Food-related goals

I’m a big fan of goals.  I love New Year’s resolutions, personal goals, career goals, reading goals, traveling goals, etc.  This year, I’m adding a food goal to my list.  This might sound funny to some of you, but yes, I’m adding a culinary goal to my life.  You see, I have an absolutely unnatural and irrational fear of baking.  I know, strange.  No good reason for it.  Other than perhaps the fear of the mess I’d make, but my kitchen always looks like a tornado went through it after I’m done cooking.  But baking towering cakes doesn’t really appeal to me and I’ve never been a dessert person (well, until a few years ago).  So I figure I’ll try something rustic/easy/something I have space for in my kitchen.

So, here are my culinary goals for this year:

1. Learn to bake one kind of bread
   • Bread
2. Learn to make a baked dessert
   • Blueberry Muffins
   • Fruit and Cheese Bars
   • Chocolate Cobbler
3. Learn to make yogurt
   • Yogurt
4. Cook more Uzbek food
   • Mastava
   • Mashkitchiri (I have an updated version and hope to post it soon)
   • Lagman
5. Cook more soup
   • Mastava
   • Mato Ball Soup
   • Lagman
   • Red Lentil Soup

I know yogurt isn’t a dessert, but it is often an ingredient in dessert.  Yeah, that’s it.  That’s a good reason to learn making it.  Oh heck, I just want to learn to make my own yogurt, something that will be creamy, sweet, thick and luscious, and won’t cost an arm and a leg.

And after the Chaihana post, I’d imagine the Uzbek food goal is self-explanatory. 

As I’ve started cooking soups, it seems fairly easy and healthy.  Should be a good match for the bread.

As the year goes on, I’ll update this page.

*Update on 5/9/2010

I made Mastava, which goes towards goals #4 and #5.

I’ve also been working on making yogurt and bread, but no success with yogurt yet, and gotta figure out this yeast thing for the bread….

Stay tuned.

*Update on 6/28/2010

Looks like I’ve been making some progress on these goals. Woohoo! But I should make more soups. I’m finding that they’re fairly easy, quick, healthy, and tasty.