First Post

I have been an avid cook since about high school. I went from simple Home Ec.-type recipes, to complex cookbook recipes, to "just wing it," recipes, and lately I have been working on developing my own. A year ago I really started fusing recipes together, taking them from different sources and trying to create my own. A good friend tried to talk me into starting a cooking blog, so that others could read my recipes, and very recently he's managed to succeed.

I guess the purpose of this blog is two-fold. First, (the selfish reason) it is to force me to organize my thoughts as I try to develop my recipes, and record what went right or wrong. Second, (the magnanimous reason) it is to share successful recipes with the world. I figure I use the internet enough to find recipes, why not provide recipes for others to use?

So, this summer I set as my goal to master the following recipes:
Buffalo Wings
Stuffing
Frybread
Cobbler
Buttermilk Biscuits
Pot pie (Pennsylvania Dutch style)

When I say, "master," I don't mean learn how to make. I mean tinker and toy with the recipes until I don't think there is any way of improving them. I mean get better and better until I can make them blindfolded. I had a very similar task last summer (recipes different of course), and succeeded with some. I figured out the tricks to making risotto, and got decent at omelets and tamales (though am not quite to the "blindfold" stage). Others, such as fry-bread and tortilla soup, I didn't figure out by the end of the summer. I'm kind of curious how many of these I'll be able to do.