I'm seriously considering spending the next 6 weeks teaching myself to ice cakes. The idea is to make my niece's 3rd birthday from scratch. Of course, catching flies while staring at a professioanl bakers' supply website is responsible. But who could resist numbered cake pans!
Lunch today was seared scallops with a light salad, all drizzled with a spiced grapefruit reduction, followed by a brilliant Asian Chicken Salad.....oh, and 2 glasses of wine. Now I'm at work and writing here, instead of working.
Turkey. God I love that smell, and the coziness the house gets when the windows fog over for all the moist, tasty air from the kitchen.
I am a baker. There is no doubt. It's my schtick. I know and love a lot of chefs, but I'm just not creative that way. I like recipes, tried and true. And I love that my very very first pie, and not an easy one (a lattice-topped cherry pie) came out frickin perfect. Bliss...
I've been angsting about Tday prep for a few days, but have come way down after a helpful hand and soothing words from a kind lady. Thank you, Nice Lady (in the best Jerry Lewis Nutty Professor voice you can produce.)
Menu planned
To do lists listed
Recipes printed and ready
Shopping list waiting for my credit card
I've been quiet for a while of late - taking a much needed internal reorganzing and rebreather. I'll post more regularly soon. So many things on the front burners these days. Lots of ideas, and plans. Giddy. More later.
We're 80% there folks, just working on appetizer spreads and one dessert.
Macy's Day Parade sippings (at least the chef will be):
--Pumpkin Liqueur Cocktail
--Cranberry Daiquiri
Appetizer:
--(In)famous Duffy Relish tray
--something crunchy/toasty with a spread (red pepper, mushroom?)
Main Course/sides:
--Thyme-Roasted Turkey with Fresh Thyme Gravy
--Cornbread Dressing with Oysters
--Chestnut-and-Cranberry Cornbread Stuffing
--Tart Cranberry-Orange Sauce
--Oceanspray Jellied cranberry sauce
--Mashed Irish potatoes (or somesuch)
--Mashed sweet potatoes (or somesuch)
--Clover Leaf Bread Rolls
--Green beans with shallot something or other
Dessert:
--Quinn Duffy's pumpkin pie
--a berry pie with crust from scratch (if I dare)
Wine:
--tastings from Navarro's 2004 Winter shipment (2003 Gevurtz, Chardonnay, Pinot Gris, Sauvignon)
German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan frosting
Cake Update. *sigh*
German Chocolate Cake with Coconut-Pecan frosting for Duane's 41st.
It's a 4-layer cake (2 cake pans cooled and sliced horizontally to make 4 layers.) But this cake batter didn't rise very far. If at all. It cooked thoroughly. Beautifully in fact. The layers just couldn't get it up, as it were. I have a metric buttload of coconut-pecan frosting, and about 1/2 the cake I need. I double checked the recipe, and I know I didn't goof... There's absolutely no hortizontal slicing option here... And I bought that swank new bread knife just for the occasion, too. Grr.
Quick Solution? I baked another layer. 1/2'd the recipe. I'll have 3 layers of semi-densely chocolately goodness and *thick* layers of coconut-pecan frosting.
I'm a fan of ridiculously rich cakes (though not huge on dense ones), so I say I'm about 75/25 on the satisfaction scale for this cake so far. A very cool thing about it all is I'm using the original Regal Ware cake pan with handled-cover in which my Mom presented every kid's birthday cake in our family for near 2 decades. I sort of feel like I grew up and am now making cakes for others with the "magic cover effect". You store the cake in there for a while, and when it's time to serve, you whip that cover off and stick it over your face and take a deep, long breath. Sugary, cakey nirvana... Or contact sugar high, your choice.
2 parts Vodka
1 part Amaretto
added a little sugar water
jesus, a sweet kick-in-the-ass
where's the floor?
I'm doing well on the nutrition front, but my foot is my arch (wince) nemesis when it comes to exercise. By the time I get home these days, the foot goes up, 1200 mg of Ibuprofen get swallowed and chased by a glass of wine. After 30 minutes or so, I can walk better, but am in no shape to exercise. I can walk in the old tennis shoes that feel like I tred upon the soft squishy bodies of the pain monsters that plague me, but barefoot is a no-go, not even good slippers help. I abhor shoes by nature so I deal with the pain at night cuz there's no way I'm wearing shoes at home. (Arms crossed, chin raised, lower lip pouty.)
I'm doing well nutritionally, asforementioned. I actually stared peanut butter in the face last night at 11:00 pm and said 'no'. For those in the know, this is real work for me. Certain things will be a challenge, and I'm still up for it.
For a final gastronomic hoo-rah before hitting the point calculator for good, Friday night we went to the Mountain House restaurant on Skyline. Nestled in the dark woods about 15 minutes south of 92/Skyline, fire place in the bar, soft live music in the corner. Only 20 minutes from home, and in the neighborhood we (secretly) really want to live in.
We started with some Fat Tire in the bar, and had a lookaround. If you get past the bar's signed Jerry Rice jersey under glass, and other unobtrusive sports paraphenelia, you get to the restaurant with phenomenal food. When it was time to feed, we ventured in...
Bruschetta (a variety without mozarella!). Duane was suitably pleased. The bread for it was sweet and thick to counter the spicy tomato salsa on top. Our server, Nancy, was awesome. She brought our caesar salad and a huge pepper grinder. She asked if we liked pepper, and seeing the gleam in our eyes, doused our salads. Apparently the chef loves pepper, too, and makes the dressing to go really well with copious amounts of it. We were in (peppery) heaven. Nancy was a corker. A man at another table, a regular apprently, was giving her some friendly shit about something, and she smiled, started walking away, and slapped her ass for him. A slim, knowledgeable woman in her early 50's...it was a sight to behold. Duane had Hanger Steak, potatoes and veggies cooked to perfection - we were really surprised how well everything was cooked. I had a seafood pasta with huge scallops that melted, prawns, mussels and clams. The amount of pasta and cream-based sauce was perfect - no overfilling was required to eat the whole thing, and nothing needed salt or other seasoning. We shared a bottle of Viognier Chardonnay. Dessert had a high drool factor: Duane's was blackberry peach cobbler. Mine was a black pecan pie. Both with a scoop of cinnamon ice cream. We wanted to share each others', and we tried, but we both found ourselves growling over our own. We managed a trifle of sharing, and found it easier afterwards ;)
Afterwards we sat in the bar and listened to a 3-man band (guitar, base, and drums) do some jazzy pieces. Duane was transfixed, saying it was some of the best quality live music he'd heard in years - then denounced the live "shit" you always hear in the city. Love those fickle musicians. Nancy showed up with a card for the restaurant where you can hit the website and get dessert coupons, and nudged us to come to the Labor Day King Mountain Art Fair, which she says is the best around. Walking out the door and turning to look at our newfound favorite restaurant, we spotted the candelit outdoor drinking nook, and prompty decided pre-dinner drinks would be had there next time. Then home, and sleep, and more sleep.
So, it's possible to make them, tasting here and there while you're making them, and not eat the entire batch! Imagine! I made Fairy Cakes from Nigella's cookbook, but used Butter Cream frosting and Bittersweet chocolate drizzles instead of the royal icing she suggested. The result? I have NO sweet tooth anymore, even after just smelling the concoctions and tasting the frosting with one finger on the new KitchenAid beater...all done!
I'm also fascinated that I ate a healthy dinner during the entire process and had no problem staying within my point range. This is the main reason I balked at baking before...fear I'd have no control. In future, I'll relax about baking - give some to Duane, then fatten up the coworkers the next day.
I've discovered that I have "black out" periods regarding food choices. I can be completely gung-ho about staying on plan on Sunday, do beautifully on Monday, even into Tuesday, but on Wednesday I could find myself at home, after work eating unheatlhy foods and 3/4 through a bottle of wine. After the requisite "Doh!" and a slap to the forehead, I go through a self-chastisement phase where I say to myself "You're just not being serious about this, Adam!" Followed, by self-loathing, and a sense of repeated failure. I then drop into a minor (sometimes major) depression about it all, and by the time I'm over that, it's the weekend.
The reality is that I'm serious about eating better, and getting into better shape, but lose track rapidly under high-stress. You see, that Wednesday at work might have really really sucked, and a very old pattern of behavior kicked in and the autonomic directives are: "get home, eat/drink for endorphines, forget the day". And it's only when I'm calmer that my front-burner thought patterns re-emerge, and the damage has been done. The resulting depression and lack of gung-ho is what I now recognize as one of my biggest hurdles. Bless meriko for pointing out that I have excellent will-power (when I remain conscious of it) but need to focus even harder when I fall off the wagon.
This is a very very old pattern I remember occuring for years and years. Now that I'm voicing it out, pinning it to the wall as it were, I hope to be able to discard it very soon.
Using a touch of butter to sslloooowly brown 16 pearl onions, and sprinkling a little sugar, salt and pepper on top to candy them just a bit, I created a time gap...one of those little moments when the universe halts for a bit while you feel your joy, in this case, tasting one of these onions. When I opened my eyes, I realized I must have made a more-than-happy sound as Duane was gazing at me with an open-mouthed expression somewhere between awe and jealousy. Kind of like he wished he were a candied pearl onion....but then that's food porn, so I'll skip it....
*high drool factor*