Now that our group has, collectively, cooked through the whole of Around My French Table, we’ve moved on to four weeks of celebratory posts, reflecting on our more than four-and-a-half years of cooking together.
This week, we were asked to:
Choose the recipe that might not have been your favorite or even something you enjoyed making or even something you were skeptical about but which taught you a technique or gave you an idea or provided a lesson of some kind.
In any long-term learning experience, there will be moments of doubt and skepticism. But, we push through to find out if that doubt was warranted and often, minds are changed. Personally, I’d rather be happy than right. Especially when that learning experience is happening in the kitchen.
There were many moments that I found myself feeling skeptical as we worked through Around My French Table and I think that’s a very good thing.
Sometimes, it was the instructions that took me aback. How could flattening puff pastry possibly be a good thing? Turns out, it’s a delicious thing.
Sometimes, it was my own abilities in the kitchen that gave me pause. Now I know I can stuff a pork loin, present a soufflé, and even spatchcock a hen.
At other times, it was a flavour combination that made me hesitate. Oranges and olives in a salad? Olives or nori in a cookie? Consider my palate improved.
What I’ve never doubted was how much I’d grow as a cook during this process, though if you’d asked me at the beginning if I’d grow as a person, I’d have scoffed. As I said, I’d rather be happy than right.
Find out which recipes quashed the skeptic in the hearts of the French Fridays crew, here: Celebration Week #2: The Never-Doubt-Dorie Moment
Win one of two copies of Jill Colonna’s beautiful Teatime in Paris!
One Wet Foot 