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!