adventures in cooking and baking

I have made some interesting food discoveries in the last month. I have always been an adventurous cook. My mother-in-law praises my risk-taking in the kitchen, but that's probably because she spent the last 30 years cooking for picky boys who tend to like boring food. :-) Anyway, to start with something that turned out well, a few weeks ago I came home determined to use some of the extra food in my fridge. This always incites the riskiest risk-taking in cooking for me. I had some left-over mashed potatoes, some bulk hot Italian sausage, some very ripe tomatoes and a few other random ingredients. This I turned into a sausage and tomato ragu with cannellini beans over a mashed potato pancake. It was marvelous. The ragu was deep-flavored and fresh-tasting, and the pancake was crispy on the outside and creamy in the middle. Marvelous.

Then, just last night in fact, I decided to make a peach cobbler to make use of the 5 beautiful white and yellow peaches I had picked up at the farmer's market on Sunday. I was making an "easy" cobbler, where instead of cutting cold butter into a dough, you simply make a batter and pour over melted butter directly into the baking dish and don't mix. Then you pour the fruit over the batter and, theoretically, the batter will rise to the top and turn golden brown. Well, everything was going smoothly until my adventurous streak kicked in. I was simmering the peaches in sugar and lovely Meyer lemon juice, when I thought "Hey! What about a blueberry peach cobbler?" I had just bought some organic frozen blueberries and thought I would add a few to the mix. No no no no no. Such a travesty. I basically ended up with a cobbler that looked like squid ink with some kind of fish guts in it. Wow. It was horrifying. Please, don't ever try this at home.

The nice thing about taking risks in the kitchen is that they really aren't risks. There is nothing at stake but our breakfast/lunch/dinner/dessert, and I always learn a lot. Especially from the mistakes. Plus, cooking puts me in my zen place. I can come home having had a terrible day and cooking gives me everything I need. I can think through the day's dilemmas, or I can choose to focus on the food and not think about them. I can cook an old stand-by and feel confident and experienced, or I can delve into new territory and see where the recipes take me. And then there is the satisfaction of being able to cook tasty, nutritious food for myself and my partner. Food that comes from my heart and says "I love you" much more than words can.

Will post the ragu recipe soon!