Feb 8, 2010

Readers,

I thought this might happen. I just had a feeling this might happen. I'm starting, slowly, to plan ahead. There is a small difference in when I get home for the night depending on which martial arts classes I go to. There is slightly more coordination involved with cooking for myself than I realized.

At first, there was the coordination of planning ahead and buying the right ingredients for selected meals. Then, you need to decide how long things will last in the fridge and how long they'll last cooked. This week, I'm working on figuring out the frequency with which I need thawed meat. Since I did not take meat out this morning for tonight, I'm thawing now and will perform prep in the morning. Not ideal, but workable.

I did make the pesto that I was planning on making, but learned that 3 cups of basil in really an incredible amount of basil. The amounts of things actually surprise me slightly. When I think I need a lot of something I need very little and visa versa. This goes for several things ranging from time spent in the oven to amounts of spices. As good as America's Test Kitchen cookbook is, I still managed to burn chicken this past weekend. For those of you who know me well, you'll recognize that as an inherited trait. At least I wasn't burning bread simultaneously.

Which brings me to bread baking. I haven't gotten brave enough for bread yet, but I'm thinking about it. But, I have one question: what's sourdough starter? Is something actually going sour in order to make sourdough? Why does it seem that half the recipes out there are intended to combat the unhealthy effects of rotting or rotten food? Very unsettling actually. Will keep you posted.

Jo