Cooking Failures, 2011

Now that I have gotten lectured (twice) to get back to writing on this blog, I guess it's time.  The fun part of having a public forum to write about food and family and eating and all those things that I love is that it is a great distraction and occasional escape.  It is entertaining to think of recipes, play with my camera, reminisce about childhood food-related topics...

...The bad thing about having a public forum to write about food and family and eating and all those things that I love is that when I'm not cooking anything good or getting excited about what I'm eating, what the heck do I write?  And as a person who is prone to writer's block, was it really very wise to start doing something that requires a regular commitment to putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard)?  Sigh.  So, writer's block and poor recipe experiments and the holiday hustle and bustle have left me with nothing to say.  Sad indeed.

My best friend asked me, before the new year, what I was most excited about for 2011.  What a great, optimistic question. One of my first responses was how excited I was to try new things in the kitchen, to try to explore different techniques and flavors and push myself out of my comfort zone.  Everyone likes a good challenge, yes?  But, so far, my experiments have been flops.  Not so bad that they are inedible, but just not exciting.  Here are a few things I've tried:

- Guatemalan-inspired Pepian Lentil Stew, which wasn't awful but needs some serious tweaks
- Coconut milk soba noodles with crispy five-spice tofu and shredded veggies (bland!  And the five-spice tofu did not maintain any of the five spice flavor.)
- Homemade chickpea and semolina fettuccine with roasted butternut squash-ricotta puree, and fried mushrooms (the fried mushrooms were spectacular, the squash-ricotta puree was one-note, and the pasta was not quite right)
- Roasted tomato and spinach orzo (bland!)

Sigh.  I still enjoy my time in the kitchen, but it's not nearly as much fun as when things turn out just right.

So, instead, for you all, I'm going to think of some of my relatively recent food memories I like to remember fondly...

 - Stumbling on a food and dance and potato competition in Pisac, Peru (I ate guinea pig for a third time and drank some strawberry-corn beer.  Inka Cola is better.)

-Having a bacon brownie bake off with my brother on his visit home from Peace Corps (I went for a bacon-jalapeno-lime mix, while he added in some Golden Grahams for a breakfast theme.  He won.)

 -Eating a pound of fresh shrimp on the most desolate beach in Guatemala, heads and all

-Learning how to make Thai curry, which may or may not have involved an endangered species

-Italian food night, with good wine, good pasta, good cheese, great friends, and a little Catch Phrase to wrap it all up (Pictured is montegrappa cheese from Penn Mac.  Incredible.)

-Finding the best tacos al pastor in Mexico City (on Arquimedes and Masaryk, in Polanco).  These aren't those tacos, but they were still damned tasty. Just look at that grease!

-Plus the memories without the pictures.  The Christmas dinner where we went through 9 bottles of wine and welcomed in two new women to the family.  Hearing the phrase "I'm hungry.  Should we find some street food?" The mac and cheese at Kelly's, with a dark beer and some juicy gossip.  The 12-course meal in Lima where my travelmate and I were both sick, but we were not going to miss out on any sweet morsel.  The cheese and bread and wine with roomie when neither of us wants to cook.

So, my experiments have failed thus far, but I'm still hopeful that good things will come...and at least I have some pretty sweet memories...