the Bone, which I believe is Reichl's first memoir, published in 1999. This is the story of food and her early life, as richly written as G&S, and interspersed with receipes, from which I made my first attempt at wiener schnitzel (tasty but oh-so-buttery and bad for you!).

I still have yet to get Comfort me with Apples which was published in between the other two but hopefully I'll be getting it in the next few weeks. At the moment I'm totally and completely absorbed by The United States of Arugula, a food-history book about food fads and revolutions in the US and the rise and fall of all of the big names in food (James Beard, Julia Child, etc) as well as celebrity chefs over time and some of the big names we know today.

So there it is ... how my passion for food was ignited. And here is where I'll write it all down -- what I'm reading eating cooking and thinking.