Brave Little Kitchen

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ICE CREAM!

I love ice cream. No really, L-O-V-E, love it! The summer after sophomore year of college some high school friends (the same friends I ate granola bars and drank bottled water with in the park after hours . . . yeah, we were dorks) and I drove from Cincinnati to Waterbury, VT specifically to go to the Ben & Jerry's factory. (We also went to a Barenaked Ladies concert, but that was just one day - we went to Ben & Jerry's every day for a week while we were there). It was heaven.

mmm . . . donuts

And now, our first guest post! By our friend and superior cook, Angela Kim. Apparently she spells the word "doughnuts," because she is fancy. [See! I am not the only fancy one! - Turk]

I classify doughnuts in a category called dream foods. Fresh doughnuts are just so delightful that if they were good for you, or if they had no calories and not bad for you, I would pretty much eat them all the time (other examples of dream foods: Coke, bacon, Wegman’s sheet cake, oh the list goes on! [don't forget Ben & Jerry's! - Court]).

Like bagels, doughnuts are almost always bought to eat, I guess in part because of a certain fear factor. In this case, it’s not necessary ingredients like malt syrup or even the yeast (as you know, we have conquered yeast!), but the hot vat of carefully temperature-controlled oil that you need to cook doughnuts properly. Why wouldn’t you just watch the little machine do its work at Krispy Kreme from a safe distance?

crepes!

To continue our brunch series, I will report on my crepe experience. My love of crepes began in Paris. My best friend [NOT me, ahem... Turk] and I took a short trip there our senior year of college, and we had one every morning from a street cart. With Nutella, of course. I had more on a couple trips to London, but it wasn't long before I realized - hey! I can eat crepes in America, too! So I did. But if that required actually making them myself . . . not so much.

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?

Bagels

What is so scary about bagels? I will tell you, lots of things. First, they involve  yeast and malt syrup. Then all the rising - they take two days to make because of it! TWO days - then the boiling! Boiling dough is just plain weird in my book. And yet, at the same time, they call to me. Apparently, I have never really had a great bagel. While I have been to NYC, it was on a Saturday and all the really great bagel places were closed (or so I was told). And, while Ohio is great, let's face it, the Midwest is not known for superlative bagels. [While I’m impressed with her use of the word “superlative,” I should point out here – for reference – that Turk pronounces the word “bag-ull.” She claims not to hear the difference. Just keep that in mind as you read this post. - Court]

Easy Cheese

I love cheese, so I was especially excited when I saw this DIY kit one day online. Did I buy it? Of course not, but that’s because I am lazy. So, imagine my surprise when a week or so later, the cheese kit was waiting for me when I got home!

It was a belated Christmas present from a friend way out in California! I couldn’t use the kit for just anything, it was too precious to waste (it makes 10 batches!...supposedly—more on that later). So, for a couple of months, I will admit, it just sat there, waiting to fulfill its destiny. Waiting, that is, until I wasn’t too lazy to get off my bee-hind and make some CHEESE!

The List

Here it is, in its current incarnation.

The List

What do you think? Do you have any to add?

Honey Wheat Bread

My first solo challenge was ostensibly fairly easy: bake a loaf of bread. I’ve made bread before : quick breads, like banana and cranberry hazelnut; and some pretty tasty loaves of real bread made in the 90s in my parents’ ubiquitous bread machine (which don’t count). But for some reason, I’ve always been afraid of making real bread by myself. I think it’s the whole yeast factor. You have to mix the yeast with warm water to activate it: if the water is too warm, the yeast will die; if it’s not warm enough, the yeast won’t do its job making the bread rise. I distinctly remember the year my best friend decided to make cinnamon rolls as gifts for Christmas, and she ended up in tears in the kitchen when her yeast didn’t cooperate and she had to throw everything out and start over. Not my idea of a good time.

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]