Some of you might wonder what in the world I do with my "spare time" here.
Well, for starters I have been reading more than I had been able to before we moved. I just finished an awesome book about
Wal-Mart written by a few AEI Scholars, The Prodigal God by Tim Keller and am just about done with a book about Sex-Trafficking. Next on the list: The Brothers Karamazov &
The Master & His Emissary.
As you might imagine, figuring out how to do life in Moldova takes up some of my time, more than one would suspect it would take, but it has been enjoyable.
But if you are on
Pinterest at all, you have probably figured out that I spend half my time pinning mostly mouth-watering photos of food {and you may have also been growing concerned for me and the state of my mental health}. I would like to explain myself: it's not
entirely that I am some sort of crazy food-obsessed person or that the food here is so terrible that I have to spend my free time daydreaming about delicacies {it isn't, it's pretty decent albeit limited in variety}, my obsessive-compulsive pinning actually serves two main purposes: culinary inspiration {for personal & professional reasons} & photographic inspiration {for personal & professional reasons}. Right before we left, I picked up a book on food photography, some software {that has yet to arrive} & I also downloaded a digital photography course in my attempt to accomplish one of
my goals: to become a better photographer. And why not pick one of my favorite things
ever {i.e. eating/making/drooling over amazing food} as a test subject?
Here is attempt #1, the "before" photo {I will post "after" photos once I am able to complete the aforementioned training}:
Of course, in order to practice taking beautiful photos, I need to practice making delicious-looking food. So here is my bucket list of things to attempt to make {& photograph}:
- Homemade Marshmallows {torched in certain dishes for special effect}.
- Crackers. Good ones, with fancy herbs and whatnot.
- Gourmet Pizza Crust. Maybe even on the grill.
- Pie & by default awesome pie crust. Can you believe I've never made a pie crust before? And I call myself some kind of baker...it's embarrassing, really.
- Ice Cream. Because I am a true "Scott" at heart and by blood: my great-great-grandparents used to run an ice cream shop in Mt. Healthy, OH, back in the day when they cut giant chunks of ice out of the lake to put in their "Ice Boxes". Also, I read in some culinary magazine that homemade/artisanal ice cream was the next big thing, so it is only reasonable to experiment with this.
- Fancy finger foods for all my entertaining needs.
- Homemade Artisanal Bread. Already have 3 books coming in the mail on this subject.
- Vegetable "Chips" of all kinds {Kale, Beet, Zucchini, Apple, etc.}
- Reductions of all sorts. Mostly Balsamic...since I burnt the whole batch on my first attempt...
- Something with Figs. Anything with figs. I don't even like figs that much but they look so pretty and taste great when in cahoots with salty things and gorgonzola cheese.
- Cakes & more precisely, fancier ways of decorating them.
- Good corn tortillas from "scratch", my first attempt was mediocre...
- Experiment with Panko Bread Crumbs.
- Thai/Asian Dishes of all sorts.
- Tarts. Croissants. Anything puffy and buttery.
- Canning. Awesome produce is available here but on a very limited time frame...so I have to learn to stock up and salvage what I can for the wintry months.
- Let me add that I would have an entire section dedicated solely to avocados and another one to fancy cheese probably {maybe even crazily trying to make my own}, but those two things seem to be a little tough to come by in these parts of the world. I have found avocados but they were utterly disappointing and tasted really funky for lack of a better term. I'd rather have none than subject myself to those. The cheese here is OK, there's just not a great variety.
We have lots of cheese here, so if you're ever desperate you can come for a visit :) I'm excited to see what you come up with (and hopefully if you make something especially tasty you'll pass on the recipe; then I'll have John make it for me ;D).
ReplyDeleteHow much are plane tickets to Yekat?!?
DeleteIf I do have any success I'll make sure to pass it on so John can make it for you! {Ha!} If I tried to strike that kind of deal with MB I'd be getting Ritz Crackers and Cheese for dinner.