Friday, July 08, 2011

Inspirational Cooking

What's for dinner tonight? Tonight we're having Pizza Braids. I'm kind of excited about it. I'm embarrassed to say that I'm in my 30's and have just for the first time attempted to make whole wheat pizza crust from scratch. It just seems like something every good housewife should be able to do. It's rising nicely right now. I'll admit, I totally faked the whole kneading thing and watched a video on YouTube to see how it's done. I know my mom taught me this skill, but it's been a while...

One thing I've realized about myself is that I am not a great cook. My family doesn't complain, they eat happily, but let's just say I have a long way to go towards gourmet. I would love to be a gourmet cook. I always tell Peter that I want to take some cooking classes, or just go to one or two of his CLE courses where they have classes like that for bored spouses, but I don't have time to take a class, and even if I could go to his courses with him, what would I do with the kids while I went to the class?

Today, I just had fun in the kitchen. My mom took the girls to her house for some special time with Mimi, and I had just the boys here. Two of them were sleeping(!) so it was just Daniel and me in the kitchen. He sat there eating every scrap I would toss at him, and I made dough, cut up pizza fixings, etc. We chatted and I created. It really helps to have a friend in the kitchen! Often times, Hannah helps me cook, but it seems like I have at least 4 others in there with us, and I'm on such alert to make sure that someone doesn't pour an entire box of baking soda into something or give the baby eggshells that I'm just focused on safety instead of the love of cooking.

I have my friend Jenn at The Sassy Chicken to thank for her post about pizza braids. She also linked another site that is really inspirational, For the Love of Cooking. If I could just cook like that woman, OR take photos like she does, I would be really, really happy. I love cooking with fresh, organic ingredients that are ripe in that season. Tonight's pizza braids are getting cilantro from my herb garden.

I hope it turns out!

No comments: