A year in the past and a year in the future

 

It's the last day of the year.  And it has been a great year.  I added many new foods to the menu of Bruce Bakery and Bistro.  I passed out a lot of great food to many people.  And the year was filled with many noteworthy events including my marriage to a wonderful and lovely woman.

It has indeed been a great year, full of wonderful and exciting things.

I have to admit I didn't meet all my food goals for the year.  I am a little behind on some promised additions to the menu, but those are still in progress and will not be forgotten.   

I have many other new dishes and treats I'm looking to add to the menu in the coming year.  And my wife has introduced me to several new foods, and I am eager to learn to make these.  And I have a long list of foods and recipes and ideas that I want to explore.

That's all for today.  Just a short post.  I'll be back tomorrow to talk about upcoming weekly menu offerings, and other things as well.

Upcoming offerings and kitchen accidents

 

It is a cold December night here in Kansas City.  A little ice is falling and we have a winter weather advisory that is in effect for the rest of the night as I write this entry.  Perfect weather for staying inside and eating some good food.

I've had the urge to make some palet d'or (see the photo above), and a few other similar super-rich desserts, so be on the lookout for those in upcoming weekly offerings.  For this coming weekend, I'm still on break.  But the first full weekend of January has two items that have been updated just now, ready for you to order.  Triple chocolate chunk cookies and yellow snack cake.

This past week I made a lot of food, many types of cookies, multiple types of brownies, some sandwich bread, lime slushes, and my wife made shami kebabs and chicken biryani.  Most of what we made became our contributions to a big feast.  We spent a lot of time in our kitchen these past few days.  

While making one of the batches of brownies, I happened to spill a few small blobs of brownie batter onto the glass-top stove.  I quickly took my finger and swiped it up to eat it from my fingertip.  I didn't realize the burner on which it had landed was still just a little bit hot from being on earlier.  Yikes!  I knew the burner was still to warm to touch, but my instinct was to grab that delicious bit of brownie batter right away.  A little ice immediately applied kept the burn at bay.   

It's so easy to make little mistakes in the kitchen which can lead to small accidents.  There are hot stovetops, hot pans coming from the oven, blenders and food processors, knives, and so on.  I try to mitigate all these risks as much as possible.  For instance, I never compress a kitchen trash bag by hand since it might contain a can lid with sharp edges.  (I came perilously close one time to having a deep cut because of a loose can lid in a trash bag.)  And I always wear a knife-resistant glove when cutting up vegetables and fruits and I even a have butcher's glove that I always wear when cutting up meats.  Two gloves?  Yes, so that there is no chance of cross contamination since one is used for meat only.  And that butcher's glove is just like chain-mail of the middle ages with lots of interlocking rings to keep a knife off the skin.

However, no matter what is done, I think that it is impossible to mitigate all chances of all types of accidents in the kitchen.  So sometimes when I get to moving too quickly in the kitchen, I have to find a way to slow down and take my time.  Sometimes, I'm simply a little careless, too.  Is that true for everyone else?  

The end of the year is coming.  As the year draws to a close and we prepare for a new year to start, keep putting aside time to make some good food and remember to do it safely.  Eat well and have a great week, everyone!  

Icy drinks

Today, as I type this in the late afternoon that is rapidly turning dark, it is chilly.  So what am I going to write about? I'm going to give a simple recipe for a lime slush.  Sounds crazy, right?  Well, I find this so refreshing that I love to drink it no matter if the weather is hot or cold .... or even downright frigid as it is today.

In a blender that is capable of crushing ice (don't use a food processor), place 3/4 cup of lime juice, 1 1/8 cup of sugar, enough ice to fill it to the 9 cup line, then add water to the same level.  Blend and crush it with pulses of the blender until all the ice is crushed.  

That's it.  Nothing more.  You can do the same thing with lemon juice, too.  And today after making a batch of lime slush, I was thinking about trying it with you strawberry/kiwi.  

Even in cold weather, I like to have cold drinks sometimes, and certainly ice cream.  Everyone knows my fondness for ice cream.  To sit in front of a good movie with a hot fudge sundae on a cold winter's night while covering myself with a comforter .... yeah, I know it sounds crazy but I like it anyway.

Now that I've had my lime slush, I feel in the mood for hot chocolate.  Time to make a batch.

Stay warm and safe with some good food tonight, folks.

Macaron shells gone wrong

We are only a few days away from winter, and it appears the weather is settling in to be colder every day.

This coming week and the week after, there will be no food orders as I take time off for a couple weekends.  But I will return the weekend of January 6th-8th with our next weekly menu.

Making food was an interesting set of opposites this week in terms of the final product.  On one hand, chocolate chunk grand cookies came out perfectly.  On the other hand, vanilla macarons did not.  If you see the picture above, you will see what I mean.  What are supposed to be nice smooth beautiful macaron shells turned out to be cracked and uneven.  What happened?  Well, I neglected a very important step.  The macaron batter was supposed to be deflated after whisking in the majority of the meringue into the blended almond meal and powdered sugar.  I didn't do that and the result was not pretty.  They tasted great, but did not look great at all.  I even had the notes clearly written in my recipe.  But somehow I didn't take the time to do it.  C'est la vie.  It will be stuck in my head the next time I make these, which will probably be sometime this week.

I'm getting ready to make several batches of cookies and some savory items including my savory egg salad (which will be made as sliders) this week for an important occasion.  I'm excited to be doing this and will be making cookies each day of the week and the dough will be frozen until needed on this weekend for fresh baking.  Plus I will be making a savory pie for someone special who has never had it before, and chicken roasted with herbs.  It will be a fun week in the kitchen.

Stay warm, everyone!  And have a great week!

Shopping ahead

Today is a chilly December day and next week we have very frigid temperatures coming, and that has me thinking about shopping ahead so that I don't have to go out in single-digit cold next week.  

I always find it fun to shop for groceries.  And since I never like to leave things to the last minute, shopping ahead and being redundant in terms of how much of various ingredients I have on hand is always something from which I derive great satisfaction and peace of mind.

There are three grocery stores close to me, and that's a very good thing because sometimes no matter how much I prepare, I get ready to make something and realize that I'm missing an ingredient.  I hate disrupting the rhythm I have established by having to go out to the grocery stores for a single ingredient.  It only takes a few minutes to get to each of the three stores near me, but I still find it annoying if I have to go because I was not as careful in planning as I should have been.

Today I'm making pancakes, brownies, and macarons.  The pancakes and brownies are for my own household, but the macarons are for this weekend's orders.  Why am I making them so early?  They have to be sealed and chilled for 48 hours in order to mature.  Chocolate chunk grand cookies are also on the menu and I will make the dough ahead of time because it needs to sit in the fridge for 24 hours before I bake the cookies.  That chilling time is something I find to be important in almost every chocolate chip cookie I make. 

Over the next several days I will be making many different foods.  It will be a nice activity to do inside while the frigid air is in place here in Kansas City.  Pasta alfredo with chicken, lasagna, and a savory pie are all on the agenda as well as a few other things like brioche and sandwich breads.

As winter approaches, I hope everyone stays warm and eats well.

Frosty morning

 

This morning is frosty and foggy and definitely feeling wintry.  What a great time to think about warm winter foods and fun seasonal treats.

This week we have vanilla macarons and chocolate chip cookies ready for ordering.  For the following two weekends, I will be taking the time off.  But I will return in January with more foods for everyone to try.

The winter season makes me think of foods I've had in the past.  Some of my favorite childhood things have been brought onto my menu, things such as the ice box dessert, for example.  Sometimes, though, I think back to foods that I can no longer find.  I remember there was a great bakery that made amazing Danish.  And then the bakery closed down.  I tried to track down the head baker there after the closure to see if I could talk to him about these wonderful Danish.  But I never could get in contact with him.  He had been doing his job for decades and I don't know if he is completely retired or something else.  But I often think of those Danish and work at trying to recreate them.  So far, though, I have been able to come close, but not quite close enough for my satisfaction.  I have a definite commitment to uncovering the secret of these Danish; not quite an obsession, but it is something that is regularly on my mind when I am thinking of foods I want to add to the menu.

During the next few weeks I have plans to make many foods.  Some will be for additions to the menu.  It's going to be a fun winter season.

If you are trying some new things, please leave a comment and let me know what you're doing.

In the meantime, eat well and take time to appreciate the good things in life.

December

December is here and that means winter is almost upon us.  And that means cold weather with hot chocolate and snow.  My favorite time of the year.

This week, you can order chili and mint chocolate chip ice cream.  For next week, we have chocolate chunk grand cookies and something that is appearing on the weekly menu for the first time -- vanilla macarons.

My youngest daughter and her husband brought me a little gift yesterday:  a whipped cream dispenser and a carton of nitrous oxide cartridges.  I've thought many times of getting one of these to try out but hadn't yet gotten around to it.  So I'm grateful for their gift.  I will try it out with whipped cream toppings for the ice cream this week.

I'm beginning to wind down the 2022 piano teaching year.  The last lessons are in 9 days, on December 14th and then my students will be on holiday break until early January.  During that break, I will cook many things.  Grilled turkey and cheese sandwiches, brioche, chicken with herbs, more ice cream, strawberry and cream cake, sandwiches of various types, and cinnamon rolls.  As you can see, my mind is filled with many things I want to make and explore during the early winter season.

Food is one of the great joys of life so using my teaching breaks to make lots of good food is one of my joys.  As your winter season comes into focus, I hope you get to make and eat great food, and share it with family and friends as well.

That's all for now.  Have a great Monday, all!

A chilly Sunday

 

Today is a chilly Sunday morning with definite hints of the approaching winter.  My silver maple tree, a very ancient and large tree, dropped tons of its leaves suddenly last night.  My backyard pathways and landscaping beds are covered with them.  The air is chilly and damp from overnight rain.  And the skies in the morning the last few days have a particularly wintry appearance that apparently I can see but not many others since no one else seems to get it when I try to describe that appearance.

This coming weekend, two cookies are on offer, one with lemon and a second with molasses and lemon.  For the following week, we have chili and ice cream.  Check them out and put in your orders.

The picture at the head of this post is shami kebabs.  These are made of minced beef, ground yellow split peas or chickpeas, and seasonings.  They are then dipped in whisked eggs and fried in a pan.  They are excellent and I have found they successfully go with many other foods such as rice, chutney, and fried bread or simply by themselves.  And I especially love them on a toasted hot dog bun with ketchup and cheese.

How do I know about these?  It wasn't from learning how to make them.  My life has been graced by the presence of a wonderful woman who has introduced me to this food and many others as well.  

Other foods I have been introduced to recently include chicken karahi, beef nihari, chutneys and daal (lentils) dishes, achar gosht, chicken biryani, chicken haleem, and sheer khurma which is a vermicelli-based dessert.  

I will write more of these in the future, and some of these will probably find their way to a place on the menu of Bruce Bakery and Bistro.

Have a great week!  Winter is coming and I am excited to think about more snowfalls soon.

A recipe for pecan ice box cookies

 

It is a cold Saturday night here in Kansas City with the temperature below freezing and a slight breeze that make the cold just a bit worse.  Perfect for sitting inside and drinking a warm mug of hot chocolate and enjoying a good cookie.

This weekend's food orders have been rescheduled for two weekends from now.  Nothing terrible prompted the reschedule. I simply had a very busy week that included a two-day trip out of the state.  For the upcoming a holiday weekend, I will not offer anything to order.  So grab a few cookies for the following weekend and that aforementioned mug of hot chocolate.

If you want to make a good cookie yourself, then keep reading.  Here's my recipe for pecan ice box cookies.

You will need the following ingredients:

1 cup of Crisco vegetable shortening (use Crisco sticks for the most accurate measurement)

225 grams of light brown sugar

225 grams of granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon of baking soda

1 teaspoon of vanilla

1 cup of chopped roasted pecans (measure the cupful after roasting and then chopping; roast the pecans at 350 for 9 minutes before cooling and then chopping)

470 grams of all-purpose flour

Now prepare the cookie dough using the following steps: 

1.  Cream together the shortening and both sugars.

2.  Mix in the eggs and vanilla.

3.  Mix in the flour and baking soda on low speed.

4.  Mix in the chopped pecans.

5.  Form the dough into a slab approximately 10 inches long by 4 inches wide.  Wrap the slab in plastic wrap and freeze it overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 F before baking.

6.  Cut the frozen dough (do not thaw) in slices approximately 1/4 inch thick from the 4-inch-width side of the dough slab.

7.  Place the slices on a cookie sheet.  They will spread a little so give them some room.  I place 8 slices on a large cookie sheet, 3 vertically on the top, 3 vertically on the bottom, and 2 horizontally in the center.  

8.  Bake in the 350 oven for 12 minutes for regular (slightly pale) or 13 for crispy (darker).

9.  Let them cool to room temperature.

I usually store the cooled cookies in a plastic Zip-Lock bag.  They will last several days when stored that way.  

Give them a try and let me know how it goes.  And don't forget the milk or the hot chocolate!

Stay warm, everyone!

November foods

 

Good morning on this frigid November Sunday in Kansas City.  As the temps are beginning to stay lower for the upcoming winter, I am getting excited as I watch for our first snowfalls to cover the ground just as powdered sugar covers the bouchons in the picture above.

This coming week we have two cookies available for order.  One with lemon and one with molasses and spices.

Next following weekend, I will not be sending out any food.  But I'll be back with more in December.

That's it for today.  Just a short post as I have a very busy week ahead with piano students as I help them all prepare for holiday performances.

Have a great Sunday.  And I will talk to you all soon again.

Cheese and cakes and salads

 

Happy Sunday!  

This coming weekend we have gougères and autumn spice cake with cream cheese frosting ready for ordering.  For the following weekend, we have lemon sablés and molasses cookies with lemon.  

As I was thinking this week about the upcoming winter season and various things I want to cook for the autumn and winter menu offerings, I also thought back to the summer months and some of the salads I made.  It's amazing to think how simple a salad can be and yet how satisfying at the same time.  One of my favorite quick go-to salads this past summer was tri-color cabbage chopped up roughly, shredded carrots, a healthy sprinkling of grated parmesan cheese and a creamy honey mustard dressing.  Every time I fixed this salad and ate it, I found myself ready to make it again at the next meal.  Four simple ingredients, no fancy preparation, nothing extraordinary, just simple good food that was wholesome and delicious and required extremely little time to prepare.  When I eat things like this that are so full of flavor, I often notice that some other processed things are significantly lacking in flavor by comparison.  Sometimes even a piece of candy that usually tastes delicious seems to have only a sugar flavor as my sense of taste has been somewhat altered so that I am truly noticing how much or how little flavor is actually in some of the processed foods we eat.

This is not to say that I'm against processed foods in general.  It's just curious to note how often they don't really seem to have that much flavor when eaten side by side with something that is naturally flavorful and wholesome.  Perhaps at some point some of these processed foods were simply something delicious in someone's kitchen that then were altered as a result of their transition to mass-produced commercial food products.

Just an interesting food thought I happened to have tonight.  Nothing earth-shattering or profound.  But an interesting thought nonetheless.

Have a great week everyone.  Colder weather is undoubtedly the way and that means soon we can start thinking about hot chocolate on frigid mornings.

A little late

Good evening, everyone!  Well, perhaps I should say, "Good morning!"  I'm a little late in getting the weekend blog post up.  And it's about 145 AM here as I type this.  So ... Good morning, everyone!

This weekend we have slow-roasted tomatoes and corn bread both on offer for weekend orders.  Next weekend, we have gougères and autumn spice cake.  All these foods are such excellent fall season foods no matter whether it's warm or cold.

It's very early or very late now, depending on perspective.  That reminds me of a time not long ago when I was up very early making something on a Sunday morning.  I was very groggy, so groggy that when I went to grab the cinnamon, I grabbed cumin instead!  The bottles looked the same.  They are somewhat close in color.  But the real excuse is that I was very groggy, very sleepy still, but I, for some odd reason, couldn't wait to get up and experiment with something new I had in my mind to try.  It doesn't matter what it was, at least not for this story.  All that matters is that I came perilously close to measuring out 2 teaspoons of cumin instead of cinnamon.  Needless to say, that would have had a disastrous effect on what I was baking.  I caught myself at the last minute.  And my planned baking for the day was saved and was a success.

I wonder if one made a mistake like that, how often it would turn out to be a good mistake.  I know for certain that sometimes I have absent-mindedly made such errors that in fact resulted in interesting new food ideas.  I can't say that I've ever made a mistake that created an culinary-world-shattering event, but I've certainly had new ideas prompted by those mistakes and other "what-ifs".  

OK, that's about as much as I can do here as the clock is approaching 200 AM.  All I will say is that I hope if anyone has any interesting stories about fatigue-induced mistakes that they will share them.  Too afraid of embarrassing yourself?  Don't be!  We've all made big mistakes in the kitchen and they always make good stories.

Autumn foods

Autumn is in full swing.  Today in Kansas City the weather is mild, the winds are up, the leaves turning color, and the tall grasses are in seed waiting to feed the birds during the coming cold weather. 

This coming weekend we have savory egg salad ready to order and one of my favorite autumn foods,  allspice muffins with streusel toppings.  The following weekend's menu has slow-roasted tomatoes and corn bread.  These are also great autumn foods, in my opinion.

My kitchen had a lot of activity this past week.  Cookies, rice, beef kababs, and other foods as well were all part of kitchen production.  Lots of ingredients were measured, lots of butter was cut, many dishes were washed.

Speaking of butter, does anyone get supreme satisfaction when measuring ingredients such as butter?  Unsure of what I mean?  Ok, here's what I'm talking about.

I have sliced up so many blocks of butter over time for precision weighing that sometimes now when I cut off a chunk of butter and place it on my kitchen scale, the weight that I have eye-balled is just about what I need.  I need 140 grams, I cut the butter and it is very close to what I need, and sometimes exactly what I need.  I get supreme satisfaction from this tiny little event.  Somehow I find it immensely gratifying that I can portion almost exactly what I need after so many days and nights in the kitchen cutting and measuring and weighing all sorts of ingredients. 

Surely someone else must feel that same elation.  Ok, I said "supreme satisfaction" first, and now I've upgraded the emotion to "elation".  No matter what it's called, it's pretty cool that it happens.

Today, I'm making strawberry froth, eating lots of leftovers, and planning a menu for the coming weekend when family will be visiting for food and bonfire.  

I hope everyone has a great Sunday and enjoys the waxing autumn.

Good morning! and blueberries

Good morning!

This coming weekend we have two different cookies on the menu.  Chocolate chip pecan and ginger spice.  I just finished updating the menu for the following weekend.  You can order allspice muffins and savory egg salad. 

Today I'm making another attempt at my latest iteration of a high-protein, gluten-free, dairy-free ice cream (for oldest daughter).  I had a good batch last time, but it still was not quite right.  Today I'm going to do the same batch but this time I will alter the freezing process.  We'll see how it goes.

Someone asked me about using blueberries in batters.  So here are a few thoughts from my experience.  First of all, whether to use wild blueberries or non-wild (which we can call cultivated) is always an important decision.  Most people like cultivated in blueberry muffins and pancakes or for snacking by hand. These tend to have much more moisture and they are larger of course.  But sometimes in baking, I've found it makes much more sense to use wild.  They are smaller and have significantly less moisture.  You can only really buy them frozen in the grocery stores, it seems.  So when I use them, I always let them thaw and warm up to room temperature.  Then they are ready to use.  And because of their size I don't have as much of a problem with berries sinking to the bottom of a baked good during baking.  With using any blueberries comes the risk of juice making your batter blue once you start mixing.  I have found that if I take thawed wild berries and warm them up a bit in the microwave for maybe 30 seconds, I can rinse off the expressed juice in a colander, then let them dry on paper towels (top and bottom) and then finally pop them into the batter.  If I do all that, then I don't have to worry about blue batter.  

Could you pop them into the batter frozen?  You could but you won't have a batter that is baked all the way through.  They are basically little ice pellets you are mixing in, and they will keep your batter very cold for quite a while in the oven.  They shouldn't even be cold from the fridge. Let them come up to room temperature before mixing them in.

Now I have a craving for blueberry muffins.  And I have a large bag of frozen wild blueberries in my freezer, so maybe that will be my next activity today.

Have a great day everyone.  Colder temps are on the way, it seems, so get out those winter coats.

Weekend offerings and a new smoothie

Good morning on this chilly October morning.

A new smoothie has been added to the menu.  This is called a tropical sunrise smoothie.  Pineapple, banana, papaya, kiwi and mango are all included.  Other flavor highlights include coconut and orange.  This is one of my favorite beverages to make.  It is very healthy, very delicious and it can even be made vegan on request by replacing the small amount of dairy-based yogurt with a vegan yogurt, or simply omitting the yogurt altogether.

This coming weekend's menu include two different strawberry drinks.  And the following weekend's menu has just been updated with two cookies perfect for the fall season:  chocolate chip pecan and ginger spice.

I've had some requests for raspberry roulade, mint chocolate ice cream and smoky sloppy joe filling to make fresh appearances on the weekly menu, so I'll try to do that soon.

Today I'm thinking of making a chocolate cake, and perhaps a couple other things as well.  I have to head to the grocer today to pick up more of the European-style butter that I use, and I use a lot of it.  And at the same grocer where I usually pick it up is also something else I like to have on occasion:  corn flakes.  Ok, I know that doesn't sound like anything extraordinary.   But I happen to like breakfast cereals and milk for a light snack, and there is one particular brand of corn flakes that I especially like.  And for me the simplicity of corn flakes, cold milk and just little bit of sugar added is really amazing.  I find it to be refreshing and satisfying, a perfect snack sometimes.  Brilliantly-made complex foods are great, but sometimes something simple and easy is perfect for the moment at hand.

Enjoy the morning, everyone.  Eat something delicious.  

Technique matters

Happy Friday, everyone!

Today I'm making cookie doughs for orders tomorrow.  Two types of cookies, both of which need the dough to chill overnight before baking.  While making one of the batches today, I came up with an idea for today's post.

Technique matters.

I was making a batch of pecan ice box cookie dough.  In fact, I was planning on making more than one batch today plus dough for French butter cookies.  I set out all my ingredients.  I had everything ready.

I put the shortening (not butter for these cookies) and two types of sugar in the mixer and let it do it's work.  Then I got ready to add the eggs and vanilla.  But my mind was elsewhere and I wasn't focused on what I was doing.  I was finishing double checking the weight of the flour and baking soda, and then instead of grabbing the eggs and vanilla which were already whisked in a separate bowl, I tossed in the flour.  The mixer immediately started combining it with the sugar and shortening mixture.  And then I saw the eggs and realized that I had made a mistake.  I dumped in the eggs just to see whether this could be salvaged.  So instead of the eggs being mixed in the proper order, with the shortening and sugar mixture, they were going in after the dry ingredients.

The picture above shows on the left the cookie dough with the eggs going in at the wrong time, and the one on the right was done properly.  It can clearly be seen that the one on the left does not hold together the same as the one on the right.  And no amount of pressing and molding with the hands will change that.  The one on the left is lost, gone, finished, unusable unless one wants to experiment.  There is no way it will yield that same cookie that the one on the right will yield.  The ingredients are exactly the same, down to the gram.  But the order of mixing makes a huge difference.

Technique matters, whether it's the order of mixing for individual ingredients, how long something is mixed, how fast the mixer beater is moving, whether it's done by hand or machine, etc.  You can have great ingredients and a great recipe, but in the end the technique to bring it all together must be the right technique.

Here is the shaped block of dough from the good batch of dough using the proper mixing order.  This is now in my freezer where it will sit overnight until morning.  Then it will be sliced and baked and sent out with people who will enjoy it.

For all my recipes, I continually improve the techniques with little adjustments over time.  And I notate all of these in my recipe database.  I back up the file as well.  Twice!  I never want to lose track of those tweaks, those technical adjustments which are so vital to turning out something that is scrumptious.

Enjoy your weekend.  I'll post again probably on Sunday.

Strawberry froth

Good morning to all!

It's a cool clear morning here in Kansas City on this early October Sunday.  I can feel the change of seasons in the air, and it can certainly be seen with the shortening of the daylight.

A new item has been added to the menu.  This is a strawberry froth, similar to the orange vanilla froth posted yesterday.  This is very refreshing and very healthy as well.  I love drinks made of fruit.  They simply make the body feel good and the spirit feel light. 

Another new beverage will be posted sometime this week.

This coming weekend we have pecan cookies and French butter cookies on the menu.  And the following weekend you can order the new strawberry froth and also the new strawberry lemonade which was just added to the menu days ago.  I hope you will give them a try.

Yesterday I taste tested the new high-protein, gluten-free, dairy-free ice cream that I've been working on for oldest daughter.  It tastes pretty nice.  I've a got a few tweaks to make and I want to adjust the freezing process.  So I'm not quite satisfied with it yet.  And I'm not yet certain that it is the end product.  I'm still working on a couple different variations on this recipe to get a balance of flavor and texture that I'm happy with.  This is my first try at making a dairy-free ice cream, so there has been a lot of trial and error.  But I'm hopeful that soon I'll see a finished product with which I am happy.

Today I'm working on sandwich rolls and maybe a chocolate cake as well.  And I'm in the process of developing a new recipe for a strawberry cream cake at the request of youngest daughter.  

Enjoy these early days of fall.  The coolness in the air, the lengthening of the nights, and the flocks of Canadian geese flying overhead in vee formation all portend the coming winter.  I can hardly wait.

Orange vanilla froth

 

Welcome to October!     

A new beverage has been added to the main menu of Bruce Bakery and Bistro.  This is an orange vanilla froth.  The name says it all:  a frothy drink with orange and vanilla as the main flavors.  I wouldn't call it a smoothie, but I will say with certainty that it is fun and marvelously refreshing.

Another couple drinks will be added in the next few days so stay tuned, as the saying goes.

Have a great Saturday, everyone!

Beginning of fall

It is a beautiful Sunday morning here in Kansas City.  The picture above is not from today.  It is much too late in the season to see iris blooms like this.  But the picture is a reminder that although the current growing season is waning, a new one is just around the corner after a wonderful autumn and a sparkling winter have their say.

This coming weekend, I'm taking time off to work on some foods.  For the following weekend, two cookies are on the menu.  It's a great time sit down with a cup of hot tea or hot chocolate on a cool autumn day and nibble on satisfyingly sweet cookies.  

If you are in the neighborhood, feel free to pop in and join me for a cookie or two.  We can eat outside in the cool clear air and watch the hummingbirds as they drink as much as they can before heading out for their southerly migration.  Deer might stop by as often happens.  They seem to love some of the plants in my landscape beds, and they certainly love to sneak some of the birdseed from the bird feeding stations.  We might see the groundhog that lives somewhere in the neighborhood and makes an appearance in my backyard from time to time.  Perhaps a hawk will swoop down trying to catch something it sees rooting around in my yard.  I've seen that on more than one occasion.  And a family of foxes lives nearby.  Maybe we'll see them passing through if it's early in the morning or late in the day.

Today I'm making some sandwich rolls, doing a new batch of high-protein gluten-free ice cream that I'm developing as a special request for oldest daughter, mixing up a tropical smoothie with papaya and pineapple and other wonderful sweet fruits, and maybe a few other things as well.  I have a very free day ahead of me so I'm looking forward to making these delicious foods, watching a movie or two and listening to some great piano music.  And also talking to someone who is very special to me.

I hope your Sunday is as pleasant as mine.  Talk to you all again soon.  

End of summer

Here we are closing in on the end of summer in just a few days.  Time to start thinking about end-of-the-year celebrations and all the foods that accompany those festive occasions.

Today's post is just a short one since I have been under the weather all day.  It's evening now as I write this and I'm feeling better, but I'm going to make it an early night and hope that a full good night of sleep will leave me feeling good as I start the week ahead.

This next weekend gougères and yellow snack cakes are available for ordering.  And I'm taking the first weekend of October off to work on some new foods.

Have a great week everyone.  Enjoy the last couple days of summer.

Strawberry lemonade

Strawberry lemonade has been added to the menu.  This is a lightly fizzy lemonade made with fresh strawberries that are puréed very fine and added directly without any straining.  The lemonade itself goes through a heating process with the lemon juice and lemon zest and sugar that gives a very nice lemon flavor that blends perfectly with the berry flavor. 

I love fresh fruit drinks such as this.  Very few things are quite as refreshing as a fresh fruit drink.  

I'm playing around with an orange vanilla beverage as well.  It's almost to the point where I am happy with it.  It's quite good, certainly.  But I'm not quite ready to add it to the menu yet.  It's needs a little more adjustment, in my opinion.

Is that too perfectionistic?  I think not.  I simply like to wait and make sure that I'm really happy something when it's added so that it will be as enjoyable as possible for everyone to try.  So I tweak and tweak and tweak until I simply feel like it's done, it's ready.  And then I add it to the menu.

I've been making several smoothies off and on for some time and I'm thinking about adding one or two of those as well in the future.  So stay tuned if you like beverages.  More are coming.

An autumn weekend

 

This September Sunday morning is quiet and cool and peaceful, perfect for a slow breakfast with good breakfast rolls, or muffins, or maybe some eggs and toast.  I have always thought that breakfast foods were the best foods.  They make great breakfasts but also great dinners.  They are incredibly satisfying. When my kids were younger we used to sometimes have a big Sunday morning breakfast.  I would make pancakes, eggs, sausages, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon rolls, fresh fruit, juices and hot cocoas, and other things.  It would be a huge breakfast so that everyone could choose exactly what they wanted.  Then we'd sit down and watch a fun movie.  Cleanup afterwards took a while, and the cooking took a while, but it a was fun regular event.  

My kids are grown now and on their own, and I don't make those huge breakfasts as often. But the memories are there, and they are good memories.  

This upcoming weekend we have onion cauliflower soup and blueberry cinnamon snack cakes.  This offering was actually moved from earlier this month to this weekend.  If you ordered already a couple weekends ago, your orders are still in the queue.

Next weekend I'm offering gougères and yellow snack cakes.  You can get the cakes with raspberry cream topping if you wish or without.

I've been polishing some new things and you'll see them updated on the menu later this week:  a couple refreshing beverages.  And I'm getting ready to do final tweaks on a sandwich, plus I'll be doing a run of high protein gluten free ice cream.  

I have more things I'm working on as well.  It's a constant ongoing project.  I love it.  And I love sharing it with all of you, whether you're only reading about it or if you're also ordering and enjoying the food.

Have a great week.  The Christmas countdown starts soon:  September 16th is 100 days until Christmas.

Berry fools

Does anyone not like berries?  If you can find someone who doesn't, then try to find out what is wrong with them -- because, seriously, how can anyone not like berries......

These berry fools are now on the menu.  Layers of mixed cream and strawberries and raspberries ... just a nice simple fruity dessert.  This tastes refreshing and wholesome.  And I think everyone will love it.

I remember when I was kid having something we called raspberry ribbon pie.  And we also had quite a lot of strawberries growing in a very large area on our property.  And during my young years on the west coast, I remember eating fresh boysenberries.  And I remember falling in love with blueberry pancakes and muffins very early on in my life.  As a teen, I loved to make crepes and fill them with wild black raspberries and cream.

I love berry syrups.  I love berry desserts.  I love berries by themselves.

How can anyone not like berries?

Have a great late summer day!

Switching weekly menus

Good Sunday afternoon to everyone!

Well, I have tweaked the weekly menu offerings just a bit.  What was supposed to be on yesterday and today's menu is now moved to two weeks away.  Please check the ordering website and you'll see that anyone who ordered something for yesterday or today will get their orders now two weekends from today.  

I'm sorry about having to reschedule orders.  But something came up this weekend, something very good, that required my attention and so I needed to make that scheduling change.  But in two weekends everyone will get their blueberry cinnamon snack cakes and their onion cauliflower soup.  And this coming weekend, the orders stay the same for the triple chocolate sablés and chocolate mousse brownies.

Today I made another type of brownies for a special gift for some friends.  And I organized some cooking plans for the upcoming weeks.  I love making those kinds of plans.  

This is just a short post today since this weekend has been busier than expected.  But you'll see another new post again in a few days. 

Eat well, everyone!

A second macaron

I've added a second macaron to the menu.  I like to call this a fudge brownie macaron because that's what it makes me think of when I eat it.  It is full of chocolate flavor.  The shells have a premium dark chocolate cocoa powder.  The filling is a deep dark rich ganache.  It is a wonderful chocolate experience.

I want to add more macaron flavors, and that task is on my cooking to-do list, but at the moment I'm turning my attention to a few other things.

I always have so many things I want to make and put on the menu, so many things I want to share with everyone.

We're into the last third of the year.  And I still have items from my start-of-year list that I want to work on.  It's a never-ending project.  But I'm glad it's never-ending because that just points to the fact that we never run out of ideas and possibilities and options when it comes to good food.

I just made a batch of ciabatta rolls last night.  I've let them sit overnight so that I can see how they taste in the light of day after I've already had a satisfying breakfast.  I'm hoping to add these the hamburger buns and the focaccia buns that are already on the menu, specifically for the purpose of offering them as options for sandwiches which are coming soon.

Have a great summer day everyone.  Autumn is almost here.  I can hardly wait for the beginning of the end-of-year holiday season.  September 16th marks 100 days until Christmas.  I look forward to my yearly countdown.

Eat some great food today!

A new cookie

Today's post announces the arrival of a new cookie:  vanilla macarons.  This item has been added as a result of a special request by Elisa.  

This is the first of what will eventually be many different flavors of macarons.  I really love these cookies, and I think just about everybody else in the world does, too.  This a simple macaron with almond and vanilla in the filling.  It stays chilled until ready to eat.  An interesting fact about this particular macaron -- the cookie shells are chilled for a day before being filled.  It allows the shells to rest and age just the right amount of time before the filling is added.  After that, though, they can be eaten whenever the craving strikes.

This coming weekend we have blueberry snack cake slices and onion cauliflower soup ready to be ordered.

For next weekend, you can already order ahead:  chocolate mousse brownies and triple chocolate sablès.  This means lots of chocolate for your enjoyment.  And mine, too.

Today it's raining here in Kansas City.  I had some plans to do some things in the yard, but those are put on hold until tomorrow.  But that's ok.  That gives me more time for some inside things including some food making.

Today I will be making a berry fool, perhaps some pancakes since I'm experimenting with a new recipe, and maybe one or two other things as well.   I haven't yet mapped out my whole day.

I have a watermelon to eat courtesy of my kids who brought it from the farmers' market yesterday.  What better food to have on a summer day, even if it's raining.  Watermelon is so simple and so delicious.

Enjoy your day.  And enjoy some good food, as well.

Dark hot fudge sauce

 

Good morning, everyone.  A handful of days ago, a semisweet hot fudge sauce was added to the menu.  Now there is also a dark hot fudge sauce for those who love something a little more intense.  This is very rich and thick.  Pop it in the microwave for a short burst and stir, and repeat until it's hot enough to pour over your ice cream.  

Or maybe you just want to dip your spoon into it for a tiny little snack?  Or possibly drizzle it over sliced strawberries?

I like spreading this on graham crackers as well or just dipping them in.

Chocolate goes with so many things, especially dark chocolate -- at least in my opinion.

That's all for today.  Just a short post.  Have a great day and try to enjoy some good food today.

A new brownie and a new soup

We have a new brownie on the menu.  This is a double chocolate brownie with dark chocolate ganache.  That means a lot, a lot, a lot .... of chocolate.  I said it just that way so that no one would wonder if I really meant it.   Yes, I meant it.  

I love making different kinds of brownies.  Each of the brownies on the menu is unique.  They are different in how they are made, how much of different kinds of chocolate are in them, and so on.  It is quite enjoyable to make all these varieties and especially to eat them, too.  

This coming weekend we have gougères and triple chocolate chunk cookies on the weekly offering.  And the following weekend I have selected a new item, onion cauliflower soup, and also blueberry cinnamon snack cake.

The onion cauliflower soup is healthy and savory.  It's a great new item to have just in time for chilly fall weather that will soon be coming.  But on a warm day, it's still a great soup.  

Cauliflower is one of those things most people seem to dislike at least a little bit.  So I'm glad to have made something from it that everyone who tries it seems to enjoy.  It's really quite a simple soup.  The onion and cauliflower flavors pair beautifully.  And it only includes a small amount of cream.  This means that the cream can easily be omitted and the result is still delicious.  And without the cream, this soup is vegan.  It's offered both ways on the ordering site.  I have a daughter who is vegan (I'm sure she will be reading this.), so I'm happy to have something new on the menu that she and other vegan eaters (people who eat in a vegan way, not people who eat vegans - lol) might enjoy having.  

Today I've got ciabatta sandwich rolls in process.  They are actually in their 3rd rise as I write this, yes, 3rd rise.  And I'm doing some tweaks to a new salad, a mustard slaw with parmesan.  Other new foods are coming as well.  I'm doing another run in development of a high-protein gluten-free "ice cream" this week.  And playing around with pancakes.  Also prepping a berry fool for addition to the menu soon.  And the ciabatta rolls today are the 3rd bread of three choices for sandwiches which will soon be on the menu.  And I'm doing a lot of creative thinking about a new strawberry cream cake.  More things are in my head as well.  But that gives you an idea of some of the things coming up.

And while I'm doing all that, I'm also playing Beethoven and Chopin and Rachmaninov on the piano all week long, playing lots of chess online with people all over the world, and watching lots of movies.  My piano students are back to coming every week now that the July break is over.  And soon the Christmas countdown will begin.  September 16th means 100 days until Christmas.

Enjoy the ebbing summer.  And thanks for reading. 

Ice cream topping

 

Good morning on this pleasant August day.  Today I'm telling you all about a new addition to the menu.  I've been having fun with ice cream toppings for a while.  And now we have a chocolate candy shell on the menu for your ice cream enjoyment.

This is not hot fudge sauce.  This is very simply a liquified chocolate concoction that you pour over your ice cream and it very quickly firms up to form a moderately firm shell over it.  It tastes great, and it's a nice texture coating for your creamy dessert.  In the fridge, it's firm.  Set it out on the counter and it softens. If it's a warm enough day, it will liquify nicely.  But chances are you will want to microwave it for 10 seconds or so, give it a quick stir and then pour it over slowly.  The cold of the ice cream will make it set very quickly as it pours.  

You can also dip an ice cream cone into it to create a dipped cone, or even to just coat the top of a cone in which you will place scoops of ice cream.

The secret to this is the balance of chocolate and coconut oil.

It's on the menu now and will be on a weekly offering soon.

Summer may be ending soon, but ice cream season never ends.

Semisweet hot fudge sauce

Summer is almost over.  But it's always a good time for ice cream no matter the heat or the cold.  And something new to the menu is perfect for that:  semisweet hot fudge sauce.  This will come chilled and ready to heat up in the microwave or on the stove top.  I'll put it on a weekly meu soon.

This coming weekend we have deviled eggs and coleslaw ready to be ordered.

Next weekend, gougeres and triple chocolate chunk cookies can be ordered.  The cookies are making their first appearance on a weekly menu.  I hope everyone enjoys them.

A busy day is ahead for me.  I will be making a batch, and taking pictures for the ordering site update, of a dark chocolate hot fudge sauce for ice creams that is being added to the menu to go along with the semisweet hot fudge sauce mentioned above.  I will be working on a cauliflower soup as well.  And maybe playing around with some salads which I have been thinking of adding to the menu.

A busy day, but a fun day.  And while I'm doing all that, either music or movies will be playing in the background.

Have a great day everyone.  Enjoy the coming week where it seems that our summer heat is going to begin to give way to more autumnal weather.   

Spice cake

 

A new item has been added to the menu:  autumn spice cake with cream cheese frosting.

This is a traditional fall dessert -- a soft tender moist cake with lots of spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ground cloves .... you get the idea.  And it's topped with a delightful cream cheese frosting.

I love cakes like this.  They are perfect for late-night sweet-tooth cravings.  They are great after any meal.  Can they be a lunch all by themselves?  Well, I like to think so, and sometimes I actually turn that thought into action.  I know I shouldn't.  But sometimes a slice of cake with a creamy frosting takes precedence over a nutritious sandwich.   

I mean, really, can you ever turn down a yummy slice of cake?  Maybe for ice cream.  Or better yet, combine the two.  

In any event, I hope you will give this a try soon.  I promise I will put it on the weekly menu before we get too far into the upcoming autumn season.

A good brownie is worth it's weight in gold.

Happy Tuesday, all!

A new item has just been added to the menu: chocolate mousse brownies.

This is a dense chocolate fudge brownie with a layer of light mousse frosted on top.  I have to admit that when I make these, I really have to work hard not to eat them all in one day.  These are kept chilled and can be eaten straight from the fridge or warmed up a bit closer to room temperature.  I always eat them straight from the fridge.  Trust me, it's the way to go.

I love making brownies.   Brownie batter is delicious by itself or swirled into ice cream.  Fresh brownies are amazing.  Brownies that have aged for a day are spectacular.

It's impossible to go wrong with a brownie if it's made well.

There are three basic ways to get a good brownie: 1, using only chocolate; 2, using only cocoa powder; 3, using a blend of both.

A lot of people really love brownies made with only chocolate.  But for me, that just doesn't work.  And a brownie with only cocoa powder doesn't work for me either.  I prefer to have a blend of cocoa powder and chocolate.  And when I look at recipes for brownies, I also look at the ratio of cocoa powder to flour.  Frequently, I will adjust that ratio, often adjusting it to a 50/50 split.  I find that balance combined with the right amount of actual chocolate is just incredible.  

As a result when I see a new brownie or when I'm inspired to create something new, I tinker with the ratio of chocolate and cocoa powder and flour multiple times to get it just right.  And then I document it so it is not lost.  

A good brownie is worth it's weight in gold.

More foods to come.  Keep watching and reading here.  

Have a great day!

New item and weekend menu update

 

Hello, hello, hello!

This upcoming weekend we have speculoos and cookie dip on the menu.  For the following weekend, we're going with cold foods:  deviled eggs, and something new -- coleslaw.

This coleslaw is nothing extraordinary.  Nothing fancy about it.  No amazing or unusual ingredients.  No special techniques that make is something different than expected.  It is just a plain simple delicious refreshing coleslaw.

Sometimes there's nothing better than a nice cold salad.  So as we begin to the see the end of summer approaching, I thought it would be good to go with cold foods for those warm evenings which will linger for a while before autumn is felt.

I have more foods to update to the menu.  I'm taking my time with the updates, not being in a hurry, but you will see them hitting the menu one by one over the next short while.   

I love putting new foods on the menu.  It's always a fun moment to announce that something has been added.  And it's always nice to see the completion of items on my list of things that I want to add in the future.  

I always have a list going.  Sometimes I just think of something and feel inspired and so it's added to the list.  Sometimes I see a food video online and that gets me thinking about that item or something related to it, and so it goes on the list as well.  Of course, the process of getting it from the list to the menu takes time.  I have to tinker with it, sometimes develop it from scratch.  I have to test it.  I have to do multiple productions.  I have to add the final recipe with all the important tweaks and technical aspects to my database.  But it's very satisfying in the end when the picture is up and people can order.    

Today I'm working on the final draft of a finished recipe for a new snack cake.  And I have more to do after that.  No shortage of tasks.

Have a great Sunday.  And thanks for reading!

Triple chocolate chunk cookies

Hello to everyone on this hot and muggy August day.  

A new cookie is now updated to the Bruce Bakery and Bistro menu.  This is a triple chocolate chunk cookie.  The chocolate is all Lindt chocolate.  It will always be made with only Lindt chocolate.  Lindt chocolate has a very specific type of flavor and texture and that's how this cookie was designed.  Milk, dark and white chocolate chunks are all included in this cookie.  It's a pretty large cookie, very dense, made with dark brown sugar so it has a darker heavier flavor intensity.   And it is supremely sweet.  If you don't like overly sweet things, then don't eat this. But if you do, then eat to heart's content.  I have to say, though, that for most people a single cookie will be a good snack.  It's that sweet.

I never tire of making cookies.  They are one of those foods that doesn't take a lot of time or effort and which are very forgiving, meaning that if you make a small mistake in a cookie, it still turns out pretty good.

Some foods aren't forgiving at all.  Perfection, precision and persistence are all prerequisites to making those kinds of foods. (How about that for alliteration?)  And those foods are wonderful.  But when you want something quick and easy, cookies are a great thing to make.

You'll see this offered on a weekly menu soon, I promise.

Out of eggs and out of butter

Hello, everyone!

This coming weekend we have two different cookies on the menu:  molasses spice cookies, and peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and peanut butter candies.

The next weekend will also be a cookie-themed weekend:  speculoos, and sweet and creamy cookie dip.

Well, my month-long break from everything else in the world is just about done.  In just two days I start seeing my students again.  This past month has been very productive, though.  I have a list of 7 new foods, I think, to put on the menu.  They are all tweaked and refined and polished, and ready to go.  I will start adding them over the coming days probably beginning tomorrow and adding them one per day, or maybe with a couple days in between depending on what I feel like.

I've got a chocolate snack cake that is not on that list of 7 new items but that I'm really eager to put on the menu.  However, I'm taking my time with a couple tweaks to it, trying to decide whether to make a single large cake and cut it for orders or to make several small cakes in their own vessels.  Yes, it does make a difference.  I made three batches of that cake yesterday, and today I will test them out and see if I can decide how I want to offer them.   

Something very unusual happened yesterday when I finished that third batch of the snack cake.  I discovered I was out of eggs and out of butter.  That never happens.  I always keep plenty of both on hand.  But this past week has been devoted to baking many different items, many of them multiple times, and I actually ran out.  I sat down last night to think about what I wanted to cook and bake today, and then checked to see what ingredients I needed, and lo and behold I saw I was out of those two important kitchen staples.  I could have gone out this morning or set up a grocery delivery, but instead I replanned my weekend tasks, moving several chores from tomorrow to today, and some of today's kitchen activities from today to tomorrow.  I was already planning on being out Sunday morning anyway, so it made sense.

Over the past few weeks, four new items have been added to the menu, but I have been negligent in updating all of you on those items, so here they are:

1.  raspberry sweet cream

2.  focaccia buns

3.  double chocolate pudding

4.  deep dark chocolate pudding

Yes, two chocolate puddings, but they are very different.  And the focaccia buns look a lot like the burger and sandwich buns in the pictures on the ordering site (both are even plated on the same red platter), but that's simply a matter of lighting.  The focaccia buns are a little darker than they appear, and they are totally different than the burger/sandwich buns in taste and texture.  You'll see those on a weekly offering soon, I'm sure.

And today I added the last recipe to my newly developed database.  All 104 recipes for all 104 available items on the website are in a new format and integrated with the ingredient cost information as well.  It's taken me a long time to do that, months, in fact, but it's now done.  Of course, I still need to to back and proofread them, but that task is much less arduous.  

So I'm happy.  Between adding several new items to the menu, cooking dozens and dozens of foods, refining several recipes, and completing that most important work on my database, I am happy with how this month has gone.

July has indeed been a productive month.  But, of course, I still have so many more foods I want to add to the menu for everyone to try.  

Have a great weekend!  And thanks for reading!

Embossed shortbread cookies

Good morning.  We finally have a break in the heat here in Kansas City.  Today the high temperature will be only 90 F, after having several days at around 100 F.  And the entire upcoming week is set to be cooler.  Maybe the worst of the heat is now behind us.  Fingers crossed.

This coming weekend there is no weekly menu offering.  I'm taking the week off to focus on some new foods that are being added to the menu.  The first weekend of August we will have molasses spice cookies on the menu.  And also you can order something new, appearing on the menu for the first time:  peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips and peanut butter candies.  I hope you'll give them a try.  So far everyone who has sampled them has said good things.  I certainly think they're good, but of course I'm very biased.

Yesterday for the time I played with a new kitchen "toy" sent to me by oldest daughter.  It is a rolling pin for making embossed cookies.  It's made by a company called Nordic Ware which was established in Minnesota after World War II, specializing in Scandinavian cookware products.  If you go to their website and read the "Heritage" section, you can read how it was started by a husband and wife team after he returned from deployment in World War II.  

Well, I followed the suggested recipe for shortbread cookies which was printed on the package.  And I gave it a shot.  I wasn't quite sure how hard to press as I rolled these.  And since this was a recipe that was unfamiliar to me, I wasn't quite sure how the cookie would bake up.  Would the embossment be lost if the cookie puffed a little?  That was my question.  A good shortbread cookie will not puff up like many other cookies will.  But I wouldn't be sure about this one until the first tray came out of the oven.

I baked up all the cookie dough and here are a few examples of what came out of the oven.

Not bad for the first try using this new rolling pin.  I looked at the website and saw some of the examples in photos there.  Those pictures show a cookie with a little deeper embossment.  Comparing those to mine, I can see that I can press much more firmly.  And I will either modify that recipe or use a different one.  I prefer a cookie that is a little different than the one that results from the suggested recipe on the site.

Anyway, I'll try these again sometime soon, and let everyone see the results.

Today, I have several things to make.  In fact, this whole week, since it's my last week of break before getting to teaching, I will be cooking a lot of different things.  And some new items will be updated to the menu as well.  

You'll see it all discussed here in my next posts.  Stay cool!

Lots of cooking

Good morning, everyone.

This month-long July break from teaching has been great so far.  Soon I'll be back to teaching (August 1st), and I won't have quite as much time every day to devote to things like cooking.  But for now, my days are composed of cooking and movies and online chess and whatever else pops into my head to do.

This week has been filled with  a lot of cooking already, and it's only Wednesday.  Macarons, sandwich spreads, salads, ciabatta, brownies ...... I've been busy making so many things.  And I've had so much fun.  

My day starts on the evening before when I take a look at my cooking "to do" list and decide what I'm going to work on in the morning.  I check to ensure that I have all the ingredients, and if I don't I either move that particular recipe to later in the week or plan on going out to the grocery store first thing in the morning.  Then in the morning, I take care of any necessary household or yard chores right away.  And when that's all done, the rest of my day can be devoted to whatever I wish.  And right now that means a lot of cooking because I still have many foods I want to give time to before my new teaching session starts.

Today, I'm working on vanilla macaron filling, a new ciabatta roll, a chocolate macaron, and maybe brioche buns as well.   I have a huge grocery delivery order coming in this morning with buttermilk and almond paste and many other ingredients that I only have on hand when I'm making certain foods.  I've ordered everything that I need for the rest of the week (I hope!) for things I plan to devote time to in the kitchen.

I hope everyone is having a great week despite the heat.  My advice to beat heat?  Keep lots of ice cream around.  Of course, I'd say that in the winter cold as well.  Everyone knows how much I love ice cream.

That's all for today.  Now it's time to start my kitchen activities.