Dear foodies & other lovely people,
A very Happy New Year to you - if that's still allowed! Thought I'd still get it in on the last day of January.... ;-).
January used to be a detox month for me. Not so this year. I have decided that January is in fact the worst month to do a detox and that the end of the winter, say March time, is a much better time to be cruel to yourself and 'starve' a little. By then, temperatures are up, we are more active outside and most of all, we are starting to eat lighter food. It's in season and therefore readily available. No more heavy sluggish food! I guess lent wasn't invented for nothing around that time of year, religious reasons aside.
So. No detox. Plenty of rich winter food. Especially during the cold snow spell in the past few weeks. And I have never been so relaxed in January as a result of it!
What I have been contemplating in the meantime is the challenge I'm going to set myself this year. I need challenges. Probably like most people. And this year, I am looking for baking challenges. No surprises there then!
You might think that they're complicated ones... Au contraire! I've made a list of 'basic' things which I STILL have not baked at home. Not once. And since I'm a bit of an autodidact, I am definitely going to "try this at home". The film Julie & Julia has most likely triggered this. If you are a foodie and you haven't seen this film yet (Meryl Streep is in it - another brilliant reason!) then do so. You won't regret it!
Right. My baking challenges. Here goes...
Ready? Set? Bake:
- Brioche
- Tarte tartin
- Lemon meringue pie
- Puff pastry
- Yorkshire puddings
- Baguettes
- Crumpets
- Muffins (the ones used for eggs benedict; not the cakey ones)
- Summerpudding
- Stollen (Easter in this case)
- Millefeuille
- Chocolate fondants
This list is not yet complete. But I would like to achieve at least the above. And 'achieve' in this case means that it has to be good. Not just 'a' product. But of good quality too. And don't worry, enough critics around. With me probably being the worst one... I will keep going until I've achieved the right standard. That's the deal. The deal between me, myself and I.
So! You can expect me to report on this regularly from now on. I can't wait to get going.
I will do this on top of the usual baking and cooking which I normally tell you about on the blog. So there's more to look forward to than just the challenges above.
And of course spring is around the corner so I will start to talk about the garden as well. All the bulbs are coming up already and I personally can NOT wait to see all the flowers in full glory.
That's it for now folks! I'll be back more regularly than I have been in the past few months. Look forward to it :-)!
Love,
X Bee
