Thursday, February 26, 2009

Slack-olutions Update


Ok, "update" is a bit misleading, since I haven't mentioned them before now. My resolutions included:
1. The federally mandated weight loss -- 4 of 15 pounds, so not bad

2. Reading more -- also going well, more on this in another post

3. Learn to cook at least 6 dishes without recipes

4. Meet and successfully woo Katarina Witt (I've been told I don't create "push" goals, so there)

The next-to-last one is the only item even vaguely original. Right now, I have 2 -- all'arrabbiata sauce and pecan pie (with or without chocolate or bourbon). Sure, I can whip up a few dishes that don't require "cooking": a salsa, homemade corn tortillas, or guacamole, but my friends that I consider great cooks (Scott, Wolfgang, or Jamie) can whip up a variety of dishes at the drop of a hat. So, this year I'm learning to cook dishes from scratch and without looking at recipes. And, preferably, they'll be dishes that are versatile enough that I can trick my friends into believing I can cook all kinds of things off the top of my (admittedly gorgeous) noggin.

So, what are the dishes? First, smoky black bean soup (which will be tough to remember since i don't make soup from April-September) then spanish tortilla (note: euro eggs are, at best 2/3rd the size of eggs requested by US cookbooks). I'm still thinking about the next one. Maybe steak au poivre -- it is rather fabulous and I get the added bonus of learning how to do a pepper sauce.

Any suggestions?

1 comment:

Sean! said...

i'm doing the same thing. a lot of wwoof hosts want to experience new tastes, and they want to host people who can make dishes from their region.

my dishes are going to be: chicken fried steak, a killer cheese burger, sliced potato with oil and lots of herbs and stuff, and a pesto/mozzarella ciabatta bread panini.

i was trying to think of the other thing that i can cook without a recipe and it was hard b/c it was an item i can bake! so that's my advice to you. know how to bake two desserts from scratch without a recipe.
i can do chocolate chip cookies and brownies. i can also make butter cream icing in 10 different flavors from scratch. my mom was/is a baker so they're pretty bad ass. i can also make a pie if i have the shell.

good luck with the soup. soup is for pussies.