A miracle has happened in the Rosinger-household: Over the past three weeks, I have been found in the kitchen juggling with pots and pans, mixing ingredients, stirring and whirring, and finally serving up something edible! Unfortunately, our of sheer amazement of this change in my character, I haven't taken any pictures of the food that has been created, but I have witnesses, Paul and Stefan, who have both been there to support me all the way.
The most fantastic thing about this transformation is the fact that I'm enjoying my time in the kitchen and haven't had any meltdowns. I've even added ingredients not mentioned in a recipe, substituted where I didn't like the original one, and NOT always measured everything to the exact gram / cup / oz. I even changed the measurements in one recipe from 8 to 2 people! (Okay, I know loads of online recipes have a function set up that does this automatically for you, but this was a dish from an old fashioned paper cook book so I had to do the calculations on a serviette with an HB pencil and an abacus.)
Suddenly, all the hours spent watching MasterChef, Great British Bake-Off, Nigella, Jamie, Noddy etc. are paying off and I've found myself venturing into the vegetable and fruit section and looking for other items than the usual basic ones as well as scrutinising shelves holding spices and sauces, and even stopping in front of the fridges holding fresh meat and wondering, what one could do with this and that.
During Stefan's and my morning walk today, I decided to set myself a cooking challenge for next year, starting in December in order for it not to look like a New Year's resolution: Every month I have to create a minimum of four new dishes from various recipes of my choice. There will be no restrictions apart from every dish being one I haven't made before. A dish can be a cake, soup, sophisticated or ordinary dinner, bread etc. I will attempt to take a picture of each creation, even the ones that didn't work out. (Emphasis on the word 'attempt'...)
Below is a list of what I got up to on the food front in November:
Cottage Pie, Chicken and Leek Pie (twice!), Lemon Cheese Cake, and a couple of concoctions involving ready-made puff pastry and cheese.
Once again thanks to those of you who sent me recipes - they'll come in handy over the next year!
Please feel free to send me more...
Lots of love,
Karen x
