No degree here, just cooking for a long time. I love expermenting with new things. Not always successful, but we learn from our successes and failures.
As ar as baking goes, I'm pretty good at it, but I dont enjoy I, cause for as good as I am at baking, I'm even better at making a mess ( especially when it comes to flour ( a and frying things like eggplant).
As far as inspiration goes, just the smell of something freshly baked is enough to inspire me ( especially bread). I love seeing how things are made and trying to duplicate something I'd normally get in a store, in my kitchen with my own two hands. Sometimes it's just to prove that I can do it, then chalk it off to a been there, done that kinda thing. Other times, if relatively easy and comes out really good, I might do it on a more regular basis.
- Bagels is something I do maybe once a year
- Soft pretzels is something I used to do all the time with kids.
- Focaccia I make every summer when my grape tomatoes are in season. it also freezes well, so I make a large one, then freeze its in serving sizes to use over the course of the year.
- I've been doing some testing of vegan cakes (Donuts and fritters which are deep fried, and some Asian flat and middle eastern flat breads which are cooked in a pan, so don't really count as baking).