Brave Little Kitchen

this blog is basically just an excuse for us to get drunk

Over the summer, I passed along a recipe I’d found on Pinterest to sommelier Abi, for the Honey Badger. It involved bubbly, honey syrup, fresh orange, and St. Germain, an elderflower liqueur.

Abi, being the expert [that’s what we are calling it now? – T] that she is, honed the recipe through rigorous testing. She determined that the original recipe was too sweet, so she reduced the amount of honey syrup and swapped the orange juice for lime. I like to take credit for suggesting the switch from Korbel sparkling wine (blech) to Mirabelle (yum). With these changes, it went from overly sweet to total summer cocktail perfection. Which is why we drank it every night we were in Maine.

And thus our obsession with St. Germain began.

Sushi: really, can it get any scarier? (Or, how to make sushi in seven easy steps.)

I mean seriously, raw fish, sticky rice, seaweed. What in that sentence isn't scary? Okay, so I didn't tackle raw fish with this sushi. I did do other stuff to conquer this dish, though. In fact, I decided it was best to take a class! Also, it was a LivingSocial deal for Culinaerie, a cooking school a few blocks from my house. Hey, I am nothing if not practical. My friend, Rosita, took the class with me, even though she is already a sushi pro. I was glad to have her support and additional knowledge since I am a Midwestern-white girl who didn't even eat sushi, much less make sushi, until a few years ago.

quinoa

Next up: quinoa. I’m not sure why I’m afraid of quinoa, exactly, except that it seems like a weird grain that might not taste good. Also, my mom kept telling me I should try it, which made me not want to that much more. Because I am twelve.

But this website is forcing me to cook things I’ve never wanted to cook (or have been afraid to cook), so here we are. I looked around at some recipes and found this one, which seemed easy enough and involved spinach, mushrooms, and goat cheese; all of which I love. So how bad could it be?

What are you afraid of?

Making coffee is not a difficult task –people it do every single day – but it is a task neither of us had mastered. Once, when I needed coffee for a recipe, I actually went to 7-11 and bought a cup. Turk has done the same (but at Starbucks, because she’s fancier). And so it was that we decided to make coffee for our first BLK adventure. We like setting the bar low for ourselves.

One of the rules of Brave Little Kitchen is that no one is allowed to make fun of anyone’s kitchen fears, no matter how silly. So we were a little disheartened when we were mocked – mocked! – for being afraid to make coffee. I had only made it once before; my mom had come over to help out when my son, Jackson, was a few weeks old. She wanted some coffee, so in my baby-induced haze, she walked me through it step by step so that she could have a fresh pot. I totally forgot what she told me, though – I blame extreme maternal exhaustion. Turk’s father also walked her through making a pot once when he was visiting, but she forgot what he taught her as well. I’m not sure what her excuse is. [My excuse is that I never needed to know how to make coffee. That’s why coffee shops exist! - Turk]