Adventures in Cooking

 

"The only real stumbling block is fear of failure.  In cooking you've got to have a what-the-hell attitude."

- Julia Child

 

Tonight I am cooking ensaymadas.  It's a Philippine pastry, a kind of brioche.  If they come out correctly a light bread with butter, sugar, and cheese baked in.  I have it on good authority that Quickmelt Ensaymadas are the brand by which all others are measured. 

 

Wish me luck!

 

So, just to review.  I don't recall ever having attempted to cook something like this from scratch, so that's the first hurdle.  Ensaymadas are a food I have never tasted before, so that's the second hurdle.  At least I have a recipe to follow, so it's not a total shot in the dark!

 

There have been other experiments with cooking over the years, some more successful than others. 

 

Recently I made brownies for a pot luck, which turned out to be really popular.  So somehow I got designated the brownie guy.  In truth the brownies were made from scratch, which is to say I scratched my head a lot while reading the box. 

 

But even cooking from a box has it's dangers.  On my first attempt to cook brownies with my oven the thermostat broke.  The oven was heating up about 75 degrees hotter than the setting.  Of course, the problem was not discovered until after the smoke detectors went off, but before any firemen arrived.

 

When it comes to food I do have my share of little quirks.  My mother had to feed a family of seven kids, so she often had to come up with novel ideas to save both time and money.  Not to mention I'm a little on the quirky side already.

 

One childhood favorite that still tempts my tongue today, peanut butter and pickle sandwich.  It sounds odd, but it's definitely worth a try.  It's a dish best served with hamburger dill chips, the new sandwich slices are too big.  Smooth or crunchy, take your choice!

 

As a young lad my siblings used to tease me about dipping celery and carrot sticks into the gravy on my mashed potatoes.  Now everyone is dipping celery and carrots, even broccoli, into sauces of one kind or another.  So really, I was a trend setter.

 

For a super sweet recipe to quickly feed a horde of hungry kids, try apple sauce and powdered sugar open faced sandwiches.  Just spread the apple sauce on a slice of bread, like jelly.  Then sprinkle with a dusting of powdered sugar.  Not too thick!  My mother once told me she got the idea from a book she read when she was a little girl.

 

Another kid crowd pleaser, easy budget stretcher is spaghetti soup.  Just add a can of your favorite brand of heat and serve spaghetti to your tomato soup.  To garnish sprinkle parmesan cheese on top.  Not my biggest favorite among her creations, I preferred to take my spaghetti and make a sandwich.  Good and messy!

 

As you may have noticed there is a bit of a pattern beginning to emerge here.  Lots of sandwiches.  To be fair I have heard that the American diet consists mainly of sandwiches in one form or another.  Think about it.  Hot dogs and hamburgers, sandwiches.  Even pizza is at it's heart an open faced sandwich!

 

For those of us who are normally kitchen challenged adding variations to these classic favorites is an easy and relatively safe form of gastronomical expression.  One of my own creations that I can highly recommend: bologna, cheese, mayonnaise, and mustard on raison bread. 

 

No, really. Give it a try, let me know what you think.  Of course if you open a restaurant and add this to your menu I will expect royalties.  Or at least name the sandwich after me.

 

Ensaymadas na gawa ni Matchinsky

 

Well, the ensaymadas are done.  I'd give them a B for taste, a C- for texture, and an A- for presentation.  It appears the yeast all committed suicide when they saw it was me cooking, so the dough didn't rise properly.  But the taste is there, so I'll count this as a victory.

 

Now go, eat. Enjoy.