A Different Kind of Bucket List

You know everyone seems to have a "Bucket List: - those things you want to do in life before, well, you're life is over.  A person's personal Bucket Lists can tell you a lot about that person.  Some people long for adventure and have a bucket list filled with things like sky diving and swimming with sharks.  Others want to see the world and travel to remote places.  Some peoples' bucket list is filled with righting past mistakes and reconnecting with people who were once important to them.  Still others want to do iconic things like be in Times Square on New Year's Eve or Run with the Bulls in Spain. 

Me - well I have a different kind of Bucket List.  It's a Cooking Bucket List.  I know - how boring.  It's not written down anywhere but in my mind I have a long list of things that I want to learn to cook in this lifetime.  Correction - Not just learn - but Master! 

I love to cook.  I love to go to the grocery store.  I really love a gourmet food shoppe. I am over the moon in a great kitchen supply store. And if I ever have a mental breakdown, you will find me in the cookbook section of Barnes & Noble, curled up in a ball with my Starbucks vanilla latte, reading a cookbook.

Yes, I love making food.  Unlike most people, I love cooking AND baking.  It is relaxing to me,  especially when I am making an old familiar recipe.  They are like old friends - comforting and calming.  If I've had a stressful day, a batch of chocolate chip cookies or a bowl of potato salad will de-stress me better than a long bath.  Now, I eat what I make but the act of eating the food is not the comfort to me - it's the act of cooking that calls to me.  It's my creative outlet.

I enjoy reading cookbooks like novels - from beginning to end.  There is usually one on my nightstand.  This too is a calming pursuit, one that is cheaper than endless experiments in the kitchen. I also enjoy cooking shows and blogs and find a lot of inspiration and ideas from some of my favorite cooks.

So, back to my boring Bucket List.  Today, I took the first step toward checking one of those things off my list - homemade pizza dough.  I know - how simple of me.  As I type, my beautiful pizza dough is resting in my fridge waiting to be rolled out for tonight's supper.  I can't wait!  It smells wonderful.  I'm sure I'll tweak it a bit before I settle on my preferred "go-to" recipe, but for me this is one more thing that I've been wanting to learn to cook that I can check off my list.