More than a year ago, the editor of Parade magazine was abruptly fired from his job, a job he cared deeply about and a job he worked very hard at, sometimes at the expense of his wife and three kids. Lee Kravitz and I went to the same high school, not ten years apart; when I was there, he’d taken a job in the alumni department but, an apprentice writer himself, he occasionally joined our weekly, after-hours writing seminars. Years later, an editor in New York, he met his wife, by chance the literary agent who had years earlier agreed to represent me and subsequently agented all my books. They had kids, both were successful in business, had a home in Manhattan and a home in the country…and then he was fired.
At first adrift, he chose not to seek another job but to embark on an uncommon quest and to write about it in a book he’s just published called Unfinished Business. We have all done things we regret, wrongs we’d like to right. Lee set out to do just that, taking care of unfinished business, ten tasks, finding an aunt who had been abandoned by the family, reconnecting with an old friend who’d lost his daughter, finding and thanking his high school mentor. There’s something intensely liberating about this idea, and Lee has done a fine and thoughtful job at recounting his year. It’s the kind of reportage-cum-memoir that I love. If you heard him on All Things Considered last week, you got a sense of the intelligence he brings to the writing of the book. (Clevelanders, Lee’s reading tonight at Joseph-Beth Booksellers at Legacy Village if you want to hear him in person.)
It was the book I read while in Italy and I found it fascinating and couldn’t help but imagine, as any reader or listener must, what unfinished business I ought to be attending to.
And I write about it here, not only to make sure as many people know about Lee’s book as possible, but to put this very question in a more specific and culinary light, to you, readers and cooks.
What is your unfinished business in the kitchen? It’s summer. Often hours are more relaxed. We have some time. We take a break. Perhaps it is time to prepare that cassoulet you’ve always dreamed of, curing your own duck, making your own sausage. Growing and drying your own legumes. (Kidding. Sort of.) Or maybe just to grow a salad. Or make a loaf of bread or a pie. Or teach someone you love to cook. Or make pasta for the first time.
Me? I have two. The first is to make my great grandmother’s meat dumplings. That won’t be difficult, just need to do it after all these years hearing about them. The difficult task for me is to make a hard cheese. I tried and failed last year. I want to make a cheddar cheese. Heidi, can y0u help me find some raw milk? I’m not hopeful, but, like Jack Nicholson trying to lift the water fountain in Cuckoo’s Nest, I’m gonna try, goddammit. I’m gonna say, “At least…I…tried.”
Think about it. What is your unfinished business? Write it here in the comments, publicly commit. I have. Here’s additional incentive. I’ve got two copies of Lee’s book provided by the publisher, to give away, randomly, or maybe not randomly, maybe I’ll choose the comments that I think are the most ambitious given the skill level (will do this Friday at noon). But don’t just comment to comment for the book. Comment to commit to accomplishing something new in the kitchen. When you complete it, failure or not, send me a photo (michaelruhlman@gmail.com). I’ll post the most inspirational this fall. And you can laugh at my cheese.
Update 6/11:
Many thanks to all of you who have made this such an inspiring post with all your comments. You’ve increased my goals for the summer and inspired me! The winners of the books have been chosen for a personal reason, the first two who have or wish to do something for or because of their father. Father’s Day approaches, and I miss my dad, so there it is. The first also has the coolest byline yet: Echo Fling; she writes the plucky gastronome blog; thank you, Echo, for a comment that connects cooking to the bigger issues. And second, to the blogless Thor; I will send you this book if you send me your address, but you have to promise to build your dad that brick oven.
BTW, for those interested in pursuing the unfinished business outside your kitchen, Lee has set up a site with tools and advice for proceeding, myunfinishedbusiness.com.
Again, to all, can’t tell you how surprised and inspired I am by your comments. Thank you.
I am going to try making my own bacon this year. After missing out (okay, skipping due to laziness) last years BLT challenge, I wanted to make sure I got set this year. Helped my cousin with his chicken coop (eggs for Mayo.), Tomatoes are planted and cages on, Lettuce is already going well (at least that I did last year even if we lost all our tomatoes to blight – crossing fingers this year). So my big work this summer is making the bacon so I can enter this years BLT challenge (you are doing it again right?).
There are several dishes I think about from time to time. Things I want to try but for whatever reason always put them off. Two of those things are gnocchi and croissants. I’m going to try both this summer. There, I said it so now I have to.
damn, now I’ve got three! croissants!
Lisa and Michael, I make croissants and gnocchi all the time. A warning about making croissants in the summer – be sure your room(s) are cool. If it’s humid, you’ll get a rubbery texture.
1) clean out the pantry 2) “repurpose” an old freezer for curing meat
I have quite a list already: 1) Making a quiche Lorraine in honor of my grandmother by the same name 2) Grind and figure out how to best stuff some chicken & garlic sausage 3) Find a use for the wonderful rancho gordo beans I bought and have yet to use 4) Employ my weber kettle grill as a makeshift meat/cheese/fish smoker
If I may offer some assistance with #4 (I’ve recently been going through the same thing): there are at least two devices to check out: the Smokenator and the Cajun Bandit (both are findable via google searches). I’ve gone a different route, one where firebricks are used to shield one side of the charcoal grate. Results have been less than satisfactory: the “one-touch” venting system on newer kettles is too leaky. Too much air gets in to the burning charcoal, and it is near-impossible to regulate the heat coming off it. I’ve heard it is easier to manage the heat with the older Bar-B-kettles, which had a different venting system.
Make pasta by hand. I tried a couple times in the past, but it never turned out quite right.
Oh, and I also want to make some good ramen stock.
On March 1st of this year, I was slaving away on the job at a private girls’ school in Princeton, NJ. My father took ill with a virulent bacterial infection a few days later. I dropped everything and ran 4,000 miles to be with him.
The next seven weeks’ journey through his struggle to live and his ultimate death shifted my life priorities. We buried him on a Friday and the following Tuesday, I tendered my resignation. Life’s too short. Like Kravitz, I needed to make time for personal business and do what makes me happy.
Watching my father at the end of his life made me realize that family and relationships are all you take with you to your death bed–not life’s professional successes.
I had started a food blog just before I had to leave to care for my father. He was pleased to see me use my talents to do something I was passionate about. I am continuing the project.
Every week, I gather my courage and pluck to try something new in the kitchen and post about it. The goal is to attempt a dish that I have not tried before–either because I was too timid or did not have enough time. You can keep tabs on my progress at http://thepluckygastronome.wordpress.com/
The big goal? My great grandmother’s Polish Fawokis. My mother is the only person left alive who has actually tasted them. She says they are like munching on “sweet air.” My attempts thus far have been worthy-but not quite right. I have to get them right before my mother dies or part of my family’s heritage will be lost forever.
I hope you win the book! When I lost my dad a few years back his last conversations with me were about what he ultimately found important in his life and it shifted my priorities, too. You’ve inspired me and I’m heading over to your blog now. Mine’s been a slow starting (I’m celebrating the great little local restaurants and food related places in my central NY hometown of Syracuse), but it does give me great pleasure.
all best wishes with your blog! thanks for link!
wow! I definitely want to know how the “big goal” turns out. Enjoy the journey!
Funny you mention making a hard cheese, since that’s at the top of my list, too. I’ve been making my own goat cheese and mozzarella for a while now, but those are comparatively easy.
I’ve wanted to try making my own chouriço for some time now, too, but the long, cold smoking part of that equation holds me back a bit, gear-wise.
Making hard cheeses is on our summer list, too. My husband just mastered sandwich bread…so now need some delicious cheese to go with it. We have two Jersey’s….one is fresh, so we get about 5 gallons of milk a day. The other should be fresh in July – so with 10 gallons of milk a day, we’re hoping to make a go with the cheese! Michael, please keep us posted on your successes…and failures.
First cheese attempt ever – the neighbors and I are going to give soft cheeses a try.
Canning whole fruits instead of salsa/tomato sauce. Making jam.
This summer is apparently all about controlling bacteria in my house.
I’ve been meaning to learn to make croissants. I will. I must. I need to. (Well, maybe I don’t *need* to, but I want to.)
I’ve now had two successful attempts at croissants using Esther McManus’ recipe as presented on Julia Child’s “Baking With Master Chefs”. I posted a few pics and a link to the video of the TV episode here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/djwtwo/3626502259/in/set-72157619665902391/
I am a recent college graduate and have struggled to find work which fulfills me. In the last two months, I have come across a job which I love, where part of the payment is four gallons of organic, raw goat milk each week. My goal for the summer is not to waste a drop of it. My plan of attack: yogurt, chevre, feta, mozzarella, ricotta to start, then maybe something a little moldy, maybe something aged. I don’t yet know what is possible in my small kitchen. Ice cream (if I can find an ice cream maker on the cheap), dulce de leche (cajeta). Of these, I know how to make yogurt, ice cream and cajeta, so this will be a summer of experimentation. Oh yeah, and I want to document all of this, so that my work doesn’t all go in my stomach, and I have something to show in my future search for work that I enjoy.
Good luck everyone!
some of the best food has come about in order to avoid waste. good luck!
Paige, look on Freecycle or Craigslist. Many people get Krups ice cream makers for wedding gifts and then never use them.
And congratulations on graduating from college!
I’m going to try to corn something in the next year. I have a slab of elk staked out in the freezer and woe betide anyone who cooks it or gives it away. I have all of the spices, and the nitrate salt that I might need. What I don’t have is the coordination of time to defrost it and pickle it. First, I have to deal with the 25 pounds of venison for snack sticks…
One thing I’m going to do is make Eggs Benedict from scratch: by curing my own (heritage breed!) back bacon and making my own English muffins (and, of course, making Hollandaise sauce). I don’t think it’ll be that hard, but it should be rewarding to see all the various ingredients come together.
I also plan to take my sausage-making efforts to the next level, either by doing an emulsified sausage or a dry-cured one. I haven’t quite decided yet.
i love the eggs benedict from scratch idea!
Eggs bennies from scratch are divine! If you’ve never made homemade English Muffins, watch out – you’ll get hooked.
I’m going to try to make my own pie crust this year. My favorite dessert of all time is old-fashioned southern chocolate pie. My grandmother always used to make me one for my birthday but in the past few years she’s had to stop cooking and baking so I’ve been making my own birthday pie to share with her. I’ve cheated in the past and used store bought pie crust but this year I’m going for the real thing. My birthday is fast approaching – July 21. We’ll see what happens!
a noble goal amanda! key is to not over work the dough!
Ruhlman inspired me to make my own pie crust in January – I was shocked at how easy it was, and how different it was than store bought crust. I don’t think I’ll ever go back. Good luck!
Puff pastry from scratch. I’ve got pie crust down, and I’d like to try croissants, too. Oh, AND apply to, be accepted to, and start culinary school. There’s that, too.
Ribs.
I’m going to master the tricks to barbecue ribs consistently.
And give ketchup another shot.
My goal is to not let a single thing from our weekly CSA go to waste this year. It’s going to be tough, but it is ever more important now that my wife is pregnant with triplets (I am screaming on the inside!!!!!!!!) Those babies are going to need a lot of nutrition! Certainly that will mean finding new ways to prepare and preserve the great veggies we get!
Pie crust. The ubiquitous pie crust. I want to be able to just make it with out pulling out 7 different recipe books and comparing and contrasting. I just want to do it like my Grandmother and Great Aunts did. I want to take some summer fruits sitting on the counter. (Peaches I’m looking at you) and make a pie. Just like Grandma’s. I wish I had paid more attention when Grandma was still making them. She’s gone now. I never thought it would be so hard.
It’s funny to see that others have similar goals for the summer. One that it unrelated to my kitchen is to purge my bookshelves so that I room for all the books I’ve had to buy for school.
Kitchen goals:
1. Make my own yogurt.
2. Stock the freezer with homemade “junk food” for my teen son. Suggestions welcome.
3. Inspired by the stoned bakery scene in “It’s Complicated” I want to make chocolate croissants from scratch. Unfortunately I won’t have all the wonderful equipment just my two little hands and a rolling pin. BTW, Meryl Streep and Steve Martin are very funny when they *play* high. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIESXKFUK6M bakery moment not included
Headcheese.
For the first time in 10 years, we have a small vegetable garden. My goal is to use *everything* that we manage to grow. Given that my husband feels that 7 (SEVEN!) tomato plants are necessary for TWO of us, I’m expecting to make and can my husband’s grandmother’s tomato chutney recipe in 90-100 days. I’m stoked about this.
My mom’s put food up for 25+ years, and before moving away 10 years ago, I wish I would have learned all the tricks from her. I’ve had my share of trials and tribulations over the years in my haphazard canning attempts, but the desire to grow/ put up/ eat & share something from start to finish is too tantalizing. It’s going to be a GREAT summer.
FYI, more greens than you think are edible. I was once served a quiche made with radish greens and it was delicious. Good luck.
I want to learn how to make my grandmothers black russian bundt cake. It was always my favorite cake growing up, and I have never made a cake from scratch. It will also be nice spending time with my grandmother doing something we both love.
Enable my children, 10, 7, and 6 to make their own popsicles out of juice, teach them all to fry an egg, and start making my own yogurt instead of buying it.
~ Thanks for posting this, Georgia
My unfinished business is to get back in to a working kitchen. I left to raise my kids since we all know and love the full mornings, days and nights we dedicate to those stainless rooms. Now that the kids are grown it is time to get back to running my own kitchen again. Obviously it is not easy to get considered fighting against so many younger chefs but I will make it happen. Look out…here I come.
Earlier this year I put my Culinary “To Make” List up on my blog.
http://cookergirl.blogspot.com/2010/03/culinary-to-make-list.html
I moved into my house 2 1/2 years ago and still haven’t organized my kitchen, pantry, and freezer. My goal is to get all of my mise en place, so to speak, which will make cooking less frenetic and haphazard. And to make some hatch chile/apple pork sausage when the hatches are in season as a run up to doing the same with venison after hunting season begins.
My goal is make my own sous vide setup ala kenji and then put it to work on some local pork shanks and beef short ribs.
I wonder where I could find a good book on sous vide? suggestions?
“Under Pressure” by Thomas Keller
Ditto on Under Pressure. Some of the recipes are pretty intimidating, but the sections on technique are great and there’s a chart for times and temps of a wide variety of meats and vegetables. Plus, the photos are just beautiful.
The good thing about the recipes is that you can at least take inspiration from them and create some great flavor combinations, even if you don’t follow them to the letter.
Thanks, Mantonat! I might have to ask for this for father’s day.
I always have a list of things but there are a few items that have been on the list for so long that they almost feel forbidden. The biggest things I’d like to not only try but accomplish are cassoulet and paella on the savoury side, babas au rhum and kouign amann on the sweet side. There’s also crumpets and English muffins that I’m forever intrigued by. Time to get to it! Catching some of my own food would also be on my list which I did last year with crab:
http://www.lemontart.ca/2010/05/crab-bisque-and-other-adventures-in-crab.html
I’m very comfortable cooking and am known for being a good baker.
However, what I’ve wanted to learn for a long time now is how to make tamales. Being in California I have access to a lot of delicious authentic ones at various Hispanic markets, but I’d like to make my own. Everyone tells me it’s a huge job and you need a lot of people but it seems if you break it down in stages it would be manageable. I’m one of those folks who likes to do things by hand with a lot of attention to detail so I figure it would be just the thing for me.
Yum – now I’m hungry!
I wonder if you’re close? I wonder further, if we should join forces? I live an hour outside Sac.
I have made tamales alone and in a group; they are not hard to make but laborious. Breaking the job into parts helps – you can prepare the filling a day ahead for example. The assembly takes time and then the tamales need to steam for 1-11/2 hours.
I suggest you throw a traditional Tamalada, a tamale making party. You and your guests get one batch cooking to eat that night and continue assembling the rest of the tamales for folks to take home and freeze for a future dinner. A quick google search will give you plenty of ideas for your Tamalada
Good luck.
Top 3 on my list: 1) Make my own yogurt. My family eats yogurt every day. I’ve already got a starter (from my husband’s Indian co-worker)! 2) Sous vide without a sous vide machine. 3) Finally make my own kimchi.
I’ve had pretty good luck with sous vide using a digital thermometer and a large stock pot on the stove top. I haven’t attempted any of the really long sous vide times, but did a 9-hour pork belly that turned out pretty good. It’s almost the only way I do steaks now – generally under an hour for standard sized steaks with foolproof results.
#3 will be embarrassingly easy once you overcome your trepidation. Started making my own sauerkraut & kimchee earlier this year, and now my friends and neighbors keep me busy with requests for more. I recommend Sandor Katz’ wonderful book ‘Wild Fermentation.’ Once you’ve conquered kimchee, you’ll be inspired to try dozens of other things. Have fun!
For the first time, my wife and I will be moving into a house–with a real yard!– and are able to garden. I’ve been a serious at-home cook for about two years now, and have longed for the closest connection to food as possible. I am a complete novice, but am going to harass my mother, be she grew her first garden last year.
Cooking-wise, I’d like to tackle two things: ceviche and making pasta. For both, I’d like to get the best all-around experience I can: make gnocchi, pappardelle, linguine, shrimp, scallop, lobster ceviche (because who knows how much longer we’ll have that stuff).
Thanks for the inspiration, Michael!
So many unfinished things in the kitchen! I LOVE reading everyone’s list! It inspired my own:
Sweet
1. Laminated dough. Puff pastries and Croissants here I come! Though I may cheat and use Nick Malgeri’s Modern Baker shortcut first before I do it the old fashion way.
2. Fondant and Gum Paste. I’m not a huge fan of overly decorated cakes, but I’d love to have the ability to do it for those certain occasions.
3. Chocolate decorations. I’ve been experimenting with spun sugar and caramel decorations. Now I want to do the same with chocolate. Chocolate ribbons, chocolate leaves, chocolate clay, chocolate piped decorations, decorative transfer sheet, etc. Again the ability to play with chocolate as decorations will widen my skill set for when I need to create that show stopper dessert.
4. French Macarons. I’ve gone down the path several times, but never finished it (in fact I went so far as to make my own dehydrate vegetables to make them into a powder for the macaron flavor I wanted). I will do it. In fact, I need to do. I have 25 egg whites in my freezer waiting to be used and I don’t want to just make boring angel food cake.
5. Donuts. Always wanted to. Never gotten around to buying the oil for it.
6. Bûche de Noël. Always wanted to make it, never had an excuse to.
7. Biscotti. Homemade biscotti. Sounds delightful.
Savory
8. Bread. I’ve done variants of the no-knead, as well as soft pretzels and pretzel buns. But I haven’t conquered other yeast risen bread. I’d love to make my own bagels – which has been on my to do list FOREVER.
9. Cheese. After reading Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I want to make my own cheese.
10. Fresh Pasta/Gnocchi. I’ve always had dreams of making my own ravioli to freeze. Never got around to it (even though I bought ravioli molds years ago).
12. Sous Vide without the machine. Thanks Sue for reminding me of that!
13. Shellfish. Strangely, I’ve never made it at home. Love to make lobster. But my partner is scared of live animals in our kitchen….Guess I’ll be doing that on my own.
14. Taiwanese cuisine. A broad subject, but it’s my heritage, and I haven’t made anything specifically Taiwanese. Reading an article in the April issue of Saveur about Taiwanese cuisine makes me want to start.
Hmmm. something tells me I’m not going to get this all done this summer. But thanks for the thought provoking topic! I’m going to start a “unfinished business” list on my blog now.
Homemade biscotti *is* delightful. And not the least bit hard.
Highly recommend the Lenox Almond Biscotti in the book Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan.
Bagels turn out to be one of the easiest yeast breads to make. I held off for years, instead making ciabattas, baguettes, paves, and yet scared of the bagel. So easy, I can’t believe I waited so long, and the results are extraordinary. I love the Bread Baker’s Apprentice recipe. Not mentioned in this book is that you can keep the shaped bagels, uncooked in the fridge for up to three days, and make bagels fresh each morning. Your family [and friends] will love you.
Top three for this year:
1. Start up the goat project for raw milk cheeses.
2. Increase the currently running Chicken Project.
3. Make my first chorizo.
I almost forgot, purchase and read ‘Ratio’.
You’ve inspired me to FINALLY learn to make elotes. Elotes are fresh corn tamales made in the fresh husks. They are sweet, slightly salty, a little buttery and make a perfect summer meal along with some carne asada and thick slices of heirloom tomato. They are served with a thin, fiery yet sweet, dried chipotle salsa and cool, thick sour cream. An explosion of chopped cilantro on top doesn’t hurt them a bit, either. Although I’ve really tried here, the complexity of textures, flavors and temperatures in each bite of these delicious little wonders just cannot make the leap from palate to written word.
I always wanted to make puff pastry from scratch… there must be something liberating about waking the butter into the dough and then treating it like a baby.
And I have to agree as well with Croissants…
I asked for a pig for fathers day. I am going to attempt to roast a pig this year.
Pickles. Specifically, dill pickles. Did some last year, but was not happy with the flavor. This year’s goal is to perfect that.
And, figure out what to do with candied habanero!
There are so many…but the top ones are making a GOOD loaf of bread (no matter how I try, I never get it quite right) and trying venison sausage for the first time. And to give you all some consolation, I’m growing all the ingredients for homemade salsa this summer, and so far, they’re doing well. So, I can check that one off the list.
Ooops…and I forgot. Roasting a whole pig in my backyard. Lots of logistics to work out there.
At the new year I spent two weeks nursing an un-yeasted, sour-dough starter that never started. I’m developing the enthusiasm to give it another try–this time with a bit of yeast…hope it works because I don’t think I’ll be willing to give it another chance if this fails.
If you can’t get your starter up and running (after two years, I sadly killed mine by neglect) just do what I did and just ask around for someone else’s. I was lucky to get some from a baker who got her’s from the San Francisco Baking Institute. You could even post on Craigslist or on eGullet or any other site for starter….
I just put this book in my Amazon shopping cart directly from your link. I loved The Blood of Strangers (I used to work in an E.R.) so I will take your recommendation for good books to read any time.
I recently read an article all about people “scoring” raw milk, and I thought it was in The NYTimes, but I can’t find it to pass along. When you get some, you can make real clotted cream too, which is what I would really like to do with it.
Cooking Goals
Cook and photograph “seven unassailable meals” (an idea I got from Pat Conroy’s Beach Music) for a new blog, Seven Suppers, that is only those seven meals.
Make gnocchi for the first time.
Make homemade corn tortillas.
@prospective sous viders: kenji’s method won’t last more than a few hours–not nearly long enough if you want to do shanks or spare ribs. I humbly refer to my own blog post about home-brew sous vide setups: http://wp.me/pKtKp-7h
I haven’t read Under Pressure, but heard others say it’s only useful for pro kitchens. Anyone want to chime in on that?
@ruhlman I’ve actually been knocking mine out since last winter. Was my motivation to start cooking more regularly. Did coq au vin over xgiving and your/Bourdain’s cassoulet at xmas. I REALLY want to make this Egyptian skate dish that Ali El-Sayed made @ Kabab Cafe. I have concerns about the sustainability of skate fishing, so I may try something with scallops instead. Not completely sure where to start, except to learn more about Egyptian cuisine and rely on my fuzzy, but deliriously happy memories.
Randomly, my dad’s a chaplain and did his doctoral thesis about helping terminally ill patients resolve unfinished business. Title of this post definitely grabbed my attention.
Ben.
I would like to “Chime in on that”.
Read “under Pressure”, it was co-written by Michael Ruhlman.
… could you please comment on how much of the book is relevant for home cooks? What kinds of things did you find useful?
Just realized that it gets very hot (and dry enough) in central Texas during the summer. So I’m going to try my hand at some serious sun-drying of fruit along with a turn at making Sicilian sun-dried tomato paste (strattu).
For me to even write about my unfinished business(es) would only open my own Pandora’s Box so I wish not to think of it….sick eh? I know mine will be a life of ‘I should have’s'…I’m glad u limited it to just the kitchen; but I am definitely reading Unfinished Business…
After spending too many long days in the kitchen already this summer, I think my personal challenge will be to get outside and cook as many things over an open fire pit as I can, in as many different locations possible. Bonfire at the beach anyone?!
Oh, I am so there…
With my ugly blown out knee and all….
- R
xoxo
Oh, man…not a good time to blow out anything! Take care…see you at the beach!
I am going to build a wood fired brick oven with my Dad.
I built one at my house several years ago and he has wanted one ever since. He just turned 70 and is a fantastic bread baker. He deserves the oven and all it has to offer.
I LOVE that you are going to do this with your father.
I have a book on how to build a brick oven, but I haven’t gotten as far as making it a goal; right now it’s still a dream.
Is it inside or outside? Alice Waters’ kitchen has an interior wood oven. Sigh.
Ditto what she said!
Duck Confit.
I have a small wine fridge that my wife and I got for our wedding (I don’t do the alcohol thing) and it seems like that would be the perfect storage place for it. Now, where can I put my hands on quarts of duck fat….
This may seem obvious, but buy a duck. The fat from your first duck will give you enough to confit your second. [And you get to eat both!]
My unfinished business has to do, not so much with cooking new things, but with documenting the everyday (and sometimes, not so everyday) things I currently cook.
I have shelves full of cookbooks. So do friends and family. I seem to be part of this ever widening cookbook culture.
But I think back to the little wooden box my mother has on her counter, containing little handwritten, food-stained note cards on which the lifetime of family recipes are collected. There was the Fannie Farmer cookbook, and probably one that came with the crock pot. But most of the cooking was done from recipes that were written down on these little cards. When I visit my mom back in Cleveland, I look at that box, and it is like flipping through a family photo album. Christmas cookies, Easter breads, the Sunday meatloaf, my grandmother’s pickled cabbage.
I cook nearly everyday. Even when I use a book recipe, it is never verbatim. I usually make some adjustments, or swap one ingredient for another that I have on hand. And I rarely document any of it.
I’d like to start building my own family kitchen history – so that when my kids grow up, they can recreate what I hope are great memories, tastes, and smells for their kids.
That’s my unfinished business.
Hi, Brian,
That’s the reason I started my own blog – to share all the recipes I have collected through many years of cooking.
Maybe you would like to start a blog too – perhaps “My Little Wooden Box?”
I thought about suggesting an Eggs Benedict from scratch contest for this site awhile back, but never got around to it…maybe my goal should be to quit procrastinating…
Reading everyone’s posts made me realize just how much of my “to-do” list that I have completed over the last few years! Laminated doughs, check – rendering my own lard, check – making bacon & pancetta, check – canning vegetables & salsas, check – making all sorts of artisan breads, check – cooking & baking w/o a book, check (thanks to Ratio!) – cake decorating, check.
Much of the credit for me reaching my goals goes to Ruhlman. Without Charcuterie & Ratio, many of the items on the list would be unfinished. Thank you, Michael. Words alone cannot express my gratitude. You have made me a better, more independent, and more thoughtful cook and baker.
High praise thx darcie
Grow and dry both Lazy Housewife and Cherokee beans.(not kidding.)
Make yogurt- We eat tons of it and maybe it would be more cost effective.
Learn to make Strudel.
Can my own tomato paste.
I have a few goals that are fairly simple. Balancing these with work may get tough, but I think I can handle it.
1) Make chicken, beef, veal (brown and white) stocks.
2) Learn how to cook a duck and utilize every part of it.
3) Make pasta. I’ll try all shapes and sizes.
4) Probably the biggest, I will be perfecting the lean dough bread. I just want to be able to make good bread and often.
Since I’ve realized that I love making ice cream enough to hopefully make a business out of it, my goal this summer is to take the first steps of figuring out my own recipes and not just using The Perfect Scoop. I hope there’s an ice cream recipe ratio in Ratio!
Also, grow tomatoes and make some jam, not the fridge kind.
My goal for this summer is to do more preserving of summer fruits – especially jam-making. Every summer I have big intentions in this regard, but I never really seem to make it happen even though I do have to equipment and know how. I adore homemade jam (especially freezer jam, which couldn’t be easier) so I just have to stop being lazy and make it happen!
My goal is a bit more philosophical…or spiritual, if you will: I hope to stop berating myself for doing the things I love (growing food, cooking it, feeding it my family…finding contentment in my “small” life) instead of the things I was “supposed” to do: finish my dissertation, be a professor, have a Brilliant Career.
No more internal voice, criticizing my every kitchen creation: “it’s just food…you’re nobody and you just cook.” No more stepping outside the real joy I find in my daily life, allowing that nagging, analytic, hyper-judgmental Other to deconstruct and dismiss what, moments earlier. I was happily and–yes, I admit it–proudly creating.
yeah!!! change you mind! look at what actually is in front of you and appreciating it. forcing a smile till it becomes natural totally works, it takes your brain to a good place where those negative voices get drowned out!
i would love to know how it goes.
good luck!
growing our food and cooking it is one of the few things that distinguishes us as humans. i would never berate myself for that!
I understand what Becky is saying though. My grandparents and great-grandparents immigrated from Ukraine and were farmers in central Canada. It is probably each family’s hope that the new generation will be wealthier and better educated than the last. Pressure to fit in and succeed in the “real world” is sometimes overwhelming and our path in life is often more a result of assuaging guilt and attempting to meet the expectations of others than finding something we are passionate about. Although my career is based in front of a computer, I really hope that my grandfather the farmer – who died 30 years ago – looks down with at least a little pride knowing I love nothing more than getting dirt under my fingernails.
I think it’s FANTASTIC that you grow your own food! Living in a small apartment in San Francisco, I have no place for to do that, but it has always been a dream of mine… Perhaps one of these days.
I am lucky that we have fruit trees in our otherwise barren backyard though. The pigeons get to all the fruit, but they leave the lemons alone….
I love this idea for a book. Just love it. My book Food Heroes that’s coming out in a few months does something similar, in that it tells the story of people who were working in a traditional corporate job and then one day decided they wanted something more and stepped off the grid to start raising ship, or make exquisite olive oil. I can’t wait to pick this one up! Thanks for sharing!
Unfinished culinary business for me includes making the following:
–Saucisson pork tenderloin, as it was on my list of things to make last summer but moving to the city made that a failed project.
–Mozzarella and goat cheese. Having ready access to one of the best farmers markets in the country necessitates at least giving the latter a try.
–Making a piadina–a real one, with lard and everything.
My summer goals are to master canning jellies and making pickles. Possibly not the most ambitious, but I think preservation is an important basic to master and I’ve never tried. I got the canning supplies for Christmas and my copy of the Univ of Georgia’s food preservation book just came in the mail.
Hm. Peaches are in season. I guess its time to start.
I have two goals, and they both involve yeast doughs, which I have traditionally failed at. (1) Make my own pizza dough that has the same crunchy-chewy texture as a good NY or brick oven pizza, and (2) make my own crusty loaf of bread. A friend shared a great recipe for the bread – it involves no kneading and it tastes like it came from an artisanal bakery – but so far I’ve been afraid to try it. And for the pizza, I’m going to give the recipe in Ratio a shot!
If it’s the NYT No-Knead bread recipe, do it. It’s insanely easy (check out Steamy Kitchen’s post about it – she has her 4 year old son make it http://steamykitchen.com/168-no-knead-bread-revisited.html), and the crust you get from baking in a dutch oven IS amazing.
Cook’s Illustrated took the recipe and adapted it slightly. They use beer to add more yeast flavor, as well as vinegar to add a sourdough flavor and kneaded the dough 10x. I suggest tracking it down, because it takes the NYT recipe to a new level.
One of these days I’m going to write a blog post about my adaption to the recipe. I just need to get around to it…
Yup, it’s the NYT recipe! I guess if a 4-year-old can do it, I’ll have no excuse.
I love crispy chewy pizza crust and french bread! good luck!
Thanks Michelle!
After a year of getting chewed up, spit out and otherwise denied by Australia’s employment, education, and immigration systems, I’ll be returning to the States to work my way up the kitchen totem pole. I learned a lot in Australia, but I can’t move up beyond kitchen-hand without dropping a big chunk of change on culinary education
That, and I’m looking forward to living somewhere with a proper selection of chilis so I can get my chili recipe to the next level.
Michael ( and the rest of you who are interested in making cheese) check out this magazing culturecheesemag.com It’s one of my favorite’s and you can link up with all sorts of places for supplies to do this up right.
I’ve been a licensed cheesemaker for 25 years (in Wisconsin you need a license to make cheese in a plant) and a microbiologist by education. Unless you are 100% certain of your source for milk and have taken great care in the process using pasteurized milk is your safest bet. I read all of the studies (it’s my job) and Listeria can survive for years in hard cheeses. Please take care,
cheezmaker
Warning appreciated. Thx
Now THAT’S Funny!
I’ve been meaning to get to this project for quite some time… and it might sound a little out there… but here we go. Neuroplasticity, I’m trying to change my mind, change the way I react to information or situations. This came about while on a road trip with a good friend. There were a lot of little things that happened on this trip that could have been devastating, my truck broke down, I misplaced my knives, was short on cash…. my friend pointed out to me that my initial reaction to all of these things was negative and that I was getting stressed out about things that all had solutions. At that point we hugged and I promised myself that I would change how I reacted. So I have been attempting this for a few months now, only I haven’t been journaling any of this journey. Starting today, I will keep a journal of my neuroplasticity project. I also think that attending to other unfinished business will help with that project. The other projects being refining my baking skills (I tend to lean toward the savory side of things in the kitchen), finishing a book I’ve been meaning to read, make amends with my mother (or at least trying), and to avoid sounding like a new years resolution list I will stop at that.
The road trip turned out to be a huge success, even made some new friends and had a great time. Here’s to changing my mind! Cheers.
I’m going to build a large farm-type kitchen work table. Nothing fancy, like an island; but a good solid table like my grandfather made for my grandmother shortly after they were married (it now resides at my aunts’ house). I really need the space and so often the counter top is just not sufficient.
smoke some meat.
worthy goal, but hard to keep it lit.
A few years ago I started knocking things off my unfinished list. I went to school to become the chef my high school guidance counselor was so afraid of, I made marshmallows from scratch (what was I waiting for?)
The next item on my list is learn how to make jams, jellies, pickles, etc and can them safely.
Good luck on the croissants – I make about 30 lbs of croissant dough every few days without a dough sheeter – It is not as hard as it seems.
I have a recipe for Pesto Rosso which calls for sundried tomatoes that takes up to 2 wks to prepare. I have a local mater man up the street and will start this project this weekend. The only problem with the recipe is that you have to vent the oven at 150 degrees for 6-8 hours and I live in Atlanta. 94 out side this weekend, so I think I will start them and leave the house for the rest of the day.
making cheddar and camembert from unpasturized milk, slaughter a pig and start making salami, bacon, headcheese, and really really good bbq. also gona plant my winter garden as soon as all my summer corn comes in.
It’s winter over here (Australia) but I do have an unfinished business waiting for me: baking sourdough bread (without killing the starter!).
All these comments have gotten me to thinking about foods I haven’t tasted since I as a child, foods only my (Serbian) grandmother made, apparently, and she passed away when I was 8.
So this summer seems to be a fine time to head over to my mom’s house, scour her recipe file and find – hopefully in my grandmother’s handwriting – the instructions to create those long-ago tastes.
What a great post Michael. Very interesting reading everyone’s goals! Mine is to pull out the ice cream maker I got for Christmas years ago that I’ve never used and create an ice cream that reminds me of something from my Grandmother’s kitchen.
I have lots of experience canning jams and tomatoes (I’m even teaching canning workshops this fall) but have never canned pickles. I planted Parisian pickling cucumbers that are growing well. I plan to transform them into cornichons for charcuterie plates.
In the same vein, I planted banana peppers with the intention of making pizza style pickled peppers this fall.
I also want to successfully make kefir. I have made it before but never ate much because it looks and smells so different than what I buy from the store. A friend just offered some extra grains and I already get raw milk so there are no more excuses.
While it’s not necessarily in my control, I hope our parma-style ham hanging in the basement makes it through the summer. It has been doing well since April when we slaughtered the pig and begun the cure. We’re in the wait and watch stage as excess liquid has already evaporated.
Make a good Mole and some sausage (just got Charcuterie last week from Amazon)
I’ve never made pasta, but I can picture (and taste) the ravioli I want to serve to my friends: over-the-top stuff inspired by the original Iron Chef program: lobster, a couple of drops of white truffle oil, and a slice of foie gras, served in some sage butter with grated lemon zest.
I’ve borrowed a pasta maker from one of the friends I want to serve the dish to.
I picture three large ravioli on the plate in a little bit of the sauce, a little bit of the sauce adding a shine to the top, perhaps some fresh strands of lemon zest.
I want to do that this summer, before we go to Tuscany this fall.
I’m going to start cooking with my 5 year-old daughter.
My little brother is getting married later this summer, after facing years of heartbreak from girls who just used him to feel better while they rebounded. He’s finally found a darling young lady who adores him for who he is – and they love to cook together.
A little back story: growing up, I spent a lot of time in the kitchen. And it wasn’t my little sisters that would come in and help me out and learn recipes – it was my brother (8 years younger). He was the perfect sous chef for me. No matter how dirty a job I threw at him – he did it with glee. He could make the most beautiful pies and impressive banana bread before he was 10. We live in a broken home that only got worse as we grew up, and many of the happy memories between us were spent together in that kitchen.
I moved away to another country when my brother was still in his teens and he lost that “safe place” we had. Ever since then, he has longed to find a life companion who would cook for and with him, and who would appreciate his many efforts in the kitchen for them – but none of his past girlfriends ever cared (where he found these girls, I don’t know… he’s the type of guy who gets up early before work to make a full breakfast just for you before he leaves).
We grew up with a huge mix of ethnic food (mom being Vietnamese/American who was raised in Japan, Massachusetts, and Texas… and we lived in an area in the PNW that was 60% Hispanic), none of which is familiar to my sister-in-law-to-be. But she loves it all!
My goal is to write down as best I can a compilation of all of my brother’s favorite recipes from my mom and I, as a wedding present.
Sorry this was long, but I really never thought of doing this until I read this post. Thanks for getting the wheels turning!
(Oh, and I want to dabble in Vietnamese charcuterie!!!)
I think your brother would really appreciate this. It shows that you paid attention to him and appreciated him for who he is.
do it. you’ll not regret it.
Very nice. One of my favorite gifts was a leather bound scrapbook from my aunt with a collection of our family’s favorite and sentimental recipes. It was largely created so that my 6 year old can share in the family history and so that we don’t lose things from each generation. My grandparents are in their 90s, and I know my grandmother’s marzipan will be continued and her mother’s cookies and my grandfather’s creations… and on and on… I cry every time I look at it and we use it often.
I’ve done a fair amount of European based cooking and baking, taking recreational classes, etc. But I really want to learn more about Asian, Indian, African cooking. Maybe even get into the varied cooking of the Islamic world.
Strudel.
Rhulman, the list is endless. I guess this summer my number one goal is preserving more of the harvest. Freezing more fruit and veggies and making some preserves. Also, I have a ton of leaf lard that needs to be rendered.
PS – we have TONS of raw milk up here in Maine – come and get it!
Hey Michael great question. I have been wanting to smoke some cheese and blue fish and make some duck prosciutto.
Last winter, I started making weekly bread because of Ratio. I’ve fallen off the wagon, and I suspect it will be a very different process now that it’s summer, but I’d like to get back to that.
I’m saving my first pasta making experience for my (rescheduled due to volcano) trip to Italy in November. I’ve already found a cooking class or two.
I want to do something with dairy… I think not cheese this year, but maybe yogurt or ice cream. I’ve been hearing a couple places lately about just making ice cream in a tray with a hand blender, and if I can keep enough space in my freezer, that can be a plan.
Speaking of my freezer – there’s a beef heart in there. I’ll try cooking that for the first time. The internet tells me that braising is the way to go.
Making sugar from home-grown sugar beets with my nephew.
His mother, my ex-sister-in-law, is a nut. She had him convinced that sugar was a poison made in labs by the government just to make people sick, that pig farmers spray their pigs with poison in order to kill whoever buys and eats the meat, things like that. I’ve been gradually, but gently, deprogramming the kid by showing him how food is really grown and made. A lot easier now that his dad has custody! You should have seen him reading the hot dog recipe from Charcuterie, he’s 8 years old but he only needed help with 2 of the words.
This year I planted a candy garden. It started as a joke, but I’m trying to grow things like sugar beets, sorghum, lemon balm, mint, etc. Most of it isn’t doing too well, but my goal is still to make sugar with him this year, and then some soda if there’s enough sugar. He’s excited about it. So am I.
I was gifted the Momofuku cookbook for Christmas last year. I have dabbled in a couple of recipes, but I really want to try making his Ramen recipe (including the alkaline noodles if I can swing it). While the base recipe didn’t appear hard, in actuality it contained about 15 separate recipes, each of them being a component of the dish as a whole. Just kind of daunting to do all of that for a “simple” bowl of noodles, but something I want to try.
I have three goals for the summer, one of which was inspired by a comment here, the others I have been thinking about for a long time.
The first is to make my husband’s grandmother’s meatballs. I have made them before, but they are never as good as hers (and they never will be, I know). The chances of her surviving the summer are not so good, so I want to make them before she goes. I will also make the pasta and sauce to go along with them.
My second is to make a BLT (my favorite of all sandwiches, especially in summer) from scratch with home made bread, bacon, and mayo.
My third kind of goes along with my first, but I will make and can my own tomato sauce. I hate buying tomato sauce more than anything in the world and would love to have jars upon jars at home ready to eat.
your grandmother (in law) may wish to ‘be’ with you when you make the meatballs. Maybe just that little bit of company will not only let her know she is loved but it may ‘affect’ the meatballs in a positive way…….that and she may impart some ‘kitchen wisdom’ that only the two of you will share.
I am trying not to read all of the other comments so I will not be intimidated by the simple dish I want to try. I love Vitaly Paley’s “raviolo” with the egg yolk. I also loved Ruhlman’s version with the ricotta filling. So I am going to (not try to) make hand-made pasta, filled with hand-made ricotta mixed with herbs I am going to grow on my 30′ deck that gets very little sun, topped with egg yolks, definitely organic but hopefully duck (if I can get it from Chop). I will serve it with a gorgeous salad and a simple sauce, accompanied by a beautiful white burgundy, enjoyed by friends who love great food but will not hold it against me if it is a total flop. It is only one dish, but I have been thinking about it for a while. Cheers to everyone for an adventurous food summer!!
This may just be the anthesis of the challenge, but here goes … for the past 3 years I’ve had my head buried in the blog. This is the 3rd iteration of my musings, but suffice it to say there have been hundreds of posts and thousands of photos with a multitude of videos thrown in for good measure.
I’ve shopped and cooked and eaten and … this is the tough part … thrown away a hell of a lot of food because as big as my appetite may be, I just can’t eat all of it.
Well, it’s time for that to stop. It’s time to be more responsible about food and to get out into the world and stop hiding behind it.
My commitment is to stop cooking frivolously. I’m not going to stop writing/blogging or photographing or … eating, but I am going to stop making it the only thing I think about when I’m not at work and I’m going to make it more formal. Planning meals and menus and shopping and expenses.
Maybe my forays into the kitchen will become more meaningful … more than just cooking so that I have something beautiful and cool and impressive to write about. And maybe I’ll put more into my gullet making it less apparent.
Yep, sounds like a good plan to me.
I guess I am thinking about the concept…..my dad died in 1980…when I was in high school with you…he loved his eggs….poached… so will try a “new way” and will post….and when I went off to school in Pa. in 1980….my mom gave me a cooler and a cookbook…”the Joy of Cooking”…she passed last summer so I will pick the best from that and post…for me…!!!….wonderful concept…Mac!
thanks for commenting mac; i’ll look forward to cooking with you this summer.
After living in Hong Kong for 6 months or so I want to master steamed pork buns as soon as I get home!
Beef stock.
After a bad divorce and wallowing in my own misery, I decided to start learning to really cook. As the years have gone by I have still been afraid of making stock. It’s so easy, I keep reading, but I was afraid. During the snowpocalpyse here in Maryland (I’m a transplanted Clevelander) I had plenty of time to cook. My husband and son loved the gooey cinnamon bread, but that was easy. I had all day so I grabbed a couple chicken carcasses from the freezer, threw them in a pot with some veggies, and let it go. It turned out, well, not too bad. What was I afraid of? But beef stock. This one worries at me. How many bones, how much meat should be on it, what sorts of veg should I use to flavor this properly. This is something I haven’t tackled yet and need to do so soon.
I love reading everyone’s goals and activities! I have so many unfinished desires with regard to cooking, it’s unreal. Most are because we are so limited living in an apartment with no storage space and really no freezer space. We’re not even allowed to cool/grill out – I had to take my Weber grill to my mother’s, where it lives, sadly, in her garage. I would love to start a big garden and try to live off it for as many months as I could ala Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. I’d love to make sausage and cure meat and can tomatoes and freeze produce when it’s fresh, but there’s just no room.
I guess a more reachable goal would be to use my crock pot more often and for more complicated uses than single ingredient recipes. I love food out of it, but we just use it so infrequently, it’s sad. I might do a pork roast in there w/saurkraut and kielbasa for new year’s, and I use it every Thanksgiving to make my great slow-cooker stuffing/dressing, but outside of that it rarely gets used. With a baby and limited time available for cooking, if I could get into more of a routine for buying the right ingredients, and use some good crock pot specific recipes, I could make a lot of tasty stuff on the weekends in there and have it for the week ahead so we wouldn’t always be asking, “What are we going to fix for dinner?” With the baby, it’s more important to me than ever that we not rely on any shortcuts like boxed food or takeout, but out of time constraints, so often we end up with just fixing whatever is on hand and while it’s simple and plain and decent (e.g. steamed broccoli, grilled turkey breast, diced plums), I’d like more complex foods/recipe stuff, which I could accomplish if I could get more dedicated to the crock pot. I’d also like to get a bigger, newer crock pot even though I understand they run much hotter than the old ones, because mine is pretty small, and the coating inside has a couple of small flakes on it, which makes me nervous (it’s Teflon).
First on my list is teaching my seven year old step-daughter to cook (that I know will be a long, yet worthy process). She has shown a strong interest, and we have begun our “lessons.” When it’s all said and done, my greatest accomplishment in the kitchen will no doubt be helping the little princess learn to cook!
I’ve made one batch of bacon, have panchetta curing. I’m going to do the “BLT challenge” — on my own, just because it sounds like a worthy one.
Cure at least three new items.
Make pickles (the princess added this one to my list!).
My parents started to teach me to cook around that age and I have really great memories of the process. (Although it took me a while to fully understand that cooking = hot pan = burns.)
Interestingly enough, to this day I am told that I make the best french toast anyone has ever had. And it’s the same way that I started making it way back then.
Finish organizing my “tried and true” recipes from my very large stack of “have to try” recipes. I’ve got a filing system going, but I keep adding to the pile. And roast a whole pig. I finallly have some of my friends on board, so it should happen this summer.
My unfinished business is my relationship with money & making it OK to get paid for what I’m worth and pay off the credit cards.
My summer goal is to use everything I’m growing in my garden, and can, dehydrate, or freeze the excess. Last year, I was “too tired” and gave a lot away. Not this year. I want beans in the winter that taste as fresh as when I picked them, and my own pickles. For the tomatoes, I may have to break unfinished business 1 and get a food mill
I’m still not sure how I can preserve summer squash.
it’s fabulous to read that so many people want to make stuff from scratch – i thought it was only me.
i’ve never thought about having food goals, but it makes sense. so here’s my list for the rest of 2010.
brew my own beer; make my own sausages with proper skins; use the ancient fowlers preserving kit i found in an antique store; start making yoghurt again; ditto ice-cream; try to waste less food.
There are so many, I can’t limit them. I grew up in what was then ‘rural’ NC and influenced by many great women who didn’t have modern conveniences but boy could they cook. I’d love to make Miss Lessie’s chicken and dumplings, get out my untried smoker and make ham and sausage the way Aunt Mary did, or just plain ‘put up every darned thing in sight’ like Annabelle did. I have the ‘booksmarts’ to know how to do this, but can I.
I want to cook my way through my CSA with as little waste as possible (and with as much stockpiling for the winter as possible). I’m learning about canning and freezing and different vegetables I’ve never eaten before. I plan on putting up a whole bunch of applesauce in the fall – my first solo canning!
I also really want to cook for a group. I haven’t done a dinner party for several years (I’ve been moving a lot), and now that I’m settled and making friends, I want to show off! Or at least make sure that all my male friends who can’t/don’t cook get a decent meal this summer.
But more than anything, I want to work on my food habits. I’m easing into local and organic foods, cutting out processed junk, and generally trying to support local industries. Michigan has been hit hard by the economy, and family farms have never been in good shape. So I figure I’ll do my little bit to support the people who are working to pull the state back up and give us something more than the auto industry. (It helps that I live in Western Michigan – home of several incredible small breweries, a strong local food movement, and friends who have chickens.)
They sell raw milk at the Berkeley Bowl here in California.
Sourdough bread from starter – I’m hesitant to get it going in my 84 degree, sub-tropical Louisiana kitchen. RAW MILK is available at many dairies in Ohio: realmilk.com
I want to teach my two older children, Adelaide 9 and Tristyn 8 to cook one dish for breakfast, lunch and dinner all by themselves. I always seem to say let me do it, it will be faster and that is a big regret of mine. So I want to let go of my controlling manner and let them express themselves in the kitchen as I get to.
Two kitchen quests:
- I’ve always wanted to do cheddar as well. Can I glom on to your cheese?
- Master a gluten free sandwich bread that the Diva will enjoy. Additionally, it needs to be a bread that she can help me make.
I will do some canning this summer. I have Mason jars sitting in the basement, unused. My basement freezer has plenty of room.
I did a little canning a few years ago, making homemade salsa and strawberry preserves, but then forgot to expand my knowledge. In addition to the above, I want to can green beans, pickles, and other veggies as well as my own spaghetti sauce.
Cure a fermented salami.
I, personally, don’t like salami, but my hubby does. This is something I could do for him.