{New Year} Projects to Keep Me on My Toes!

I started this food group and blog to give me something tangible and productive outside of my work & family while also being relevant in my day-to-day life and feeding my passion of all things food, photography, cooking, community, politics and friendship. Food is everywhere and in our house, food is life or death. After one year of our home being nut, dairy, gluten/wheat and soy-free, I’ve hit a slump. I’m bored (burnt-out) with cooking. I’m bored with food. I’m frustrated of “adapting” recipes, especially baking. For most of December I lived on brown rice cereal. No lie. I was bored with texture, components, soups, stews, rice, pasta, sauce, salsa, flavors- Unami, Sweet, Sour, Tangy, Fruity, Warm, Cold, Spicy.

Yes, I could eat out to lessen the stress of cooking all the time, but that would involve only Chipotle or 50 South. No offense Chipotle but I’m bored with you right now. Even though I didn’t think it possible, I believe Miles is bored with you too. I love 50 South, but with a two year old, sitting at a restaurant with a wait staff is exhausting…so we hit a Sunday brunch here & there but that’s it.

Okay, enough of my adult-onset whining.

After days & weeks of thinking about what I would do for my “food” related resolution and help get myself out of the slump, I decided to make a bucket list… nah, just kidding…just a yearly list of the food projects I would like to accomplish. I feel like some personal projects, not related to Miles’ dietary restrictions or in general my family’s 3-meals-a-day needs, will keep me interested, engaged and growing my body of knowledge around the subject. My passionate Weekend Reading posts definitely do that to a certain extend but I need some hands on projects too.

Will I document them on the blog?

No doubt!

Do some directly relate to the blog & the other ladies in the group?

Yes Indeed- the podcast is a biggie!

Will I try my hardest to drag some of the ladies, Alexis, Amanda, Leslie & Sarah, into my web-o-projects?

You betcha!

1 From Scratch Club Podcast.
I’ve mentioned this project before. Santa gave me podcasting gear for my birthday (wait a minute…birthday???) so Alexis & I (and hopefully Amanda, Leslie, Sarah, Erica & Dianna when available) will be podcasting about our crazy musings & fumblings about food while also interviewing interesting food people in our area.

2. Let’s Brew Coffee Without the Stovetop Espresso Contraption.
This just seems fun! All the “professional & serious” coffeehouses and roasting hubs nowadays have pour-overs, cupping, tastings what-ings? I have used my various stovetop coffee makers (I have a 2, 6 and an 8 cup) since I was 18. I am 35. I even brought my trusty 6-cupper to London when I lived there for a year. This was back in 1995, when there were NO coffeehouses in London, yet. It was still tea-all-the-time. I digress, do I have a french press and do I use it? Yes and nope. It’s only use- to collect dust. Over the holidays I bought myself a pour-over contraption for 9 bucks, and one to giveaway, with this idea in mind. Let’s try making my oooh-so-dark-sluggy-almost-rocket-fuel-coffee in a different way. F-U-N! This feeling of excitement was validated when Intelligentsia put out their Iphone App for making coffee…”the professional way” Pour-over timing and coffee weight and proper water temperature- all on the free app! French press instructions are on there too. Per-fect-o!

3 Making Bacon.
With happy pork of course! I’ve been wanting to do this for sometime. I even asked around at the farmers market for the proper cut of pork to make it. Oh, and borrowed a copy and  photocopied the bacon project recipe in Jam It, Pickle It, Cure It: And Other Cooking Projects by Karen Solomon. If you haven’t looked at this book before, its a must. Great food projects of all levels and interests from cheese making to canning to curing to candy making.

4 Curing Salmon.
Another curing project I want to try. I love lox & bagels; why not pick up a sustainable fillet at Honest Weight or Four Seasons and go to town. Cathy Erway of Lunch at Sixpoint and Doris & Jilly Cook wrote about their successful creations.

5 Make Bouillon.
Honestly, this is only on the list because of this post on Simple Scratch Cooking. Why hadn’t I thought of making my own bouillon, oh yeah, because I’m not a chef nor a person with a deep food history so I had no idea I could make my own. It looks so interesting, easy and soooo useful! Why not?

6 Fortune Cookies.
I had linked to a fortune cookie recipe in one of my holiday recipe link love posts, and FSC Guest Contributor, Dianna, successfully made them for her Chrismmukkah potluck. Her fortune inserts were more demands than fortunes, like “You will not go to law school”. Anyways, she had to adapt the recipe big time, and has promised to deal the changes and make a recipe for us on the blog! (Yup, putting you on the spot Dianna! Ha Ha!) The plan as of today, I will adapt Dianna’s perfected recipe. Stay tuned.

7 Brittle or Nougat
I have two funny stories from our Edible Gift Week. I was going to post two recipes; non-traditional french nougat, allergy-free style, and a sunflower seed brittle. Both failed. BIG TIME. I did not heed Amanda’s advice and avoid trying new recipes during the holiday season, especially when making gifts. Whoopsie. I have NO idea the science behind candy making and it showed during these two attempts. I will do research, learn a little bit more and try again.

8 Marshmallows.
There is something about fresh, handmade marshmallows. Fluffy, delicate, light as air and flavorful. I LOVE local favorite dreamPuff marshmallow in all their seasonal flavors. They are a true allergen-friendly treat! So I would never try to compete with Ginny’s creations, but again I’m fascinated by the science behind this white pillow of sugar and egg whites?! See, I have no idea!

Oh, and I will need a stand mixer for this one. I’m hoping Amanda, Sarah or Leslie will need to let me borrow their baby.

9 Watch Food Films.
Once I moved back to my hometown area from Los Angeles in July 2006, I stopped watching and reading about food and the environment. Stopped like a period at the end of a sentence. Except of the free commercial-free viewing of Food Inc on PBS last Spring, my movie-watching days ended with the avalanche of movies that came out in 2002-2005: Super Size Me, The Corporation, Thirst, The Future of Food, and King Corn (2007). My new list includes; Beer Wars, Fed Up!, Vanishing of the Bees, Nourish by PBS, What’s On Your Plate and Food Matters. Any others I should add to the list? Bring it!

10 Read Food Books.
Like #9, I stopped reading food-related books at the same time. As I look at my library of food-related material, all my non-cookbook books stop  with Omnivore’s Dilemma, Food Politics, What to Eat?, In Defense of Food, Grub, Against the Grain, Democracy’s Edge, World Hunger and all of Vandana Shiva’s books, such as Stolen Harvest. There are some highly regarded books that have come out in the past couple of years but I will be realistic on this particular “project”. Opposed to the movies, which I can watch while writing a blog post, reading is mostly done for my {weekend reading} posts, so I am only listing one book: Four Fish: The Future of the Last Wild Food by Paul Greenberg. I hear he lives in our area for part of the year… need to do some research. I feel a podcast in the future.

11 Attend a Food-Related Conference?!
I have added this one specifically because there is one coming up in this area and I wouldn’t have to make the stars align to attend (parents know what I’m talking about here). NOFA-NY, Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York is having their winter conference in Saratoga Springs. Lucky me because the classes they have on tap are amazing. I’m going to sign up for Saturday only where I will hopefully get into “Community Organizing 101”, “Getting Healthy Food into the Hands of Low Income Eaters: Nutritional Programs and Farmers Markets” and World Hunger: Global Realities and Local Solutions”.

12 Go to Blogher Food Blog conference in Hotlanta?
This is a wish, not a project that will likely happen in 2011 but a food blogger can dream right?

13 Master a great-tasting gluten-free/allergy-free loaf of bread and pizza crust.
True confession time. I was a Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day devotee until the day we had to take gluten & wheat out of Miles’ diet. I was so sad. I had never baked bread in my whole life, then once I bought the book and learned the tricks of the trade, I was a master (in my own food universe). Rosemary & Olive oil loaf, pizza dough and other bread products that I can’t remember because the moment Miles couldn’t have gluten I gave my copy to Leslie. That is, after I tried their one gluten-free recipe in the book…with no luck. Honestly, I haven’t found a recipe that has turned out even remotely edible and I haven’t tried a recipe since August. For a birthday gift to myself I purchased Gluten-Free Girl & The Chef’s cookbook which I have high hopes for. I usually don’t purchase or borrow from the library GF cookbooks because they often use a lot of nut flours, which Miles is allergic. I usually tend to go for the more “avoid all 8 top allergen” books, and frankly the breads I’ve tried aren’t all that great. Miles can eat eggs, so I’m gonna give Gluten Free Girl a try… I’m determined. Just for a little looksie into our food budget: a loaf of GF & allergy-free sandwich bread costs us $6.29 a loaf. I can usually get a 50 cent or dollar off coupon, but I’m still paying at least five dollars each loaf. Ouch. Oh, and don’t get me started on the pizza dough. The best pre-made I’ve found is King Arthur and its $9+ dollars a box for two crusts. Forget about it…

14  Take a Class.
Related to #13, I don’t understand the science of baking, so when I’m adapting recipes to Miles’ multiple food allergies, I usually screw up. Or in another case, I will follow a recipe to the T but I can see that something isn’t right and I don’t know if its fixable or will just fail mid-bake. A lot of baking mishaps made it into the garbage can in 2010. Waste of time, energy, money, food and resources. No more! Maybe a class at Different Drummer’s Kitchen, Spoon & Whisk or something more serious like SCCC’s Culinary Program.

13 (Call Me Crazy) Attend Farm Camp?
I have briefly referenced this very hands-on 2 (or 3) day intensive on the ins and outs of farm life; including slaughter and processing of poultry courtesy of Ben Shaw, Garden of Spices. I want to attend this camp at some point because if I’m going to continue to eat meat, I feel its only necessary that I experience the process of taking the bird’s life and processing it for consumption. I don’t know if I could do it without crying, but I wanna put myself out there and try. Read this New York Times article and slideshow or this GREAT slide show, interview and article in Glen Fall’s Post Star- both articles I’ve linked to before.

{made with smiles and…}

14 Critiquing Big Food: Advertisements and Store Sightings.
I would like to do more of this either on the Facebook page or on the blog. Probably a little bit of both. I can see my critiques fitting in well with Sunday’s weekend reading. I studied media, advertising, and sociology when I (finally) completed by Art History B.A., 12 years in the making, in 2006. I love to dissect and critique what companies, especially Big Food, wants us to believe. I was totally inspired by Mrs. Q’s latest critique of Lunchable’s ad.

15 50 Loaves/ 50 States Project with Guest Contributor Dianna.
Dianna & I have been talking about this project for sometime. I’m hoping we can start in 2011. Food is used as a form of punishment in America’s jails & prisons. If an inmate receives a disciplinary, various punishments are at the hearing officer’s disposal. One of which is “the loaf”, a tasteless block of stuff that is fed for three meals for X amount of days. New York State uses the loaf. Most state prison systems and many local jails each have their own “special recipe” for the punishment loaf. Together, Dianna & I will attempt to FOIL each state’s loaf recipe, make the recipe and report on our findings. I was inspired to do this project by Dianna herself who got New York’s loaf recipe and made our co-workers eat it during our yearly conference. The moment she passed around the wooden cutting board with slices of the very dense food-like substance, I knew exactly what we were going to do together: 50 Loaves / 50 States. A handful of reporters have done small-scale projects before, creating once or two recipes. If you would like to read some of them here they are.

16 Salsa Can-o-Rama.
I LOVE that I learned to can in the summer of 2010. What I have learned from eating the various jars of summer that sit happily on a shelf in my garage is that I need to make more salsa’s during the summer of 2011. I made corn relish and salsa verde but I didn’t make a red tomato based salsa and I regret it.

Wow. This is a very long post. Thanks for sticking with me. I will continuously update this post with links to successful completion of items on the list. I’m excited to get started…