Oh, look, it's a non-political post!
Last year, I posted a list that definitely weren't New Year's resolutions and I kinda somehow forgot to post a similar list for this year. Some of the things on that list that I wanted to 2016 I actually did (like graduating, cooking more and getting more physically active), some are still elusive (like finding a job, moving out, getting better at baking and writing, reading more...) and maybe I'll make them into a new list that are definitely not New Year's resolutions (seeing as the year's already a month old and how could that happen?).
Anyway, this post is about one of the things I actually did, and that's cooking. I really did go out and try more stuff (people following me on Instagram got to see most of the results) but those were mostly from Pinterest. Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest, and currently, it's one of my happy places on the Internet (not that many left for a news junkie whose Twitter and Facebook feeds could generally be described with "WHAT DID HE DO NOW?") that I go to when things get to bad in the other places.
But. I own oodles (and I really mean oodles) of cookbooks (if I ever get to move out of here, the movers will hate me, since I still buy cookbooks as actual books, not e-books. I'm a kitchen slop, and I'm pretty sure my parents like their Samsung Galaxy tablet clean and undamaged...). Cookbooks are my kryptonite. I can't not buy a cookbook I really like. I'm a sucker for food photography and fancy layouts, I love exotic stuff (I just erm "borrowed" Mom's book for Sri Lankan cuisine, just because it's so pretty) and I have a few go to authors I basically will buy everything from (Cynthia Barcomi, Lieselotte Forslin, Annik Wecker and occassionally Jamie Oliver come to mind). I have American cuisine and Christmas cookbooks and Persian cuisine and French cuisine and Scandinavien baking books and books (as in, more than one) about popcorn and books about tea and books about tartes and the heaviest and pinkest patisserie book in existence and well, I just really have a cookbook problem a lot of books about cooking and baking.
I just never really use them. I have a few go to books I keep coming back to (one of the popcorn books, Annik Wecker's stuff und Cynthia Barcomi's books, mostly) and I really love leafing through all of my cookbooks but I keep being intimidated by the recipes and keep thinking "You really gotta try that someday!" but I never do.
So I decided that 2017 will be the year I will cook or bake at least one recipe from each and every one of my cookbooks (that is, unless the Cheeto-in-Chief manages to blow us all to Kingdom Come in one of his temper tantrums. Oops, it got political, after all), no matter how advanced the book is or how exotic the ingredients are or how well I know the language (I do have one book about desserts in Spanish. It's been ages since I actually used my Spanish...).
That's this year's challenge, and I'll try to keep you updated on here to see how it's going, maybe even take up posting recipes again (I kind of stopped because converting metric into imperial is such a fucking pain in the ass). I might also make multiple recipes from one book but the goal is to try at least one from each. I'll start with the newer books (because the others are still in the moving boxes I put them in *mumbles* years ago) and hopefully get to move out before the end of the year so I can then move on to those I haven't even seen in *mumbles* years.
What's going on over at your lives? Anyone taking up challenges this year, anyone want to enable my cookbook problem got cookbook recommendations for me (meat, vegetarian, vegan are all okay, I'm not picky. Just no Attila Hildmann and others from the "eating vegan will finally make you beautiful enough for this society's warped standards and also I'm a sexist asshole" avenue of veganism because yuck), anyone just want to share stuff or vent? (I promies, I'll reply to the comments that are still open from a couple days ago, I haven't forgotten about them!)
Anyway, this post is about one of the things I actually did, and that's cooking. I really did go out and try more stuff (people following me on Instagram got to see most of the results) but those were mostly from Pinterest. Don't get me wrong, I love Pinterest, and currently, it's one of my happy places on the Internet (not that many left for a news junkie whose Twitter and Facebook feeds could generally be described with "WHAT DID HE DO NOW?") that I go to when things get to bad in the other places.
But. I own oodles (and I really mean oodles) of cookbooks (if I ever get to move out of here, the movers will hate me, since I still buy cookbooks as actual books, not e-books. I'm a kitchen slop, and I'm pretty sure my parents like their Samsung Galaxy tablet clean and undamaged...). Cookbooks are my kryptonite. I can't not buy a cookbook I really like. I'm a sucker for food photography and fancy layouts, I love exotic stuff (I just erm "borrowed" Mom's book for Sri Lankan cuisine, just because it's so pretty) and I have a few go to authors I basically will buy everything from (Cynthia Barcomi, Lieselotte Forslin, Annik Wecker and occassionally Jamie Oliver come to mind). I have American cuisine and Christmas cookbooks and Persian cuisine and French cuisine and Scandinavien baking books and books (as in, more than one) about popcorn and books about tea and books about tartes and the heaviest and pinkest patisserie book in existence and well, I just really have a cookbook problem a lot of books about cooking and baking.
I just never really use them. I have a few go to books I keep coming back to (one of the popcorn books, Annik Wecker's stuff und Cynthia Barcomi's books, mostly) and I really love leafing through all of my cookbooks but I keep being intimidated by the recipes and keep thinking "You really gotta try that someday!" but I never do.
So I decided that 2017 will be the year I will cook or bake at least one recipe from each and every one of my cookbooks (that is, unless the Cheeto-in-Chief manages to blow us all to Kingdom Come in one of his temper tantrums. Oops, it got political, after all), no matter how advanced the book is or how exotic the ingredients are or how well I know the language (I do have one book about desserts in Spanish. It's been ages since I actually used my Spanish...).
That's this year's challenge, and I'll try to keep you updated on here to see how it's going, maybe even take up posting recipes again (I kind of stopped because converting metric into imperial is such a fucking pain in the ass). I might also make multiple recipes from one book but the goal is to try at least one from each. I'll start with the newer books (because the others are still in the moving boxes I put them in *mumbles* years ago) and hopefully get to move out before the end of the year so I can then move on to those I haven't even seen in *mumbles* years.
What's going on over at your lives? Anyone taking up challenges this year, anyone want to enable my cookbook problem got cookbook recommendations for me (meat, vegetarian, vegan are all okay, I'm not picky. Just no Attila Hildmann and others from the "eating vegan will finally make you beautiful enough for this society's warped standards and also I'm a sexist asshole" avenue of veganism because yuck), anyone just want to share stuff or vent? (I promies, I'll reply to the comments that are still open from a couple days ago, I haven't forgotten about them!)