I’ve started to get creative in the kitchen again, and it’s a great feeling! I’ve been experimenting with foods, flavors, you name it, since I was in 7th grade. Maybe earlier, but I definitely remember making my own chocolate peanut butter cups, all on my own, that year.
When I started getting really sick, and then really itchy, I strayed from the kitchen. I was too tired, or my hands hurt and/or itched too badly, and I wasn’t able to work the way I used to, and it was depressing. So I got out of the habit of cooking and baking, and I didn’t realize until recently how much I’d missed it.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with breads. When I worked at the Blue Ridge Institute & Farm Museum in Ferrum, Virginia, we made bread by hand. Huge bowls of it, with wheat flour, of course. But there was no bread machine involved. For one, we were in period costume for the 1800′s, so a bread machine would have really stood out! One thing I really loved to make then, and since, was corn bread.
A couple of months ago, I decided to surprise Teresa with one of my pans of gourmet corn bread, but I couldn’t find the cornmeal anywhere! Undeterred, I made my bread, but with teff flour, and a little bit of molasses, and dusted in golden flaxseed meal. I’ve since made a few variations of this bread. I’ve also made baking powder/teff/golden flaxseed biscuits, and figured out how to make my baking powder biscuits plain and gluten free. It wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be.
I’ve been reading this story where cooking is a big part, and there’s a lot of experimenting going on with the characters doing the cooking. And herb breads and nut breads get mentioned a lot. I thought herb bread would go well with tonight’s dinner (roasted/baked okra, edamame, and Brussels sprouts.
So I went into the kitchen, and pulled out an array of flours. Tasted them, mixed some together, figured out what blended well and what didn’t, and got to work. I ended up with a fragrant, delicious gluten and egg free pan herb bread. A little denser than usual. I don’t know if it’s because I left the egg out or not (I do usually use them, but we only had 1 and I need it for breakfast tomorrow).
Everything was delicious!
And I was thrilled to know that I still had my, “this should taste good together,” skill, and that I pulled off a great meal.
What were some of the first things you made when you got brave in the kitchen again?
