How to Choose to DIY

Creamy Homemade Ricotta from Homemade with Love, out spring 2013

How to Choose to DIY

I’ve had my head in a particular book for a few months now, and it’s given me a good amount of food for thought on the lifestyle of making staples from scratch. (Though the subject of this post is elsewhere, let me take this moment to tell you: you need this book! Happily, it’s available for preorder now.) 

Lucky dog that I am, I am usually swimming in high-quality food writing during all waking hours. Authors and colleagues are shouting the Homemade Gospel from the rooftops: on making ricotta (pictured), nut butters, fruit preserves of all stripes, ketchup, Ro-Tel tomatoes, sodas, veggie burgers, beans, booze, pickles, baked goods, pizza, doggie food, cereal, Cheez crackers, chocolate truffles, and—the list goes on. It’s enough to make your grocery list look inadequate.

As a food enthusiast, Renaissance cook, Little House-loving amateur farm gal, urban gourmet, how do you bring scratch food into rotation? You know the rotation I mean: not the one-offs, the annual projects for gifts or saving the season, but the Wednesday nights, the Monday morning breakfasts, the mid-winter grocery lists. How do you start these scratch habits without becoming overwhelmed?

For me, taste is a big factor: the effort is well worth the payoff. Salad dressings, sauces, most (but not all) breads, jams and marmalades, and granola are made with love with my two hands because I like my results better than those on the shelf. They’re fast, and they’re satisfying.

Outside of our gotta-have-‘em weekly necessities, I prioritize by fun. Cooking should be fun! I make limoncello every year or so because I love the way the house smells after zesting dozens of lemons. I love making cranberry ketchups and Nutella for the sheer novelty of the ultimate dipping companion. Does that mean I make all my beverages, or eschew the whole condiment aisle? Nay, it does not.

If there’s anything is a distressing byproduct of great food writing, it’s a discouraged home cook. I live to make a difference for the home cook! Home cooking is not some kind of yardstick against which we all are judged and found wanting. (Amen?) These food writers with big scratch-cooking ideas: they’re cheering you on.

So do what you can. Do what works for your life, and come back to try more new things another time. They’ll keep. Pile your plate with good whole foods, serve a bakery’s French bread and a good friend’s herbed butter and call it good. Season to taste with hot sauce—you can even use the Rooster brand, because you can always try your hand at a homemade version later. Enjoy. Savor. The best cooks will tell you that they’re constantly evolving, depending what matters then. And when you want to indulge in making mustard, kombucha, strawberry wine, or sourdough baguettes, do it for pure joy, because cooking from the ground up is a pleasure unlike any other pleasure.

-Kristen