I think I've mentioned before that I'm learning a lot more about cooking while here in Misawa, and that my palate is changing as I'm growing in my knowledge of food. Recently, I've made a few culinary strides. First - I've learned the joys of cooking with fresh herbs vs. dried ones. A friend of mine had several basil seedlings she needed to get rid of and so I took one. It only took one slice into those green leaves and one sniff of that fresh herbal aroma to spoil me for dried herbs forever.Unfortunately, I kill plants, and my seedling didn't last very long. I'm confident it wasn't my fault though, since I actually wanted this plant to live. I watered it and gave it plenty sunshine. Some sort of pest just ate all the leaves before I got to. =^( But now, I think it's worth investing in the bunches of fresh herbs from the commissary. Maybe next year I can try my hand at growing an herb garden...
Also, I recently rose to the challenge of making homemade pie dough for the first time. I found some beautiful fresh peaches at a local market and was perusing recipes online when I stumbled across a Martha Stewart recipe for peach-filled hand pies. I'm not going to lie - pie crust is difficult to make. The key to perfect pastry dough is keeping the butter really cold. I didn't think about that before attempting this recipe during the hottest weekend of the summer in Misawa, with no A/C and high humidity. My kitchen was a hot, sticky mess by the time I was done. But the pies were delicious. I'm not sure it's worth making homemade dough when you can buy it pre-made in the freezer section. But I may need to do it again at least once for my pie-loving hubby when he gets home in September.If you'd like to try this hand-pie recipe, the link is below:
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