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Things To Eat/Drink/Learn/Plant/Pick Before I Go

On our flight back from Israel, I started thinking about keeping a list of life goals. You know, drive the Ring Road, take a tango class in Buenos Aires, learn Arabic, that kind of thing. Then I saw Maggie’s lists and thought it might be nice to share mine with you. So I narrowed my list to just the food-related (loosely, at least) things.

1. Make cheese from scratch.
2. Get a little more educated about wine.
3. Drive up the Pacific Coast Highway to find taco stands like this woman.
4. Eat plum dumplings in Vienna.
5. Make my own sourdough.
6. Take a week-long cooking class in Vietnam.
7. Master boning and carving a chicken.
8. Taste raw milk.
9. Have dinner at Chez Panisse.
10. Shop at the Santa Monica Farmer’s Market every week for a year.
11. Plant, tend, and eat from a garden.
12. Pick wild blueberries.
13. Cook every recipe in Sunday Suppers at Lucques.
14. Eat a home-cooked meal in Morocco.
15. Go to Darjeeling during the tea harvest.
16. Learn to gather honey with beekeepers.
17. Harvest the olives on my family’s land in Italy.
18. Run a lunch catering operation out of my kitchen.
19. Write a cookbook.
20. Volunteer in a soup kitchen.
21. Give my children, when I have them, taste memories that will remind them of me when I’m gone.
22. Eat the roast chicken bread salad at Zuni Cafe.
23. Work on a farm for a summer.
24. Host a holiday meal for my family.
25. Take a jam class with June Taylor.

It’s neat to read over them and think about which ones will be easy to
cross off and which ones won’t. Maybe
I’ll do an update on this a year from now and see how far I got.

Now it’s your turn. Share a goal or two in the comments, won’t you?

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30 responses to “Things To Eat/Drink/Learn/Plant/Pick Before I Go”

  1. Paige Avatar
    Paige

    So glad you’re back. I missed you and started to wonder where you’d gone!
    I also love Sunday Suppers at Lucques–it’s my go-to dinner party book, but I love how her techniques translate into improvisation–just last night I made a potroast using bits and pieces of her brisket and short ribs recipes (both of which are incredible) and it was lovely and simple.
    My number one foodie goal is to plant and grow a garden this year. Having left L.A. for upstate NY, it’s a major rung in the ladder that leads from one lifestyle to another. Cavolo nero, here I come….

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  2. jenny Avatar
    jenny

    perfect my knife skills! oh my goodness, I was watching a cooks’ illustrated vid on chopping/mincing the other day and the knife work was seriously making me swoon.
    and yes to a garden, and fruit trees, and berry bushes. and yes to santa monica farmers’ market (speaking of swooning).
    and of course, I’d love to learn to be a better improviser in the kitchen. and to know what’s missing/needed if I make a recipe that’s not quite right. and to turn out tender-crumbed, moist cakes every single time …

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  3. Ellen Avatar
    Ellen

    I used to want to make my own miso…had a host mother in Nagoya who fed me homemade miso and it was delicious stuff. Life seems to be getting busier & busier, so it probably won’t happen… I do want to make my own udon (yum) and sourdough. Improve my knife skills, yes. And–um–learn to make pie crusts…

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  4. amanda Avatar
    amanda

    the big goal: go back to indonesia and sample all of the native delicacies that I used to eat as a kid when I visited. I can’t remember the smells nor the spices and that’s really frustrating. My mom is from there and I’d like to learn how to cook come of those meals, just to make her remember her home country.

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  5. Liz Avatar
    Liz

    Nice list — you’ve got me thinking about putting together one of my own. For now, I have a few goals I can think of: 1) Make the little seedlings I just started actually grow into edible produce this summer, 2) Improve my knife skills, and 3) travel through Asia and learn about all the different food cultures I possibly can. The last is a long shot, but I suppose it doesn’t hurt to have a few of those!

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  6. small tastes Avatar
    small tastes

    I love what you wrote about taste memories and children. I think that’s a goal of mine, too, though I’ve never articulated it that way. So far, alas, my daughter doesn’t care for cardamom (one of my own childhood taste memories–the taste of Swedish Christmas bread). Ah well, she’s 7 months old, give her time.
    I’m a sucker for a list, so here are the food-related items from my current 101 Things in 1,001 Days (see: http://www.triplux.com/dayzero/) list:
    Grow 5 heirloom vegetable varieties
    Plant lingonberries
    Plant an herb garden
    Create a pleasant place to eat outside
    Master a good, basic, go-to recipe for homemade bread
    Invent 5 recipes
    Make some kind of pastry
    Make a soufflé (successfully!)
    Make 12 tastes tomatoes
    Bake something with matcha
    Cook 20 fruits and vegetables that I don’t often use or have never used before
    Learn how to use ice cream maker successfully
    Cook 3 recipes written in Swedish and learn the vocabulary
    Get in the habit of having family dinner–with candles

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  7. sarah Avatar
    sarah

    What kind of cheese? The most satisfying cooking experience I ever had was making homemade panner out of Madhur Jaffrey’s brilliant World Vegetarian cookbook. She has a list of other easy cheeses (like marscapone, queso blanco and a syrian cheese).
    Anyhow the recipe is amazingly simple. 2 quarts of milk go into a heavy pan over med-high heat, when the milk begins to boil, turn the heat down to low and quickly pour in 3 tbsp. of white vinegar and stir. Magically, it begins to curdle (if it doesn’t add in another tbsp of vinegar). Next, pour into a lined colander (you can use cheesecloth or a clean dish towel) drain, twist, squeeze. Flatten with a cutting board weighted by cans for a couple of minutes, et voila! Ready to make mattar paneer or saag paneer or anything. So much fun and really delicious.

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  8. Christine Avatar
    Christine

    We relocated to New Jersey last fall, and our primary food-related goal is to get back into the habit of having dinner parties. In addition to making cheese and improving my knife skills, my list includes learning to make Mexican food well, successfully growing tomatoes, and one day having a kitchen with a double oven.

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  9. Neen Avatar
    Neen

    Whoever wrote sheepishly about mastering pie crusts… amen to that.

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  10. Jessika Avatar
    Jessika

    You could come to Vienna for Christmas and I’d meet you there :). Maybe get you as far as Sweden even…
    I read an article quite recently in the New York Times on artisinal diaries including them selling some raw milk at some of their market venues. It shouldn’t be impossible for you to get some already milked.

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  11. jenny Avatar
    jenny

    for those who have written about pie crusts, I must say that The Perfect Crust also used to be a goal of mine, until I tried (and here’s my second plug of the day) the cook’s illustrated pie crust made with … wait for it … VODKA. the problem with most crusts is that they’re so dang dry. but if you add too much water, you end up with a crust that’s horrid and tough. CI solved the problem by adding vodka which is … help me out here … only 60% water and 40% ethanol? so you get the liquid without the water, and you can’t taste the vodka at all. and did I mention that the dough rolls out like play-dough?? and is wonderfully light and flaky??
    the recipe is in the nov/dec 07 issue and I encourage all pie crust perfectionists to look it up.

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  12. loulou Avatar
    loulou

    I love the idea of making my own goat’s cheese.
    I would like to master the art of cooking over an open fire.
    And one day I will make Oaxacan mole from scratch.

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  13. Sarah Avatar
    Sarah

    See you in Santa Monica!

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  14. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    I live in the Bay Area and have been to Zuni three times and Chez Panisse too many times to count. Chez Panisse is worth it. Zuni is absolutely not. It is overrated. The food and service leave much to be desired.
    I have always wanted to make petits fours. You have inspired me to try tackle that this year.

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  15. Lydia (The Perfect Pantry) Avatar
    Lydia (The Perfect Pantry)

    The things on your list that touch me — and are always on my list — are volunteering, whether at a soup kitchen or food pantry or hot lunch program or Meals on Wheels — and creating food memories for your children, not only to remember you, of course, but so they will know who they are. Great list!

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  16. brittany Avatar
    brittany

    My food goals are similar. My biggest one was to eat at chez pannise and in January I got to do it! traveled all the way from NY just to eat Chez Pannise food. It was undoubtedly, the best meal ive ever had. I never knew a little orange beet could taste so good.

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  17. Katie Avatar
    Katie

    Pick fresh elderflowers for cordial and fritters.
    Turn out flaky pastry as consistently and elegantly as my mom.
    Make towering yorkshire puddings.
    Coax my own beehive in a tiny and productive garden.
    Make yearly batches of sloe gin that I actually save and mature and one day use to lovingly intoxicate my grandchildren.

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  18. Julie Avatar
    Julie

    Well, I have similar ones — and some of the ones you have are old ones of mine that I’ve achieved — dinner at Chez Panisse, chicken w/bread salad at Zuni, getting a LEETLE more educated about wine, boning and carving chickens, picking wild blueberries (although that’s been quite a while, and would be fun to do again soon) and hosting holiday family meals, which is a great pleasure, albeit a teensy bit stressful.
    One thing I think I’d really like is that any time I travel, I’d like to be able to get into someone’s kitchen in the locale where I am, and learn something about how local food is made. And have a homemade family meal, not just restaurant meals, which is always a great thing when you’re in a faraway place.
    Lots of others on your list would be mine too, although I think at the very top is growing some of my own food (oooh fruit trees), which I’m hoping to do in at least a small way this year, in a garden belonging to a cousin’s country house. We’re in the stage of talking about how soon we need to get our pea plants in. Imagine. Fresh peas, grown and harvested myself…

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  19. Aimee Avatar
    Aimee

    I can help you in two ways for #14. My husband is Moroccan & a CHEF! If you would like to swing up to Hartford, CT we can cook you a Moroccan meal you will never forget… If that doesn’t entirely fit into what you had in mind… I will tell you that he is the youngest of 8 children and if you happen to buy a ticket to Morocco some day, we can send you to one of their homes. He did learn from his sisters! His siblings live all over the country. I could even cook you a Moroccan meal… I lived over there for three years.

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  20. Molly Avatar
    Molly

    I’m just loving your list, my friend.
    Here are a few, in no particular order:
    1. Cook blood sausage in my own kitchen (as opposed to eating it only in restaurants). Oh, and serve it with caramelized apples.
    2. Host a holiday meal for my family.
    3. Own a small shop selling cheeses, local milks and other dairy goods, and local, best-quality meats.
    4. Start a tradition among family and friends of eating long, slow Sunday lunches together.
    xo

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  21. Meg Avatar
    Meg

    I’m so with you on taking a jam class with June Taylor. I love her jams, and I think if anyone could get me past my irrational fear of canning/preserving, it would be a person who makes such amazing conserves. And I really would love a chance to take a look at her operation.
    I’m not quite so with you on the olive harvest though. Harvesting olives is a real pain, and is often done late enough in the fall that the weather can be rotten.
    I cherish a fantasy of having my own chickens (for eggs) and maybe a goat (cheese, cajeta), but it probably wouldn’t be nice to subject animals to my stewardship.

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  22. Lisa (Homesick Texan) Avatar
    Lisa (Homesick Texan)

    I love lists like this! Here’s one of mine: ever since hearing stories from my grandparents and reading Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I’ve wanted to participate in a hog-butchering day.

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  23. Luisa Avatar
    Luisa

    I’m already writing my second list for items 26-50 – these are some great ideas, guys!

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  24. Debra Avatar
    Debra

    Hmm. Making a list would be tough for me because when I want to learn/try something foodwise, I usually jump right in. But when I can’t find the perfect recipe, I start experimenting and try to come up with my own. So the top two goals right now are to master naturally leavened (meaning sourdough, except not so sour) 100% whole grain breads. The other is to develop my own yellow cake formula. I tried numerous recipes and wasn’t satisfied. Now I’m thirty tweaks in and closing in on the prize. It’s amazing how much you learn in the process.
    I guess there are a couple things that I can’t do where I am now, but reading the other entries reminded me of them—raise my own chickens for better quality eggs (important in a yellow cake), and grow fruit, especially grape vines and blueberry bushes.
    When you’re ready to check off the sourdough, feel free to give me yell. Coaching people through the starter-making process is something I’m pretty good at 🙂

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  25. Mercedes Avatar
    Mercedes

    What a lovely list. I am waiting for #19, I have a feeling you’ve got all sorts of perfect recipes hiding up your sleeves. For me, here are a few:
    1. Work for a season on a vineyard.
    2. Make a presentation to Congress on why U.S. trade and agriculture policies perpetuate poverty and hamper emergency aid in the third world.
    3. Eat well-made pasha in Baghdad.
    4. Attend an asado with my family in Argentina again.
    5. Go on a traditional Omani fishing boat.
    6. Have dim sum in Hong Kong.
    7. Start a cooking and education program for inner city youth.
    If you ever need an Arabic tutor or tango tips in B.A., I’m your girl!

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  26. nicole Avatar
    nicole

    This is so nice! Mine:
    1. Have a garden, and eat pretty much exclusively from it. Can the produce at the end of the season.
    2. Have a few fruit trees to do same.
    3. And chickens (won’t can them, though).
    4. And a compost pile.
    5. Go back to Scotland and take a tour of the Laphroaig distillery.
    6. Learn how to bake really good bread (and enjoy it!).
    7. Forage for mushrooms and other edible wild plants.
    8. Volunteer in the schools to help better nutrition.

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  27. Victoria Avatar
    Victoria

    Great list. I’m rushing this morning because I have to get to work early today, so I only have a sec, but this coming fall when the prune plums are out, I’ll make you plum dumplings – then you can have them in New York.

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  28. Heidi Avatar
    Heidi

    I love this Luisa. Thanks for sharing your list. I keep one as well, but haven’t looked at it in a year or so. Might be time to dust it off 🙂

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  29. Leah Avatar
    Leah

    I so loved this list, Luisa, and not least because many of your things (both food and non-food things) resonated with me.
    And while I am continue to craft my own list every day, I do want to say that when you finally make that reservation at Chez Panisse, please know you have a place to stay at a wonderful North Berkeley home a mere five minute walk away.
    On my list:
    1. Grow at least one tomato that I can eat and that doesn’t get devoured by cabbage loopers.
    2. Eat banchan in Korea.
    3. Start creating recipes of my own (and writing them down).
    4. Actually live on a diet for a year that is good for me and my body (with its attendant issues) rather than make empty promises about it.
    5. Carry on the tradition of potluck Sunday Family Dinner with my friends (and family) in Northern California – whether it be dinner, lunch, or brunch.
    6. Just eat in Italy, period.
    xo

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  30. solveig Avatar
    solveig

    cool blog, luisa!
    i forget, where is your family from in italy?
    well, if you ever come to rome, let’s have a drink!
    solveig

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