Weekend Inspiration: What's Your 'Before I Die' List? culinarily speaking, of course

A San Francisco magazine has just put out their local version of the '100 things you should do (eat and drink-wise) before you die' list. Sigh. I guess I understand the appeal of these kinds of lists, but mostly they leave me blank. Much more fun to come up with my own list, one that's a little more in line with my life and times. Read on for a peek..

First, this isn't a lifetime list. This is only a 2009 list. I suppose a lifetime list has it's merits, but I don't know of too many people who have the time to sit down and come up with a list of 100 items, unless, of course, they're paid to do such things. Keeping it to just this year lends focus and brings in a little sense of urgency.

Second, this isn't a resolution-style list where I'm looking to improve or change or finally accomplish something very practical. This is the dream list, the adventure list. This is the list that says I've lived fully and tasted all the sweet (tangy), complex (simple), earthy (light), extravagant (ordinary), perfect (wonky), and wondrous things that life is offering.

Here's a few things from my list for 2009. I'll let you know how it goes, hopefully not from my deathbed...but you never know.

Make a cassoulet
Have a picnic party on the beach a la Sara Kate
Make A16's pizza margherita
Get drunk on Absinthe, preferably while wearing a costume. (I've half-done this already when I got a little...glowy at a friend's birthday party after downing two glasses of St. George Absinthe and a handful of almonds. I was wearing a chiffon turban, at least when we started. Now that it's been a few weeks, I think I'm ready for the full-on experience.)
Learn how to clean and cook fresh crabs which I think (hope!) involves lots of butter and newspapers and strange implements used for cracking and extracting.
Throw a 'Vertical Ray of the Sun' party which would include having a bunch of people over to cook Vietnamese food, including the amazing lacquered whole chicken from the film, and then watch the film.
Keep feeding my friends good food!

Share a few of your crazy culinary dreams with us. Is there anything you've always wanted to do, to taste, to cook?

7x7's 100 Things to Try Before You Die

(Image: Dana V)

Comments (15)

i want to join the daring bakers. they pose challenges for amateur gutsy cooks. at the mo' my oven is broken so that's my excuse for putting it off.

more info on the daring bakers in below link if you're interested.

http://daringbakersblogroll.blogspot.com/

I want to make a dessert that surprises me

Being a Baltimorean, picking (the accepted term around here) and steaming crabs seems like something to do after a long week, not a food adventure. This post makes me feel lucky to have had the experience of cooking, picking, and even catching my own crabs countless times. If you can make it to B-more, you gotta try it, but please don't sully a perfectly good Chesapeake Bay Blue Crab with butter. They're not like lobster. They need nothing but the Old Bay seasoning and sea salt they're steamed in--and perhaps a little of the natural mustard inside, if you don't let yourself think about what it is.

just few things that I can think of right away:
1. cook for Gordon Ramsay and not have him spit out my food.
2. and Taste Gordon Ramsay's food (I am a big fan of him as you can tell)
3. Raise my own Berkshire pigs and throw a huge luau party in my backyard.
4. Winning Top Chef! (oh boy...I am really out there with my "before I die" list)
5. Have all my friends come into my restaurant and have my last meal with me, and I have yet to come up a menu for that.

I will end my list here before I go wayyyy out there.

@LitNerd Amen! Save the butter for the Cherry Stones you order before the dozen extra larges.

Now that I've had some time to mull over and actual answer instead of a recommendation, I want to successfully make creme brulee, complete with caramelized sugar. None of that "put it under the broiler" crap for me. It's not creme brulee if I don't get to play with a torch.

I plan to learn how to make a souffle this year and that's something that's been on my "list" for awhile now.

Cooking anything really isn't on my list of things to do before I die.

I would like to make a pavlova some time, but I won't be pining about not doing so on my deathbed if I don't manage it.

i've tried durian. it was one of those things i'd seen on tv, figured i'd never get a chance to taste and then ran into randomly at a back yard bbq in florida. it's delicious! and i'd like to try it again. wall before i kick it.

i also hope to learn how to make my grammie's yeast rolls before she kicks it. buttery and yeasty and doughy and melty, crunchy - my god! they are heaven in a pan.

I'm one of those people with a 100 item adventure list, and I actually have food related items on it! Learn to make fresh pasta (this past fall--the most fantastic food I may have ever created). Learn to make jelly (waiting on this year's strawberries). Own some fancy chickens (one day). Clean a fish (the first one I marked off the list). Learn to make rolls from scratch (last Thanksgiving). Milk a cow (thank goodness for the state fair). Go crabbing (one day). Learn to make flowers out of icing (once I sprout some patience). Be part of a dinner party club (eek!).

I have a friend who is one of the Daring Bakers, and I keep thinking I will jump in. . .but I'm afraid of the commitment! I think beyond what is on my actual list, the only things I actually dream of making are pastry swans and fruit filled hand pies.

I want to learn canning this year so I can preserve those delicious summer tomatoes from the farmers' market for use in winter stews.

And I want to perfect my Great-grandma Crowley's pie/pastry crust method. I'm getting there, but much more practice is needed.

A couple of things: Learn to make a truly great pie crust. Make some of those lovely meringue desserts like dacquoise, floating islands, pavlova, Swiss buttercream, baked Alaska. Create a cupcake so beautiful it makes people gasp.

Top long-term food goal: I want to save enough money to send my spouse to a top culinary school--decades from now when we shift careers again. He sometimes regrets choosing law school over cooking school and I have to do something to make up for the lifetime worth of family meals that he'll cook. His talent is wasted in our kitchen.