My goal: To justify my parents buying a beautiful copy of the Art of French cooking pts. 1 and 2, and gifting it to me for Christmas after I begged for it. Also to see if I can do this! I mean, brownies and muddy buddies are easy enough, anyone can read a cake mix or even a from-scratch recipe. But this is French cooking! I want to be able to feed my family and friends tasty French morsels with pride.

My inspirations: Well, chronologically, I have to start with Julia Child. Last summer I read her memoirs My Life in France and was so inspired by her obvious love and passion for cooking and her lovely husband Paul. My dream of living in Paris seemed just a little closer to me, just a little more real. Thank you, Julia, for inspiring me to cook (even though everything I have made so far has been child's play compared to your two impressive volumes)

My other inspiration, quite obviously, is Julie Powell. Though her blog is biting and sassy (not at all like Amy Adams in the movie adaptation), it's real.

And so I arm myself with a daintily bound cookbook and a printout of Julie's first cooking experience and I set off to see if an almost seventeen year old girl can set a challenge and come through with it. I understand that my idea isn't a new one, or maybe even an interesting one. But we've all got to start somewhere, right?

Bon appétit!