Like everyone else I have been trying to figure out what I would like to do for my final project. Since I am going to be spending a lot of time on the project I would like to do something fun. One idea immediately jumps to mind...
Baking!
I can't really cook to save my life, but I love baking. Ask me to make a lasagna and you would wind up with a dish that was burned on the top, frozen in the middle, and soggy at the bottom. However, if you ask, me to bake a cake, tart, cookie, pie, etc. I can create perfection. For my final project I could create a how-to-guide for baking. I suspect this is not an original idea, but I am sure I can find a novel way of approaching it.
At moment I envision my final project can include a recipe and a tips page that could easily include pictures of the finished desserts.
Perhaps you could include video (or at least an option for video alongside still photos). My own culinary skills topped out at mud pies in kindergarten, and I sometimes find lists of ingredients and bizarrely named cooking techniques intimidating. Actually watching someone braise something (or whatever it is you do to food) can clear it up. Just a thought.
ReplyDeleteOoh, Chrissy, the video idea is intriguing (and very Web2.0)!
ReplyDeleteCatherine, if I can suggest something to add to the website, a glossary or dictionary of terms might be good. Chrissy's comment about braising reminded me of some of my early experiences with cookbooks, where I would just get stumped by an ingredient or a cooking term I had never heard. Also, the most useful cooking tips I've gotten from the Internet involve substitutions, such as what you can use if you run out of eggs. Cooking has gotten so much easier for me now that I can rely on the Internet!
This sounds like a totally yummy idea, and now I will start recruiting other classmates to insist that we be allowed to sample the goods.
Maybe you could collaborate with others who can fill in the gaps if your site was a restaurant. I had a quite a mad passion for cooking a few summers ago, and read a lot in bookstores (I had a few free-lance type jobs going, so somehow had lots more time to do this sort of thing). One day in Barnes and Noble on Rittenhouse, a french guy came over to me and asked why I was hanging out in the cookbooks so much. He ended up being a chef at Le Bec Fin, and explained how to go about being a kitchen apprentice. In the fancy super culinary experience type places, there is a single chef who does only sauces, another who plates and presents, and probably a third who only braises the meat - but all three do their individual tasks to the highest degree of care and correctness.
ReplyDeleteThere's also lots of fun food bloggers, if you wanted to assemble a community or solicit contributions.
I think baking, and cooking in general, is a good topic. In an attempt to convince my roommates that I should live for free if I cook (still working on convincing them), I've been making a lot of food the last few months. Everyone needs to eat, so the topic's of wide interest. If you choose this, I look forward to learning new tricks to work on living rent free.
ReplyDeleteThe topic is great and has many possibilites. Along with JAKeller, I volunteer to help sample the goods!
ReplyDeleteDoreva
A tips page, or a checklist of general rules of thumb to follow when baking, would be very useful. It seems like it would be easy for a beginner to try to follow a recipe, yet forget something fairly fundamental (such as buttering the pan)!
ReplyDeleteI think baking is a great topic because it's something that intimidates a lot of people. I consider myself a good cook, but have had very few good experiences with baking. I'm excited to see what you come up with.
ReplyDeleteI've been really getting into baking lately - I thought about doing my website on breadbaking! A website like this would be really useful, especially a tips page (for example, why do my chocolate chip cookies never rise up nicely?).
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