In which I bake things

Over the last couple of years, I’ve undergone a kind of culinary transformation.  Cooking used to make me nervous.  “A handful of this…” – “Until it turns golden…”  The inexactness made me worry.  (I actually have a set of measuring spoons for ‘a pinch’, ‘a dash’, etc.)

But then along came the Melty Cheese Thing.  (You don’t know about the Melty Cheese Thing?  I don’t know if it can be pinned down by mere words… I’ll have to try in another post.)  Now I am “Quite the Little Cooker.”

A Sunday Invention

So often on Sundays I set out to make what I declare to be “Tasty Things”.  (I think it’s important to declare them to be tasty in advance, that way other people don’t even have to form their own judgment.  It saves everyone time.)

This Sunday I invented a New Tasty Thing.  I wanted to make a kind of fruit tart, with pineapple rings as the fruit part on top.  So I followed a recipe I had for pastry dough (which came out perfect, thank you very much) and one for custard.  I poured that into small little ramekins (which sound like some kind of pokemons), topped each with a pineapple ring that fit just perfectly, and baked ‘em.

Scrambled recipes?

Now when I was thinking ‘custard’, I was really thinking… like a pudding kind of thing.  Sweet and creamy.  What I got was custard that was more quiche-like.  Almost savory, but not salty.  I’m sure the flavor of the custard would have gone nicely with a less acidic fruit (or even vegetables).  But as it was, it gave you the impression of eating scrambled eggs with pineapple.

There’s a reason restaurants don’t serve that.

But the custard did cook up through the hole in the pineapple ring, which looked very cool and like I’d meant for it to do that.

Which of course, I did.