Cookbook a week: A Homemade Life

Very exciting things happening over here -- I've officially made it to TWO WHOLE WEEKS of this cookbook challenge! Going strong!

I was pretty excited about this week's cookbook: A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg. While *technically* a memoir, her book has drool-worthy recipes at the end of each chapter.

This book is one of my favorites of all time (read it!) and I've made her recipe for Banana Bread with Chocolate and Crystallized Ginger twice (do it!) and it was so very good.

I'm cooking for one this week and rather than fall prey to Microwave Cooking for One, I opened up Molly's book and picked an approachable recipe to kick-off the week.

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The winner? Bread salad with arugula, cherries and goat cheese. 

The recipe was a cinch - toast some white bread (Trader Joe's baguette) in the oven with olive oil, salt and pepper and then toss with garlic. 

Ugly photo alert - ripped baguettes just don't photograph well.

Add in semi-crushed cherries, balsamic vinegar, arugula and goat cheese and voila! A most delicious dinner.

+ Picton Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Bachelorette Men Tell All = Swooon.

Molly Wizenberg also happens to be the woman behind Orangette - a blog with so much food and writing goodness - and Spilled Milk - my go-to podcast lately.

So essentially, Molly is to me like Beyonce is to most people. And she certainly didn't disappoint with this salad. This recipe is a keeper!

Hello, world!

After many months (read: years) of deliberation, I finally took a leap of faith and started my own little blog. Welcome to Delightfuel!

I recently moved to Charlotte, NC and am slowly but surely finding my way around the city. I am going back to school to get my Masters in Nutrition to become a Registered Dietician at Winthrop University, so I'm sure you'll see a bit of my RD side on the blog.

But before you get too worried that we will be all kale and quinoa, there will also be a fair share of wine, cookies, beer, pastries and cheese here in my little corner of the internet. I love to bake, run, read (blogs, books, newspapers, magazines, etc.), travel and explore new restaurants and I'll share some of that here too!

So let's kick things off, shall we?

I have a little break in my school schedule this summer and needed something to keep me busy. After some brainstorming, I decided to take-on some projects following the "____ a week" format. Book a week, fitness adventure a week, cookbook a week... you get the idea.

Like many of you, I have bookshelves filled with beautiful cookbooks, many of which have gone unopened for several years. Pinterest always seems to be my go-to when I need inspiration in the kitchen and thus the cookbooks have sat unloved for far too long. What better time to change this than 6 weeks of summer vacation?!

So for my first blog post I thought I'd share my inaugural "cookbook a week" challenge recipe!

While I initially picked a very ambitious cookbook to start off with (Ottolenghi -- it's gorgeous and had me drooling but was probably a bit intense for my first recipe attempt) I came to my senses and switched to Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, with Recipes - a novel I read several years ago and loved but had never made a single recipe out of!

First up: Lentilles au Vin Blanc - a refreshingly simple and hearty dinner that was cheap (student budget here!) and easy to make.

I served it with a baguette, brie and (of course) a bottle of white wine.

Definitely cured the Monday blues!

If there are any readers out there - do you have any cookbooks you can't live without? I'd love recommendations!