The 2006 Food Challenge or This Year I Dare!

That's a New Year's challenge from Ilva at Lucullian Delights. Instead of a New Year's resolution, you choose to make, and blog about, five foods/dishes that intimidate you, that you may have tried and failed at, five things that are going to push your cooking envelope. :G:

Here are my challenges, two of them also on Ilva's list:

• Souffle - I've never made a souffle. I've never had a souffle I liked. So, my challenge will double the jeopardy: not only make a souffle, but make one so sublimely wonderful that I'll like it and add it to my repertoire. Oh, my goodness, I think I'm already in trouble.
• Choux Paste - I love cream puffs, eclairs, profiteroles, all those little puffs full of heavenly goodness. My mom used to make them when I was growing up, but I haven't had homemade ones since then. I understand that they're quite simple to make, so I'm going to give it a go and probably gain 20 pounds from eating all that heavenly goodness.
• Ice Cream - I haven't made ice cream in years. It's a lot of work, even with the technological toys we have available. You see, I don't want to make just one flavor, I want to make several, at the same time, together. Do you see?
  When I was catering and entertaining a lot, I had a couple of Salton (IIRC) ice cream makers that made two containers at a time. Many moves later, they are who knows where. I'd make different fruit flavors, each with a different, pronounced color and flavor, and serve baby-size scoops of all of them in one dish - colorful and delicious. I haven't done this in years, because the recipe I used for each flavor was different from the others. Doubling my challenge, once again, I'm going to come up with a base that I can use for all my fruit flavors so that I am not too lazy to do this anymore. (And I've got to find those ice cream makers!)
• ...

To be continued. I need to think about my two other entries. Those three have been nagging at me for ages. Thank you Ilva for pushing all of us to break down those barriers, whatever their origins.