Time to Celebrate

I did it! 49 recipes, 49 days, 7 weeks of cooking, baking, tasting, and testing. 7 weeks of grocery runs, rare ingredient hunting, and feeling disappointed with a few misses in the kitchen.

Last night, I came to a realization as I reflected on completing Project Rémy. If I could cook and bake everyday from someone else’s cookbook, I could cook and bake from the cookbook I’ve been writing in my mind. For years, I have wanted to document my family’s recipes and I even took some steps in 2015 when I created a pre-sale launch of the cookbook and uploaded the first 10 recipes. At the time, I felt it was a gargantuan task to cook and bake through the 63 recipes I had planned to include in my book. Now, I know it can be done.

So often, I assign a “how-hard-will-this-be” score to the things I want to do. This score is usually based on a perceived range of pain and the associated costs in time, effort, and energy. As a project manager in technology, I should know that breaking up a large task into discreet, manageable ones is the only way to start moving forward on any project. I also know that things might go sideways and a buffer of time should be allocated to testing, troubleshooting, and course corrections.

Today I conquered my fear of cut-out cookies, more specifically, shortbread style cut-out cookies. I tried baking heart-shaped linzer tarts for Valentine’s Day in 2018. I had a hard time rolling and cutting the dough without it sticking to my cutters. The dough was too soft and even after more refrigeration, I got frustrated with it. I put the dough in the freezer to try at a later date. 

Six months later, the dough went in the trash along with my hopes of getting it right. Deep down, I wasn’t in the mood for those heart-shaped cookies because I was nursing a wound from a potential something turning into nothing in the romance department. And somehow, the dough knew it. 

I gave up then but here I am today with perfectly-shaped, buttery cookies to enjoy and share. This dough was forgiving, resilient, and stood up to being smushed and re-rolled multiple times. And I’d like to think those are the qualities that helped me get through these 49 days. 

So, who knows what else I can conquer this year? Thank you for joining me on this adventure. 

Here’s to the next one!

Merci