The Hunger Struck - Confessions of a Food Fanatic.

I make pizza quite frequently. I’m not sure if this is one of those things I do unconsciously to torture myself or if I do it out of a genuine desire to master some kind of technique. Currently, unconscious torture seems more likely as I’m acutely aware of how futile pizza making is when dealing with your average domestic oven. They just don’t get hot enough. Yes you can buy a pizza stone and preheat your oven at its highest setting for 10 hours, but guess what? Your Pizza will always be mediocre.

Several weeks ago I bought a huge butternut squash and because I’m somewhat indecisive, it has been sitting on my counter untouched ever since. I found myself staring at it everyday, uninspired by the thought of making soup or roasting it as is, just bored of my usual recipes. Bored, bored,  bored.

What to do?

After a few weeks I decided that it was time to search around a bit and hopefully get inspired by what others have made and maybe find something that is a bit out of the ordinary from me. Something sweet like muffins but better, it definitely had to be better than muffins.

Well I didn’t have to search long before I found the answer tucked away in the 2006 archives of La Tartine Gourmand. The second I read Squash Harvest Loaf I was captivated and knew what had to be done.  Sometimes all it takes is a quick glance through the ingredients of a recipe to feel completely confident about how it will turn out. Pureed roasted butternut squash + buttermilk + Roasted Pumpkin Seeds, Pecans, Walnuts… what could go wrong?

Kolaches are something one doesn’t find too often on bakery shelves in Vancouver. These little pastries originated in the Czech Republic, and consist of a sweet yeast dough with fillings ranging from different types of fruit preserves to cheese. I first discovered these little things years ago when I still lived in New York, but until recently have not really had any strong desire to tackle these in my kitchen.

I’m not one of those people who is easily intimidated by making yeast breads of any kind, but there is something I can’t quite put my finger on that happens when I make sweet breads involving yeast: they never taste quite as good as when they’re made by other people.

Similar to when I was a kid, I always thought my friends sandwiches tasted way better than mine. Not because my mother didn’t make a good sandwich, because she did, but for some completely random reason that makes no logical sense.

I was rushing home after work yesterday, late as usual and was thinking to myself that there is no way I was going to get the dinner I had planned on the table before midnight. You see, sometimes in my over zealous weekend meal planning mentality I think that I’m capable of doing more than I actually have the energy to do during the week. I make an effort to meal plan on the weekend because otherwise I end up at the grocery store every evening, hungry and without a plan which always results in too much money spent and too little time to actually prepare dinner.

Yesterday evening was progressing in this way but when I finally started to make dinner which was chili and jalapeno corn bread muffins, I realized my tendency to overreact was again getting the better of me. This was seriously going to be a breeze, because corn bread is not that fussy and chili… i mean come on! Easy, right?