Well so much for emulating Julia vs Julia. That's what ALWAYS happens when I set out to do something with full fledged enthusiasm because I think it would be a good idea. Mind you, I am enthusiastic about the idea, not the action itself. Dear Lord, so wannabe of me wouldn't you say?
My point is, I have decided to resume writing about cooking. For now at least. You know what the problem is? Some brilliant way to begin a blog or a spiffy little anecdote will come to mind, I will weave magic with words..which people will read and appreciate. This usually happens when there is not a laptop in sight. Why don't I use pen and paper you ask? Well because (a) I only ever have red pens around me now and it's terribly jarring to see a page full of red scribbles, and (b) I admit...I'm lazy. I find it easier to type on a laptop, don't ask me what the logic is. Perhaps the neatness of it all is appealing. Also the fact that I can erase it at a whoosh.
Today was different however. I DID have my lappie handy and so I decided to be slightly more productive than lying around annoying my cat and reading something terrible..I forget what. I really must do something about the attention span - I'd make a goldfish proud.
And talking about the downward spiral of enthusiastic endeavours; there is something extremely wrong with my baking skills. I have no idea what. Every single cake I have attempted to bake in the past month or so has turned out fried at the edges and squishy and undercooked in the middle. I used to bake such perfect cakes. I hope and pray this is because there is something wrong with my oven and not with me. I think the charm of baking that enthralled me earlier might have waned a bit. I might have become a bit complacent. You know, the Baking-a-cake-is-a-cakewalk kinda complacent. And thus I think I throw in too much sugar, add too much butter, beat the whole mixture with a little less vim and vigour than what's required. But wait. How do I explain the pudding? Exteremely inspired I was by Mrs D's bread pudding. It's extremely simple to make - you butter a baking dish, butter bread on both sides, tear aforementioned bread into pieces and stack it, as it were, in the tin. Then you whip up a fragrant mixture of milk, vanilla and cinammon, eggs and sugar and pour the whole thing into the baking dish...soaking the bread. If you want, you could throw in a few raisins and a dash of brandy. Apparently whiskey is also used but Mrs D is of the opinion the kitchen might blow and I think i should agree with her. So I followd all the steps to a tee. And then the annoying thing turned out to be uncooked in the middle. I have a feeling it's because my subconscious interrupted a blissful slumber with a WAKE-UP-AND-BAKE-THE-PUDDING-YOU-LUMP-HE'LL-BE-HERE-ANY-MOMENT! (I was baking for A who had evinced a desire, nay, a craving, to eat bread pudding, and had fallen asleep only to wake up 10 minutes before he was due to arrive) and must have not been very enthusiastic about shuffling to the kitchen half asleep. Sigh. I see it now. Even when I tried my hand at cookies..i gave up stirring the very hard batter after some time and popped them into the oven with a prayer on my lips and hope in my heart. Of course they turned out to be hard and chewy and tasted like burnt cake. My lethargy will be the death of me. And my ability to bake it seems.