Cooks Illustrated, How I Love Thee!

I have a confession to make- no, I have never starred in a sex tape (get your mind out of the gutter).

I am a wannabe foodie.

You would not be able to tell by the caliber of my cooking but I love recipes and even more than that I love learning about how ingredients work.

Recently I splurged on myself and bought a subscription to Cooks Illustrated ($25 for 6 issues- holy crap!). I am in love. I can honestly say that it is the only magazine that I read from front to back, soaking up all of the wonderful articles. I totally swooned at the most recent issue because there was a whole article on pizza dough. Through much trial and error the author found the perfect recipe for dough and I cannot wait to try it. And not only is the recipe provided but the why behind the recipe is explained- how the yeast works and why refrigerating the dough during rise time makes a more flavorful crust. I feel so nerdy when I babble on about such things to my husband but it is just so interesting to know how and why each ingredient is used in a recipe.

I do yearn for when I will have time to better hone my cooking skills but for now I will just continue to build on my food knowledge and making new recipes here and there when it is feasible. Even just trying a couple of new recipes in the past few weeks has opened up my cooking repertoire. It is hard now with two young children, but I want to be excited about cooking dinner and not be rushed to just make something to eat.

But yes, I am guessing I will be a foodie wannabe for awhile- or at least until my kids are old enough to never want to be home because they think their parents are dorky (in plain English I mean when they are teenagers who have their driver's licenses).

For a free trial issue you can sign up here. I just have to warn you though, you may get hooked like me and then will cough up $25 for a subscription when you usually never pay more than a few dollars for a magazine subscription.