Make it FUN!

Most of my cooking / baking “skills” have come by way of trial, error and television! My DVR has about 80 hours of food network shows queued up and ready to watch. That is not to say that I watch these shows, copy recipes, and then start cooking. Ever since I was a little kid watching Julia Childs, Graham Kerr and the Frugal Gourmet, I wanted to cook like they did! Not necessarily cook WHAT they did, but cook in the same flashy manner.  I was the poster child for ADHD, I had no time for measuring cups and timers! I was all about “a dash of this, a pinch of that, then chop-chop-chop, and get my hands in it and start tasting until it was something that I wanted to eat.

                              

Forty years of this style of “training” has given me a much more tactile sense of what is going on with my ingredients. This is both good, and bad. I can’t follow a recipe to save my life, but I can make something delicious out of the most random ingredients.

Bakers are fond of saying that you MUST measure everything precisely!  I certainly agree with that sentiment if you are baking cakes, and soufflé’s that must be exactly the same each and every time, but if that’s the case, I’ll keep my baking to artisan breads alone! I think part of the excitement for me is waiting to see just how it will turn out.  I am not disparaging anyone that follows a recipe, in fact “good for you”! My ADHD kicks in before the second rote ingredients and I drift off. 

When I bake bread I use yeast that I captured from the dregs of a beer bottle and propagate in a mason jar, flour of unknown composition, water, and salt (if I remember to throw it in). I start mixing a bit of everything until it FEELS right, then I let it rest until it looks “puffy”.  I then shape it however I want it, let it sit for a while then toss it in the oven until it looks done.

Cooking / baking should be a FUN process that results in even more fun eating and feeding others!