Weekly menu offerings updated and other news

Good morning to everyone!

It's a bright sunny day here in Kansas City, and we're going to have relatively mild weather for the next several days with temps feeling closer to those of spring than winter.

I have updated the weekly menu offerings.  For this coming weekend, we have challah and smoky sloppy joe filling.  For next weekend, we have brownies and cookie dip.

You may have noticed that the offerings are for two items rather than three as has been customary.  Well, here's why.  I'm doing fewer items each week but more of those items.  I'm testing out larger production runs.  This past weekend I made 16 tubs of mint chocolate chip ice cream, and 12 tubs of French vanilla, and a host of waffle cone bowls.  That's a lot of food.  My fridge was crammed with many cartons of eggs and cream which were required for the ice cream weekend we just had.  And I'm using that as the jumping off point for scaling up larger quantities.  Once I get used to that scale, I'm sure we'll be back to three items on the weekly offering, and probably more.

I'm also working on a cost spreadsheet for the ingredients I use.  As I'm beginning to produce more for everyone's enjoyment, it seemed like a good idea to start tracking ingredient costs.  And that will then be used to put a suggested donation in the ordering process.  That spreadsheet is quite a magnum opus as it includes not only my ingredient costs, but also every recipe that I maintain, complete with all my tweaks and adjustments.  It took me a while to settle on a format for that spreadsheet.  But the final format has been arrived at, and I'm more than half-way through updating with ingredients and recipes and prep steps, etc.  This will be useful when I start offering to show some of you how to make some of the things that come out of my kitchen.  And most of all, it will be in a format that makes it very easy for me to stay organized and up to date with changing ingredient costs and with the frequent small adjustments I make to my recipes to improve them over time.

Well, today I'm making some lemon poppy seed muffins, running a little experiment with two mixing processes to see the level of difference in the final result.  You'll see a post about that later if anything significant is seen.  And I'm eating lots of blueberries that are sitting on my counter just begging to be consumed.  

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Ordering issue has been fixed

The Shopify issue that was causing an error on orders done on a PC has been fixed.  Everything is working fine now.

The next two weekends

A new week is starting.  The last one was pretty nice with a big snowstorm on Thursday that dropped several inches of snow here in Kansas City.  I love snow.  And I love ice cream.

This coming weekend is the big ice cream weekend.  I'm making lots of mint chocolate chip ice cream, French vanilla ice cream, and waffle cone bowls.

For the following weekend, I have just updated the new menu.  It will be lots of challah, and lots of smoky sloppy joe filling which is a new item on the menu.  I'll do a separate blog entry about it later this week, most likely.

But for now, I'm busy planning the kitchen schedule for this week.  I'm putting out more ice cream in a single week than ever done before.  Mix has to be prepared from scratch.  It has to have time to chill.  Then it is has be frozen.  Then the freezing cannisters have to refreeze for the next batch.  So timing is important if I want to have it all ready for people to pick up by Saturday.  It's a logistical puzzle.  And I love puzzles -- not as much as ice cream and snow, but I love them.

Anyway, I hope you get your orders in.  Read my blog post from a couple days ago if you are having problems getting an order to take.  Shopify it still working on a bug that has shown up when orders are entered on the desktop in normal browser mode.  It won't affect you if you are setting up your orders on cellphone or on your desktop in "incognito mode".  

So get your bowls and spoons ready for ice cream.   Yum!

Instagram issues resolved, but a checkout issue has arisen

 Good evening, everyone.  The previously reported Instagram issue has been resolved. 

However, there is a different and separate issue that has arisen.  When ordering on the website, a payment error (yes, a payment error for an item that costs zero -- LOL) is generated by Shopify.  This is occurring for orders done on a PC, but not on a cellphone.  The issue is under review.  If you want to order, use your cellphone or if you are on your PC, an order placed using your browser in "incognito mode" will work just fine.  This is an issue that is showing up when using either Chrome or Edge.   

Updates on the situation will follow.

Instagram issues

 

Good morning.  Instagram has been having some technical problems the past couple days.  I've been unable to access my account to add new images for the past two days.  The issue has been reported and many people across the globe are experiencing similar issues when trying to update their account feeds.  But at this point there is no expected resolution date.

So for those of you how are used to seeing a new image post each day, they will return as soon as Instagram figures out what's going on with some of its user account technical issues.

Food processor doughs and technique

When it comes to things like pie doughs, biscuit doughs, and other similar doughs, I am a mix of traditional and modern.  When I was growing up, and for a while into my grown-up years as well, every time I made certain kinds of doughs, it was always by hand -- taking cold butter already cut into chunks and mixing it into a flour mixture, pressing the butter  into the flour between my fingertips and working it all until everything was the right consistency.  There's a lot to be said for traditional approaches that have been in practice for generations. 

Then the time came when I learned how to make a good pie dough using a food processor.  After much trial and error as well as much research on many different ideas people had about how to use a food processor for this sort of task, I finally determined how I would make my pie crusts with this handy little gadget.  The method involves cutting the butter into very small chunks, and cutting the vegetable shortening the same way.  (Yes, I use a blend of both.)  Then freezing the chunks.  Then the flour mixture is placed into the food processor.  This is followed by adding the frozen butter chunks and pulsing the food processor a precise number of times (6) for a precise number of seconds for each pulse (5).  Then the frozen vegetable shortening is added and the processor is pulsed 5 times for 1 second each time.

After that, the mixture is emptied into a larger bowl and ice cold water is added, the dough is mixed and then shaped, and then wrapped and chilled overnight before using.

I have found with this method (and in a future post, I can go into more precise detail than I have above if anyone is interested) I get a consistent pie crust every time, one that has a texture and flavor with which I am happy.  I use it for pies, slab pies (see the photo above), and quiche.  For me this method has completely replaced the old traditional by-hand method.  

I have tried making biscuit dough the same way, but it doesn't yield a result that I like yet.  I have a feeling that I just need to keep tweaking the numbers to get a satisfactory result.  However, in the meantime, I still make my biscuit doughs by hand or by using a pastry cutter.  I have to admit, though, that I really don't care for using a pastry cutter as often as some other are prone to do.  I find that I have to stop and clean out the chunks of butter and dough from between the blades far more frequently than is ideal for me.  

This issue with using different methods for producing doughs brings up a good point.  Technique does indeed matter.  There are many who think that it's all about simply using the right ingredients and cooking something for the right amount of time at the right temperature.  But many things affect the outcome when working with a good recipe:  the order in which ingredients are combined, whether ingredients are at room temperature or cold, how they are physically mixed or beaten or whisked, whether one is using a machine or doing hand-work, the ambient temperature of the room (for pastry work and bread rising), and so many other things.  Technique does matter.

The good thing, though, is that once you get the technique solidified in your head for a specific recipe, it's very easy to keep doing it over and over again, as long you pay attention to the details.  And that means you can have a very satisfying result virtually every time.  Only virtually every time?  Yes.  Because sometimes no matter how much care you take in measuring ingredients, applying your production technique, and baking, something can always go wrong.  Making food is a science and an art, both at once.  And that means sometimes something unexpected happens.  Sooner or later it happens.  To everyone, no matter how many years they have been making food.

I'm about to pull some challah out of the oven.  So far it looks to be baking up as expected.  In a while, I'll taste it and see.  

Have a great week!  Eat some great food!  And enjoy life!

Ice cream week

 

Just a handful of days ago, I wrote a blog post in which I promised to have an ice cream week very soon.  Well, here it comes.  We are having lots of ice cream for the weekend menu of February 25th.  I just posted the new menu, and it includes mint chocolate chip ice cream, French vanilla ice cream, and waffle cone bowls.  I might also add a topping between now and then -- but don't count on it for certain yet.  

With the extra ice cream freezer cannisters that have been added to my kitchen hardware (thanks to Ben!!!), it's going to be very nice to make more ice cream at one time.  So even if you get your orders in late, there should be some ice cream available.  And I'm making lots of waffle cone bowls as well.

I have several different ice cream toppings I like to make.  I haven't put any on the menu yet, but it's about time I take of that omission.  So I will try to make time over the next few days to make a decision on which one(s) to add.  And, of course, I've already posted that I will be adding more new ice cream flavors soon, as well.  However, that won't happen in time for this first ice cream week.  But don't despair.  We'll another ice cream week again.

There's nothing quite as good as ice cream.  

Today, I have finished what I think might be the last tweak on my smoky sloppy joes.  I've eaten two sandwiches already and I'm craving more, and that's really the first and only indicator I use.  If I make it, eat it, and crave more, then it's good enough be labeled one of my favorites.  And as all my readers know, my menu is only of my favorites.  But I also put out a text to see if I can get someone else to come over today, to try it out and tell me what they think.  And they just now responded that they are on the way immediately.

Have a great week, everyone!

Gougère recipe

Happy Thursday, everyone.  Today I thought I'd post my favorite recipe for making gougères.  They are really quite easy to make although it's good to have a strong arm, the reason for which will be explained below.

Here are the ingredients you need:

1/2 cup of whole milk

1/2 cup of water

114 grams of high quality butter (try Plugra)

1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt

142 grams of all-purpose flour

5 large eggs (at room temperature)

170 grams of shredded cheese (I like to use a blend of gruyère and sharp cheddar)

Step 1:  Bring the milk, water, salt and butter to a boil in a sturdy saucepan.

Step 2:  Add all of the flour to the boiling liquid.  Turn down the heat to low.  Immediately start stirring the flour into the liquid.  I find a wooden spoon always works best for this.  Stir with a lot of force (hence, the strong arm comment above) until the dough comes together.  You will see a light crust form on the bottom of the pan.  Once you see that, keep stirring a minute more.

Step 3:  Scoop the dough out of the saucepan and into your mixing bowl.  A stand mixer is best for this, but doing it with a hand mixer or even by hand can work too.  Use the paddle attachment if you are using the stand mixer.  Run it for a minute on low speed to help the dough cool just a bit. 

Step 4:  One at a time, add the eggs.  Mix each one in until it is incorporated before adding the next.  When all 5 have been added, run the mixer a little more until the dough comes together.

Step 5:  Mix in the shredded cheese.

Final steps:  At this point you can portion the dough and freeze for later, or cook it right away.  I like to portion the dough using a medium-sized cookie scoop.  But any size scoop or using a pastry bag and piping the dough by hand can work.  Just try to get all portions the same size so that the cooking time is the same for all of them.

I portion the dough with my medium-sized cookie scoop onto a tray lined with parchment paper.  Then I pop them uncovered into the freezer for several hours.  They are easy to remove from the parchment paper, but not so easy to remove from the tray if you haven't put down parchment paper.  Once they are frozen, I place them in a freezer bag and they can easily sit in the freezer for a month before being baked.

Bake them at 375 F for 30 minutes if you use a medium-sized cookie scoop to portion.  If your portion size is different, experiment a bit with the cooking time.  They can be baked straight from the freezer.  

I love having these ready to bake straight from the freezer.  Give them a try and let me know how it goes.  Or just watch for when I put them on the weekly menu and order some.  All you have to do then is bake the frozen portions that I'll give you.

Happy eating!

Ice cream weekend coming soon

It has been an unusually busy week between the midweek snowstorm here in Kansas City and other things.  As a result I have pushed back this week's orders to next weekend, and the same for the following weekend.  So there are no new weekly menu offerings to report today.   

I was talking to my son and daughter-in-law yesterday and he was asking about ice creams.  He is one of my biggest enthusiasts when it comes to the mint chocolate chip ice cream that comes out of my kitchen.  We were talking about how I am limited a bit in how much I can make at one time since the freezing cannisters have to be refrozen after being used and washed.  That refreezing takes about 48 hours.  I said I'd like to make more ice cream at one time, but I'm working with 3 cannisters and they have to refreeze and that slows me down.  Well, at that point, he asked, "How much do they cost?  And would you make more at one time if you had more cannisters?"  After I answered both questions, he whipped out his wallet, and we ordered 2 more cannisters.  So now my freezer will have 5 cannisters sitting frozen at all times, ready for making ice cream.

So in a few weeks, we are going to have a big ice cream week with mint chocolate chip ice cream, French vanilla cream, ice box desserts, and waffle cone bowls in larger quantities that before.  

This also means that I feel it's appropriate to hurry up and add a couple more ice creams that I've been talking about for a long time:  lavender with blueberry swirl, triple chocolate, banana with caramelized white chocolate, and maybe even roasted strawberry ice cream.  These are all flavors I've made in the past, but just haven't gotten around to putting on the menu yet.  But now with more freezing cannisters, I feel I should move those up on the list of foods I've been prepping for addition to the menu.  And perhaps it's time to add a few ice cream toppings as well.

I will keep you all posted on how that is coming.  I made quiche Lorraine a couple days ago, and you will see pics of that on Instagram over the next few days.  I also did a new batch of smoky sloppy joes and I think I have only a couple more tweaks I'd like to do and then those will make their first appearance on the menu.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everyone.

Combinations

 

I love combining foods.  This week, I combined flavored creams with berries and waffle cone scallop shells.  Three great things all put together -- sounds amazing, doesn't it?  In this case, it was an almond-flavored cream, fresh blueberries and a waffle cone shell which is flavored with just a little of both vanilla and almond.  And of course, three different textures added a nice touch.  It was delicious.

Sometimes when I make grilled cheese sandwiches, I'll try combining different things with the melted cheese.  I've done thin slices of tomatoes, sautéed mushrooms, French fries, and so on.

Ice cream sundaes?  There's no shortage of things to try on top of ice cream.  I love to go wild and add bits of many different things:  fudge topping, mini chocolate chips, animal crackers, whipped cream with chocolate sprinkles, puréed strawberries, and so on.

Tuna salad sandwiches?  I love potato chips in these.

Chili?  Lots of things can go on top of chili.

Cake?  How about pudding as frosting?

I've often wondered if I could take my least favorites foods -- OK, not just least favorite, the worst foods -- and combine them with something to make them taste great.  Think that's possible?  Could one combine beef liver with something else to make it palatable?  (Sorry for those of you who enjoy liver.)  I don't think so.  I can't imagine anything making the worst foods (according to my tastes) any better.  And I certainly wouldn't want to ruin something that is good by adding it to something that I think is awful.

That's OK.   There of plenty of great foods out there to try in combination.  Right now, though, I'm going to take a little break in my day and have a simple piece of toast with butter.  Combinations are nice, but sometimes simplicity is nice, too.