Food Minia

Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier Margaret, Jenni, Dawn and Gail My friend Margaret invited myself and our friend Jenny to go to Gail Ambrosius Chocolatier for a tasting. Margaret had to choose gift boxes for her husband's company holiday party to give to all the employees and asked us to come along to help decide.  We were in for a real treat.   Katharine, who works at Gail's had us sample 16 flavors and 3 more holiday flavors.  She cut every chocolate into fourths, thank goodness, as it was a lot of chocolate.  I'm not complaining, I enjoyed every one, I was in chocolate heaven!  As Katharine was describing them to us I would take a taste and let the chocolate melt in my mouth and taste exactly what she described.  Some of the flavors were familiar, like vanilla, espresso and blueberry, but some unusual, Lemongrass with ginger, sweet curry with saffron and one with a little heat, cinnamon/cayenne.  My favorite, if I had to pick one, would be the Salted Cara...

I got to go to Bangkok for a meeting last week and went a day early so I could explore the city a bit on my own first.  Besides visiting the temples, enjoying the view and drinks at Sky Bar, shopping at Siam Paragon, and getting massages for 270 baht ($7.50!) an hour, I also took a cooking class at the Silom Thai Cooking School .  I chose a Sunday morning class because I liked the proposed menu:  tom yum soup, green papaya salad, pad thai, massaman curry, and mango sticky rice . The class was very well organized;  first we took a bus to a wet market to pick up the ingredients and then we walked to the classroom which had three different sections:  one for food prep, one for cooking, and one for eating.  Most of the ingredients that we used were already pre-measured for us, so there was only a minimum of chopping and stir frying but enough that we felt like we were actually cooking!  We also got a go at the enormous mortar and pestle to make the papaya ...

I wonder how many of you could resist this plate of cakes? I don't think that I could. In the midddle of November, I have been asked to make cakes for a fashion show audience. I am delighted to do this as I love making cakes. I decided to look back over the cakes that I had made and photographed this summer and I fould this plate of tempting beauties. Some of the recipes for these cakes have been published earlier in the blog. The sponge drops are here: Summer in Italy and Sponge Drops The only thing that I changed for the ones on the plate, was to use apricot jam instead of blackcurrant. Couldn't find the others so the next couple of posts will be recipes for the other cakes.

Kneeding bread is a good exercise. No kneed bread is fine but a little kneeding makes better bread. IMPORTANT INFO: Using antibacterial spray on your work surfaces prior to kneeding bread will kill the yeast. It makes no difference if it's bakers yeast or sourdough. Those of you who have been following this blog over the years will know that I have been dabbling with sourdough for quite some time. I've had lots of failures as using sourdough is not as straightforward as using yeast. Now we need a drum roll as I believe that I have it sussed.  The result is a light soft bread with a crunchy crust that is all too good to eat. I just wish that I could share it with you all. I actually cooked this bread in a cast iron pan as this helps to steam the outside of the loaf and create this crust. Now, it takes time to make sourdough bread but it doesn't take much effort. A little weighing and mixing and leaving is all you have to know. It's the way that you do theses things that ...

My church held their second annual Highrocktoberfest last week and asked me if I could provide some snacks again.  Last year there was a competition for best cornbread, which I won with my Elote-Style Cornbread Waffles .  This year there was no such competition; I was just told to make something that would go well with beer.  Since I'm not a big beer drinker I wasn't really sure what that would be, but then I took inspiration from the fact that this was a riff on the German Oktoberfest. What could be more German than sausage and pretzel? I pretty much followed Alton Brown's soft pretzel recipe but decided to skip the salt in the pretzel dough since the sausage would provide enough salt.  I also threw in some diastatic malt powder since I had a lot left over from making croissants .  You can use cocktail weiners for this, but I was able to find mini kielbasa sausages at my grocery store so I went with those.  And instead of buying pretzel salt, I just used ...

This meatloaf isn't a typical meatloaf but it has become my favorite.  Made with turkey meat, stuffed with cheese, basil and marinara sauce.  It's loaded with flavor.   I like to serve with roasted vegetables (zucchini, red pepper, onion and mushrooms).   Ingredients: 1.25 lbs. ground turkey (I use Jennie-O Lean Ground Turkey)  2  garlic cloves, minced 1/2 cup chopped onion, finely chopped 2 eggs 1/2 cup panko crumbs 1/2 cup marinara sauce  4 oz. asiago cheese, diced 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese 1/4 cup basil, chopped  1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper After cooked 1 hour add: 3/4 cup marinara sauce 4 oz. fresh mozzarella, sliced (I like Bel Gioioso Brand) Mix everything together and form into a loaf on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 for around 1 hour.  Remove from oven and spoon marinara over top and place fresh mozzarella slices over it bake additional 15 minutes.  Garnish with fresh basil. Recipe adapt...

Noodles and Company, The Broomfield, Colorado based fast casual chain,  has pledged that artificial colors, flavors, preservatives and sweeteners have been removed from its core menu, including noodles, sauces, soups, condiments, breads and dressings. The platform is supported by a marketing campaign centered around the phrase “Made. Different — Real Food, Real Cooking, Real Flavors.” Additionally, the company said that by 2017, all meat and poultry served will come from animals that have never been given antibiotics or hormones. That’s already true of Noodles & Company’s pork. This month, bacon will also be antibiotic free, with steak and meatballs to make that claim by mid to late 2016. Last will be antibiotic free chicken, already in test in Colorado units, which will roll out by early 2017, said Mark Mears, Noodles & Company executive vice president and chief marketing officer. By November, all restaurants will use a hormone free Cheddar Jack cheese, and Noodles & C...