Biscuits and gravy

 

Today begins National Biscuits and Gravy week.  I love biscuits and gravy.  I wish I could put biscuits on the menu.  But for me, biscuits aren't quite the same when they aren't fresh.  They taste fine heated up again in the oven (NOT the microwave), but they just aren't the same.  I know we say that about a lot of foods, but some foods (pizza, spaghetti, for example), in my opinion are just as good when reheated.

I've played with biscuit recipes off and on, but I've never found a way to make them such that when they are reheated you don't feel like you have settled on something less.   Pizza reheated is different than fresh pizza, but you don't feel like you settled for less.  There's something about it aging for a day and being reheated (again, NOT in the microwave) that makes pizza different but still excellent.  Alas, the same cannot be said for biscuits.

Biscuits.... Should they be eaten with butter only?  Butter and honey?  Butter and jam?  I like them all three ways.  And now that I'm informed as to this being National Biscuits and Gravy Week, I got thoughts in my head for a big breakfast as a dinner, a breakfast/dinner of biscuits and gravy and scrambled eggs and French toast with a tropical fruit smoothie to top it off.  

Doesn't that sound good?  I'd better eat low calories for a day or two first.  

Have a great week, everyone!

Breads

As we start September and begin to anticipate autumn weather and its cooler temps and rain and wind, I often start thinking a lot more about breads.

I think breads are one of the most amazing things.  A bit of flour, liquid (water, milk, shortening), some yeast, some nice flavorings --- it's wonderful how so many good breads come from such few ingredients, such ordinary ingredients.  To be sure, it takes some practice to develop good technique in making breads.  But overall, a bread is a very simple thing.  Yet at the same time enormously complex.  One small change in rising temperature or time, or cooking temperature, or changing out one liquid for another in the ingredients list, each of these things can make the outcome change significantly.

I think of myself as quite adept at breads, but I know that those who specialize in breads, who make them every day in quantity, these people are real experts who have honed their technique and judgement over time and through errors as well.  And they reach a point where they can simply feel the dough, look at the dough, poke at the dough, and they know exactly how much longer it needs to rise, whether or not too much moisture was input, whether or not salt was under-included or over-included.  They know how much steam the oven needs just by a developed sense.

As the fall starts, I think of all the breads I want to make, of the aromas wafting from the oven, of cinnamon rolls, and thick ryes, and soft white sandwich breads, and of pullas and other special loaves that many know by sight but not by name.  I think of all the time I could spend making breads and being happy -- except for the fact that then I couldn't also make cookies, and smoothies, and slow-roasted chicken and egg salads and so on. 

There's only so much time.  But it's all time put to good use if one is making wonderful food.

Food fight

I love tomatoes.  I love them sliced with a sprinkling of sugar, in salads, roasted long and slow.  And they are good for much more than eating.  What do I mean?  Read on.

On the last Wednesday of every August (which is today), in a small town in Spain, thousands of people gather to throw tons and tons of tomatoes.  I mean that literally -- tons, not pounds, tons of tomatoes. 

It is considered the world's largest food fight.

Here's the link:  https://www.latomatinatours.com/

Read all about it and enjoy.  Perhaps one day I or one of this blog's readers will attend this food fight festival and we'll see a first-hand report on it.

In the meantime, maybe you can start a small version of this on your own neighborhood street.

OK, OK, maybe not.  I don't think people will appreciate here.  But they do in Spain.

Carrot bisque recipe

It's summer still but my gut tells me it's not far from over and soon autumn will be making it's presence felt.  Maybe that's because the sky has clouded up here and it's threatening to rain.  Whether we have an early autumn start or not, it's always a good time for a good soup that makes one think of fall harvests.

Here's my recipe for carrot bisque.

  

I love to make this.  It's creamy and smooth, and the carrot and spices are perfect together, in my opinion.  Sometimes I've made this in double batches, but I find it's always easier and more consistent to make it in smaller batches.  

Give it a try and see how you like it!

Haleem

In my home, there is always lots of food being prepared.  We enjoy going out as well, trying new restaurants, etc.  But when we make things here at home, it is always the most satisfying and the most enjoyable.

This dish is a wonderful dish to make at home.  Haleem is a lentil stew with lots of spices and onions, and in this case chicken as well.  The chicken is in there twice.  First, it is cooked in the lentil stew, having been put in as shredded pieces.  And then we take an immersion blender and do a rough blend to grind up the chicken and thicken up the stew.  Usually that's where it ends and it's all done.  However in this case, we have added more chunks of wonderfully slow-cooked chicken with more spices.  This is all simmered slowly for a time.  Then to add one more element, it has been spooned over fresh biscuits.

What you get is a warm, spicy, high-protein, healthy dish that is an excellent comfort food, perfect in the winter when you need to be warmed up with spices, but also great in the summer for filling up after after a day of activity that has left you hungry.

Lentils are often overlooked here in the US.  However, in many parts of the world they are one of the most common ingredients to use.  Give them a try sometime.

And look up a few haleem recipes.  There are many of them out there.  Everyone has their on take on spices to add, how long to cook, whether to use chicken or goat or something else.  Let it cook long and slow and then grind it up with an immersion blender or a food processor.  You'll be happy you gave it a try.

National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day

Today, August 4, is National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day.

For more on the story as to how chocolate chips wound up in cookies in the first place, follow this link:  https://www.nationaldaycalendar.com/national-day/national-chocolate-chip-day-august-4

As most of my readers know, I have multiple chocolate chip cookie recipes on my menu.  Each one is different in significant ways.  Some have a different blend of chunks vs. chips.  Some have a different blend of semisweet vs. dark chocolate.  Some are made with different flours.

The bottom line is that each one is unique in some way.  And they are all delicious.  I think that even a bad chocolate chip cookie (relatively speaking) is still pretty darn good.

My favorite thing to do is to use a variety of types of chocolate in cookies.  I love the complexity of flavor that comes out.  It's a deeper flavor, more interesting, and more chocolaty, I think.  But whether you use one type or many, they are still awesome.  Agreed?

The most important thing is to use the best chocolate you can find.  Get a good cookie recipe and an excellent chocolate, and you will have an excellent cookie.

I could commemorate the day by baking some.  But I'm not planning on baking any chocolate chip cookies today because I really don't feel like running my oven on this excessively hot afternoon.  

That's all for today.  Go out and get yourself a good cookie.

A delicious pasta salad

I read one source today that said we are at the beginning of National Salad Week.  However, another source says it began on June 1.  A third source says it started in late May.  And a fourth source says National Salad Month is the month of May.

Hmmm...  Well, regardless of what the precise dates are for salad celebrations, salads are always a welcome and refreshing choice for a meal in the heavy heat of summer.  So here's the recipe I use when I make my favorite pasta salad.  Enjoy!

The fun of birthday snacks

 

Today happens to be my birthday.  The night before last, my wife and I were talking about what she would like to get me as part of the celebration this week, something in addition to other things that were already planned.  I suggested getting a snack food.  She asked for a list of some of my favorite fun snack foods, things I don't usually get or that I at least regulate so that I don't eat too much junk food.  So we started making a list, first a couple items, then added a few more, and so on, so that she could choose something for me.

She texted me from work yesterday saying that she had something for me.  I assumed it was going to be a single item from the list.  Well, she got 14 items.  You can see them all in the picture above, except for the chocolate milk which was in the fridge and I forgot to pull it out to include in the picture.

Now, her taking the time to get all these items and to surprise me with the number of different fun snack foods is worth a blog post all by itself.  But there's also this to think about:  fun snack foods, whether made fresh or bought at the store as preprocessed items, or even ultra-processed, well, these items are certainly not the most healthy for us, but they are definitely very very fun.

Food is something we need to eat in order to survive.  And why not have a little fun with it at the same time.  There is certainly something to be said for eating extremely healthy, but I'm for moderation in all things.  Eating healthy is important.  But sometimes the joy that comes from eating "fun" is just as important.

Thanks to my wife for her wonderful and unexpected massive contribution to my birthday celebration.  And I hope all of you have someone who will spoil you in the same way once in a while. 

Eat for fun when you can.  It's worth it.

National Ice Cream Day

 

Today is National Ice Cream Day!  Now, for me, it's not one of the greatest food days of the year because in actuality I celebrate it all year long, not just a single day.  As many of my readers, friends and family know, ice cream is far and away the most favorite food of all for me. 

I enjoy especially making mint chocolate ice cream, French vanilla, triple chocolate, roasted strawberry, and even something a bit more unusual like lavender with blueberry swirl.

All my ice creams are made beginning with a custard base.  This means I heat up cream and sugar and eggs until just the right temperature.   Then other flavor components go in.  And the whole batch is chilled overnight before it's frozen in my trusty Cuisinart ice cream freezer.  This freezer uses canisters that must be frozen before use.  I keep 5 canisters ready in my freezer at all times.  This is because sometimes I like to make lots and lots all at once.  After each batch of ice cream is completed and packed in containers, the canisters must be cleaned and then refrozen.  So 5 is a good number to have in my freezer.  They take up a lot of space, but it's worth it.

I'm always thinking of new flavors I want to try.  A couple times in the past, I have made banana with caramelized white chocolate.  It's very very good.  But the busy-ness of my schedule has kept me from doing the final tweaks I customarily do with new foods to be added to my menu.  And so it hasn't happened yet for this flavor.  But it will eventually.  And in addition, there are many other flavors I want to experiment with.

I've seen some pretty unusual flavors, such as beet ice cream....hmmm.  I've never tried some of these offbeat flavors, and I'm not sure it's worth it to satisfy my curiosity to buy a whole cone or sundae made of this kind of flavor which I would probably have to do at a high price since this kind of flavor is usually only made by trendy high-priced small ice cream shops.  Perhaps sometime I will, but it's hard to see me doing it for such an unusual flavor for which I have an instinctive doubt.

In any event, enjoy the day, eat some ice cream, and keep doing it regularly.  I have to exercise considerable restraint to not eat it every day.  If it were healthy to do so, I'd definitely do it.  

Mac and Cheese Day

 

Today, July 14, is National Mac and Cheese Day!  Yesterday my wife and I tried a quaint country café in a small town outside of the Kansas City metropolitan area.  The meal included a side of mac and cheese.  It was OK, to be blunt, that's all it was.  But it was still a nice comfort food to eat.  Most of the time in restaurants, at least in my opinion, the mac and cheese is only OK.  It's often too liquidy, or the cheese flavor is too bland, or the pasta is not tender enough.

I'm a big fan of multiple cheeses in mac and cheese to give it lots of flavor, and a little pepper and dried mustard as well as a few other things; the pasta should be very tender; and too liquidy just isn't fun.  There should be a minimum level of viscosity to the cheese sauce.

The really hard thing about making good mac and cheese is whether or not it can be reheated and still be more than satisfactory.  I'm have three different mac and cheese recipes in my repertoire.  However, I only use one for orders on the website.  That's because the other two recipes, while excellent in all ways, only work when they are fresh.  Sometimes when sitting and chilling overnight, especially if the sauce is too liquidy, the pasta absorbs a lot of the moisture.  Sometimes the sauce simply can't take being reheated in a way that leaves the dish tasting at least close to the same level of excellence as when it's fresh.  Sometimes, especially with sub-par sauces, the sauce and cheese break down, separate, become yuchchchh!

So even though I have three recipes which I love and which have different flavors due to the types of cheeses in combination, two of them are only made for occasions when they will be eaten immediately.  The third one, after much testing when I was developing it, has proven itself to be very very good even after reheating.  It's even better when fresh, as almost all foods are.  But it's the one that can take reheating and still prompt an enthusiastic response from kids and adults and which can also satisfy my obsessive desire to make high quality, highly delicious food.

Never underestimate the significance of reheatability in foods.  Test them for it. Tweak them.  Do everything you can do in order to prove that they are reheatable on a consistent basis.  Then you never need to worry about the quality when eating them on Day 2 or 3 or 4.

Shaping chocolate chip cookies

I have multiple types of chocolate chip cookies in my repertoire.   One of the most popular ones is a cookie that uses 3 different types of chocolate and is made with cake flour and bread flour.   In the process of experimenting with this cookie over time, I discovered something interesting about the timing of shaping the dough.

When I finish mixing the dough, I immediately place it in a plastic wrap-lined bowl.  It will sit in the fridge and chill for at least 24 hours.  And when it comes out, it looks like this:

It is one massive chilled ball of dough which must then be cut.  I put on knife-resistant gloves to ensure that trying to cut a very dense block of dough with a very sharp knife doesn't result in some very bad cuts.  

Once this gigantic dough ball is cut, then it is finally shaped into cookie dough balls that are ready for the oven.

Many cookie doughs are shaped before going into a fridge for chilling, but they don't show much of a difference if they are shaped afterwards instead.  But when I tested out shaping before and after chilling for this dough (I do these kinds of process variation experiments all the time with the foods I make as I refine them), I noticed that the cookies that were shaped after chilling had a difference in appearance and texture.  The ones shaped after chilling were much nicer.

I find this fascinating.  I still haven't figured exactly why this is, although I have a suspicion it is due to how the cake and bread flours are affected by the compaction that occurs during shaping.  Most cookie doughs are made with all-purpose flour, so this is a significant difference.  And for this cookie, there are lots of jagged chunks of chocolate in the dough, and so the shaping of each dough ball is vigorous, more so than with other doughs only made with chips. 

Someday perhaps I will delve more deeply into the science of this.  For now, I simply know that the shaping must come after chilling.  And that results in an excellent cookie that is one of the most asked-for cookies on my menu.

Fish

This weekend begins National Fishing Week in Canada.  As I recently visited Canada and have now met some of my wife's family who live in Canada, it seems a fun thing to take note of.

I remember in my youth, I fished several times:  a few times with a grandfather, and a few times while in Boy Scouts.  However, I never got into it enough to want to do it all the time.  In fact, I found it to be rather uninteresting.

However, I love working with fish. While I tend to do most of my work with saltwater fish as opposed to freshwater, I will work with any fish or any other seafood that comes along.

Give me a nice salmon filet, a fresh piece of red snapper, or some scallops (I prefer sea scallops but I will take bay scallops as well), and I am happy man in the kitchen. 

I love eating a McDonald's filet of fish sandwich, and I've often thought of trying to replicate that and improve on it in my own kitchen. But it's one of those many things on my cooking to-do list that I haven't gotten around to yet.  

One of my very favorite things that I have done more than once, which I did completely experimentally, was to purée scallops, then freeze them in small little medallions (miniature patties), coat them afterwards in a breading and grated parmesan cheese and then deep fry them.  They are so incredibly good.  I haven't codified the recipe or the process yet.  It's also another of those things on my to-do list that awaits my attention.

One of my true pleasure in working with fish is a simple piece of clean red snapper.  The meat is white although the skin is red and silver.  And I simply sautée it slowly with butter and seasonings.  It doesn't need much added to it as the flavor is mild and can be easily overpowered, but the flavor is very nice even if mild.

I won't be out fishing during this National Fishing Week, but perhaps I will go to the seafood counter and find something interesting to cook.

Enjoy these first days of summer, everyone!

Frozen banana purée

 

Some time ago, I puréed some over-ripe bananas and froze them.  It's always a bit of a time-planning adventure to figure out when to acquire bananas so that they have long enough to over-ripen in time for the day I want to have banana bread.  If you make the bread with bananas that aren't ripe enough, then the flavor is simply not strong enough.  In fact, when made with bananas that are at peak freshness for eating, which also means no dark spots anywhere on peel or fruit, then the finished bread doesn't even taste "banana-y", in my opinion -- maybe a tiny bit, but that's all.  So I got some bananas, let them ripen until the they were soft and mushy and darkening nicely, and then I peeled and puréed them, and then froze it all .  Hmmm.....

Well, I never like to assume anything.  Good cooking means planning and testing and tasting.  So I did it.  And you know what?  It worked very well.

Freezing some things which are meant to be thawed later and mixed with other ingredients doesn't always work for every food.  So for banana bread, one of my most favorite of all foods, I had to be really sure.  And I have to say I was happy with the result.  

I think that when I ate the loaves, the power of suggestion (knowing that this was from frozen banana purée) made me think that perhaps there was the tiniest of tiniest differences when made with fresh, but I can't really be sure.  

However, all things considered, the banana bread was excellent.  It's good to know that I can take this shortcut in the future.  I like to be able to ripen those bananas a good long time, and then when I think they are ready, I still let them ripen one more day.  Now I can do it and freeze it and always have this ingredient ready for spur-of-the-moment banana bread baking.

Food on vacation

 

Well, it has been a number of days since I last posted.  I have a good excuse, though.  My wife and I were on a trip, a road trip to Toronto, Canada, and then to Niagara Falls.

In the photo above, you can see one of the boats that goes right up to the falls.  We weren't on that one, obviously, but a couple hours after this photo was taken we were on the Maid of the Mist and were sitting in the same place as the boat in the photo and wearing blue ponchos (blue ponchos for those taking a boat from the American side, red ponchos for the Canadian side).  It was memorable, for certain.

While we were on this trip, we ate lots of food.  Some of it was fast food as we went for "quick and easy" while on our driving days.  Then other times it was lots of good food from sit-down restaurants, both in Toronto and Niagara Falls.  

In Toronto we ate some excellent dishes at a couple fantastic Pakistani restaurants, an Italian bakery, and a wonderful ice cream shop.  Then in Niagara Falls, we got to try some things from a couple small street food vendors and a wonderful burger places at the hotel where we stayed.  I was impressed that in both places a large cultural diversity meant there were numerous excellent restaurants to try.

And I picked up a couple ideas on things I want to learn to make from these restaurants.  Hopefully you'll see them on my menu in the future.

For now, though, my wife and I are reducing our food intake for a few days because we stuffed ourselves.  And it was sooooo good.  I would do it again.

Simplicity

 

I read a quote today that I really like.  The 1800s French chef Urbain Francois Dubois said this:

"The ambition of every good cook must be to make something very good with the fewest possible ingredients."

The is a nice statement.  The simplicity of food can be advantaged in a way that doesn't require us to add dozens of separate ingredients to make something really delicious.  There is a beauty in making something with strawberries, for example, that has so few ingredients that the flavor of the berries can't help but come out with strength.  But sometimes with simplicity, it's not just the flavors of a single ingredient.  You can make something with a small handful of ingredients and still have two separate flavors come out boldly -- strawberry lemonade, for example.  

Sometimes I will see a recipe that has literally dozens of ingredients.  Sometimes that is reasonable such as when making a stew or soup that we expect to have many different things in it.  But sometimes the number of ingredients is such that one has to wonder if half of them even make a difference.  You can argue both sides of this issue. Sometimes a massive number of ingredients does make a difference, indeed.  But not always.

But in general, I love the idea of focusing on few ingredients and letting those flavors be bold and powerful.  

Making a food with only a few ingredients is always nice from a practical point of view as well.  Their is a simplicity in the production as well as the content.  And that means it's quick and easy.  

Whether a recipe calls for only a few or many ingredients, what matters is the enjoyment one gets from making it and eating it and sharing it. 

But I love that quote.  It's a good one.  And it can remind us to focus on simple flavors.

Food experiments

In every kitchen with an active cook, baker, or chef, all across the country, experiments are going on almost every day.  The vanilla poppy seed muffins which I like to make, shown in the photo above, came about because of my own experiments.  I wanted a good vanilla muffin with a streusel topping and poppy seeds and all I could find were lemon poppy seed recipes.  After creating my own recipe, I eventually found other recipes for a similar vanilla-based muffin with poppy seeds.  But the one I have was entirely crafted by me.

I, like many other denizens of the kitchen, love to experiment.  Sometimes these adventures involve only subtle changes with ingredients.  Others involve complete remakes of something old into something new.  And some sound crazy when first verbalized but then turn out great when completed.

One of the weirdest things I have ever heard of, though, I read about this past week.  There is something called a sequin salad that used to be made several decades ago.  In fact, Jell-O even put out the recipe as something to use it's product for, sometime back in the 1950s, I think.  I'm not sure whether Jell-O originated it or if it came from someone else, but here's what it is.

Sequin salad - vinegar soaked vegetables, such as cauliflower, red peppers, onion, pimentos, etc., seasoned with salt and pepper (sometimes) and suspended in lime Jell-O.  

I can't imagine even in my wildest creative, most imaginative moments that I ever would have come up with an idea like this.  I didn't find a lot of information online about whether or not this was really enjoyed back when it was made.  I only could discover that it doesn't seem to be made anymore, and most people who come across this example of wild food experimentation are also as incredulous as I am.

Now, if anyone who reads this has ever tried this or is willing to try it and report back, then please do so.  As for me, I can't even bring myself to put this salad together.

I will continue to experiment, but probably never with something as wild as this idea.

Noticing details

 

Good morning!  So far, this month has been so extremely busy that I didn't even realize I was behind on posting here.  So I will try to catch up.

Lately, as I have been working on plans to take this food enterprise further, I find myself noticing details more and more when I'm out at other food establishments.  I notice what seems to work in terms of service.  I notice when it seems customers are happy and when they are impatient.  I notice the decor.  I notice the constancy, or often the lack, thereof, of quality when I eat someplace more than once.

Basically, I keep tweaking my ideas in my head again and again based on what I see that either works or doesn't work in the food world as I'm able to explore it. 

These details may or may not cause significant changes in what I want to do with my food.  I already have a well-honed set of ideas that is governing what I want to develop.  But I still continue to look at details both small and large. 

OK.  That's all for now.  But I will post again soon.  Today I'm studying cake rusk.  Haven't had it?  It's wonderful.  Think of it like biscotti, only it's pound cake.

I'll explain more later.  Have a great rainy (at least if you are reading this in Kansas City) Monday, everyone!

Containers and packaging

 

One of the hardest things to do, sometimes, is finding good containers and packaging that I'm happy with.  Many of the things that I make use very specific containers, such as the small cake molds above, which I use every single time.  These become part of the baking protocol that must be followed every time so that I have uniformity and consistency since they affect the actual baking of the product.

I keep stacks of containers such as these.  When I can, I try to use the same container for more than one product, but that's not always possible.  Sometimes I want to make a smaller size of something and so a bigger container that is already part of the "kitchen stock" is not suitable.  Some things are so rich or so sweet that they need to be in a smaller size because it makes more sense as a serving size.

If a manufacturer were to eliminate one of my usual containers from their offerings, I couldn't always find the same thing somewhere else.  That hasn't happened yet, and hopefully it won't.  But I recognize that it could happen.

Finding just the right container for either baking or serving/packaging is actually a very satisfying thing.  The end result, knowing that I get consistency in the final product and an appropriate serving size, is extremely rewarding for some reason.  

Sometimes when I add a new item to the menu, the hardest part is deciding how big to make it, what to bake it in, what to package it in, and figuring this out can take quite a bit of time.  Sometimes it's impossible to find exactly what I want and I have to compromise.  But in the end, I am always at peace with whatever the choice is.

Chocolate and nuts

Does anyone not like chocolate covered nut clusters?  I don't hear anyone saying, "No."  That's good.  I think chocolate covered nuts are one of the most perfect desserts.

Did you know that today is National Chocolate-Covered Cashews Day?

The most challenging part of making chocolate covered nuts by hand is tempering the chocolate.  Most people, if they make nut clusters in their home kitchens, will simply melt chocolate, assemble the clusters using a cookie scoop or spoon, and then chill them so as to get the chocolate to set.

However, if you take the time to temper the chocolate, the result is even better.  Tempering chocolate is a science since it can be done by measuring the exact temperature at which specific types of crystals form in the chocolate, but also an art if one is simply doing it by hand and noting the texture and color as they agitate the chocolate without measuring the temperature at all.  An experienced chocolatier often does not need to measure the temperature of the chocolate.  They can see and feel when it is ready.

And the tempered chocolate with it's shiny look and it's crispy break is perfect.  It's worth the time to learn to temper chocolate.  And worth all the nuts you can get to make nut clusters.

Fun to make lots of food

This past weekend was a busy one.  I was asked to provide some food for a bridal shower.  It was a small event, but then it got bigger.  And so I made my food plans bigger, too.

In the end, I made ginger spice cookies, raspberry sweet creams, savory egg salad sliders, a large autumn spice cake with cream cheese frosting, a  large batch of mac and cheese, and a large batch of Swedish visiting cakes.

That's a lot of food. But you know what?  It was a lot of fun to make in a short time.  To do that, one has to create the menu carefully to ensure that it can done.  Then one has to shop.  Then one has schedule the preparation.  And finally it has to be cooked, mixed, baked, etc.  This was all done within about 24 hours from the start of the first food to the end of the last one. 

When it was all done, it was time to load it into boxes and coolers, and then into the car.  And then it was delivered.

In the end, there were a lot of smiles for all this food from the attendees.  That's my biggest reward.  Making good food for people who sincerely enjoy it is a pleasure.  And it's darn good way to make the world a better place.

Grilled cheese

 

Today is such a pleasant day already, a mild temperature, sunny, clear skies, and a relaxed working day ahead (meaning very little work) ... it makes me feel like doing a lot of cooking.  In particular I feel like making treats.  This weekend I am working on some food for a bridal shower, some savory, some sweet.  I might toss in a couple extra items just because, as I said, I feel like doing a lot of cooking.

Today is National Grilled Cheese Sandwich Day.  When it comes to grilled cheese, I'm a bit of a traditionalist.  Plain American cheese is all I need.  Sometimes I see recipes for a grilled cheese sandwich that uses nothing but some rare exotic cheese.  For me, I will take American cheese, or a blend with American and something else like gouda or muenster.  But American cheese is so creamy when melted that it has to be the foundation for me.  However, I love to toss in ham or turkey as well, especially turkey.  I love the combination of turkey and melted cheese on that grilled buttered bread.

The picture above of the mirror glazed cakes .... well, that means I'm really feeling like making some of those too.  These are a multi-day item, meaning I make the cakes parts on one day and freeze them, and the mousse filling on another day and chill it, then assemble and freeze and on the end of the second day or the third day, I make the glaze and pour it over until it is beautifully glossy and shiny.  

Eating the cakes?  That's NOT a multi-day process.  LOL.

Have a great day, everyone, and as always, enjoy some good food.

Taking the time to make chili

I have been spending time on some travel the past couple weeks as well as some other major projects, but I still can hardly believe that two whole weeks have passed since I last posted.

Here we are in our early spring in Kansas City.  Everything is greening nicely.  It's time to get out and resume yard projects that were put on hold for the winter.  And it's also time for nice warm spring foods.

I feel like making chili.  I love making chili.  It's a long process.  Peppers and onions are cut slowly and methodically.  Two kinds of beans are prepared.  Tomatoes and their juices prepared.  Spices carefully measured out.  Chorizo simmering until perfect with garlic.  Corn is measured out.  And a small quantity of chocolate is chopped and ready for melting into the final chili.

I love the process.  I take my time.  I don't rush.  Finally when everything is prepared, I start the cooking.  One by one the ingredients are tossed into the pot.  Slowly it cooks, adding layer upon layer of flavor.  The pot fills as each new item is added.  Then it sits and slowly simmers for a long long time.  I stir it periodically and inhale the aromas.  I watch as the texture and color settle into what they should be.

When it's done, it's time to eat with a sprinkle of freshly grated cheese, maybe some sour cream, maybe some added chives or parsley.

It's an amazing thing to start with raw ingredients and finish with something so delicious.  Cooking is worth the time it takes.  In this fast-paced world, we don't always get the chance to do that.  But it's worth it when we can make the time.

National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day

Well, here we are on a chilly and slightly rainy Sunday morning in Kansas City.  While my irises are not yet blooming as in the picture above (which was from last year), I am looking forward to them blooming now that spring has begun.

Today is National Chocolate Covered Raisin Day.  Hmmmm ....

I love chocolate candies and chocolate covered nuts and chocolate covered shortbread, etc., but I've never been able to convince myself that chocolate covered fruits are something tasty.  Chocolate covered strawberries are loved by everyone, it seems, yet I don't seem to enjoy them much.  Chocolate covered bananas?  Nope.  And so it goes with fruit.

As for chocolate covered raisins, specifically, well, all I can say is what I always say about raisins:  Why would anyone do that to a grape?!?

Grapes are amazing, but to dry them out, shrivel them up and leave them with an odd chewy texture and an even odder taste ....    What can I say?  It's who I am.

But give me a chocolate covered pretzel, and I'm very happy.

I definitely feel like melting and tempering chocolate.  I have a quantity of mixed nuts here, so perhaps today I'll make some nut clusters.  Now that's a great chocolate covered snack.

Tasks to do but sometimes forgotten

I was rummaging through my freezer this morning as I sometimes do.  I like to keep organized, make sure things are getting used up.  As I did that, I found puréed banana that I had frozen almost a month ago.  I'm glad I found it because I hate to see things go to waste, but also because I had really been hoping to test out making banana bread using this frozen banana mixture to see whether or not this was a viable way to prepare bananas ahead of time, meaning that I am hoping the freezing of the banana mixture doesn't mitigate the high quality of this banana bread recipe.

I like to keep a list of things to do, and this testing of the frozen mixture should have been on my list.  But, alas, somehow it didn't make it on there.  

Neglecting to do previously planned tasks, forgetting to complete special projects, watching foods expire ... these are all things that bug me.   I like to stay organized.  I like to be productive.  And I like to whittle down my "to-do" list to something smaller.  Of course, that last one is a hard thing to do since I'm always coming up with ideas I want to test, recipes I want to try, and all those things get added to the list.

It's a never-ending list.  But that's OK.  I never have a reason to be bored because of it.

Pi(e)

 

Today is March 14.  And it's also known as Pi Day.  3.14.  So I here's a great recipe for pie crust dough.

310 grams of flour

5 grams of kosher salt

32 grams of sugar

60 grams of vegetable shortening such as Crisco

170 grams of cold butter

128 grams of icy cold water

Cut the butter and Crisco into small pieces and freeze them.

Use a food process for the next steps for the best results (with a metal blade).

Place the flour, salt and sugar into the processor and let it run for a few seconds to mix it up.

Add the frozen bits of butter to the food processor and pulse it a handful of times.

Then do the same with the Crisco.

Then finally take the whole mixture out of the processor, emptying it into a large mixing bowl.  Add the icy cold water and slowly mix it up.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces and wrap in plastic, flattening them into a disk.  Refrigerate for several hours.  Then it's ready to use.

The dough can also be frozen for a month easily.

The picture above shows an apple slab pie made with this dough.  This is not a small hand-held pie.  This pie is about 9 inches by 5 inches and is not made in a pie dish.  Instead it is baked flat as a slab, hence, the name.

If I didn't have a busy day already planned, I'd make a pie myself.  Perhaps this weekend.

Have a great day, everyone!

Mushrooms

I love mushrooms.  I guess most people either love them a lot or hate them a lot.  As for me, I will put them in almost anything.  I have a favorite mushroom soup I love to make.  I put them in omelets, over chicken, in gravy (mushroom gravy and biscuits are great), and in so many other things.  But many people don't think to have mushroom by themselves, as a main dish.

I remember when I was young and I read The Lord of the Rings for the first time, I found a chapter in the first book where it talks about hobbits' love of mushrooms, steaming baskets of them, lots and lots of them.  At the time I really didn't get it because I had never really had mushrooms before.  But over time, I got it.  And now I love them.

Take a pound of mushrooms of various kinds, clean them, chop them into smaller pieces if you wish, pour a tablespoon of olive oil over them, dust them with a some seasonings including salt, pepper, garlic cloves, and add a tablespoon of butter.  Wrap this all up in a piece of foil, sealing the edges so that none of the steam escapes.  Then bake at 400 F for 45 minutes on a baking sheet.  Serve it hot with a little parsley sprinkled over the top.

And here's what it looks like when it's all done, sans parsley.

Give it a try.  I hope you like it!

National Strawberry Day!

Today is National Strawberry Day!

You can do so many things with strawberries.  I make berry fools (pic above) when combining them with raspberries.  I reduce them in a sauce pan until they are almost completely liquified and add them to a variety of things, especially whipped cream (with a few other ingredients in small quantities) to make an amazing strawberry cream.  Sometimes I even roast them (yes, roast them) and use them to make a strawberry cream cheese ice cream.  Sometimes I even pair them with mozzarella, making a strawberry syrup that I pour over fresh mozzarella with sliced berries, or adding both to a salad.  

I love putting strawberries in things because I often find the strawberry by itself to be a bit more tart than I would like.  I'm not sure if that's simply because they were picked too early, or maybe the plants didn't get enough water, or for some other reason.  Maybe the berry itself is simply stronger than I would like.  So I usually take strawberries and put them in other things. 

But when I combine them with raspberries, I find that any possible tartness in the strawberry is completely mitigated.  I think it's a perfect combination.  

So I think I will head out to the grocery store today and pick up a few quarts of berries and celebrate the day with a few experiments.  It's a warm late winter day here, windy and bright, and it seems a perfect day to do a little experimenting.

Freezing batters and doughs

I freeze cookie doughs all the time.  But not every cookie dough freezes well.  So it's important to test each one.  

When it comes to freezing batters, I wouldn't even consider it in most cases.  I think that batters have too much liquid in them to maintain their integrity and still come out just as good after baking as those items which are baked from fresh batter.

What about fruit purées?

This week I made banana bread for a small event.  I like to freeze banana bread loaves after baking.  In fact, it's an important part of the process because I wait a good long time for my bananas to over-ripen and one can't guarantee how long that will take.  In this case, I bought slightly green bananas about 10 days before I used them, baked them, and froze them for a few days before thawing the day of the event.  You can't always know for certain whether they will be ready for use on the same day as they are to be eaten.

I bought extra bananas this time because I wanted to purée some for freezing.  So now I have extra puréed bananas in the freezer waiting to be used for another batch of banana bread.  I wonder if they will come out the same or if the freezing process affects the bananas enough the significantly alter the finished baked product.

That question will be answered soon here in another post.

In the meantime, enjoy the warming weather.  Spring is still a few weeks away, but it certainly feel like it's trying to come early.

Cabbaga and other unfavorite foods

Today is National Cabbage Day.  Remember any of my previous posts on national food days?  I chuckle every time I learn what today's national food day is.

Cabbage is one of those foods that I've always shied away from.  As a kid, remember being served boiled cabbage and sauerkraut, and I never could develop a taste for them.  I didn't even like coleslaw.  However, as an adult, I appreciate strands of cabbage in salads with other greens, I love coleslaw if the dressing is good, and so I guess I can't say that I hate cabbage any longer.

Except that I can say that any cooked cabbage is something I can still say I hate.

There are so many good foods in the world, but cabbage is part of a handful I do not care for.  The others?  -- Brussels sprouts, and beef liver.  

Now, there are some other foods I haven't tried yet, that I probably never will try, and so I can say I hate the idea of them but I can't say I actually hate the food.  Things that fall into this category are brains, tripe, pigs feet, sweetbreads and other similar internal parts of farm animals. 

I try to be open to sampling any new food, but some of those items, I simply can't get myself to try.  Perhaps I'm missing out on something tremendously delicious.  I probably will never know for sure.

National food days

It seems that every day is a day that celebrates some food.  Today, for instance, is National Peppermint Patty \Day.  Yesterday was National Cream Cheese Brownie Day.

I'm not sure who the original decision makers are when it comes to these days.  I imagine it's often a company that is making the product.  Perhaps they decide on a day to celebrate the food item they make, and then they market it assiduously, getting the word out, and then do it again the next year and hope that it sticks.

I'm surprised that grocery stores haven't latched onto the calendar of food days and used it to market these items.  It sounds like it would at least raise awareness of these foods in a way that would perhaps temporarily give people a reason to buy them on a day when they might otherwise not even think of them.  And certainly everyone loves celebratory days, so I would imagine it would increase sales.

I know that when I heard it was National Peppermint Patty Day today, I immediately thought of how I could create a recipe for them.  I imagine the filling is probably easy to do with something like sweetened condensed milk and powdered sugar, adding peppermint extract, of course, and then dipping the whole thing in melted dark chocolate before chilling.  Or avoid the chilling by tempering the melted chocolate.

Well, it's fun to look and see what food is celebrated each day.  I don't check every day.  But when I do, that food is on my mind for at least a little while.

I won't make peppermint patties today, but the idea is now in my head and perhaps I'll add it to my food to-do list.  It's a list that never ends......

Breakfast ice cream

Those who know me are very aware of my fondness for ice cream.  So you can imagine my delight when I discovered that today, February 3rd, is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day!

I learned of this quite by accident today and immediately went to Wikipedia for more information.  There I discovered that this day was established in the 1960s by a mother of six children on a cold snowy day.  I will let you head to Wikipedia yourself to read more on this.  

The important point, though, is that we have a reason for eating ice cream for breakfast today!  I have done that before, of course.  But it's nice to know that there is a day set aside for this particular culinary idiosyncrasy.  

We've all eaten pizza for breakfast, right?  And who hasn't polished off leftover chocolate chips sitting on the counter from the night before?  (Regarding the cookies, am I the only one?)

It is said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day.  If it is, then I can think of no better way to honor it's importance than by eating my favorite food, ice cream.  I'm only joking, of course.

Considering other foods which we eat for breakfast that are rich and sugary, perhaps it's not such a stretch to think of ice cream as a breakfast food.  Pancakes with syrup, waffles and whipped cream, blueberry muffins that are more cake than muffin, donuts -- the list of breakfast foods that aren't exactly the best for us in terms of our health goes on and on.

Well, as I said, I'm delighted to know that a day which commemorates ice cream in this way exists.  While I like to indulge by fondness for ice cream, I probably won't use this as an excuse to make it a staple at breakfast.  But it's a nice thought anyway.

Tea

It's a bright, sunny Wednesday morning and we're on the way up to 62 F today, a big change from the sub-zero temps we had not that long ago.

Warm or cold, though, it's always a good time for tea.  Here's a good recipe for a wonderful tea drink that was taught to me by my wife.

Into a saucepan, pour one cup of liquid, 50% milk and 50% water.  Add two Lipton black tea bags.  Add a tablespoon of sugar.  Add a mid-sized pinch of cardamom, and also the same for ginger powder, and then add a light sprinkling of cinnamon.

Heat this up on medium heat or high heat.  You can bring it to a boil or not.  I like to let it slowly heat up so that it has time to blend all the flavors.  Discard the tea bags and pour it into your mug when it's all finished, and enjoy.

That's it.  It's a wonderful drink.

I love to end the day with this.  It's great if you have a headache or are feeling a little stressed.  It's great for a throat that is a little sore, or to help with a little congestion or cough.  But most of all, it tastes great and is very soothing.

That's the final post for January.  Enjoy the warm day, eat well, and enjoy life.

Moods and foods

 

Good morning.  January is almost at an end.  And for a little while, at least, we have some warmer temperatures after a brutal time of very cold weather for the last few weeks.  However, it's still winter, and that means it's good weather to enjoy warm scones, blueberry pancakes, biscuits and gravy.....

Hmmm, those foods all work well no matter the season, but right now a cool morning and a pleasant afternoon make those foods sound especially pleasing to me.

Did you know that yesterday, January 28, was National Blueberry Pancake day?  Just reading that made me feel like making anything with blueberries, not just pancakes.  

It's amazing how the change of weather, or a simple mention of a specific food, or especially our moods all can change what we are craving.

During the brutal cold of our recent sub-zero weather, I was craving hot spicy foods.  On this mild afternoon, I'm craving scones with raspberry jam.  And I feel like making blueberry pancakes or cinnamon blueberry spice cake just because I read about yesterday's national food day.

When I feel happy, I want to drink milk.  When I feel sad, I want to drink chocolate milk.

Everything, it seems, affects our cravings.  

Except for ice cream.  I crave it all the time.

Have a great Monday, everyone, and I'll be back with a more substantial post in a day or two.

Whipped cream and dispensers

Some time ago, actually quite a while ago, I was given a whipped cream dispenser.  It sat on a shelf in my pantry for a long time before I recently pulled it out in order to experiment with it.

The first time I used it (in fact, the first time I had ever used one of these), the end result wasn't what I expected.  It was much too liquidy.  Then I figured out exactly what was meant in the instructions, tinkered a bit with the technique, and, voila, out came what was expected:  a light fluffy airy whipped cream.

It's nice to have this as an option, so my thanks go out to the giver of this gadget.  

That being said, I'm not sure I will use it all that much.  It puts out light fluffy whipped cream, but I know that when I chill my whisk and my mixing bowl, and make a whipped cream myself the old fashioned way, it comes out rich and thick and dense, and I actually like that even more than what comes out of a whipped cream dispenser. 

A velvety smooth, creamy, heavy whipped cream is what I like.  I love the texture.  I love the ways I can easily add things to the cream such as reduced berries.  When I put the old fashioned variety of whipped cream on a slice of pound cake or on a bowl of ice cream, it's just perfect.

I also like to whisk it by hand.  It takes longer and takes of a lot of stamina, but it also comes out so velvety smooth that I could just eat it by itself as a snack.  Is that weird?  LOL.  I don't think so.  I love to take reduced raspberries and incorporate them into a freshly whisked batch of whipped cream and then every so often I will go to the fridge and take a spoonful and smile as I indulge my love of this little snack.

I feel like making some now.  So I am off to the grocery store to get some raspberries!

National Pizza Week

The second Sunday in January is always the beginning of National Pizza Week!

I love making pizzas.  At some point I will add them to the menu.  In the meantime, I make them for home.  I have a special nonstick pizza pan (see photo above) which can take super hot temperatures.  And that's an important thing because most nonstick pans cannot take high heat.  And I have pizza stones on which I place that pan.  These stones absorb the heat from a superhot oven and help to bake the pizza more efficiently and quickly.  

But I don't have a true pizza oven, a stone or brick oven, or a supremely high temperature oven such as you would find in a commercial pizza restaurant.

I'd like to build one sometime, in the backyard.  And then get it going really hot.  That's one of the secrets to a really good pizza.  Very high heat. 

Tonight, my wife and I have already planned to have a delicious frozen pizza.  It's not the same as something from a pizzeria, but it will still be good to have on a cold frigid arctic day as today the high temperature will be lucky to hit 0 F.  

Perhaps I'll even brave the cold and go out for the cheese and other ingredients and decide to make one myself.  Probably not!  It's too darn cold today!

I will settle for the frozen pizza and a movie indoors with my wife.

Have a great Sunday!

Our favorite pans

We all have favorite jackets, and favorite mugs, and favorite .... well, you get the idea.

For those who spend a lot of time in the kitchen, we have favorite utensils, favorite bowls, and favorite pans.  I have a favorite pan that I like to use for one of the brownies that I make.  It's a Twinkie mold pan made by Wilton.  Or it used to be made by Wilton.  I have learned that this pan is no longer available. And my careful and exhaustive research has revealed that no one else makes a pan that is just like this with the same dimensions, the same shape and size.  There are some that are close, but not exactly like the pan that I have.  I have run searches on Ebay hoping to find one.  But so far, no luck. 

I love this pan.  I know exactly how it cooks this particular brownie that is a popular item on my menu.  And I really hope to find another one or two to add to my kitchen equipment.  Then again, perhaps I shouldn't bother since eventually I won't be able to replace my Twinkie pan if it wears out since it's no longer in production.  Perhaps I'm better off finding a similar pan, and tweaking my cooking times, etc., so that I can use it for this Twinkie-shaped brownie that I like to make.

Does it really make that much of a difference?  I think so.  I think almost any experienced chef and/or baker will tell you that specific pans give you subtle differences and when we learn the unique qualities of each pan, it has an effect on the final product.

I will keep looking.  And I will take care of this single pan that I have and hopefully it will last a long long time.

National Shortbread Day

Today is National Shortbread Day.

Shortbread in it's most basic form is a simple ratio of sugar to butter to flour as measured by weight:  1 part sugar to 2 parts butter to 3 parts flour.  This ingredient ratio is what gives shortbread it's distinctive texture and flavor, although both can be altered by the addition of other ingredients such as the chocolate pearls in the picture above.  A few other ingredients may be added in addition to those, such as salt, for example, but the proportions of these other ingredients are very low compared to the main three.

It's important to use a high quality butter.  For me, that means a European style butter which has a higher percentage of butterfat in it than most typical butters found in the United States.

When mixing a shortbread dough, it's a wise thing not to mix too much.  Don't overwork the dough.  But do make sure everything is thoroughly combined.  I know, I know, that sounds contradictory.  But mix on low speed with your mixer, and maybe even mix the last bit of dry ingredients in by hand with a silicone spatula.

When using the term "short" in a dough, we mean a "crumbly" texture.  This comes about because of the high fat content provided by all that butter.  So a shortbread cookie is one that is crumbly in texture, not chewy.

So today I think I might make up a batch of shortbread and enjoy it with some chai or maybe some hot chocolate.  Combined with the chilly grey snowy conditions this weekend, it sounds like a perfect thing to enjoy.

Hot chocolate mix

Happy New Year, everyone!

The first post of the new year is another new item added to the menu:  hot chocolate mix.

When you order this, you will have enough to make about 7 cups of hot chocolate.

I've been tweaking this for quite a while to get it just the way I want it.  

Two different kinds of ground and chopped chocolate, a premium cocoa powder, some carefully chosen spices -- it's a great mix.  Just add 1/4 cup of this mix to a cup of milk in a saucepan.  Heat it up on medium heat until it's quite hot, but not boiling.  Whisk it once in a while to help it combine as the chocolate melts.  There you have it. 

Notice that I said, "but not boiling".  You can boil this if you wish.  But if you boil it, a skin will form on the surface of the hot chocolate, especially after it begins to cool.  Anytime anyone heats milk, the hotter it gets, the more it affects the milk.  Among other things that happens, proteins will separate and coagulate, and this forms the skin.  It's perfectly edible, perfectly drinkable, but you may not want the skin.  I don't. 

So when I'm heating up this mix with milk, I let it heat slowly on medium heat.  I like to take it to where it's just steaming a bit, maybe a little hotter, just at the scalding point which is 181 F.  You don't need to get out a thermometer to measure the temperature, though.  Just heat it up as much as you want.  

It's all good.