Monday, November 19, 2007

Wanna be

I have a small confession. A secret I've been harboring for quite some time now.

I am a wanna be foodie.

*covers face in shame*

I am addicted to Top Chef. The first blog I go to every morning is Amateur Gourmet. And I print recipes from Epicurious like it's my job. Then of course there's Bake Space...oh my darling Bake Space, where have you been all my life?

Not that I have the kitchen for it. The oven is, to put it politely, quaint. The counter space...minimalist. My pots and pans are "well loved" (read: hand me downs from mom and grandmas.) as I like to say.

There have been more than one major disaster in my steps toward becoming the wanna be foodie I am today. Just ask my family about the "No Bake Cheesecake Disaster" (I swear the box said 3 cups, not 1/3 cup!), which lives on in family lore almost 10 years later. Or about the time I made a pumpkin pie and dropped the damn thing all over my kitchen floor. Or when I attempted to make 30 dozen chocolate chip cookies when I was raising money for Race for the Cure last year.

My current potential disaster is in the oven now. One of the lessons I've learned, especially from the divine Miss Clotilde is that one should always, always, always give a new recipe a test run. So when I saw the Cauliflower Gratin recipe by Kathryn the intern, I knew I just had to try it. Every year I struggle to come up with a recipe I can call my own to take along for Thanksgiving at my aunt's. My mom has her baked corn (not a big fan, but it is good), my aunt her apple pie and my sister...well, whatever it is she happens to try that year. The gratin is a pretty easy recipe, just the kind I like. Very few ingrediants and very few chances to eff the whole thing up with only a few steps for assembly.

The smell coming from the kitched is pretty good, so I must be on the right track.

Then again, I don't think that smoke is a good thing....

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