Inside out mozzarella burgers

Orange Chiffon Cake

A friend of mine at work is leaving this week and I didn't want the event to go unnoticed. I have been super busy this week at work, but I knew I wanted to do something. It just couldn't be some complicated torte or anything. I also wanted to keep her tastes in mind. She likes lighter desserts rather than something super chocolaty. With all that in mind, I decided to make an orange chiffon cake.

Chiffon cakes are much like angel food cakes in that they are light and fluffy and baked in a tube pan. The big difference is that chiffon cakes have egg yolks in the batter, which results in a richer cake than an angel food cake. The batter is still leavened with egg whites to produce a tall airy cake. Usually chiffon cakes are citrus flavored. I didn't have to decide what kind to make considering the only citrus I had in the house was orange! And like angel food cakes, a heavy frosting is undesirable. This cake will be topped with an orange flavored glaze. The result is a pretty, fluffy, light cake that does not take lots of extra effort to look and taste great!

Cheesy Pizza

My husband's mother makes homemade pizza fairly often. In order to avoid lots of mixing and kneading of the dough, she uses Pillsbury Hot Roll mix as the base. Then adds sauce and the cheese. And voila, a tasty homemade pizza made before you know it.

I have made pizza this way many times over the last two years. I decided to make it special with my homemade mozzarella. I drained the cheese about an hour before using it, but it was still a bit soft in a few places when I went to shred the cheese on my box grater. It still worked, but it got a bit messy. Ah well...I can't be in the kitchen without making a mess of some sort!

Here's how I did it:

1 box Hot roll mix
15 ounce can tomato paste
salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder and oregano
homemade mozzarella, shredded

1. Prepare the mix using the pizza dough directions found on the side of the box (note that this preparation is slightly different from the roll directions found on the back). Knead slightly to make sure the dough comes together.
2. Preheat the oven to 400F. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.
3. Rub butter on your hands and transfer the dough to the cookie sheet. Carefully spread the dough to the edges, making sure to press the dough up the sides of the cookie sheet to form a crust. Be patient, it may not seem like it will ever cover the cookie sheet, but trust me, it will. Periodically add more butter to your hands to keep the dough from sticking. Let the dough rise undisturbed for about 10-15 minutes.
4. Prepare the sauce: Combine the tomato sauce and seasonings to taste. I'll be honest, my husband mixes the sauce, so I am unsure as to the exact proportions of all the seasonings. You could also use the pre-seasoned cans of tomato sauce, if desired.
5. Pour some of the sauce over the pizza dough, spreading to the edges. Not all of the sauce will be needed. If you prefer less sauce, an 8 ounce can may be sufficient.
6. Sprinkle on the mozzarella. Not every spot needs to be covered, the cheese will spread to cover the entire pizza.
7. Bake in the oven until the edges are lightly golden brown and the cheese has melted, about 12-15 minutes.
8. Remove the pizza from the oven and allow it to cool slightly so that the cheese sets up enough for the pizza to be cut. Cut the pizza into 12 equal slices.

Tuna Mozzarella Melts

For dinner this week, I made myself a tuna mozzarella melt. Here is what I did:

3 halves of white rolls (made earlier in the week)
grainy mustard
1 can of tuna packed in water, drained
salt and pepper to taste
homemade mozzarella

1. Spread a layer of mustard on each of the roll halves.
2. Season the tuna with the salt and pepper. If desired, add chopped pickles. Divide amongst the rolls.
3. Slice the mozzarella and place one piece on each sandwich.
4. Toast in a toaster oven until the roll is toasted and the mozzarella is melted. Enjoy!

Another test run of rolls for Thanksgiving dinner

I wasn't completely happy with the whole wheat rolls I made the other week, so I wanted to try a different recipe before the big day. I opted for white rolls, rather than whole wheat since achieving a good flavor balance and roll density is a bit trickier in a whole wheat product versus one made with white flour. I am much happier with these rolls and unless I get time to try out yet another recipe before next week, this is what I'll be serving on Thanksgiving day:

Soft white dinner rolls from the King Arthur Flour website:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/soft-white-dinner-rolls-recipe

While perusing the website I got distracted by the following. Could this be my next bread to try? Maybe I can make these buns to use for leftover turkey sandwiches. Cheese Burger Buns...sounds yummy!!
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cheese-burger-buns-recipe

Caramel Corn...yummy!

My future sister-in-law's birthday is this week so I sent her a birthday gift in the mail. Rather than use lots of packing peanuts, I decided to make a bunch of caramel popcorn in sandwich bags as filler. So it is greener since I avoided buying and using more plastic and it just happens to be quite yummy!

From the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook:
7-8 cups popped popcorn
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
6 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1. Remove all unpopped kernels from popped popcorn. Put popcorn into 17x12x12 inch baking or roasting pan. Keep popcorn warm in a 300F oven while making caramel mixture.
2. For caramel mixture, in a medium saucepan combined brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils. Continue boiling at a moderate, steady rate, without stirring, for 5 minutes more.
3. Remove saucepan from heat. Stir in baking soda and vanilla. Pour caramel micture over popcorn; stir gently to coat. Bake in a 300F oven for 15 minutes. Stir mixture; bake 5 minutes more. Spread caramel corn on a large piece of buttered foil to cool. Store tightly covered for 1 week.

Mighty Mozzarella

I think I finally figured out the tricks to making mozzarella. First, I used the instructions found on chow.com (http://www.chow.com/food-news/54705/make-your-own-mozzarella/?tag=search_results;results_list). There are some slight differences between this method and the method I had tried before.

The second change I made was to use a whole milk that is pasteurized but not homogenized. Raw milk seems to be the preference for making cheese, but that is something that I would have to get directly from a farm. And then there are always the safety concerns involved with nonpasteurized milk. I bought milk from a farmers' market that came from Johnston Family farms. The market was a bit far away, but I happened to be going for another reason. It is also a bit expensive, at $6 per gallon. I bought two gallons for this attempt at cheese making. The dairy website says it is sold at a market about 10 minutes from where I work, but I haven't called to make sure it is there. I also saw somewhere that it can be found at whole foods, which is less than 5 minutes from work.

I am not sure if the different milk or the change of recipes or a combination of both is what did the trick. But whatever it is, I found my first success in making homemade mozzarella. One gallon of milk produced about 6-7 balls of cheese a bit smaller than a baseball.

I debated about making homemade ricotta with the second gallon of milk, but I have been working late a bunch this week, so I opted to make a second batch of mozzarella so I wouldn't have to think about another recipe. I have used the mozzarella in a variety of ways this week, all of which will be discussed soon!

Jamaican Coconut Pie

A friend at work lent me 'Home Baking' by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duduid, an interesting cookbook with recipes from around the world combined with tidbits about various regions and their cooking.

I decided to make the Jamaican Coconut pie for the following reasons: 1, I wanted to make something from this book to bring to work; 2, I already had some pie crusts frozen; 3, I had coconut in the pantry, which my husband will have nothing to do with; 4, it did not require a large amount of effort for the final product so I could make it on a random Thursday night. So combining all reasons, this was the perfect thing to make.

I thawed my pie crust all day in the fridge and rolled it out when I got home. I placed the 9 inch pie plate in the fridge to rest during dinner. So ignoring the pie crust parts of the recipe, here is the filling and make up of the pie, copied or paraphrased directly from the book,:

Coconut Filling:
1 1/4 cups dried unsweeteneed shredded coconut or sweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup boiling water (if using dried coconut)
1 cup packed light or dark brown sugar (I used light)
1/4 cup cornstarch
2-3 tablespoons butter

Directions:
1. If using dried coconut, place 1 cup of it in a bowl and pour over the boiling water. Let stand for 10-15 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, mix together the sugar and cornstarch, then stir in to the coconut mixture. Or mix the sugar and cornstarch in a medium bowl and stir in 1 cup of the sweetened shredded coconut.
3. Melt the butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add the coconut-sugar mixture and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionaly to prevent burning or sticking, until the mixture thickens.
4. Transfer to a bowl to cool to room temperature. Stir in the remaining 1/4 cup coconut and spread the filling in the pie shell, mounding in the center and then spreading it outward.
5. Preheat the oven to 375F with the rack on the upper third of the oven. Bake the pie until lightly touched with brown, about 35 minutes. Let stand for at least 10 minutes to firm up and serve warm or at room temperature.

My impressions:
I mixed the coconut, cornstarch and sugar together and added to the melted butter. I didn't think it was right to not add any water, but I started off following the recipe. A few minutes in, I give in and follow my gut...I added about 1/2 cup water. I just couldn't see how the mixture would thicken without it. Cornstarch needs water to act and I was afraid that the sugar would caramelize or even worse, burn. Once I added the water, the mixture boiled easily and finally started to thicken.

Since I am impatient, I placed the pot in the fridge to cool faster. That and I didn't want to clean another bowl. I got even more impatient after 15 minutes and put it in the freezer for 10. That did the trick. I pulled out my prepared pie crust and poured the filling in...well, what filling I had any way.

This was another moment where I debated just giving up on the recipe, but since I had gotten so far, I just followed through. The filling only seemed to occupy 1/4 of the pie. This was looking like a very sad pie so far, but into the oven it went.

I kept an eye on it, thinking I may need a pie shield to protect the crust, but it didn't happen. I am very glad I put the pie plate on a baking sheet because some of the filling seeped out through the bottom. One major mess averted!!!

Once the time was up, the pie looked light brown, so I took it out to cook. I was pleasantly surprised that the pie did not look as sad as it did when it went in the oven! Between the crust shrinking some and the filling thickening even more, it looked proportional. I cooled the pie and put it in a container to take to work.

This morning, I brought the pie to work to share. I hadn't thought of tasting it, so I figured I would have a small piece before I let everyone else try it out. Nothing like a little quality control, huh? I was very surprised in how the pie turned out. The crust was nice and flaky, which is something I always worry about. The filling was very sweet, chewy and candy-like. It is not something I would want all the time, but is good on occasion.

I made a few copies of the recipe and put them out by the pie. And by 10AM, all the copies and the pie were gone. I think I can take that as a good sign!

Whole wheat dinner rolls

With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I have started to formulate a menu in my head. Since I have my baking textbook now, I want to make my own dinner rolls and decided to try out a recipe this weekend.

I took a recipe for white sandwich bread and followed the suggestion to include white whole wheat. This was done by substituting 3/4 of the flour with white whole wheat and using bread flour for the remainder. In my recent experience, white whole wheat has had a good flavor and hasn't had as strong a flavor as traditional whole wheat. So I was thinking I could get away with a whole wheat roll that didn't taste too strong.

I combined the ingredients and kneaded the dough in my stand mixer and let it rise. I had to let the dough ferment for several hours since my house was only about 65 degrees. Once it had finally doubled, I portioned the dough into 1 ounce pieces and rolled them into balls. I placed three into each cooking spray- coated muffin well for cloverleaf rolls. I didn't have the correct amount for all the rolls, so I ended up making two that only contained two pieces of dough. I wanted to try the cloverleaf set up for something a little fancy looking without too much extra effort.

I let the dough proof and used an egg wash consisting of an egg yolk and milk, which is supposed to make for a softer crust. A harder crust can be made using a whole egg and water. I baked the rolls until they were a beautiful golden brown. After removing from the oven, I added some butter to the tops to make sure the crusts really were soft. Are you seeing a pattern here? My husband can't stand very crunchy crust, so I do what I can to make sure it stays soft so the bread will actually get eaten!

The rolls looked perfect, but did they taste good? Now that is the important part. The crumb was fine and consistent, no tunneling or other sign of incorrectly mixed bread. The whole wheat taste did come through a bit more than I expected and I do not think it is what I am looking for for Thanksgiving dinner.

Also, the three one ounce balls of dough per roll made for very large rolls. I think I will go for three 1/2 ounce balls instead. I think I will test out another recipe before Thanksgiving. My book also has ones for soft dinner rolls and milk bread, which sounds lovely. Hopefully I will have time to test out at least one of those before Thanksgiving, otherwise I may just fly blind and hope that it works out!!!!

Getting back into the habit

I've been quite busy the last few weeks. Work kicked in to overtime just before and immediately after I went on vacation for a week. Its almost like I never left! Well, after I spent an entire day fixing all the things people messed up while I was gone...

I haven't been in the kitchen much recently, but that is sure to change with Thanksgiving coming up. My husband's family will be visiting, so I will have plenty of opportunity to cook while they are here. His mom offered to help, but I am leaning towards doing most, if not all by myself just because I enjoy it so much.

So far I know I'll be making turkey, stuffing (my husband's special stuffing is a non negotiable aspect of the dinner), gravy, homemade cranberry sauce, homemade yeast rolls, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. I am thinking of also making sweet potatoes, creamed onions (which I have never had, but saw a recipe for and it intrigued me), and some other kind of dessert. The dessert is still very much in the air..could be an apple pie, a chocolate cake, cookies...I haven't decided yet.

I have also been thinking of two more contests I have come across. I have a few recipe ideas in the back of my head, but still need to think them through and test them out.

The first is through Godiva (http://www.foodandwine.com/promo/godiva) and they are looking for a chocolate dessert. I think I can only submit one recipe and of course it must contain at least on Godiva product. I have until the end of the year for that one. I may test out some ideas for Thanksgiving. The grand prize winner gets a trip to SWEET at the Food and Wine Festival in NYC in 2011, round trip airfare and accommodations for 2 nights for the event and the possibility that the recipe will be featured in the Godiva catalog. Sounds like a great time to me!!!

The other is through King Arthur Flour (http://www.nationalfestivalofbreads.com/enter/default.aspx), which runs through February 7th. You can submit multiple entries for each of the following categories: ethnic breads, rolls, time saving/easy, and whole grain breads. Each recipe must contain Fleischmann's yeast and King Arthur Flour. 8 finalists will get $500 and a trip to Wichita to compete live. The grand prize winner will get a trip to Vermont for one the King Arthur Flour baking education classes, as well as $2000 cash. I need to start thinking through lots of ideas for this one!

First Deep Fryer Trial

One Sunday, I decided to put two new kitchen gadgets to use at once. That is the multi chopper (see the outlet post for a picture) and the 3.5 liter Bella Cucina Deep Fryer. What better than french fries to christen these two items.

I bought a bag of Idaho potatoes, scrubbed them and put them right into the chopper. I didn't have the best leverage to get the potatoes through the chopper on the counter, so my husband made all the fries as I washed the potatoes. I left the skins on because I prefer it that way and it doesn't hurt that it saves me the time of peeling all those potatoes!

I preheated the fryer to 325 and submerged each batch in the oil for about 10-12 minutes. This step cooks the potatoes all the way through, but does not result in the crunchiness associated with french fries. This is a blanching step, but unlike blanching most other vegetables in boiling water, it is done in oil. I drained the fries and turned the heat up to 375 for the final cooking.

The good thing about the double frying is that the first one can be completed and the fries stored in the fridge or freezer until the next step. This is how it is often done in a restaurant setting, according to my Professional Cooking Textbook.

The second frying is much shorter, just enough to get a pale golden color on the fries. For crunchier fries, they can be left in the oil longer. This took about 5 minutes in my fryer, though the time is slightly variable depending on how full the frying basket is. The more fries in the basket, the longer it takes. The temperature drops further when more fries are present, and it takes a bit longer to cook all the fries through to the desired doneness when there are more in the basket.

After draining and a toss in salt, the first french fry experiment was complete...and tasty! It will take a few tries to get a good feel for the exact times for frying, but keeping an eye on it worked well enough.

Since the bag of potatoes was 5 pounds, there were quite a few fries left over. Most of the leftovers were stored in the fridge after the first frying (possibly to be frozen). The double fried fries were placed in an airtight container overnight. We reheated them in a 425F oven until crispy. I wasn't paying enough attention so they got a little crispier than I wanted, but they were still good.

So the first time for both the fryer and the chopper went really smoothly. I think the only snag left is finding a container to dispose of the used cooking oil. I will see what I can find. But other than that, I think both are great additions to my kitchen...now I just need to find a place to store them both!!!

A belated birthday gift

My mom bought me a cookbook off of QVC (her favorite channel!!) for my birthday and it came in the mail today. I knew something was coming, but I wasn't sure what kind of book it was. It is the 'Taste of Home Cookbook.' It is setup a lot like my Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook; a three ring binder set up with a large variety of recipes. Some of the recipes are submitted by the public and others came from their test kitchens. I only glanced through it briefly tonight, but I am really looking forward to spending more time really going into the details of this book. Hopefully it will help me think about flavor combinations and in the long term, help me develop better recipes of my own.

Fun at the Outlets

This past weekend, my husband and I went to the Premium Outlets in Dawsonville, GA. The main reason was to use up the remaining money on a Williams Sonoma gift card we had left over from the wedding and there is an outlet there. Most things are 20-30% off, which was a big draw to make the 45 minute drive up there rather than 20 to the regular store closer by. So between Williams Sonoma, Le Gourmet Chef and Kitchen Connection, I made out like a bandit!

- Wusthof Culinar Santoku knife 4179, pictured above: (http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/wusthof-culinar-7-inch-santoku-knife/?pkey=e|wusthof%204179|101|best|0|1|24||22&cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH||NoFacet-_-NoFacet-_-NoMerchRules)
- Multi chopper, see picture above
- Medium size cookie scoop, so I don't have to combine two scoops for my cake truffles.
- 18" pastry bag
- silicone pastry brush
- small paring knife with a shield
- stainless steel salt and pepper grinders
- meat mallet/tenderizer
- flat whisk

Interestingly, I was unable to find round biscuit cutters, the only ones there were fluted. I think that a smooth round cutter would be better for my crab turnovers than a fluted one. So I am stuck with using a glass for now. I'm sure I can find some at Walmart or Target, if I remember to look for them the next time I am there.

Birthday List-Update

I have reposted below my list of birthday wishes so that I can update it a bit. I plan on heading up to the Williams Sonoma outlet this weekend to pick up things like the knives, biscuit cutter, cookie scoop, pepper mill or whatever I can come up with to use the remainder of the Williams Sonoma gift card we have left over from the wedding.


Birthday List
The previous post got me to thinking about my birthday wish list, that maybe I should write all this down. So here goes:

- 'On baking', or 'baking and pastry: mastering the art and craft'...either textbook would be great, I just want a professional baking text like my professional cooking book. GOT IT! Yay! My husband got me 'on baking' for my birthday. He said he felt weird getting me a textbook as a gift, but knew I would like it (and I do!!).
- 10x10 tent (for the farmers market I hope to join next year)
- two 6' tables (for the farmers market)
- cash box of some sort (farmers market)- GOT IT! My mom got me two nice wooden cigar boxes to use, one light wood and the other black.
- a small fryer, nothing huge since I don't fry things often and you need to replace the oil all the time anyway. Something for small batches for 2-3 people. GOT IT! Actually, I bought this for myself the week before my birthday. It was on sale at Macy's and I had a coupon on top of that, so I just went ahead and bought myself a gift.
- a meat pounder
- 3" biscuit cutter
- small kitchen torch- GOT IT! Another gift for my husband, though I think he was much more hesitant to give me a flame for my birthday than a textbook!
- two high quality knives: 8" chef's knife and a paring knife
- pepper grinder: I keep going through those McCormick disposable ones, I think its time for a reusable one I can refill
- My K-cup: so I can use my own coffee in me Keurig brewer. GOT IT (sorta). My mother in law had a coupon for Kohl's and I have heard that she bought us one of these as a late birthday gift.
- cute apron
- a small piggy bank: this was actually a suggestion from a coworker, so that I can set that out when I bring things in to share. It wasn't my idea, but if people go for it, I will certainly not object
- cheese making book
- some sort of book(s) on getting started in a farmers market or small restaurant. Getting soon! I asked one of my brothers for a gift card to amazon.com to go towards some of the books that I want. There are three in particular that I have on my wish list and if you buy all three at once, the cost is only $60. That is more than I would ask for for a gift, so I just asked for a gift card so that I could put the money towards the books.
- a kitchen where I can get a license
- small food truck, about the size of an ice cream truck

Ok, so maybe the last two are a bit of a stretch, but it can't hurt to ask!! You can't get what you want without putting it out there, can you? You never know who might be listening or what might happen!

Its Birthday Cake Time!!!

Yay!!! Its that time of year for my husband's birthday. He wanted me to make him a yellow cake with chocolate frosting. He really isn't too demanding or fancy in his tastes.

I made the yellow butter cake in two 9" round cake pans and didn't run into anything unusual or noteworthy. I added more vanilla than just a teaspoon, but that is something I normally do. I weighed out all the ingredients, which made clean up so much simpler! I also used my scale to make sure the amount of batter in each cake was even. I love my kitchen scale, it has made a significant difference in the number of dishes I need to wash, the time to gather the ingredients and the accuracy of my measurements.

I knew I didn't want to do a boiled sugar frosting, mostly because my parents were in town and I didn't want to spend too much time in the kitchen. That left me with a no cook fudge frosting and a chocolate buttercream. I just made some buttercream frostings for the cake truffles, so I went with the fudge frosting.

The recipe (from the Better Homes and Garden's cookbook) called for about 2 pounds of confectioners' sugar sifted into the mixing bowl. Then softened butter, boiling water, cocoa powder and vanilla are added. The sugar just about filled up my stand mixer and I am thinking 'this can't be right.' Most recipes mix the ingredients without the confectioners' sugar, then add it slowly. Despite my gut feeling, I followed the recipe anyway...and you know what happened!?!?! \

Thats right, a huge mushroom cloud of confectioners' sugar and a squeal from me. Following by laughter. I can't believe how stupid I was!!!! Sugar all down my pants, on the floor, over the counter. I think some even flew up onto the cabinets above. All that from just barely turning on the mixer to the first setting for a millisecond. I had to go outside and brush myself off before attempting to clean up the rest of the mess. My husband was not surprised at the mess I made. I agree that I have a tendency to cover the counters with whatever I am working on, but I think this was by far the biggest mess I've made yet!

So after wiping up everything I could, I went back to the frosting, determined to make it work. Rather than using the mixer, I used a large spoon to mix all the ingredients together until most of the confectioners' sugar had been incorporated. Then I guess as to how much of it went flying and tried to add that much to the frosting. I added a bit of milk to adjust the consistency and managed to save the frosting. Near disaster averted...sorta.

I gave my husband two options with regard to the cake. Either I can level off the two layers to make them perfectly flat (and loose some cake in the process) or I could decorate them as is and it be slightly domed. He opted for the version with the most cake (and who would blame him!). I used the frosting as the filling and made sure to use extra around the edges to compensate for the slight bump in the layers. In the end, the difference wasn't really noticeable.

I frosted the rest of the cake and made a few decorations with a pastry bag fitted with a star tip. I am confident in my cake baking abilities and know everything tastes really good, I just need to keep practicing with my decorating skills. Each time I decorate it gets better so I need to keep at it!

My husband and parents really loved the cake. It was moist and crumbly and the frosting was nice and chocolatey. I got many complements on it and couldn't be prouder!

Challah Bread and French Toast

I haven't made any bread in a little while and I knew with my parents in town it would be a great time to make something for them. I also wanted to make a nice breakfast one morning, so I simply combined the two ideas...challah french toast.

In between running back and forth to the festival on Saturday, I managed to make a beautiful braided loaf of challah. It could not have been simpler, yet it came out so elegantly! The stand mixer is a life saver when it comes to kneading the dough. I use my dough whisk to get all the ingredients put together then let the mixer do its job. After the initial rise, I divided the dough into three pieces and rolled them into long ropes before braiding them together. Another rise and an egg wash later and it was ready to bake.

Pictures will be posted soon of this gorgeous bread. It is by far my best yet. The texture and color and size were perfect. I was so happy I may have done a little happy dance.

Sunday morning was cinnamon and nutmug french toast. I can't even remember the last time I had french toast, much less made it. It definitely hit the spot, though and will have to return to my meal rotation with some sort of consistency. Overall, the bread and breakfast were just perfect!!!

Cake Truffles Update

I know I am a little behind, things have been crazy busy. Last week, I was working on all the cake truffles and chocolate covered pretzels for the Church festival and then Friday night my parents came in to town and I have been moving nonstop! But I have a few minutes now while I am waiting for my next step at work to write a little here.

Thursday night, I made another apple spice cake so that I could add some cake to my frosting and cake mixture from Wednesday night. I did that first thing when I got home so I could also have enough time to make my fudge chocolate with mocha buttercream truffles. After cooling the cake, I went to get the mixture from the night before out of the fridge and lo and behold...the mixture looked firm enough to form into balls. So I didn't end up adding any cake to that mixture and I went along as planned.

I formed the truffles and placed them in the freezer overnight to harden and the same for the chocolate mocha truffles. Friday night was meant for dipping all those truffles. It was a crazy night, let me tell you! I dipped the apple spice cake/vanilla buttercream truffles in white chocolate and dusted the tops with crushed graham crackers. The fudge cake/mocha buttercream truffles got a coating of dark chocolate and were finished off with a swirl of milk chocolate as a decoration. Then I also dipped two bags worth of pretzel rods into milk chocolate.

I got most of that done before my parents showed up late Friday evening. But I still needed to bag everything up and put ribbons on them. Since I wasn't going to be at the festival to sell the truffles and pretzels, I figured it would be better to have portions ready for sale. I portioned out 4 pretzels per bag or 2 cake truffles per bag. Then put different colored ribbons on them so that I could make a sign to tell everyone exactly what was in each bag.

I dropped off my goodies at 9AM on Saturday morning. We chose $2 per bag for both the pretzels and the truffles. Since I had family in town, I went to spend time with them, but we all made a trip over to the Festival at 12:30 and only two bags of pretzels were left (out of the 28-30 I brought) and about 2/3 of the cake truffles were gone. I made about 28-35 bags for each of the three types of truffles. So that was a lot of stuff that sold! Especially since there were three 10 foot long tables filled to the gills with baked goods. But the people there said they were getting great comments about my chocolates and they were handing out my business cards that I just had printed up.

So I spent the last week or so really stressing over whether people would like my contributions or not for nothing. It really could not have gone much better. Now I just hope I get a few calls or emails from people looking to buy more!!!

Can I save my cake truffles?

That is the question I will be answering this evening. Last night I started making my cake truffles for the church festival. I made a vanilla cake with peanut butter frosting and formed them into balls and placed them in the freezer to harden up before dipping in chocolate. Easy as pie...

For those of you who are unfamiliar with cake truffles, here is a brief introduction. First you bake a cake. I prefer to use a 9x13" pan so there is only one pan to clean rather than two 9 inch pans and it is all going to one place anyway! Let the cake cool until just barely warm and then break it into large pieces into a very large bowl. Add in one recipe of desired frosting, anything at all will work. Just make sure the recipe is amount that would be used to frost one 9x13 or 9" round double layer cake. Stir like crazy and refrigerate until the mixture is cold enough to form into balls. I use a melon baller/small cookie scoop and combine two scoops into one ball, about the size of a golf ball. Place these in the freezer to harden then dip into the desired melted chocolate. Let the chocolate set up and they are ready to eat!

Then on to the second cake. I opted for an apple spice cake that I adapted from my grandmother's recipe. The cake turned out moist and fluffy and made my kitchen smell great!!! I was torn between a caramel frosting and a vanilla buttercream. I wasn't sure if the caramel would be too over powering since I had not made that one before, so I went with the vanilla buttercream. The recipe I had made quite a bit. Without thinking, I dumped all the frosting into the cake crumbs and starting stirring. Right away I knew it wasn't going to work. There was just waaaaaaaay too much frosting in there, it was all super liquidy. There was no way I would be able to pack this into a ball. I was extremely annoyed that I wasn't paying as close attention as I should be. I know better!!! I ran out of apple sauce, so I will have to make another cake tonight and keep adding cake crumbs a little at a time until I get a reasonable consistency. I hope I can get it just right, my fingers are crossed!!!!!

Let just hope the third cake goes as smoothly as the first so I can start dipping in chocolate tonight and tomorrow. The chocolate needs some time to set up before I package them and I would prefer not to place the cake truffles in the freezer. Freezing chocolate can cause a white bloom to occur and I want these to look just right!

Church Bake Sale and Fall Festival

The St Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church will be having their Fall Festival this weekend. There will be games and food and an auction. There is a bake sale as well as a frozen food sale (a very interesting concept that I haven't seen before). I wasn't sure what to expect for the frozen meal part of things, so I decided to stick with what I know...sweets!

I volunteered to make some things for the bake sale...some chocolate covered pretzels (simple, yet very yummy and well liked) and various cake truffles. I haven't decided just how many cake truffles to make, we'll see just how much time I have, especially with my parents arriving for a visit this Friday! I may even get motivated to make more, but I don't want to commit myself to too much!!!

Yummy in my Tummy Cinnamon Rolls

I forgot one other thing I made this past weekend...cinnamon rolls! They have been on my mental list for a few months now and I finally got around to trying them out.

I started with a recipe from the King Arthur Flour website (http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/cinna-buns-recipe). The directions were easy to follow, though I always seem to need a lot more flour than is called for in the yeast breads. I am not sure why that is, but I know my doughs are too sticky if I use just the recommended 19 1/2 ounces. Once I got the dough to the appropriate consistency, all I had to do was wait.

After church, I rolled out the dough to the suggested 16"x21". I brushed on my softened butter and poured on the generous amount of cinnamon sugar. I thought it would be way too much, especially when it went all over the place when I rolled up the dough! But it seemed to work out just the way it should. I rolled my dough from the long end, rather than the short one, hoping to get more, smaller cinnamon rolls. Well, some of them were small, but most were just huge!!! So I need to work on my portioning skills somewhat to make them more consistent. In to the oven they went. All the while I was hoping the smaller ones wouldn't burn before the larger ones were cooked through.

Now on to the frosting. I didn't want to use the cream cheese icing, so I consulted my Whole Grain Baking Book from King Arthur and found a powdered sugar/cream icing I preferred. But oh no! I didn't have enough powdered sugar! So I had to wait until the buns were finished cooking before heading to the store to resupply. Later that night, I made the frosting and iced the cooled cinnamon buns and put them in the fridge overnight.

I knew I couldn't handle having those in the house...sweet, bread, cinnamon, frosting...a very dangerous combination for me. So I took one of the large ones and brought the rest to work to share. I put out a small jar to collect some money for ingredients and utensil and all, per the suggestion of several people around here. I hadn't thought of it. I just like to try making new things and I want to share them because it can be too rich to have every bit of it at my house. By the end of the day, the total was $0.42 and both pans of cinnamon rolls were practically licked clean. I actually felt fairly insulted. I would rather someone not leave anything at all rather than a few pennies and dimes. It makes me rethink whether I will bring more in the future. It makes me wish I had a kitchen to work from so I could really get started with selling. It makes me wish I could get a small truck so that I can share my creations with people all over the city and surrounding areas. Maybe it will just make me work that much harder to get where I want to be.

Pancakes/Mac and Cheese/Crab Cakes...not all at once, but I should have thought of that!

I was excited to spend more time experimenting in the kitchen this weekend.

I made buttermilk pancakes with the buttermilk I had leftover from the chocolate and vanilla cake. Nothing too exciting or difficult there. I put half directly in the freezer and the other half into the fridge. I have been using them to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for breakfast. I bought some strawberry and amaretto preserves at the Yellow Daisy Festival at Stone Mountain two weekends ago, which I thought might be a little strange with peanut butter, but I am really enjoying it!

Using my Professional Cooking textbook, I made mac and cheese. I started with a bechamel sauce, which is a white roux with milk, then added a whole bunch of shredded cheddar cheese. I stirred in ground mustard, salt and Worcestershire sauce before adding the cooked macaroni. The whole thing went in the oven at 350F for about 30 minutes. We didn't bother with the bread crumbs on top since my husband doesn't think they add anything. The end result was fairly tasty, though I think I will need to kick up the flavor just a little bit next time. Personally, I would love some broccoli or some other veggie in there, but I know my husband would protest. But it looks like a keeper recipe to me.

I had a bunch of crab meat leftover, so I went for a traditional crab cake. Just some bread crumbs, a little mayo, eggs, parsley, baking powder, Worcestershire sauce and salt. Oh and of course, Old Bay seasoning! I opted to broil my crab cakes, rather than saute them. They taste great on their own, there really isn't any need for the added butter to saute them. My husband sprinkled some lemon juice over his and I opted for a very strong cocktail sauce consisting of horseradish and ketchup...it had quite a bite to it, just the way I like it. Most restaurants serve such mild cocktail sauce that I am very glad to make my own.

Crab cakes and creamy mac and cheese made for a great dinner!!!

Crab Turnover Update

SUCCESS!!!!!

Everyone loved the turnovers. I was worried that rewarming them in the microwave would lose a lot of the flavor and texture, but they were still very good. Everyone had great things to say about them, even people who had no idea that the recipe had won me $500 and a place in the Kraft Real Women of Philadelphia cookbook.

The biggest complement...my husband went right for the few that were leftover. I asked him if he wanted me to see if some of our friends that live nearby wanted some since I try to spread out my culinary creations amongst people, but he quickly said NO!

My parents are coming to visit in less than two weeks and this has already been requested by my dad. I am excited to make them for my family. I will have to wait and see what else I'll make for them while they are here.

Birthday List

The previous post got me to thinking about my birthday wish list, that maybe I should write all this down. So here goes:

- 'On baking', or 'baking and pastry: mastering the art and craft'...either textbook would be great, I just want a professional baking text like my professional cooking book.
- 10x10 tent (for the farmers market I hope to join next year)
- two 6' tables (for the farmers market)
- cash box of some sort (farmers market)
- a small fryer, nothing huge since I don't fry things often and you need to replace the oil all the time anyway. Something for small batches for 2-3 people
- a meat pounder
- 3" biscuit cutter
- small kitchen torch
- two high quality knives: 8" chef's knife and a paring knife
- pepper grinder: I keep going through those McCormick disposable ones, I think its time for a reusable one I can refill
- My K-cup: so I can use my own coffee in me Keurig brewer
- cute apron
- a small piggy bank: this was actually a suggestion from a coworker, so that I can set that out when I bring things in to share. It wasn't my idea, but if people go for it, I will certainly not object
- cheese making book
- some sort of book(s) on getting started in a farmers market or small restaurant
- a kitchen where I can get a license
- small food truck, about the size of an ice cream truck

Ok, so maybe the last two are a bit of a stretch, but it can't hurt to ask!! You can't get what you want without putting it out there, can you? You never know who might be listening or what might happen!

Crab Turnovers

So as I mentioned before, I had a request for my crab turnovers for the baby shower today. To be honest, I was more than a little worried about making them and bringing them in. I felt like there was this huge burden of proof that I needed to achieve. Everyone's expectations are high (including my own).

I had this nightmare the other night that all of a sudden the recipe would fall apart and nothing would work right! The dough would be a gooey mess, the filling would be over seasoned, the oven would burn every last one, it would taste awful and everyone would come down on me for creating such a terrible recipe. It was actually really stressing me out. I want everything to be just right so I can be proud of all the hard work I have put into this and all the other recipes I submitted to the Real Women of Philadelphia.

I actually made the dough on Wednesday night and let it rest in the fridge overnight, rather than just 30 minutes. I knew time would be tight last night and needed any advantage I could get. After work, I walked the dogs and finished up the icing on the cake and cut the fudge into small squares, made dinner, made the crab filling, made my lunch for today, fed the dogs and put away dishes.

I let the dough come to room temperature for about 10 or 15 minutes before rolling it out. I only rolled out so much at a time to prevent over working the dough. Surprisingly, I do not own a 3" cookie cutter so I just use a glass. It doesn't cut quite as well as a cutter would, but it works well enough. I think I will have to add the cookie/biscuit cutter to my birthday wish list (which is actually quite long this year, and its all somehow baking/cooking related...I guess I am making up for all those years when I couldn't come up with any good ideas!).

I used my cookie scoop to add the same amount of filling to each round and gently spread it over half the dough. I brought the other side of the dough up and over the filling and sealed the edges with a fork. Each turnover then went onto an ungreased baking sheet and then into a hot oven. The really nice thing about these is that you can fit so many on one baking sheet, which means a lot fewer pans that go into the oven. While one batch cooked, I rolled out the next set, which worked out well.

I got a little distracted and the first set came out a tiny bit darker than I would have liked. My perfectionist self was mad...I know to watch closer! Since I knew I would need to refrigerate these overnight and rewarm them the next day, I did not add the cheese on top at this point. Rather, I put all the cooled turnovers in a container and shredded a bunch of cheese into another.

I made sure to taste one last night (with added cheese) and was very happy with the results. There was no huge disaster that occurred...no terrible dough, no over seasoned crab. The dough is very flaky and the warm crab definitely transported me back to my childhood. My husband laughed so hard when he saw just how relieved I was once I tasted this batch. We all have fears that everything will go wrong, but I am very glad to say that my fears were unfounded.

The party will be in an hour, I will let you know just how the reheating and addition of the cheese works. And how everyone reacts. Until then, I will just have to hold my breath!

Office Baby Shower

One of my coworkers and his wife are expecting a little one very soon so we are having a get together tomorrow. I am excited to spend some more time in my kitchen, it feels like I haven't been making as much recently.

I got requests for my 'award-winning' crab turnovers and I think I will have enough time to make those tonight. To be honest, I am a bit scared that people won't like them. I am like that with all my creations, that they won't live up to everyone's (including my own) expectations. I will be sure to let you know how it goes and post pictures as well.

I also decided to make a chocolate and vanilla swirl cake from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook. It is a cake I have made before and liked it in the past. I figure it was something tasty, yet uncomplicated and not overly decadent and rich. The cake turned out well and I will make a chocolate glaze for it tonight so it will be all ready for tomorrow.

I had 50 minutes while the cake was in the oven, so I figured I would make something else, as well. For some reason, peanut butter fudge stood out in my mind. I went to the traditional method on the stove, using the candy thermometer and all rather than the short cut methods out there. It actually ended up taking longer than I expected, but that was quite alright. I didn't want to heat the sugar so fast that I burned it. The consistency looked really good when I poured it into the mold, so hopefully it tastes good, too!! I think I like making things like cakes a bit more than the fudge, but that may change once I taste the fudge! I like being able to get all the ingredients together, mix them and walk away while it bakes. You have to be a bit more careful with the fudge, you can't just walk away for 15-20 minutes. I will let you know if the extra time was worth the extra effort!

OMG!!!!!! I WON!!!!!! I am still in shock!!!!

http://www.realwomenofphiladelphia.com/post/our-first-make-to-impress-appetizer-winner


Our First "Make To Impress" Appetizer Winner!
Posted by Caryn Ross on Sep 13, 2010

Hey Kitty Cats!

Yep, it's Caryn again, and I'm here to announce your Appetizer "Make To Impress" recipe winners!

I'm really impressed by our first winner of the week....so Loren Myers, give yourself a giant round of applause! You're $500 richer, baby! Your Crab Turnovers wowed the heck out of the Kraft judges, and as for me, I'm crazy in love with adding a whole brick of Philly Cream Cheese to your pastry dough - I bet that baby is tender, tangy, and flaky beyond compare!

Crab is always a special treat no matter what, but it's always fun to see new ways to use these classic ingredients, right??

Big fat congrats, Loren. Everyone come right back here tomorrow for our next Appetizer winner.

Rock On!

Caryn

Chocolate Covered Pretzels

My brother recently got engaged (YAYAY!!!!!) and I wanted to send them a little something in celebration. After looking around at various house related items online, as well as gourmet coffees/fruits/gift baskets I decided that I would rather make them something and send it to them. It actually took me a lot longer to come to that conclusion than it really should have! I decided to make my peanut butter and honey sandwich cookies and some chocolate covered pretzels to send up there.

The pretzels were super easy to make and turned out quite pretty. I dipped pretzels rods into dark chocolate and sprinkled them with white chocolate. I placed them on wax paper lined sheets to dry. One 14 ounce bag of dark chocolate was enough to almost finish the entire bag of pretzels. And since I was just sprinkling the white chocolate, I really didn't need a whole lot of that. I did, however, add a little bit of canola oil to the white chocolate to make sure it was thin enough to sprinkle the way that I wanted. It didn't take much to get the ideal consistency.

I bagged up 6 pretzels per large bag and tried each with a white bow. For not a lot of work, the results were visually stunning. I think I will keep this in mind for part of my Christmas gifts this year, they will make a great addition to whatever else I choose to make.

Tonight I will make my cookies and hopefully get the box in the mail tomorrow morning. I hope they enjoy it all!!

Yummy vanilla, chocolate and almond cake!

My husband and I visited some friends last week for dinner and even though it was a last second decision, I still wanted to make sure I brought something. I still had some of the chocolate buttercream in the fridge from the last set of cookies I made, so I decided to build a cake around that.

I figure a good old fashioned vanilla butter cake would be a good complement. What is better with chocolate than vanilla? Using all the little techniques I have learned throughout my readings, I am now very confident in my cake making skills. My cakes have consistently turned out light and fluffy and baked just right.

Since the buttercream was not a full recipe, I needed some sort of a filling to make sure the cake tasted smooth and creamy. After conferring with my husband, we decided on a chocolate almond whipped cream center. A simple, yet extremely tasty and effective filling. So I made the cakes and filling late one night, then assembled everything just before leaving the next day.

I initially thought I would just use the buttercream on top of the cake so that it would be a thicker layer, but I quickly realized that all the whipped cream would squirt out the edges if I didn't keep them contained somehow! So that resulted in a thin frosting layer all the way around. The cake didn't look quite as perfect as I would like, considering that I started assembling everything 10 minutes after we should have left the house! But it actually looked nice and I am curious how my next cake will look. Pictures will be uploaded as soon as I get a chance.

It may be a few weeks before my next cake, but I am thinking through what kind of birthday cake I would like to make for myself. Both mine and my husband's birthdays are two days apart so I am not sure if we will have one cake or separate ones so that we can have different things. I still have a few weeks left to think.

A party filled weekend!

This past Saturday my husband had not one, but two parties to attend. The first was a birthday party for our friends' two year old. The second was a pot luck work get together. Since this is a food related blog, I figure I can write about the yummy treats we ate that day.

At the birthday party, they made a shrimp/sausage/veggie boil. There were non spicy and spicy options. Of course I went spicy for everything, including the corn. The spice wasn't anything too strong, which was nice. Sometimes a 'baby kick' is just right. There is no need to go overboard and make people sweat and cry just to get the ultimate spice. The various kinds of sausage tasted good, but I really loved the corn and potatoes. I have been on a major veggie kick recently and those are two that my husband isn't too fond of so I don't make them all that often. Plus that made me feel less guilty about how much I was eating! We weren't able to stay for cake, but I will say that it was an adorable sea-inspired cake with Ariel and all! Too cute for a two year old!

I made a version of the almond and chocolate fudge cookies I mentioned a little while back. I think I figured out the best way to make the cookies so that they look nice and the fudge topping turned out just perfect. The only down side is that after using up my entire batch of fudge to 'ice' my cookies, I still had about half the cookies left and not enough ingredients to make more fudge! I took the cookies that I had to both parties and they seemed to be a hit. (In case you are interested, I made a batch of chocolate buttercream for the other half of the cookies. This worked out well, though it does have a different consistency. Its almost a toss-up, but I think I almost like the fudge a bit better).

For the second party, there was a large variety of food, everything from ribs to Chinese dumplings to French potato pie to baked beans and watermelon. There were too many good looking things to try! I had to go for the ribs, which I haven't had in a very long time. Bone-in ribs are not something I have made at home, I always cop out and get boneless pork or beef ribs for the grill. I didn't notice until later in the party that there was a barbeque sauce with ghost chilies. I think I would have been brave enough to try it out, just to say that I did, even if it was the smallest of small drops. But alas, I did not see it until after I had dessert. Chocolate cake and ghost chili barbeque sauce do not seem like the ideal combination to me. I brought corn bread and my cookies to add to the huge tablescape! I made a simple corn bread, without pieces of corn, per the request of my husband. The bottom was a perfect light golden brown, which made me so excited! (I know its the little things, isn't it?). Its just so nice when breads or cakes are done just right, which has been happening more and more often for me recently.

For dessert, there was a chocolate and raspberry cake from Alon's. A chocolate sponge cake with chocolate and raspberry mousse that looked gorgeous. I hope that one day I can make something that looks that perfect! I have the flavors down, I just need to perfect my presentation skills, which will take all sorts of practice. I also took a small bite of homemade peach pie...yummy!

So if you can't tell, I certainly ate a lot this weekend! But it was all great and best of all I got to try things from all over the world that I might not have made on my own.

Wolf Mountain Vineyards

The other place we wanted to make sure we visited before the end of the month was the Wolf Mountain Vineyards Sunday brunch (www.wolfmountainvineyards.com/). I had seen information about this bunch since well before we went to the wine highway weekend this past spring. The drive is almost an hour and fifteen minutes, so it isn't a place we would just up and drive to on a regular basis.

When I saw that the theme of the brunch was artisan cheeses, I knew this was the month to convince my cheese-freak husband to go. When I made the reservation on Friday, they said they didn't have any window seats available inside, so I figured they would be pretty busy.

We chose the 2:30PM seating (they also offer a 12:30PM seating) and got there right on time and got our seats closer to the center of the restaurant. There weren't a whole lot of people there at that time. We ordered a champagne mint mojito and their Chanteloup, a sweet wine wine to go with lunch. The buffet consisted of a chilled yogurt and berry soup, corn bread pudding, summer squash casserole, chicken pot pie, ham, fried green tomato salad and salmon cakes. All of which tasted good, but nothing really stood out from the rest.

The cheese display had things like pimiento cheese, two types of goat cheese, blue cheese and a few cheeses similar to cheddar. I didn't try the blue cheese, I haven't quite developed a taste for the stronger cheeses yet. But I was very happy with the rest, except the pimiento cheese wasn't anything special. I really enjoyed the goat cheese.

The desserts were chocolate covered strawberries, chocolate cheese cake, key lime pie and banana pudding. I think I liked the cheese cake the best. I was very tempted to take my cheese cake up to the coffee bar that had fresh whipped cream and add a dollop, but I restrained myself.

Overall, the food was pretty good, though like the Sundial, the price was much higher than we are used to paying. It was a great experience, but not one we will repeat often. Maybe for a special occasion. I had a great view, but my husband was kinda in an inside corner. It frustrated me to see a few 4 person tables empty near the windows. If they knew they would be free, why wouldn't we sit there so we could both have a great view?

Of course we didn't leave empty handed. We bought a bottle of Delicieux, a port style dessert wine that I loved on the wine highway weekend. I debated about the Chanteloup or their demi-sec, but decided we had spent enough money for one weekend! I love the feel of the area and I am sure we will head back at some point. It is actually a bit closer than Athens and we have gone back there a few times. So it is not unreasonable to think we will head back up to the North Georgia mountains before too long for another day trip. Maybe I will ask to head that direction for my birthday in October.

Sundial Atlanta

I didn't do any baking this weekend, there were a bunch of other things around the house that needed to be done and we also had a few places we wanted to make sure we visited before the end of the month. So rather than just one meal out, we had two.

The first place we went was to the Sundial (www.sundialrestaurant.com), a rotating restaurant in downtown Atlanta. The restaurant is 73 floors up in the Westin Hotel, the highest hotel in the hemisphere. About two years ago, a tornado made its way through downtown and wreaked havoc, causing a lot of damage to the all windowed hotel. The hotel is almost done replacing all of the windows and just reopened the glass elevator to the top. The actual grand reopening of the elevators is tonight. We got to ride in the elevators this weekend for our lunch date. I had gotten a gift card through livingsocial.com a while ago and it was due to expire on the 22nd, so we wanted to make sure we got there in time.

As a starter, we had the she crab fondue. I grew up outside of Baltimore so I love crab. Not only does it taste great, but all the memories of home that are associated with it always come back to me. I ordered the roasted sirloin panini with horseradish havarti, arugula and oven dried tomatoes. It was simply delicious! The only criticism I had was that I could have done without the butter on the panini. There was enough flavor in the rest of the sandwich that it didn't need the butter. The greek side salad wasn't quite what I was expecting, but it still tasted good. It was cut cucumbers, banana peppers and onions in a vinaigrette. The copious amount dressing pooled to the bottom, which was a little bit of a turn off for me. I would prefer to dress my own salads since I don't use anywhere near as much as restaurants tend to.

My husband ordered the chicken pappardelle pasta with sausage, spinach and parmesan cream. Of course he asked for only a little bit of spinach since he is anti-veggie. Though I am proud that he did eat most of what came on his plate (with the rest making its way to my plate). I got a taste and really enjoyed his meal, as well. He must have liked it since it was all gone!

We still had some money left on the gift card, so we went for a double dessert. I am always talking about ordering one of the alcoholic ice cream drinks, but rarely do since I don't want that before my meal and afterwards I am usually ready to go home. But I gave in this time, and we shared a white chocolate mudslide...yummy! The taste was great, but the alcohol wasn't very strong. The drink came in a hurricane glass with the Sundial logo on it, which we got to take home a souvenir glass.

The second dessert was called chocolate royal: layers of chocolate hazelnut praline, caramel cream, vanilla streusel, chocolate mouse and dark chocolate ganache. I see now why they call it chocolate royal!!! It melted in my mouth and I didn't want to stop eating! The creaminess of the mousse was contrasted by the crunchy praline and streusel. And you really can't go wrong with a chocolate ganache on top!

Overall, it was a great experience. Even for lunch it was more expensive than we would usually pay. The main reason we went was because of the discounted gift card. I am very glad I came across that deal because otherwise this would have remained on my list of places I want to visit, but probably won't because it costs more than we are used to paying. Hopefully we can get back there, but I am sure it won't be for a very long time.

First mobile food truck permit!!!

This is really exciting!! I just wish that I had a kitchen I could get inspected and a little cash for a used truck...that would be a dream job for me!!!

The following has been copied from the Food and More blog at accessatlanta.com. http://blogs.ajc.com/food-and-more/2010/08/03/atlanta-grants-first-mobile-food-truck-permit/


Atlanta grants first mobile food truck permit

9:53 am August 3, 2010, by John Kessler

Carson Young with the Yumbii taco truck sent out this Tweet yesterday — music to the ears of the many people vested in seeing Atlanta develop a food-truck culture.

This means the truck is no longer confined to vending mobile food in one or two designated areas. It can now, say, answer the call from an office building and set up operations in its parking lot. This is the promise of Los Angeles-style mobile food: in a city where it can be hard to get to the good food, the good food can come to you.

Yumbii sells the Korean tacos developed by Hankook Taqueria.

One small step for truck, one giant step for truckkind.

Busy Bee Weekend

I spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen this weekend. Here is the breakdown of it all:

- Maryland Crab turnovers and Chesapeake Bay Crab fondue for the Kraft Philadelphia recipe contest

- Mozzarella cheese: I actually got the recipe to work this time, even though it didn't yield quite as much cheese as I had anticipated. The recipe didn't mention how much salt to add near the end of the process and I was a little light with it. I know I can add a whole bunch more next time. Hopefully I can find some raw milk at some point from a farmers market to try again. Until then, I am happy with the results and am looking forward to improving the cheese next time. I also want to try to make ricotta, which doesn't not seem too difficult and does not need a cheese press. I used the mozzarella I made on a pizza last night. It doesn't melt quite as well as the stuff from the store, but maybe that will improve as I keep practicing the technique.

- Mocha cake truffles: devil's fudge cake with mocha buttercream coated in a mixture of dark and milk chocolate...need I say more? I brought them to work today because I can't seem to stop eating them!

- Crab cakes: these didn't work so well since I tried using the imitation crab. I know it isn't the same at all, but my budget is a little tight from some unexpected bills recently.

- Chicken, cheddar and black bean quesadillas: yummy!!

- I bought some carrots to make some carrot cake truffles, hopefully I can make those soon.