From Woodworking to Cooking

Well, it's seems, interestingly enough, that my love for creating things has gone beyond woodworking, music composing, and sound designing to encompass... cooking. I love it because it's a whole new level of creation because, with cooking, not only are you creating something that is tangible... but something you can seriously experience, in this case by taste. There's just something, though, about working on something for a couple hours and seeing it all come together with each step, and then having the finished product in all its glory coming out of the oven (or in a pot on the stove, as the case may be).

Of course, this cooking thing isn't entirely new. I've almost always cooked/baked stuff every once and a while. But it wasn't until a couple weeks ago that I actually started to really enjoy it.

It all started rather simply with some Bisquick pancakes with chocolate chips in them and a side of bacon. But then suddenly I was looking up recipes for hamburger rolls, found a good one, tried it, and everyone that tried them (including myself) really liked them a lot. This is the recipe I used: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/burger-or-hot-dog-buns/detail.aspx

And then of course I thought to myself... I'm making hamburger rolls... surely we need some hamburgers to go with them. So I got out some ground beef, mixed in some spices that I thought might be good, and then got them going on the griddle. And this, my friends, was the result:

A couple days later I suddenly thought it would be a good idea to make some Pizza Hut style bread sticks to go with spaghetti. The dough recipe I got from here: http://farmchickskitchen.blogspot.com/2009/07/recipe-for-pizza-hut-style-breadsticks.html and the seasoning recipe I got from here: http://www.food.com/recipe/breadsticks-pizza-hut-style-137629

Again turned out excellently, although I think they needed more saltiness.

Then a couple days after that.... What I think is the tops so far... Pizza Hut style pan pies. http://www.food.com/recipe/pizza-hut-original-pan-pizza-91827

Result:

Absolutely amazing, although I didn't have mozzarella so I had to use cheddar. Next time I want to get mozzarella and use it because I think that is going to make it even better (if that's possible). I also want to make the crust stuffed. But, even so, utterly brilliant recipe.

Again, as with woodworking, it's just so much more 'rewarding' spending time and energy creating something that is actually tangible (as opposed to computer work where it's all just sittin' there on your screen) and—in this case—edible.