New oven

After several days of not having an oven to use, the new range was finally delivered and installed yesterday.  Hooray!!!

I haven't tested it yet, but it will get its first run this week with brownies.

Not baking for several days was hard.  I couldn't make breads or cookies or brownies or lasagna or so many other things that came to mind.  So now I'm eager to get back to a more normal baking routine.

Having this new appliance after several days without makes me want to do an all-night baking session.  I won't actually do it, but I'd love to fill the kitchen with a wide assortment of newly baked foods.

Tomorrow is November 1 which is, in my mind, the beginning of the end-of-year holiday season.  I am always excited by that.  There is nothing quite so fun as the holiday season full of great festivities, great decorations, and great food.

The first weekend in November

It is a cold Sunday morning here in Kansas City as October comes to a close.  On my mind are snow and windy blustery days and the approaching holidays.

This coming weekend we have roasted tomatoes and brownies ready to order.  And for the following weekend, you can select ginger spice cookies as well as macaroni and cheese.

This is the perfect weather for comfort foods like mac and cheese.  I feel like making a pot today because it's cold and dreary out, but I have other plans.  For the next few days, both my wife and I have no obligations and we are planning a variety of activities that will keep us busy.

Tomorrow the new stove/oven arrives.  That means I can bake again for the first time since the element burned out several days ago.  And as I mentioned in a previous blog post, that means I get to acquaint myself with this new oven and see how it maintains temperature.  I may have to do a few tweaks to my baking times of some of my menu items.  We'll see how it goes.

Enjoy this final weekend of October.  Get ready for the holidays!

Back on track

 

Well, after having a couple weeks off, things are back on track here now.  This upcoming weekend you can order chili.  And the menu also shows brownies.  However, if you read my last blog post, you will recall that I am waiting for a new oven to arrive.  It won't arrive in time for this weekend, so brownies have been put on the menu for next weekend.  And you can also order roasted tomatoes for next weekend as well.

I will have some significant time off in the upcoming weeks as we head towards the end of the year.  I'm hoping to utilize that time to add some new things to the menu that I've been working on for the last few months.

Some of those include new fruited lemonades, a couple new cakes, a new ice cream, and a few other new things as well.  

That's all for now.  Have a great week and enjoy the cool autumn weather.

Oven temperatures

Good morning and Happy Thursday to everyone!

After many years of service and thousands of hours of use, my oven lost it's heating element -- burnt completely through.  It's the second element to go in the life of this oven.  After having this appliance for many long years, after having replaced the element once before, after seeing the control panel on top start to develop a few cracks from constant pushing of fingertips on the controls, it was decided that it's time to get a new one.

So my wife and I went out on Monday and selected a brand new range/oven which will soon be delivered.  

This means that I will have to carefully check my existing baking times for all the different things I create in the kitchen.  A different oven may have a different warm-up time, a more efficient or less efficient thermostatic temperature constancy, and other similar things.

I will carefully monitor times and temperatures for several items during the first few weeks of usage to see how it works.  I knew the old one so well.  I knew exactly what to expect from it.  Now I will enjoy getting to know this new one.

Looking forward next week to making chili for everyone since I can use the still-working stovetop.  However, the brownies that are one the menu will be pushed back to the next week since the new oven won't arrive until October 30. 

Chili ready to order

 

Well, it has been an eventful October, and I took a few weeks off.  But the menu has been filled again for the final weekend of October.

Ready for order are double chocolate brownies with a dark chocolate ganache and a favorite of everyone's, mole chorizo chili.  People are always asking to have this on the menu, so I thought being autumn and temperatures starting to fall a bit, well, this seemed like a perfect food to offer after I took these few weeks off.

You will see the menu filled on the first weeks of November, and then I will take off the weekend after Thanksgiving.  Then menus filled again for the first weeks of December, before I take a bit of time off after Christmas again.

That's it for now.  I'll be back in a few days with another post.

An innkeeper's story

 

I heard a story the other day.  It was a good story.  Here it is.

Many years ago, in the days of kings and queens and knights and noblemen, an innkeeper and his wife had run their inn for many years.  A small group of customers had been there from the very beginning.  But one of them had gone on a long trip, and had not returned.  The innkeeper hadn't heard from this one for many years.   Finally, the innkeeper learned that he was in trouble.  So the innkeeper went on a long journey to find him.  And he found him, and brought him back to the town.  A gathering was held with this original group and the innkeeper prepared some foods.  But he was not able to prepare the foods most wanted.  And the other customers were disappointed that the returning customer did not receive the most desired foods.  They were unhappy with the innkeeper.  And they left, although they remained polite and cordial.  The innkeeper was very sad.

But then through the windows of his inn in the coming days, he often saw the returning customer with the others of this group and they all were happy.  Once again, the innkeeper could see that this group was connected as before.  And that turned his sadness to joy.  The innkeeper wondered if things would ever be as they were for him.  But his joy at seeing this group of customers, this group of comrades, together again was most important to him.  

So as each day passed, he continued making cakes and cookies and bread and stews, and he ran his inn as before.  And he watched through the windows of his inn every day as his favorite group of customers walked through the streets of the town.  His wife stood with him as he watched through the windows, worried about him sometimes.  But every time he smiled, she smiled, too, knowing that he was happy to see this group reunited and safe together.  

A late start to October

Good morning and Happy Monday!  October is getting a late start.  During the past week, I involved myself in a lot of projects in the kitchen, especially with new flavored lemonades that I have been experimenting with which use fresh fruit purees.  As a result, I badly estimated the time I would need for orders over this weekend, and had to postpone to next week.

My apologies to everyone.  As I noted in my texts, all orders are simply pushed to next weekend.  I have already updated the website to show the new correct dates.

It's fall, and it's going to start to feel like it this week according to the weather forecasts.  So it's time for yummy warm comfort foods such as the banana bread in the picture above.  Hot chocolates, custards, pumpkin pies, and many other things are on my mind.

This is just a short post today.  But I will be back in a day or two if all goes well, and I'll post something more substantial.  

In the meantime, eat well and enjoy the fall colors that are starting to make themselves known.