Month: January 2010

cake for breakfast

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i found this chocolate in one of my favorite international markets. it is columbian and this is the unsweetened chocolate, they have a sweetened one too and it is very similar to ibarra but not quite as good in flavor. i had picked up a bar a while back and while scavenging in the pantry closet, i found it and decided to use it.

version 3.0 of the chocolate mashed potato casserole cake. potato casserole cake??? yes, potato casserole cake. the potatoes make a moister cake and add structure as well. but casserole, who makes a casserole cake? that is just a reference to the dish i used to bake it in. it could be baked in a regular 9″x13″ pan but around here lots of cakes get baked in glass casserole dishes when they are going to be served at a pot luck dinner. why do the usual, why not try something new?
yummy chocolate cake and light fluffy frosting. the breakfast of champions-or a couple of snowbound nashvillians…

come on baby light my fire

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because of the snowy weather, i left the cafe early yesterday. since i was home earlier than expected, i decided to put the time to good use and test some recipes. sounds good in theory but i was a bit distracted and didn’t get started on things until mid afternoon. i finally got the cake i wanted to test in the oven and then had to move out of the way so darry could cook dinner. we have a small kitchen and there just isn’t the space for two professional chefs to work side by side. well, not these two any way…

so there i was, sitting down at the table watching him cook while i waited on the cake in the oven and it was taking longer than i wanted it to. as i waited, i watched darry prepare the chicken for the stirfry he was going to make and we chattered about the day and the weather and who knows what else. and as i sat there, i became aware of what looked like a little black insect flying through the air. a spider? no maybe a fruit fly…a fruit fly in january? then i saw another and another. at this point i asked darry, “what is that black stuff?” his reply, a very loud “OH @*#%!!!” ( you should understand this), the grease is on fire!”
at this point, it was mayhem. he grabbed the teapot which was on the back burner so that he could slide the pot off the heat and proceeded to drop it into the hot grease. he then grabbed the teapot again, tossed it in the sink and moved the pot of grease off the burner but by now, the flames were really big. i ran and grabbed the fire extinguisher, yes we actually have two, and stood there dumbstruck. as many times as i have read the directions on it, i have never had to use it. he grabbed it from me and said i know how to use it and he did just that. he quickly put out the fire and i checked on the cake in the oven…just another day at our house. considering all that we do in the kitchen, that was a first for us in 25 years together.
then it was clean up time. what a mess that made. the extinguisher probably contained about 1/4 cup of fire suppressing powder which in theory isn’t very much. put that into a pressurized container and watch out. it was everywhere. a fine yellow powder coated the entire counter, stovetop, wall and there was even some in the oven because it went into the vent. darry and i spent the next hour cleaning it up.
so as you can see, there is never a dull moment here at our house. even after 25 years, we still have something to talk about each day. but i may have to declare a moratorium on any culinary procedure that requires a large pot of hot oil. oh by the way, the cake was terrible and that was no surprise. version two was better but still not a winner. version 3 took the blue ribbon and now it is time to test the frosting out…

snow day!

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yeah yeah, i know i know…it’s just some snow, get over it already. but this is nashville and we don’t do snow here, at least not that often and generally not this much.

photo #1, 11am on friday
photo #2, 1pm on friday
photo #3, 6pm on friday
photo #4, my crazy husband shoveling the snow as it still falls around 8pm on friday.
the view this morning at 8am and it is still falling! so far we have about 6 inches which may not seem like much to many but really, we just don’t get much snow here. that 6 inches is probably equal to all of the snow we have had since we moved into this house 6 years ago! if we are lucky, we will be able to get out of the house later today when some other brave nutjobs have driven around on our street and cleared a path for us-we do not have four wheel drive or a snow plow handy!

apple turnovers

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after testing the recipe at home, i decided to add the apple turnovers to the menu at the cafe. so far, they are selling well and i am glad that i included them in the book. while they may seem like a difficult dessert to master because of the puff pastry, they are really simple to make if you buy the dough frozen. don’t think for a minute that i couldn’t make my own dough. i have many times in the past and it isn’t that hard to do. what it is is time consuming and that is why i like to buy the dough frozen and in prerolled sheets. for one thing, it saves the time of rolling it out. it also is cost effective-little labor and no waste. the best part-it is consistent! each sheet rises high in the oven giving you wonderful, flaky pastries!

the granny smith apples are nicely diced and tossed with some sugar, flour and cinnamon. no need to add lots of spices, a little cinnamon goes a long way as far as flavoring is concerned and if you use a small amount, you allow the flavor of the apples to shine through.

thaw the dough and cut it into squares. using a ruler and a pastry wheel makes this an easy task.
pile the apples into one corner of the square.
a little egg wash on the seams and fold it over. a little more egg wash for some shine and a generous sprinkle of sugar.
mmm…warm, flaky pastry and cinnamon apples

weather alert

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hey everyone, sorry i don’t have anything to post today. with the impending doom looming on the horizon (read that as rain/snow/ice), i have had a horrible time with the sinuses. too painful to do much since the handful of ibuprofen i choked down didn’t help at all. if the doomsday preachers are even somewhat accurate, i will be housebound for at least a day and you can be sure that i will spend a good portion of that day in the kitchen baking up a storm of my own!

birthday bread baking party

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with everything i have going on, i found time to make some bread for this month’s bread baking day, #26. the theme is to bake a loaf of bread to take to a birthday party. well, what kind of bread does one take to a birthday party? being a mom, i can see that this would not go over well with the kids; what kid wants a loaf of bread rather than cake or cookies? however, i can see making a couple of loaves of good sourdough bread, grilling a steak or some fish, tossing a salad, opening a nice bottle of wine, sharing it with friends and calling that a birthday party. add a few presents and some cake and i’m set and ready to par-tee. but this is a party for jamie of lifes a feast and i can only hope she approves of the menu!
with this challenge in mind, i decided to multi task. a coworker, stevo, has taken an interest in baking bread and he has been asking me questions, lots of questions in an effort to learn as much as he can. a week or so ago, i gave him some of my starter and a list of websites and cookbook titles but this week we had the opportunity to work together for two consecutive days. out of the fridge came the starter, we fed it and started two separate batches of sourdough bread. today we made two loaves of bread so that stevo could see just how easy it is to do.
on the left, a whole grain loaf and on the right, one with some semolina. i was looking in the fridge where i store all of my flour and discovered that i had more than a dozen varieties of flour so we could have made any number of combinations. we also started some rye sour so that we could make rye bread at some point.
here are the two loaves rising in bowls on my work table. since this is such an easy recipe to use, i was able to do this as i worked on stocking the restaurant for the day.

here they are in the oven

the finished loaves, this is the whole grain which is really only about 35% whole wheat and a few tablespoons of multigrain hot cereal mix. it was a good combination and a great learning experience for stevo since he wants to make whole grain breads at home.

the semolina loaf. both were wonderful while they were warm.

pretty loaves!
thanks to jamie for inviting us to this wonderful birthday party, we had fun!
and for those of you wanting the recipe, it is actually up on my blog already because i love this recipe and when something works, why change it!

chapter one

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and so it starts. after many months of negotiations, i am off and running. the book needs to be finished in may so i am working as quickly as i can but not so fast that the recipes are substandard. as i finish some recipes, i feature them in the cafe so be sure to stop by and check out the daily dessert list.
writing recipes seems easy. it is if you are making soup. not so when you are making cakes. it is easier to make lousy cake recipes than you could ever imagine. the slightest change in the ph balance can wreak havoc on a cake! so can oven temperature and the size or shape of a pan.
this cake tested me. after about 6 different versions, i finally found the right balance.
sour cherries, vanilla cake and struesal-works for me! i really like it in the square pan rather than the old stand by-round.
the original version baked in a round pan in the cafe. what a time i had trying to duplicate it at home with different ingredients sources, a home oven and a square pan.

little pear tarts

now this wouldn’t be a loveless cafe dessert book without pies and believe me, there are lots of pies in this one.




check back regularly to see what’s baking in the oven!

ammurica’s dumbest crimnals

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we are lucky to live in a great neighborhood. there are lots of families here and we have met many of them while out working in the yard or when walking the mutt around. unfortunately, we also have a few apartment complexes and rental homes nearby that generally are fine but can house what you might refer to as undesirables. in the 6 years here, we haven’t had much trouble but recently, we had an incident. late at night, someone ransacked darry’s car. he was leaving for work about 5am when he noticed that things were laying on the passenger seat that are normally in the glove compartment. he put them back and in the process checked to see that the valuables were still there-his fancy laser pointer in its fancy case, his swiss army knife and his little leatherman tool were all present and accounted for as was all of the important car documents and a collection of coins. the only thing missing, his keys for the kitchen and his security pass for the building…what could anyone possibly do with them? wait, i know, we are idiots and we always leave a full set of house keys in the unlocked car in the carport!!! this is where you say DUH!!! of course i couldn’t let it go unnoticed and i quickly put a note up on every door to the house just in case the crimnal returned to the scene of the crime.
and because i am who i am, i went house to house and passed out about 50 of these notes. best to be proactive and maybe we can prevent any more incidents. happy new year everyone!