I WANNA MAKE IT!

14 October 2015

What do you wish you knew how to make?

Surprisingly, the things I would like to make well are simple things.  How to confidently cook a medium rare steak that isn't tough.  How to cook pork or chicken breasts without them getting too dry.  How to cook meat in the slow cooker that doesn't become a mushy texture.  How to make the kind of post roast my mother used to make.

I can cook a 7 course Chinese feast, but can't do those simple things.

However, I am a baker of many things -- pies, cookies, cakes, etc.  I am good at following recipes and not really afraid to try anything, yet I have never tried pastries.  I would love to know how to make a good croissant, or some of those wonderful fruit- or cheese-filled pastries.  I would love instruction in how to make the dough flaky by rolling it over and over again.

But maybe it's better that I don't know how to do that, all things considered!  Walt is not a pastry eater, so I know who would eat most of whatever it is that I learn how to make.

I have also always wanted to know how to make pasta.  I had my first homemade pasta many years ago at a party, made by our friend John Ziaja.  It was the best pasta ever and I have thought, off and on, of getting a pasta attachment for my KitchenAid mixer.

But the thing that keeps me from doing it is the same thing that keeps me from learning how to make delicious pastries.  I would be the person who eats the most of it and just what I do not need is another excuse to eat calorie-filled foods.

(Of course, if my 7 year old granddaughter Brianna can make pasta, surely it is something I can do!)