Getting Amped to Cook

Like I said in my last entry, I've been pretty bad about cooking lately. An issue beyond the cold, dark weather and my fatigue is my small kitchen! It gets cluttered up with dishes so quickly and that's just uninspiring. Obviously I need to learn to keep the kitchen up better and plan meals ahead of time, like I had started months ago...

But today, I've found an additional remedy :)

Billy's been at work all day and, I, bored...tired...and hungry, decided to watch some online Food Network television. We don't have cable, so I've gone nearly a year and a half without my beloved Food Network. FINALLY I discovered, last week, that Hulu has some of its shows online! Today, I've discovered even a couple more cooking shows on Netflix, with far more potential episodes to watch :)

Currently, I'm going through TLC's The Take Home Chef, which many people might remember! A chef, Curtis Stone, goes to the grocery store searching for someone who will allow him to come back to their home and cook a meal for their significant other/family/friends. What I like about it is that these are very doable meals and you get to see everyday people, so much more like you and I than a television chef (even the rich housewives!), working in the kitchen. I could really watch anybody cook, but there's something even more inspiring about being able to relate more to the person...being able to envision their real, home kitchen (rather than an incredibly well put together studio kitchen) as your own and imagining the same exact possibilities.

Also, as always, it's made me so hungry for so many different foods that I never consider on my own. Just seeing something being made can be really inspiring. Perhaps it's just me, but when I see someone cooking or eating a meal, I want that for myself! Even seeing a character just snacking on something particular may encourage my craving (and we're talking far pre-pregnancy). So, watching someone cook on television seems to be having a really great effect.

I'm quite excited! I also hope that, moving into our new home, I'll be even more inspired because of the new environment...just getting to start over again from scratch. The kitchen isn't really any larger, but it's the possibilities of a completely new setup and being able to create a better environment that I'll actually want to spend time in that's so wonderful.