Creative Kitchen Experiements

I've still been sitting on the 'creative energy' idea for a little while and I still would like to do something on the side so, a little bit more on what I've been doing with the creative experimentation idea.

Over the last 1 month, I've gotten myself a few appliances necessary to my creative experiments in the kitchen. I've got at least... 3 or 4 new things I'm trying.

I've tried baking bread... my first 2 attempts out of a box were less its claims which spurred me to make my own good breads instead... linseed, olive, meal.... (Thanks to the mixer which comes with a bread kneader)

I've tried biscuits with fairly acceptable end-products so I'm trying cakes now. Today, its Andy's birthday cake to be exact. (Inspiration kudos to Japan.)

I'm also curing my own lemons. I got this idea from a Food Safari programme and I thought it really looked beautiful on the bar. That and also, I love... (Just some lemons and an beautiful airtight jar from Ikea)

I used to love Oporto's Portugese Chicken when I was staying in my loft in Sydney - it wasn't so much the chicken, as it was the chilli. The lemonny garlic chillis were pure seduction. To do that, I got myself a blender from a voucher I had lying around.

I also got 2 wine jars.... to infuse my own blend. :-) (Kudos also to good friends who saw it necessary to teach me this very traditional Japanese culture when I first arrived.) If all goes well, expect some for Christmas!

How bake bread

This is not a 'How-To' Entry. I just lost count of where I was in the numbered days of Things I Learnt Project. What I did learn today, was how to bake bread.

When I got my mixer, mom passed me one of those 'Add-water-and-pop-in-oven' mixes for bread. Today is the second time I tried it. The first time, Andy and I made breadsticks and I followed the direction to the T. It came out like twigs... Mom said its because those thin sticks don't need the 25 minutes that the recipe on the box called for since they were so small. So today, I decided to make a whole loaf for dinner.

But for the second time, it has come out pretty dense. So, I'm not trusting those Bread-In-A-Box recipes. I went to learn 'how to make bread' the ol'fashion way. I can't wait to try it out in a few weeks time!