#48 Make 10+ Things Out of a Cookbook That I Have Never Made Before 2/10

When I explain to you this particular cooking adventure, you will probably understand why I had this on my bucket list. It's not that I don't cook. I actually "cook" a lot-- but it's more because I'm not the kind of person that would be happy to live off of spagghetti o's and Mcdonald's than because I actually enjoy cooking. The problem is, right now my definition of "cooking" consists of preparing boxed foods, simple and common American dinners (like tacos or spagghetti and garlic bread) and a handful of things my mom taught me how to make. On a scale of 1-10, I would say my cooking skills are at about a 4 or 5. Most things I try to make are successful, but I haven't really ventured too much outside of the things I am already comfortable making. Mostly because it's expensive (especially if the attempt happens to "fail") and takes a lot of time.

So I thought I would start with things that aren't too complicated, that I would be motivated to make again if they were good. The first thing I decided to make was broccoli cheese soup. This may seem like it should be ridiculously easy. I mean, it's soup. But I have tried to make creamy soup before, and it resulted in something that had the consistency of pond scum. Clearly, I have a long ways to go before I can shamelessly call myself a "cook." I really wanted to try this again, because cream soups are among the few foods that I crave and am unable to make. So I bought all the ingredients and planned to make it within the following couple of weeks.

My second item was blueberry coffee cake. This was not something I planned, I just happened to mention it to Brian, and should have known that there was no turning back after the idea was planted in his head (Brian loves all breakfast foods.) So I bought all the necessary ingredients and spent that afternoon in the kitchen.

The biggest problem that I ran in to was that I read through the recipes and bought all the ingredients each recipe required, but I hadn't read through the recipes to see all the kitchen supplies I would need...

For instance, after I started, I realized the broccoli cheese soup recipe called for a food processor-- which I didn't have. Luckily, the blender was able to accomplish the task. The coffee cake, though, required an electric beater, which I also did not have. I used to own one, but the last time I tried to use it, it literally caught on fire in my hands. So naturally, I had thrown it away. Mostly I had used it to make oatmeal cookies, and a hand whisk usually worked fine as an alternative. The problem with coffee cake was 1) the instructions specified at least a couple times the exactly speed and length of time it needed to be mixed, which was hard to replicate with a hand whisk and 2) the dough was much more thick and difficult to stir, so it required a lot more energy than a batch of cookies.

The coffee cake also called for a pastry cutter (which I had NEVER heard of before and obviously didn't have) in order to make the crumb topping. I used a fork, hoping that would produce a similar result...

Conclusion:

Coffee Cake: It LOOKED beautiful, but it was not the greatest.


I followed the baking directions exactly-- I preheated the oven to the correct temperature and left it in for the correct length of time, but it still ended up being gooey in the middle! So I put it in and kept checking on it for what ended up being about 25 minutes longer... and it was close to the right consistency in the middle, but really hard and brown on the edges. Sooo... we had a couple pieces and it's been sitting on my counter since. Kind of disappointing, but it was meant to be a learning experience, anyway. :)

Broccoli Cheese Soup: Pretty good!


I still wouldn't say it was the greatest thing ever, but it was pretty straight forward and I would probably make it again.

Don't judge me, I'm a work in progress. :) But, of course, any advice is welcome! I still have 8+ more recipes to accomplish this year.