I am not good at moderation
Jan. 5th, 2008 06:54 pmAfter working full time for three, almost four years now, I can say that one of the things I miss most is real* cooking, which has now been relegated to the weekends.
So naturally when I have a long weekend at home, I go overboard. I just had one thing planned to bake today, a recipe from Local Breads which has so many lengthy steps that I began it yesterday, but then I found some gumdrops that nobody wanted to eat, so I made them into gumdrop cookies, and then I realized I needed a dessert for tomorrow, so I made tiramisu, and then when putting the extra gumdrops away I found some containers of glacéd orange and lemon peel, and I remember I'd been meaning all holiday season to make stollen, so I did that to eat tomorrow morning, and then I decided to fix turkey for lunch tomorrow so I made some cranberry sauce out of the frozen cranberries left over from Christmas and an extra orange and some of the fresh pineapple I picked up this morning.
Rosemary Bread: (![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fogwood214, this is for you) It turned out awesome. It was way more work than a normal bread recipe, but I think it'll be faster next time when I know better what I'm doing. I've never had bread turn out so perfect looking -- completely smooth and perfectly browned -- or had such a tender inside with such a great crust. I ended up kneading it by hand for a good hour (we don't have a dough hook for our kitchenaid, which would have also done the trick), but that was partially because I forgot *cough* an important ingredient and had to adjust the recipe somewhat. So I didn't even follow the directions exactly and it still turned out amazing!
Gumdrop cookies: I can't actually remember ever having gumdrop cookies. They are yummy.
Tiramisu: So officially it's for tomorrow, but let's just say the cook had to do a little taste-test. Also? Realized at the last minute that there was no chocolate syrup in the house, so I made some out of cream, butter, and cocoa. BEST STUFF EVER.
Stollen: I've been trying to remember all afternoon -- is it Swedish? Norwegian? German? I also, uh, sort of taste-tested this one, too. Mmm.
Cranberry sauce: Seriously, this is about my favorite stuff in the world.
Anybody hungry yet?
Anyway, the upshot is that I've had great fun doing all of this, but I haven't gotten a single other thing on my To Do List finished. Which, I guess, is why I still have an evening ahead of me.
*really wanted to spend said evening curled up with books*
* "real", as it relates to my life, meaning making from-scratch mushroom-stuffed ravioli as opposed to boiling pasta and throwing a quick sauce over it, which is Good, but not Real cooking. Good tastes great and is a necessary part of my busy life, but Real is where the true fun for the chef-at-heart lies.
So naturally when I have a long weekend at home, I go overboard. I just had one thing planned to bake today, a recipe from Local Breads which has so many lengthy steps that I began it yesterday, but then I found some gumdrops that nobody wanted to eat, so I made them into gumdrop cookies, and then I realized I needed a dessert for tomorrow, so I made tiramisu, and then when putting the extra gumdrops away I found some containers of glacéd orange and lemon peel, and I remember I'd been meaning all holiday season to make stollen, so I did that to eat tomorrow morning, and then I decided to fix turkey for lunch tomorrow so I made some cranberry sauce out of the frozen cranberries left over from Christmas and an extra orange and some of the fresh pineapple I picked up this morning.
Rosemary Bread: (
fogwood214, this is for you) It turned out awesome. It was way more work than a normal bread recipe, but I think it'll be faster next time when I know better what I'm doing. I've never had bread turn out so perfect looking -- completely smooth and perfectly browned -- or had such a tender inside with such a great crust. I ended up kneading it by hand for a good hour (we don't have a dough hook for our kitchenaid, which would have also done the trick), but that was partially because I forgot *cough* an important ingredient and had to adjust the recipe somewhat. So I didn't even follow the directions exactly and it still turned out amazing!Gumdrop cookies: I can't actually remember ever having gumdrop cookies. They are yummy.
Tiramisu: So officially it's for tomorrow, but let's just say the cook had to do a little taste-test. Also? Realized at the last minute that there was no chocolate syrup in the house, so I made some out of cream, butter, and cocoa. BEST STUFF EVER.
Stollen: I've been trying to remember all afternoon -- is it Swedish? Norwegian? German? I also, uh, sort of taste-tested this one, too. Mmm.
Cranberry sauce: Seriously, this is about my favorite stuff in the world.
Anybody hungry yet?
Anyway, the upshot is that I've had great fun doing all of this, but I haven't gotten a single other thing on my To Do List finished. Which, I guess, is why I still have an evening ahead of me.
*really wanted to spend said evening curled up with books*
* "real", as it relates to my life, meaning making from-scratch mushroom-stuffed ravioli as opposed to boiling pasta and throwing a quick sauce over it, which is Good, but not Real cooking. Good tastes great and is a necessary part of my busy life, but Real is where the true fun for the chef-at-heart lies.