Food the hard way

I'm not sure if it started with beer brewing or roasting coffee but somewhere along the way I developed an unhealthy penchant for doing things the hard way... frequently just to see if I could actually do it.  While making pasta from scratch with my three year old (she makes pasta with her play-doh so this was a logical progression in my brain) it occured to me that with all the crazy things I try, I should probably be cataloging my cooking adventures in some fashion.  So this is for me, but please feel free to tag along.  Perhaps we'll both learn something along the way.

I'm no chef... in fact I learned how to section a rabbit from youtube.  Nor am I a food snob... Cup Noodles are my guilty pleasure. 

But I am a big fan of the process. 

Many years ago I was asked why I brewed my own beer and roasted my own coffee, my response still rings true today and probably gives a glimpse into why I like to cook food - the hard way.

I roast my own coffee beans... not because it's so much better and cheaper (although it is) but because there are so many things in between raw beans and a cup of coffee that you just don't experience when you walk into Starbucks. The same goes with brewing beer... you get a great sense of satifaction after you finish cleaning up after a day of brewing, seeing your live beer bubble away as the yeast does it job, after tasting a new beer barely a week in the bottle just to see how it's progressing, and when your batch finally starts to hit it's peak, having a fridge full of great beer that you can recollect with each beer the entire process that you controlled over a period of six weeks. Yeah, I could go buy a case of good beer and enjoy it, but it will never be as good as a beer I remember starting as a handful of dry grain.

I grow my hops, own a cheese cave and even had a rather successful crawfish boil just because it sounded interesting to try.  Thankfully I'm not alone in my madness... my wife shares my interest in trying new things and whereas I tend to keep to more traditional paths, her curiosity knows no bounds.  We were recently at the Jean George Steakhouse at the Aria in Las Vegas and while my curious palate eyed the Black Truffle and Comte fritters, my wife wanted to know all about the Roasted Bone Marrow with Gremolata.  Grema-what-a??  I was horrified but our server assured us it was the best side on the menu.  I stuck with my fritters but my wife opted for the bone marrow.  It was amazing.  We had more than a few curious looks from the French table next to us but we didn't care, we were enjoying cullinary excellence.  So... like I said earlier, I'm glad she's onboard... I'd certainly miss out on a lot of things without her.

Oh, and we currently have five pounds of marrow bones in the fridge waiting for something to happen.