Monday was a low point for Cold #3.  I could’ve sworn I was feeling better on Sunday, only to spend an hour straight coughing like there was no tomorrow once I got into bed.  I got out of bed on Monday morning long enough to brush my teeth then returned to bed, saying “I just can’t.”  I ended up going to the doctor later on — and she prescribed me some codeinerrific cough medicine that isn’t doing a thing! —  and then spent the rest of the day in bed with a book.

A cookbook to be more precise.  It all started the other night when Joey and I were cooking with Herbs de Provence and I reminded him that that exact jar had been our first dry herb purchase, probably, oh 5 years ago.  My mom had just given me this Rachael Ray cookbook.  Joey and I picked a recipe a week.  It was our very first foray into cooking.

Five years ago, I remember thinking each and every one of these recipes seemed to have an ingredient list a mile long, containing things I’d never heard of — I probably called my mom every time I went to the grocery store…I only call every other time nowadays 😛 — and that all seemed “too expensive!” for my college student working 15-hours-a-week budget.  So we spent “a lot of money,” burnt numerous pans and took far longer than 30 minutes on every meal, and that cookbook has been gathering dust on our shelf ever since.

After coming across that jar of Herbs de Provence, I thought it would be fun to give it another look-through.  You know, just to see if it looked as confusing and ingredient-heavy as it did 5 years ago.  Guess what?  It didn’t.  Shocker.  Turns out, 5 years later, our pantry has grown, and {I’d like to think} our culinary knowledge has grown too.  I spent most of the afternoon drooling bookmarking recipe after recipe, remembering only the fun times we had cooking from this book and feeling really inspired to give Rachael another chance.

Maybe we should try cooking every single recipe for the entire year!  Then I could write a blog about it!  And then it could get turned into a movie, starring Amy Adams!  Now why does that sound so familiar?