Culinary Meme

Thank you Julie of One-Wall Kitchen for including me on your meme's. This is the equivalent of a blogger chain letter or questionnaire but it's fun and let's my readers know a little more about me. So here goes:

What were you cooking/baking ten years ago?

Well, 10 years ago I wasn’t really concerned with silly things like sodium, calories, and generally anything that was in the item I was consuming. All that being said I was mostly creating new and inventive ways to liven up Ramen Noodle which at that time you could get a case (about 15 – 20 bags) for about $9 or $10 U.S. Dollars. I believe I was famous for my Egg Drop Ramen with slices of Ham lunch meat Julienned onto the top (you have to really try this with the beef flavored kind).

What were you cooking/baking one year ago?

Fresh pasta. It was about two years ago that a good friend of mine introduced me to the fine art of making my own ravioli. Now, as you can imagine this is a lengthy process but lets face it, anytime you can have fresh Spinach Parmesan Reggiano stuffed Ravioli from scratch you take it!

Five snacks you enjoy:

1. Oatmeal Pies
2. Pecan Pie from a home style café with coffee
3. Almond Joy candy bars
4. Tortilla chips with salsa (fresh salsa if you can get it)
5. Coffee (I like this for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack)

Five recipes you know by heart:

Well, to be honest I don't really memorize recipes. Here are a few that I don't have to look more than twice :)

1. Lemon Chicken Alfredo with fettuccini noodles (by heart)
2. Southern style Cornbread
3. Buttermilk Biscuits
4. Buttermilk Pancakes
5. Scones (several flavors)
   

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

1. Attend the Culinary Institute of America
2. Attend the Le Cordon Bleu in France (after hiring my personal interpreter – I mean I am a millionaire)
3. Travel France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and Germany BAKING!! I would try learning and doing as much as I could.
4. Buy a house with a kitchen that faces an ocean, something in the Northwest like Oregon or Washington. Of course the kitchen would have a double-decker oven (top and bottom) and a gas range stove with an indoor grill. OH! My ovens would have the steam capabilities so that I could make amazing bread in them.
5. Since you have to do more than eat bread (I know shocking) I would spend a few months possibly a year with a Sushi master in Japan learning the fine art of sushi.

Five foods you love to cook/bake:

1. Rye breads
2. Quick breads (cornbread, scones, and muffins)
3. Challah bread
4. Whole Wheat breads
5. Sourdough Bread (I would love to bake this but I'm still perfecting the method. Act II is currently underway. Stay tuned for that progress.)

Five things you cannot/will not eat:

1. Beluga (Whale Fat)
2. The rotten duck egg with the duck fetus from the Philippines (name?)
3. The rotten cabbage from Japan (name?)
4. Liver (I just don’t understand why you would eat the filtration system of an animal)
5. Chilled monkey brains (kudos to Indiana Jones for achieving this - wait I think he ran with the girl before they ate. Smart man!)

Five favorite culinary toys:

1. My Kitchen Aid mixer (we’re getting married in the Fall)
2. Lime hand held squeezer
3. Rolling pen
4. big 2x4 cutting board
5. Cookie Cutters

Five dishes on your “last meal” menu:

Well, since it's my last meal calories or health issues isn't a concern we can just go nuts!

1. Pasta (ravioli or fettuccine)
2. Gnocchi
3. Pizza (Neopolitano Quatro Formaggio or Stagioni)
4. Rosemary Rotisserie Chicken
5. Several selections of sushi

Name five happy food memories:

1. Baking cookies with my two daughters. (Type is irrelevant)

2. Scooping the seeds out of pumpkins with my two beautiful daughters. One is afraid of the seeds and the other can’t get enough of them.

3. Baking scones for the family and having them be genuinely blown away by them

4. My wife and I were on holiday with some good friends at a Bed & Breakfast in Northern Italy when the local Chef brought out a Sage and Parmigianino cheese stuffed ravioli in a cream sauce (the sage was grown on a local farm). The conversation was light, the day was nice (shopped away the day in a local town and went horseback riding at a local horse farm), and the food was amazing, it was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

5. Eating pecan pie and drinking coffee with my dad at a greasy spoon.

Well, I don't have many blogger friends so I will choose some that I have been reading and enjoying: Ariela, Susan, Baking Soda, and to one of my friends who has a travel blog: Alex. Of course this is all voluntary and Alex - feel free to change these questions to reflect your love of traveling! I can't wait to read all of your answers!