Saturday, December 20, 2008

Evolution of an Idea

It all began, as so many things do, in Whole Foods. Last week I saw candied orange peel there. The real stuff that they had made, not something in a can or jar. I was focusing on making chocolate bark, so noted it but didn't purchase. The first round of chocolate bark was not bad, and the second round was better. By then I had managed to change the instant-read thermometer from centigrade to farenheit which helped with the tempering significantly.

In the spirit of innovation I decided to try chocolate bark flavored with orange oil and spiked with candied orange peel. Alas, I was not the only one to note the candied OP at WF, and it was all gone.

How hard can it be to make this stuff?
































Monday, November 17, 2008

thanksgiving already

First major holiday w bf's family. He is deep frying a turkey and I am in charge of making gravy for said turkey. 3 prt process, first make the chicken broth, and it has to be from scratch b/c first major holiday w bf's fam. Then I have to brown some parts for an hour or so, add some turket fat, onion, celery and thyme, brown more, add sage and the premade chicken broth and cook it all for another hour or so. This makes the gravy base. On the day, I'll roast a free standing turket breast and maybe a thigh or two and use those drippings for the final step. Calls for a lot of turkey fat in the roux for the gravy. Hope my parts yeild some fat.
Also making wild rice with butternut squash and two pecan pies. I told him I didn't really like to share the pecan pie bc there is never enough left over for me. He said "make two." So that's what I'll do.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Cookies, sorta

Made the gingerbread men from The Desert Bible. B-o-r-i-n-g. The commentary at the beginning of the recipe said that he (Christopher Kimball) had tried many other recipes and found them to be overly spiced. Well, he certainly corrected that.