Culinary Heebie-Jeebies

Yesterday at school M's class learned about St. Patrick's Day, complete with a snack of Lucky Charms topped with green milk (not moldy milk, just milk and green food coloring). In fact, he loved the cereal so much, he convinced me to make up some green milk and let him and T have cereal for dinner. So much for the homemade pizza I'd baked with pre-made sourdough pizza crusts.

Later I made him some green frosting to spread on graham crackers. He stared in disbelief. How in the world had I just *whipped up* frosting? Had I *added* frosting to the bowl, he asked, sure it was an ingredient; perhaps that frosting farmers in Mexico harvested the frosting crops every summer. I realized that for the most part I've only used frosting from a can; it's what he knows. It seemed to him insurmountable to get it any other way.

Which got me thinking about the culinary mountains I've never climbed, partially because I'm scared I'll be such a miserable failure. I think back to when I first learned to drive a stick shift. We were in Brooklyn, trying to navigate the start/stop traffic. I didn't understand how manual cars work, and was sure the car would accelerate itself and I'd go careening through someone's brownstone. I even had to stop for a quick tearful breath-catch, causing a cop to stop by our car to ensure that there was no domestic strife. These days, even with all that drama, I prefer to drive a stick. I'm hoping in a few months I'll be able to say the same about the things that intimidate me in the kitchen.

So this year I'm going to face my cooking fears head-on, including:

• Pie crust. Why is it that I watch Amy whipping one up and feel it's no big deal, I've got this licked. But on my own I can't seem to get the balance right and will flirt with the Poppin' Fresh Doughboy rather than try to tackle this. No more.


• Maki rolls. Back in New York on a shopping excursion with a friend to Kan Man Foods, I bought all the sushi tools one Friday night: rolling mats and a knife and even little sake cups. And they've all sat for six years. The boys recently disassembled one of the sushi mats and made swords from the bamboo sticks -- that's the extent of the action the sushi mats have seen. I love the idea of talking with dinner guests while I expertly roll up and cut perfect maki, but ultimately I get intimidated by what seems like it could be sticky and lumpy and prone to disaster. But mark my words, this year I'm making my own maki rolls.


• Lasagne. You read it right: I've never made a lasagna. I've never even purchased lasagne noodles with the intention of making lasagna. This isn't so much total fear of failure, but just never having done it. Everyone I know makes lasagna; why haven't I? I don't know. But I'm going to. I have my eye on this recipe from Adrienne of Hello Yarn.

Are there any culinary mountains you're looking to climb to climb this year? If you're intimidated by making green milk, M's got a surefire recipe you can try...