Whisking experiments

 

This coming weekend we have raspberry meringue kisses and brownies ready for order.  For the following weekend, I will be taking time off.

I had a very full food week.  I made lots of chocolate snack cakes, roasted pecans, various salads, and experimented with plant-based meat substitutes, and more.  It was fun, busy, and very rewarding.  I get great reward from making lots of food and also from the experimentation that is routinely happening in my kitchen.

I am always intrigued by the effects of different mixing techniques. As I was making chocolate snack cakes this week, I decided to do a little extra whisking at one stage, just to see what would happen.  Yes, that means that anyone who ordered was a bit of a test subject for me.  Usually I try to do that sort of thing with a separate batch, but I didn't have any extra time -- remember I already said I had a very full food week.  I really wanted to try this little experiment and since I knew who had ordered and how forgiving they can be, I decided to take the risk without knowing exactly how different the final product was from normal. 

So I whisked a full two minutes extra a medium speed at one point.  The batter was certainly fuller and creamier, less liquid.  And when I baked up the final product, I liked it.  But I couldn't really tell how much different it was from the original.  So that means I really need to do a side-by-side test with two batches on the same day.  Perhaps I'll put both those batches up for order after I take my week off that is on the schedule.

Whisking at high speed, medium speed, for long time or short -- each difference can produce sometimes a dramatic change and sometimes very little change at all.  Since I love to know as much as I can about anything that I do, I often do multiple batches of recipes so that I can record the effects of these changes.

I go through a lot of ingredients that way, and it takes a lot of time, but I learn from doing it, so it's well worth it.  Knowing more about doing what you love is always worth the effort.  I apply this principle to piano, to chess, and to making good food.  It's what I do.

A new tart

A new item has been added to the menu.  This is a chocolate glazed chocolate tart.  It has a rich chocolate filling, a dark chocolate glaze on top, and a graham crust.

I played with this for a while as I slowly prepared it for addition to the menu.  Initially, I wanted to go with a chocolate crust.  But I found that doing it that way resulted in a balance of flavor that wasn't quite right.  Then I abandoned the idea until one morning I was thinking, "Why not a graham crust?"  

That day I did a trial run, tweaking the chocolate glaze just a bit as well, and came out with a result with which I was quite happy.

That's the way it often works with new recipes.  The basic idea is great, but sometimes there is an imbalance of flavor or texture, or the appearance isn't quite what I'd like.  Then I put it away for a bit and wait for an idea to hit me.  Sometimes the idea is simple, a no-brainer, like changing the crust.  Other times, the idea is complicated and requires many more trial runs as I slowly approach the final the result that I'd like to see.

All in all, though, it's a rewarding process because it is an enjoyable thing to make good food and share it with people.

You'll see this on a weekly menu offering soon.  I hope you'll give it a try.

Sunday mornings

 

Happy Sunday morning to all.  I love Sunday mornings.  Mine are usually leisurely, peaceful, and full of good food and relaxation time.  Sunday morning breakfasts might be anything from pancakes and eggs, to leftovers from the night before, to finishing up anything left from weekend orders.  Today I'm actually eating nothing because I had extra helpings of my wife's chicken biryani last night.  Later I will plan out my cooking for the week. But for now, I'm remembering the biryani.

This coming weekend we have milk chocolate snack cakes and roasted pecans available for order.  For the next weekend we have raspberry meringue kisses and brown sugar fudge brownies.  Order as much as you wish.  If the planned availability is exhausted, I might even add more!

As I was thinking about what to put on the upcoming menus this morning, I was thinking about sweetness.  I was remembering last fall as I had a late season fresh cantaloupe given to me.  It was very sweet, very flavorful.  That same day I was making macarons as well.  And I remember that evening having a couple macarons and then right after that I had more chunks of cantaloupe.  But the cantaloupe no longer tasted sweet as it had in the morning.  Later on after a couple hours had elapsed, I had more cantaloupe and it was sweet again. The macarons were so exceedingly sweet (as all macarons are) that when I followed them up immediately with cantaloupe, the fruit's sweetness was no longer detectable in the same way.  I always find these sorts of relativistic comparisons to be profoundly interesting.

That sort of thing should make me sit and think very carefully about what I pair up in the weekly menu offerings.  Sometimes I do, and sometimes I don't.  Honestly, most often, I simply pair up items that I'm interested in making that weekend or things that people have requested.

I'll post again in a few days with a couple new items that are being added to the menu.  In the meantime, have a great spring week.

More goodies being added soon

 Good evening to all.

This coming week we have berry fools and snickerdoodle cookies available for ordering.  Just a moment ago, I updated the menu for the following weekend.  We're doing another round of milk chocolate snack cake with caramel frosting and also sweet spiced pecans.

I will be updating a new item to the menu in a couple days and more are coming besides that.

I love adding new items to menu because, as any of my readers knows, I only add my favorite foods.  So soon there will be a new chocolate tart on the menu, some sandwiches, a strawberry cake, a non-traditional ice cream, a traditional ice cream, cinnamon rolls and more.

My list of foods that I want to add is very long and it will take a while to reach the end of it.  

That's all for tonight.  Have a great evening, everyone.

Pancakes

A new item has been added to the menu this week:  pancakes.

These pancakes are about 6 inches across, have a perfect thickness (in my opinion), and will come frozen and ready for you to thaw and warm up in any way you choose.

For most people, the choice of syrups is a simple one when it comes to pancakes and waffles.  Most people usually go with the cheapest variety, it seems.  For me, though, I will always choose to use 100% pure maple syrup that has nothing else added.  A syrup that has lots of corn syrup added with maple flavoring is not for me.  If you haven't tried 100% pure maple syrup, please do.  It's definitely more expensive, but it's worth it.

Look for these pancakes to appear on a weekly offering soon.

Lasagna varieties

 

Over the last short while, I've done some tweaks to a few recipes.  For instance, the snickerdoodles will now be made with a touch of lemon zest.  My test eaters heartily approved of that specific tweak.  And a few other recipes were tweaked in ways that were slight enough that I won't bother mentioning them.  But tweaks, large or small, from time to time are an important way to keep improving my craft, to make the recipes just a bit better, and make the eating even more enjoyable.

While most of the time tweaks are small and sometimes a particular tweak is in the production process itself (changing from machine paddle mixing to machine whisking, for instance), sometimes they have a larger impact.  Such is the case with my lasagna.

The lasagna will now come in three variations, the original as well as a second with all beef and a third with all chicken.  I finished testing a batch with all three varieties yesterday and I am very happy with the final testing.  I've already updated the menu listing on the website.  And soon I'll put them on a weekly offering so that everyone can choose their favorite variety.

That's all for today.  Bon appetit.

Warmer days?

Warmer days?  Are they coming or not?  It seems we get a couple warm days, then we get a couple really cold days with snow and sleet.   But the days are getting longer.  The calendar says they are coming.  So we will assume they are.

This upcoming weekend we have pudding and snack cakes.  And next weekend we have snickerdoodles and something that is appearing on the weekly menu for the first time:  berry fools. 

These berry fools are especially yummy fruity desserts, and I think they will be perfect for the warmer days that I assume will be more frequent two weekends from now.  

This week is National Agriculture Week.  Now, I'm not really sure who designates weeks or days as "national this-or-that", so I don't know exactly why it's National Agriculture Week.  But it is certainly worth noting because our food supply chain is so important and vital to us.  Many years ago, one would go into a grocery store and find vastly less produce and only that which was in season.  But in the modern age, all year long, we find bananas and kiwis and berries and apples, long after harvesting is done or coming from long-far-away places.  And we have an abundance of rice and wheat and corn and vegetables of all types.  

Our food supply chain is a modern miracle.  It makes our lives so much nicer because of the diversity of foods and flavors and nutritional content that we have available to us all year long.  It is a fragile thing that we must always work to ensure is in place and for which we must rely on inspectors and regulators to maintain safety and hygiene with respect to production and distribution.  

So for all the farmers and ranchers and harvesters out there who give us this abundant food supply, let's all say a warm "thank you."   And for those who are in places where this abundant food supply is not available, let's hope that governments and social services can find ways to improve access to this amazing food supply chain that we have built through decades of hard work.

Have a great week, everyone!

Just over the horizon

 

Spring is "just over the horizon".  Of course, it seems that's been the case for the last few weeks as warm weather shows up and then disappears into chilly days again.  And today we have another chilly day.  It's a perfect day for hot chocolate and a warm scone.  

This week we have allspice muffins and onion cauliflower soup available for order.  For the following weekend, we have a chocolate snack cake and dark chocolate pudding.  

I came across a nice quote this morning:  "All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast."  The key word here, perhaps, is "leisurely."  The world moves so quickly and is constantly pushing us from one task to another .... does that mean we don't eat leisurely?  Did we ever eat leisurely?  In our collective past, it seems (as evidenced in books and movies, etc.) that surely we ate more leisurely years ago. 

As much as I love food and cooking, it would probably be assumed that I eat leisurely, but I know that I often don't.  My wife often suggests that I slow down, and she herself leisurely enjoys her food.  So bit by bit, I've been learning to do the same.  It's not that I just race through eating because I've got too many other things to do.  It's simply that the world always seems to move at such a quick pace that I think I get caught up in that practice, too.  I have time to eat leisurely, but I rarely avail myself of that time.  I enjoy my food, certainly, but as I learn to eat more leisurely, I'm sure I will enjoy it even more.

Those are my thoughts for this chilly Monday morning.  Time now for that chocolate and a warm scone.

Longer days

 

March is here and spring starts in a couple weeks and the days are getting longer and the nights are getting shorter.  

But there is still a bit of chill in the air sometimes and that means it's a perfect time for some hot soup.

This coming weekend's menu offering includes dark chocolate pudding and oatmeal spice cookies.  But the next weekend has the aforementioned hot soup, specifically onion cauliflower soup.  I know that to many this may not seem that exciting. But trust me.  This soup is quite delicious, very savory, and wonderful with a few herbs tossed on top or even a dollop of sour cream.  Accompanying this item on the menu are allspice muffins.  I have not tried these in combination, but I promised to make another round of allspice muffins so here they are and they are paired with this wonderful soup.

I'm getting ready to add a new dessert to the menu, a dark chocolate tart.  Hopefully that will get done this week.

As always, I have so many new things I want to add and they will all get added over time, so patience is called for.

That's all for now.  Enjoy the hints of spring that seem to be in the air every day now.  

A new beverage

 

Happy Saturday!  Today we have a new item on the menu.  This is a wonderfully refreshing vanilla orange-ade.

This is something I worked on for a quite a while to get just right.  Orange juice, simple syrup, milk, vanilla and a few other important ingredients all go into this.

The flavor has both the brightness of orange plus the warmth of vanilla, and both are easily sensed when drinking this.

It is nothing fancy.  Just a simple ade with a wonderful texture and a smooth feel.

I hope you'll give it a try when it appears on the menu soon.

Have a great day, everyone!