The 2006 Food Challenge or This Year I Dare II!

I've thought of another item to add to my first three:
Baking bread - I used to bake bread at least once a week, pizza also at least once per 7. I was so used to it that I never used a recipe. I haven't made bread, aside from some abysmal stuff in a bread machine, in years, and I want to get back to that. So, my fourth challenge will be that, by the end of the year, I'll be making bread at least once a week again. I think homemade bread tastes and smells (!) wonderful, heavenly, delicious, all of that. Plus it's got better texture and body than almost all storebought. I'd like to be nearly self-sufficient on the bread front again. I find that being out of bread is one of the things that most often prompts a trip to the market, and that's just plain sad.

Oh! Here's number five:
Homemade mozzarella - I've been wanting to try this for years, ever since I was teaching in Baltimore and had to make weekly trips to the (world's best) Italian deli, Mastellone's*, on Harford Road, for fresh mozzarella and other goodies. It's really not that hard, a little time consuming and requires a little equipment, but I've got a year to get my act together.

*Very nice couple, BTW, and they have some things there I've never managed to find now that I'm home in California, again, like a sheep's milk Romano with black peppercorns in it. It's soft enough for eating but hard enough to grate. Ambrosia. I was addicted to that stuff. Oooh, and big, fat capers packed in salt, still in the barrel they came in. Just a really great source for authentic Italian (and some Middle Eastern) deli-type stuff. If you live in Baltimore or are visiting, go there!

Mastellone Deli & Wine Shop
7212 Harford Road
Baltimore, MD 21234-7702
(410) 444-5433