June 20 , 2011 - Baking and Pastry I

Okay...so it's COOKIE DAY!!!  We were able to pick between three types of cookies (Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip, Peanut Butter).  As you may see below, We chose peanut butter to start off.  Making these cookies really took me back to my childhood.  One of my aunts is a baker.  She used to give us (children) of the family coupons for free cakes (personal size) and cookies.  She always forked (made the checkered marks using a fork) her cookies.  At any rate, she made some AWESOME COOKIES...and still does.  These were great but I'd say that her cookies tasted more peanut buttery :).  All in all, I enjoyed making my first batch of scratch peanut butter cookies.  Maybe one day I'll make the actual peanut butter and use that for the cookies. ;-)

Giant (approx. 3-4 inch diameter)Peanut Butter Cookies

The second batch of cookies we made were a little more elegant.  As a kid, we always called them a fancier sugar cookie, but today I found that the actual name is a Spritz Cookie.  Spritz cookies are made from a softer dough.  We actually used a pastry bag and star to put them on the cookie sheet.  I've seen my aunt (the same one mentioned above) use a pastry bag all while growing up, and, I've seen television shows where the Chef  used pastry bags with the greatest of ease.  Little did I know that they obviously practiced a whole lot to get that part down.  Just as with everything else, with practice comes a better product.  So these spritz cookies aren't so round, but they were as tasty, if not tastier than those that I've eaten before.  Maybe eating them just a few minutes from pulling them from the oven made the BIG difference. :)

Spritz Cookie with Raspberry Preserve

All in all, these are just a few more items that I've added to my baking and pastry repertoire.

June 6-16, 2011 - Baking & Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I

I really do apologize for those of you that have been supporting my blog.  I didn't post last weeks class projects and am posting those (Baking and Pastry I and Quantity Food Production I) pictures with descriptions along with this weeks Quantity Food Production I dishes.


First up is an Apple and Blueberry Tart.  Although you may see two different tarts, each are the same, with the top just having a streusel topping.  Both of them tasted extremely well, and I would eat both at any given moment.  I would have to lean toward the one with streusel, mainly due to the added texture that it gives you while enjoying it.

 

 Apple and Blueberry Tarts:  Hand made sweet dough pressed firmly in tart shells and filled with a cooked chopped apple and blueberry with light sugar feeling.  These can be enjoyed fresh out of the oven(of course allowing them to cool enough to eat) as well as cooled completely.  The top two pictures have a simple crumble that was cooked along with the tarts in the oven while the bottom two pictures have no topping.

Second up is the Quantity Food Production Meal from last week which was a stuffed Pork Chop (boneless) with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine and a small Salad.

Braised Stuffed Pork Chop with Potato Pancakes and Brocolli Almondine

Small Salad with shredded carrot and quartered tomato and a poppy seed vinaigrette.

This meal was full of tasts that would satisfy my ongoing craving for some stuffing.  Although I have to admit, I've eaten my share of Stove Top...but now, I know for certain that I dont think I'll ever need to make that purchase again.  Stuffings in general are extremely easy to make, and can be made within minutes.  The almonds added a different texture to the brocolli that I would've never thought of  putting together.  The braised pork chop was tender and the potato pancakes were crispy on the outside while staying soft on the inside.

The last meal is the one we compelted yesterday (June 16, 2011).  It consisted of a Beef Roulade, Asparagus with Creamy Mustard Sauce and Classic Rice Pilaf topped with Dill.  This was probably the most involved meal thus far. We had to chop each of the vegetables (onions, celery, green beans, zuccchinni, carrots, etc.) into half inch cubes for the soup, pound the beef thin enough to make the roulade and shred a load of parmesan cheese for the roulade and soup. The list of things to do for this creation goes on much further, but, I'll let you get to the pics. :)

Beef Roulade with Asparagus and a Classic Rice Pilaf

 Ministrone Soup topped with shredded Parmesan Cheese

I really enjoy the fact that we get to eat everything we make :)  Although weight gained should be reduced with exercise, the many different dishes and tastes that I've been able to make and discover have increased my palate and overall awareness of things that I wouldn't otherwise use in the kitchen.  I'm still enjoying this process and am continueing to drive forward in learning and creating mouth watering and tasteful foods.  Until next week...keep chewing.

June 2, 2011 - Day 4 of Quantity Food Production I

Very interesting meal.  I can certainly say, I've never seen my mom, any of my aunts, or anyone for that matter put stew in the oven to cook, but hey, I learn something new every single time I attend class.  The meal was really good actually, Stew with Pasta (who would've every known that they went together...never in our household growing up), with slices of cantaloupe and prosciutto.

Cantaloupe and Vinaigrette with thinly sliced Prosciutto.

Beef Bourguingnonne and Basic Pasta (cut into the size of Fettuccine): Garlic, Onions, Carrots, Chopped Parsley, Fresh Thyme (from the herb garden), Dry red wine, Beef Chuck, Vegetable Oil, Flour, Tomato paste, Tomatoes, Brown Stock, Mushrooms, Unsalted butter, Salt and Pepper, Fresh Oregano (from the herb garden).

Again, a really nice and filling meal that you could make with a little bit of prep work.  The pasta is what will take the longest.  We made the dough, then had to cover and chill it in the refrigerator for two hours before stretching and cutting our pasta.

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

So I'm back again...already.  So this was nice task.  I've made pound cakes in bundt pans before, but never one in a loaf pan.  I've also never made one from scratch.  So here's the run down.  The pound cake came out perfect, and tastes great

Buttermilk Lemon Pound Cake

I can see this new career and hobby can be detrimental to me not keeping those 20lbs off.  I'm already in need of some type of help, lol.

Honey Wheat Bread (2 Loaves)

I just felt like trying my skills at baking some bread.  Feels good to say that I didn't pay half the amount for these loaves as I would have going to the grocery store. 



Honey Wheat Bread Loaves 

Honey Wheat Bread Loaf (Two Slices) 

Honey Wheat Bread (Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches)

The perk:  Making your own bread costs a bit less overall, and tastes great.  Also, you can make the slices as thick or thin as you want.  I made french toast (with thick slices) a few hours ago and they came out GREAT!!!

The drawback:  It is a bit time consuming.  As someone who bakes, you must know that bread takes time to rise, etc...that adds on to the time.  You can obviously get other things done while waiting, so it's not that big of a problem for me.

All in all...I think I'll be bread more often.  We shall see how the dinner rolls, hot dog and hamburger buns come out next. :-)

May 26, 2011 - Day 3 (2 was cancelled) of Quantity Food Production I

Today's class was fun.  I got to see first hand how to break down and debone an entire chicken as well as make a great stuffing to go inside of each of the pieces (breast and leg/thigh).  Also we made a wonderful salad that's said to cost around $15 at some of the upscale hotels and restaurants in the are.  I'm still shaking my head at that.  I totally forgot to take a picture of some extremely tasty walnut vinaigrette that we made to top off our salad.



Fresh Pear and Blue Cheese Salad with a Toasted Walnut Vinaigrette:  Walnut pieces, rice wine vinegar, honey, minced shallots, walnut oil, salt, freshly ground black pepper, mixed spring lettuces, fresh ripe pears, blue cheese crumbled, and chopped parsley.

As stated above, this salad was AWESOME.  The massage amounts of blue cheese was complemented with the sweetness of the vinaigrette and pear slices.  Although this was an extremely tasty salad, that I will make again...I highly doubt that I would've paid $15 for it.  I mean, come on people, $15 for a salad just seems mad...but hey, blue cheese and walnuts aren't cheap I suppose ;-)

Chicken Stuffed with Mushrooms and Prosciutto with  Potatoes (mushroom shaped) and Sauteed Red Bell Pepper and Zucchini:  Chicken, whole butter, green onions, prosciutto, mushrooms, leek, heavy cream, bread crumbs, salt and pepper, Suppreme Sauce, Sauteed vegetables.

This was a fun dish to make.  Breaking down the chicken and minimizing waste by keeping cuts closed to bones meant more meat to eat :-).  After breaking the chicken down, we deboned it, then stuffed it with our prosciutto and mushroom stuffing.  We wrapped the chicken around the stuffing and tied it to keep it together while cooking.  Then we browned the skin in a pan with oil and popped it in the oven to finish.  While our chicken was cooking, we finished up our potatoes (making them look like mushrooms by using a small biscuit cutter and a paring knife) by boiling them first to cook and soften, then deep frying to give them a crisp outside texture.  We made our Supreme sauce for our base and finished the dish by sauteeing the zucchini and red bell peppers.

All in all, I really enjoyed this day.  As many of my friends and family know, I was pretty upset that I didn't get to take this class last week because of a water main break.  Doubt I was every upset at missing a class before this one.





May 23, 2011 - Day 3 of Baking and Pastry I

So the third day and we were able to discuss different types of doughs.  We used the straight dough mixing method in producing the items that you'll see below.

 Personal Pizza

At first sight, one would think that this is just an ordinary pizza with tomatoe.  If you know me, you know good and well that I am absolutely not a vegeterian, but if you thought thought, my plan was a success.  The first ingrediant on the pizza is actually small cubed pancetta, followed by fresh grated parmessan cheese and a bit of salt.  I then placed the nicely sliced tomatoes (6 slices) on the crust and finished it off with  a few nice sized slices (yes, not grated) of mozerella cheese.

Cinnamon Roll

This right here isn't your typical cinnaman roll.  It's decked out with not only the brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon, and butter, but raisens and chopped wallnuts.  When I say, Cinnabon better watch out...I'm being serious.  Most people know that I LOVE Cinnabon's Cinnamon Rolls.  This was much richer, totally fresh, and straight up AWESOME!  I didn't even want to think of the calories in it...oh yeah, the light icing on top was an added bonus.  That was made with just a few ingrediants (little butter, confectionary sugar, etc.).

We also made something else but I didn't like the taste.  Many of my classmates didn't really care for it either.  So I'll just leave it at that, lol.  All in all...these items seemingly daunting, are fairly easy to produce in any kitchen (even the one we had in South Korea).

Until the next class...keep chewing...and exercising :-\