In previous posts, I talked a lot about going out, and getting out of the house to do various activities, all of which include some incremental or extra effort to accomplish them. Hence why I might put them on a 60×60 list — it isn’t just business as usual, I need to plan for them, schedule time perhaps, and even figure out HOW to do them in some cases.

Today’s grouping is a bit different. I want to complicate my home life, at least in the kitchen.

Andrea does most of the cooking in our house, with exceptions for barbecuing or more complicated meals where I am mostly sous-chef. Pre-pandemic, I was in charge of sandwiches and things for lunches, but that is mostly down to just Jacob now, and for which I have a disturbingly frequent habit of ordering pizza on Sunday nights so I have pizza slices to plunk into his lunches for the week. He would take pizza over a sandwich any day of the week…heck, let’s be honest, he’d take it EVERY day of the week.

For me, I frequently plan forays into the kitchen more like small skirmishes against a welcoming army of one. Andrea would abdicate if I wanted to take up permanent residence probably. But my choices frequently run to fried or more unhealthy choices than she would make, and I’m inconsistent. Today, I’m adding 5 goals related to cooking and eating at home.

Five cooking goals

14. Try 60 new recipes. I have more recipes to try than I can shake a stick at, and I think a few in the vegetarian cookbook might even show me how to prepare sticks. I feel like my recipe candidates are divisible into three general categories. First, there are the types of recipes, such as individual ideas (ice cream, tiramisu, a cassata, short ribs) or larger groupings (ground beef, soups).

Second, there are recipes to make with specific tools such as the Dutch oven (lots of ground beef ones in there), Instapot (we found a chicken thigh one that is amazing a few years ago), or our relatively-new toaster oven (broiled pork chops turn out amazing with little fuss). We just had to replace our stove, and in doing so, we upgraded to one with dual ovens AND an air fryer option. Last night, we air-fried Italian sausages and with a little time adjustment from a generic online recipe, they turned out perfect. Honestly? The best sausages we have ever made at home. Light, not heavy; perfectly cooked; lower on grease. I would hesitate to ever call sausages a “healthy” choice, but they were pretty damn good. We had a medium-sized air fryer that a friend had given us, and it was good, but a bit complicated. The oven option? Easy as pie. Without the pie. 🙂 I have about 20 cookbooks downloaded off the internet with air fryer recipes, and I am going to be pushing a bunch of those to try over the next five years.

And then finally, I have a third category which is more about the “source” of the recipes. Cookbooks, obviously, but not just ANY cookbooks — some are from work, one is a gift with recipes from the Coconut Lagoon, and there is even a set of Raddish Kids recipes that we signed Jacob up for at some point, got a ton of good stuff, and then shut off the tap for a while. Finding recipes is never the problem — finding ones that I think will work well for Andrea, Jacob AND me together is more the challenge. Jacob’s untrained palate knocks out most strong spice options, for instance, although I’m also not a big fan of heat, and Andrea is only slightly more tolerant than either of us.

15. Bake 60 items. We have a bread maker and various bread-making tools (silicone moulds, for example). And as my great-grandfather used to be a baker, my father used to bake when I was young. Buns, tarts, and cinnamon buns were his specialty. Me? I want to learn to bake some things from scratch, particularly bread, of course. But I’ve made a more granular list of things to “try”…bread, cakes, cupcakes, cookies, pastries (pies and tarts), and pudding. I don’t have a grand plan for all this beyond bread, but I’ll figure it out as I go.

16. Curate 10 recipes. A few years ago, we went through a bunch of nacho options and tried them out. In the end, I came up with my “recipe” for 8-layer nachos. We tested different chips, were more flexible on salsa, and considered various types of ingredients that often go in (olives were a pass), and in the end, we have a great recipe that works well for our family. Panda nachos, if you will. I want to do the same for another 10 recipes, approximately 2 a year, and I have a small working list so far. Bread, as I mentioned above, is something I want to do much more often. In a perfect world, I’d like a standard bread that I made once or twice a week with some variations occasionally. But I need to “nail” which bread form and tool I want it to be. I rarely get off the printed page with recipes, as I can never remember the order or quantity for ingredients. It’s more like a scientific experiment, but I’d like to get to the “cooking as art” stage with bread.

A co-worker did a series of similar tests with homemade pizza, which seems like a great endeavour. Peanut butter cookies are on my list, as my mom used to make them when I was a kid and they were my favourite. I’ll add quesadillas and tacos to the list, although for tacos, I mean mostly adding a “hard taco” to the list of options, if I can. We do soft tacos all the time, more as fajitas though. I mentioned cinnamon buns above, my father’s special skill, so that makes the list.

We’ve made homemade burgers a few times. Mixed a bunch of ingredients together to make thicker, better patties to cook on the barbecue. It often gets done in large batches to fill up the freezer, but when they’re gone, I go months if not years before replenishing. Recently, I got some from Farm Boy that had a bunch of cheese options in it. They wouldn’t last long if made by hand, as they would probably have to be used/cooked that day, but I like the premise of coming up with some better-than-store-bought patties. Again, with lots of testing of ingredients, maybe some spices (my wife has boatloads of Epicure spices to try), and some other less frequent ingredients (peppers, cheese, bacon bits, etc.). So burgers make the list.

And I really want to do wings. I’ve played with this idea multiple times over the years, at least mentally. I love wings, I admit it. I have it narrowed down to four main variables for me to play with…source of wings, type, cooking method, and sauce.

For the source, I’m not wedded to the idea that they absolutely have to be fresh. I’m willing to take ones that are sold in meat departments just as much as consider the frozen food section for plain bulk wings. Ideally, they would be fresh, but if it adds to the complication for the other variables, I’m willing to consider any and all sources. Similarly for the type of wings. I don’t want breaded wings, that’s easy. Probably split. But I’m willing to consider other configurations. For cooking, I assumed my choices were going to be oven or BBQ, and while I like the premise of adding the BBQ taste, ensuring consistency is more challenging for me. I don’t want them burnt or undercooked. I also don’t want to spend 20 minutes flipping them and then starting back at the beginning.

Finally, for the sauce, as I mentioned above, my wife has tons of Epicure spices. Plus I’m willing to buy various types of rubs or sauces out of bottles to see what I like. I’ve tried a few from a couple of BBQ stores, and while they may have been the most popular ones in the rack according to the store owners, they did NOTHING for me. I am NOT looking for heat, which is a bit of a sacrilege when it comes to ribs and wings, I know. Normally, I prefer adding sauces or glazes rather than using rubs, although I also don’t want to need a hose to clean off when I’m done eating, so more of a light wet coating than having it dripping off the wing.

For a time, I thought about having a bunch of people over to try out different wing recipes, a more in-home option for Mid-month Movie Madness for Men who like Meat, without restricting it to men or including a movie. Just some people in the backyard, trying out different wing sauces. I am more interested at this point in just doing my own thing, and now that we have a large air fryer option for the oven, I don’t have to worry about the inconsistency of results on the barbecue nor the complications of “layers” in the countertop air fryer. I am 99% sure that I’ll be going with air frying in the oven as my main method, so I can now return to the source and type of wings before moving on to sauces, rubs and glazes.

If my math is correct, that gives me 8 recipes to “perfect” or curate. I don’t yet know what the other two will be, although ice cream sounds attractive. I’ll find others as time goes by. A good stew would be nice to have in the arsenal or three sisters soup.

17. The breakfast spread. This one is a bit odd, although I’m not sure why. In movies or TV, you frequently see a large family or group of friends together and they’re enjoying a large breakfast spread. It looks amazing, there are lots of choices, all of that, with lots of people around the table. But do you know what amazes me most though? That people seemingly think everyone knows how to make all of those things, can do so easily, and have them all come out at the same time?

I am not looking to replicate that experience in the broader sense. I don’t want 20 people for breakfast, I don’t want to prepare 19 different types of omelettes. But I like the idea that I could, in theory, prepare ANY of those big options myself at home. Let me start with the most obvious and perhaps the most embarrassing. Eggs.

I suck at eggs. I can’t crack them easily, I have to use a hand-held egg cracker most of the time. And then I nuke it in a container in the microwave.

But if I’m frying them? Sunny-side or over-easy would be my choice in the restaurant, but I end up getting grease splatter, and over-hard is a far more likely outcome. Scrambled or poached are also hit-and-miss for me, let alone even hard-boiled (I like HB eggs, although I like the white more than the yolk). I would also like to have a really good omelet recipe. I’m not quite ready to commit to a curated omelet option, but I am attracted to that option.

Bacon? I hate frying things, and thus am always on the hunt for some simple way of doing non-greasy crispy-but-not-burnt bacon. Mostly I don’t bother. I would like to add peameal to the list of options though, beyond simple strips.

Regularly when we go out for breakfast, most big places have skillet options. They’re good, a different config than most breakfasts. It feels more like a cowboy out on a range, mixing stuff together. I love the premise, and the taste, but have no idea how I would do it or even what I would put in. Potatoes would be an obvious side option if I didn’t want to go full skillet.

And then we come to my son’s favourites: pancakes! I’ll throw french toast, waffles, and crêpes in there too. It isn’t something I cook very often, and while I know they aren’t difficult, the issue for me is mostly consistency and simple flavouring. If I have to look up what I’m going to do, I probably won’t do it, it just seems too involved. But there are lots of Sunday mornings that I would love the idea of cooking breakfast for the three of us with their favourites and mine.

You wouldn’t think that toast would make the list, and it doesn’t, not exactly. It is more the idea of toast made from fresh bread, or the options of fresh bagels.

Then we move into the healthy fresh fruit medley. We have some on-hand, almost always, but I like the idea too of finding ways to merge with the crêpes.

Cereal is fine, oatmeal okay (although I’d like to come up with ways to add my own flavourings), various yogurt combinations, or add in smoothies and different juices, all part of the “buffet”.

While that would be a good place to “end” my list, I wonder too about some breakfast sandwich options. Westerns, paninis, melts. Outside of grilled cheese, melts rarely make my list, nor paninis even. I would love a good Western sandwich more regularly, but I don’t bother. And again, if I do it, I want it to be consistent.

Sooooo, where does that leave me? As I said, I don’t want to open my doors to breakfast for 20 people, and I’m not looking to make ALL of these for one go. But I do like the idea of knowing how to do them all relatively easily and consistently. I just need a bit of a plan. Maybe I’ll designate September as “fried egg” month before moving on to scrambled and poached. 🙂

18. Grow something to eat. Okay, this one is a bit different. I have very little interest in gardening. But I do like the idea of eating something fresh from a garden. Andrea and Jacob gave me some seeds for my birthday, so we’ll try doing celery and green beans in the backyard. It won’t be some big garden, just a small planter. It’s an experiment. Just something that I’ve never done.

Wrapping up

Another five goals have been added to the list. I confess that I struggled with some of them today, similar to what I was talking about yesterday. Should perfecting / curating a recipe for wings be a separate goal? Or do I merge the 10 under a general curation goal? For the breakfast ones, my list has 12 separate categories to do better on, but I could have separated out crêpes from pancakes, I suppose.

Part of what drives me in my extra noodling is the amount of effort involved. Perfecting the wing recipe? That could take me months of trial and error. Yet it only gives me 1/10th of an overall goal? On the other hand, I could walk a 10K distance, and that only gets me 1/60th of a goal, so maybe consistency in goal effort is the hobgoblin of little minds. Anyway, carrying on…