Order in July

 

Summer is almost here.   We have had some fantastic cool rainy weather for all of the spring so far.  And we enter June in a few days with hardly a hint of hot weather.  The plants and flowers and trees and shrubs love it.  

With Covid calming down somewhat and vaccinations given to so many people, I think it's time to start opening up for orders again.  So beginning soon you will be able order from Bruce Bakery and Bistro.  Very soon you will see the first July offered items on the weekly menu.  Remember there are FAQs you can read to remind yourself of the ordering process.  You'll see a tab for that on the home page, www.brucebakeryandbistro.com .  Remember everything is free, no charge.  

I haven't decided completely what the first items of the summer will be except that one of them will be ice cream of some type.  We have to start off the summer with ice cream.

I will also be adding a more new items to the full menu so be on the lookout for those.

I can hardly wait to share some food with everyone again.

In the meantime, enjoy the end of spring and the beginning of what I hope will be a mildly warm summer.

en papillote

 

Good afternoon, everyone.  It's a beautiful gloomy rainy day here in Kansas City.  I love the rain.  And this spring we've been having very good rains here.  The flowers and shrubs and trees are all growing vigorously.

Today, we are cooking "en papillote".  What does that mean?  It means cooking something in a pouch created, in this case, by folding parchment paper.

I have prepared several small grape tomatoes for cooking.  They have been sliced in half and brushed with olive oil and seasoned with several things that I like in combination.  Then I get a piece of parchment paper of generous proportions, fold it in half and lay the tomatoes inside at the fold.  Then I start at one end where the edges meet, and crimp and fold the edges together, moving around the tomatoes, folding the straight edges of the paper into a rough semicircle.  When I get to the other end, I fold and then twist.  Will the paper unfold?  No.  It has been crimped and folded in too many places for that to happen.

Then I put this pouch on a baking sheet and slide the sheet into the oven for 3 hours at 225 F.  What comes are out beautiful cooked tomatoes which will make you think of pasta sauce when you eat them.  

You can even keep them in the pouch and let it all cool before putting the entire pouch, still sealed, into the fridge and heat them up again in the oven when you want them.

Cooking "en papillote" is fun and easy.  Sometimes I make a curried chicken with onions and peas and tomatoes in a pouch.  Other times I might do a vegetable medley.  This is a versatile technique.  And when you open the pouch you will find the food to be succulent and moist since the pouch helps to keep things from drying out.

Try it sometime with something you like to make.  

Have a great week everyone!

Ice box dessert

Today we're making Ice Box Dessert.  This is a very simple dessert from my childhood, fun to make and fun to eat,  and made with ice cream, crushed butter mints and crushed chocolate wafers.  When I was a kid, we would buy all the ingredients from the grocery store and combine them.  Now I make the ice cream and wafers from scratch, but not the butter mints.

First we need ice cream, either vanilla or French vanilla works best.  If you get a carton from the grocery store, it needs to soften or you won't be able to mix in the butter mints.  Since I make it myself, I add the crushed butter mints directly into the ice cream freezer/churner when the ice cream is just about ready to be removed.

The butter mints should be crushed, but whether you want them crushed into tiny bits or larger chunks is purely a matter of taste.  I usually place them into a plastic bag that can be locked (zipper lock is better than a compression seal), and pound them with the flat side of a meat tenderizer.  I make sure that every original piece is broken up at least a little bit.

The chocolate wafers should be crushed into very fine crumbs.  I have a small-sized food processor that works great for this.  After I make the chocolate wafers, I let them cool completely before processing them into crumbs.

Set out your molds or bowls or dishes, whatever you want to make this dessert in.  You can make individual portions or one large one in a 9x9 or a 9x13 pan.  Cover the bottom with a generous amount of the wafer crumbs.  

Next mix in the crushed butter mints into the soft ice cream.  How much you add comes down to taste.  I prefer to add less rather than more.  

Now spread the ice cream into the prepared molds or dishes or pan.  Press it down with a spoon or spatula so that it is pressed firmly against the bottom crumbs.  I always try to make it fairly level on top.

Now add a generous layer of crumbs on top, and press those into the ice cream with the back of a spoon. Then put it in the freezer for several hours to firm up.

That's all there is to it.

Now you have a wonderful refreshing dessert ready whenever you feel like indulging just a bit.

I made three of these yesterday.  I think I'm going to eat one now.  Bon appetit!

May and new foods

 

May is here.  And so far, four days into the month, it seems it is going to be mild and cool.  That's good because when May is hot, July is unbearable.  But the weather appears to be staying mild week after week.  And as the spring progresses, I am getting ready to start putting out food for everyone again.

I've added a couple items to the menu recently.  Perhaps you've noticed.  But more new items are coming up soon.  I have a list of things I've been wanting to add as I have time to do final tweaks with respect to portion sizes and package. 

Be on the lookout for:

Lasagna

Chocolate and vanilla eclairs

Raspberry mascarpone cream puffs

A wonderful ice cream dessert that doesn't have a name yet but has crushed buttermints and crushed chocolate wafers

Parsnip chips - yes, I said parsnip.  

Sugar cones for ice cream cones (and edible bowls made of the same)

Chicken with herbs cooked in white wine

Roma tomatoes and cherry tomatoes roasted with herbs and olive oil, cooked en papillote

Multiple varieties of macaroni and cheese

Lavender ice cream with blueberry swirl

Banana ice cream with caramelized white chocolate

I get a lot of enjoyment from looking at new foods to make available for everyone.  The process of preparing them for addition to the menu means multiple tests of the recipes, tweaking the techniques and ingredient amounts, and deciding how to distribute them which includes deciding how large portions should be and making decisions on packaging.

Packaging for some things is easy, cookies, et al, but packaging for other things, like the mirror glaze chocolate cake I like to make, sometimes takes a lot of time both in testing out packaging as well as researching what is available.    

But it is very satisfying when a new item is ready for inclusion on the menu.  And I am very excited when I put in on the current week's menu for the first time.  To me it is well worth the effort.

Have a great week everyone!