Wild Yeast

Lewis of Table Bread tagged me for this, my first meme. Am I the only one who thought “meme” was pronounce “me-me,” as in “it’s all about me”?

My answers are completely ad lib, just the first things that popped into my head, in no particular order. If you asked me the same questions tomorrow, chances are my responses would be completely different.

What were you cooking/baking ten years ago?

I was a full-time graduate student with a long commute so I don’t think I was cooking or baking much of anything. Or if I was, I don’t remember it. The only thing I can say with 100% certainty is that I made candy cane cookies, because I know I’ve made those every holiday season for at least twenty years. Skipping them would lead to extreme domestic unrest.

What were you cooking/baking one year ago?

My first panettone. And this year’s first batch is fermenting right now.

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Whatever fresh-baked bread is on my counter.
2. Hot oat bran cereal with dried blueberries, walnuts, and cinnamon.
3. Watermelon agua fresca.
4. Bananas.
5. Fresh figs.

Five recipes you know by heart:

1. Sourdough bread.
2. Tomato sauce.
3. Sweet potato gnocchi (but only because I’ve made it twice this week).
4. Sourdough pancakes.
5. Shrimp in beer.

Five culinary luxuries you would indulge in if you were a millionaire:

I am incredibly blessed to have everything I need, most of what I want, and certainly more than I deserve. But if I dream once in a while, it’s about:

1. More hours in the day so I can get to everything on my “must bake” list.
2. An Alan Scott brick oven in the back yard.
3. A personal chef. At least until they teach me enough to render themselves unnecessary.
4. Travel to anywhere and everywhere. For the food, but not just for the food.
5. I love my kitchen, but if I could add one more thing to it, it would be a wall oven (I would need another wall, too, for this) and a walk-in pantry. OK, that’s two things (three if you count the wall).

Five foods you love to cook/bake:

1. Sourdough bread.
2. Pizza (current favorite: potato/onion/rosemary/goat cheese).
   
3. Bagels.
   
4. Pasta.
   
5. Pretty much anything else that lets me put my hands on dough.

Five things you cannot/will not eat:

I like most things, and even among things I don’t like, I’m hard-pressed to think of any I absolutely can/will not eat. But, given the choice, I would rather not eat:

1. Chicken sashimi (never had it, never plan to, but you never know).
2. Octopus.
3. Seaweed.
4. Organ meats (except liver, which I actively like).
5. Moon snails.

Five favorite culinary toys:

1. Range.
2. Countertop spiral mixer.
3. Scale.
4. Computer/internet connection.
5. Fibrament baking stone.

Five dishes on your “last meal” menu:

1. Warm crusty sourdough bread.
2. Mediterranean appetizers such as baba ghanouj, hummus, dolmas.
3. Butternut squash ravioli.
4. Grilled fresh-caught salmon.
5. Warm berry crisp with vanilla ice cream.

Five happy food memories:

1. Vacationing in Maine as a child and waking up to the smell of my grandmother’s Tollhouse cookies. She always called them “Tollhouse,” never “chocolate chip.”
2. On those same vacations, preparing annual “land and sea” dinners with my siblings and friends. Everything we served was gathered from the wild. A typical menu consisted of sea urchin roe on crackers; kelp soup; steamed clams and mussels; salad of orach, glasswort, and cattail shoots; blueberry pie; bayberry tea.
3. In college, cooking and eating vegetarian dinners with my 12 housemates. The food wasn’t always the best, but the people more than made up for it.
4. When my son was a toddler, getting silly making lasagna and making Lone Ranger-style masks for both of us out of the leftover noodles.
5. Wandering through Marché Saxe-Breteuil in Paris with my husband and daughter.

Thanks, Lewis, for thinking of me to participate in this meme. And to whoever is still reading at this point: consider yourself tagged!