2015 Culinary Bucket List
For the past few years, I’ve posted a Culinary Bucket List. This is simply a list of recipes I’d like to tackle in the upcoming year. Whether it’s an exercise in frustration or inspiration depends on your outlook. I rarely make all the items on the list. Some years I don’t make even half. But the list isn’t a set of goals. It’s a creative, “What About” process that gets me thinking beyond the usual seasonal/holiday fare. I pull out long-ignored cookbooks to see what new dishes, new techniques catch my fancy. While I eventually tick a few items off the list, I also end up making dishes I hadn’t heard or thought of. So I figure it all evens out in the end.
This past year I accomplished only the Portuguese Custard Tarts and the pot stickers. However, I had no idea I’d be making old-fashioned treats like Sugarplums and Sticky Toffee Pudding. But I’m glad I did. So is my sister, who has requested Sticky Toffee Pudding, complete with the Bailey’s Caramel Sauce, for her birthday dessert. When experimenting with the barbecue, I created a recipe for Smoked Sugar Ice Cream that my husband still mentions on occasion with a wistful voice. For my mother, I cooked up a batch of black currant jam that actually tastes like black currants and reminds her of the intense preserves of her youth. I even made some apricot sherbet to go with it in a frosty homage to a baked Easter treat. For myself, I made light-as-air Crostoli.
This year? I’m playing fast and loose with flour and sugar. And butter. Lots of butter. Probably too much butter. But since I never make all items on the list, it’s a safe bet I won’t exceed my butter quota.
My 2015 Culinary Bucket List
- Kouign Amann
- Chiffon Cake (flavour to match my mood)
- Homemade Raspberry Liqueur
- Chicken Lababdar
- Homemade Nutella
- Orange Olive Oil Cake
- Sourdough Bread – with homemade starter
- Salted Caramel Cake
- Lasagna totally homemade — noodles and filling
- Lemon and Ginger Marmalade
- Bûche de Noël
- Homemade Fortune Cookies