Archive for Super-Star Pastery Chef's
Scones and Jam!
This past Thursday night I had another cooking date with my good friend Minh. This time around, I got to do a little baking and teaching. Minh had approached me for some help with creating a gift basket for a friend who was recently engaged. She was including lots of teas, curd and other exciting treats in the basket and wanted to include some jam and scones- a couple things I am well versed in!
We decided to use this recipe for Raspberry Lemon Scones. So there’s a good chance it might have been the 2 bottles of wine we working on, but we made 3 batches- 1 was fab, 2 were alright. The flavor was great in all three batches, but we struggled a bit with the shape and consistency. After thinking about it further yesterday with a non-wine influenced brain, here are a few changes I would make to the recipe: 1. Increase the flour from 2 cups to 2 and a half cups to improve the consistency of the dough– I found it to be a bit too flimsy at times. 2. Add the juice from 1/2 a lemon to increase the lemony flavor. 3. Use fresh, clean and dry raspberries- we used frozen which created far more liquid than we anticipated.
Despite needing a few tweeks, this is a pretty kick-ass scone recipe. My BF and I gobbled up the rest of the busted looking leftovers in just a couple days- which was both a good thing and bad thing! They were, as I said before, super delish and tasty- the combo of the lemon and raspberry was lovely. But having two for breakfast yesterday and today may have been a bit too much! Good thing I did an hour long cardio work out today… and have another scheduled in tomorrow!
Onto the jam- I love jam- my new Cali plates on my car actually say “Jam.” and, I kid you not, I did not request it- it was just a stroke of luck. Anyways, once I started making Jam I realized it was alot easier than I anticipated. I use a recipe that was provided to me by Lisa Baker Morgan, the Chef and owner of Ciao Yummy. Combine 1lb. fruit, 10 oz sugar (I like to use a little less) and 2 tbs lemon juice in a bowl and set in the fridge over night. The next day, add your pectin, and boil down until the jam hold it shape and does not spread on a frozen plate. And Done! So Easy!
We made 3 batches of jam along with the 3 batches of scones- Bruise-Berry Jam (Blackberry and blueberry), Strawberry, and Raspberry-Strawberry. They were beautful! The color of homemade jam is so vibrant and stunning. On top of that, they were obvi super tasty and sooo much better than store bought.
Minh called me this AM to tell me what a huge hit her gift bakset was, which I was super happy to hear. Homemade gift such as these, I think are the most thoughtful and, pardon my nerdiness here, so extra special. I would love to hear about some of the homemade gift some of you readers have given to friends and family- or if you have a fantasticly creative idea, post that as well!
Happing Baking and Jamming!
-Kristy
12 Days of Cookies!
How Exciting! Starting November 30, the Food Network will again begin it’s 12 Days of Cookies Email Newsletter Series! (Sign up by Clicking here!) Many of your Food Network Fav’s will share awesome cookie recipes, stories and of course fab. baking tips for the upcoming holiday season. Click here and you can check out a few holiday cookie videos and see cookie recipes from past years 12 Days of Cookies! I obviously LOVE testing out new cookie recipes, so I am totally looking forward to this! Hope you are too!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
My Meeting With a Super-Star Pastry Chef!
Waayyyyyy back in April, I wrote a post about a chance meeting I had with Jorg Amsler, the amazing Pastry Chef and owner of Truly Jorgs in the Boston area as well as frequent contestant on the Food Network Challenge. In the post I wrote that I would upload the pic. of Jorg and I and now I finally can. When I took the photo with Jorg, it was just after his Food Network Challenge Win of the Horror Cakes Challenge and we took the photo in front of his winning check. Well I was unable to post the photo until now because it would have spilled the beans about his big win! Well since the episode finally aired, I can finally post the photo! Yippee!
This pictures makes me so happy! I had such a wonderful afternoon at Jorg’s Patisserie and he was seriously one of the nicest chef’s I have ever met (his pastries were super delish too!) And, Jorg’s cake for the Horror Cake Challenge Kicked Ass! It was this gruesome looking skeleton riding a bad-ass motor cycle! Jorg totally deserved to win! Congrats Jorg!
Don’t forget to check out the Food Network Challenge every Sunday Night! It’s my favorite way to end a weekend!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-Kristy
A Wonderful Event at Surfas!
Last Friday I went to a talk and event at Surfas, a wonderful kitchen store/cafe/teaching kitchen. Lisa Baker Morgan, a personal chef and owner of catering company Ciao Yummy presented on Halloween Treats featuring incredible in-season eats. Lisa was a wonderful presenter. She was knowledgeable, funny, engaging and made it clear what a great chef she was. I couldn’t believe I forgot my camera, but the pic to the left was taken with my phone… not bad but just please note how cute and festive she made the teaching kitchen at Surfas!
Before I delve into the awesome recipes Lisa presented, I first need to let you know what a seriously inspiring person she is. During her talk, she let on to that fact that she was a runner. When I later checked out her website, I learned she runs marathons, is a single mother of two and runs her own catering and event planning business. AMAZING! In addition, Lisa was a lawyer in her past, but later went back to culinary school and made a huge but very exciting career change. That was especially appealing to me since I have recently begun my project, Will Bake For Tuition and am essentially considering a career change myself. In Addition, Lisa is all about making healthy choices, eating all natural and passing along these healthy eating tips to others. As much as I eat sweets, eating as natural and healthy as I can is super important to me as well. I totally love Lisa’s eating philosophy and am totally in aww of her all accomplishments since I am new to the culinary world.
So on to her delightful recipes. What I liked so much about the treats she presented was that she steered away from using the typical candy corn garnish or pumpkin-shaped-what-not. All of her treats featured the seasons best ingredients, but had an spooky Halloween undertone. One treat she presented was Ghoulish Puff Pastry Fingers… Pistachio puff pastry dough, stuffed with sugared dates with a pistachio ‘finger nail.’ So super cute and sooo delicious! There was also an delicious apple souffle and a robust pumpkin soup with a cream cheese spider web garnish. Lisa also made one hearty dish which was an apple braised pork shoulder which was so flavorful and moist. We got to try everything, plus some extras she had available like brownie cookies and curry macaroons! OMG everything she made was seriously tasty. I was super impressed with everything she made and if I ever need a catered event I would not hesitate in the least to give use her service! She also made me feel comfortable trying all these recipes… many of them used techniques that were new to me but she made the seem so simple. They are all on my to-try list over the next couple weeks!
This was my first talk at Surfas, and since it was such as wonderful experience, I know I will be making an effort to check more of them out! If you are in the LA area, this is a total must for any foodie! For more info on Lisa and her company, click here!
Happy Baking!
-Kristy
Snoop Dog on Martha!
I freaking love Martha Stewart and try to catch her show as much as possible… which generally turn outs to be only one day per week! Oh how working full time gets in the way of the important things!! My friend Camille recently sent me this link to a clip of Snoop Dog on the Martha Stewart Show… and it is hysterical! You’ve got to watch it!
The mashed potatoes sound delish!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-Kristy
Memories from Maine!
I grew up in New England and my family was lucky and fortunate enough to have a summer house on the coast of Maine (thanks to my wonderfully smart grandparents!). I’ve haven’t been able to visit our summer home in well over 3 years now, and I miss it terribly! There is something about how simple, relaxing and enjoyable summer life is this vacation town. Your biggest decisions of the day are which beaches to go to and where to go get your evening ice cream sundae. I love falling asleep to the sounds of the surf rather than the howell of cop sirens. I love the smell of the salty air and watching the sail boats drift along the water while I eat my breakfast on our back porch every morning. I love that the street our cottage is on has no street lights, and stars at night are overwhelmingly abundant. Believe me.. the list of my the many things I love about Maine could go on and on, but I’ll stop here for now! Oh Maine… we have been apart far too long!
Today I received a package from my parents full of wonderful little delights from the small but lovely town of York Beach, ME. There were T-Shirts, photos, post cards, fresh blueberry jam and the best part, was the Salt Water Taffy from The Goldenrod, called Kisses. The Goldenrod is a landmark of York Beach. Its a restaurant, ice cream parlor and candy shop all rolled into one (really, it couldn’t appeal to me more!). You can get a delicious sandwich with a freshly made Raspberry-Lime Ricky, followed by a traditional Banana Split and on your way out pick up a pound of Taffy. It been in the same place since 1896 and the salt water taffy is made the same way now as they did when it originated. You can watch the taffy being made from the sidewalk outside the restaurant and the sweet smell of the hot sugar wafts a few blocks down attracting lots of onlookers (Mmm… it smells soo sweet and delicious!). As a child, my brother, sister and I used to watch the process for hours, and try to guess which kind of taffy was being made. I was seriously always mesmerized by it!
As soon as I opened the package I dug right into the taffy! My parents sent me a mixed box, so I have lots of variety. I opted for a strawberry, followed but a peppermint. The taffy was light and airy, and sweet and delicious! Sometimes taffy is so sticky and chewy I feel as if it would pull my teeth right out, and I hate that. But this taffy is NEVER like that! Its perfectly chewy, without being ridiculously sticky! My favorite flavor growing up was the peanut butter, and I have decided to save those for last! The peanut butter taffy has a wonderfully rich and nutty flavor, and has a creamy peanut butter center. Okay, I might just have to have one peanut butter kiss to start… Mmmm… Pardon me while I take another bite!
It amazes me how the flavor and smell of a particular food can make me so nostalgic! Thank so much for listening… or I mean reading along with my little mental trip back to one of my favorite places in the world! I hope you enjoyed the ride!
Happy Baking and Taffy Tasting!
-KM
How I Spent My Sunday…
I am an Irish-Catholic girl from Boston and am lucky enough to have many friends in my life from many other cultures, backgrounds and religions. I love learning about new traditions and was excited to celebrate my first Rosh Hashanah’s with my friends Chad and Gail this past weekend. I was pumped to see the September issue of Martha Stewart Living that she featured a recipe for Apples and Honey Challah Bread. It sounded sooo delightful to me and would be my perfect contribution to a wonderful celebration.
Here’s the thing… quick breads I’m a pro… but I had yet to try a rising bread. So Sunday was my chance. Little did I know how long these breads take! I just happened to start the bread around 10am. My initial Sunday plan was to veg out and watch The New England Patriots play (Yes being a girl from Boston means I love any and all Boston Sports Teams!), but as the game started off grim, I headed into the kitchen and listened to the game commentary instead. As I listened to thoughts of my man Tom Brady, I mixed the dough, kneaded the hell out of it and set it to rise. Did a few dishes, cut some apples and kneaded the dough a bit more. I let it rise, kneaded yet again, coiled it into a pan and let it rise again. Finally I glazed it with some honey butter, and put it in the oven…after 6 hours mixing kneading, baking and one football game loss later, I finally took the bread out of the oven!!!!
She’s a beauty isn’t she?!?! Unfortunately my plans didn’t work out (not to worry… the bread still went to good use!), but I stopped into to see Chad at work to get is official opinion of the bread… and he thought it was awesome! He was super impressed, as were some of his co-workers! They honey butter glaze really made this bread go from good to great. I’ve been eating it for breakfast all week and it has been the perfect morning treat. I highly recommend this recipe. Although I admit I was a little intimidated at first, it was easier than I thought. Martha’s recipes are always great and always seem to bode success! Damn Martha… how’d you get so good?!?!?
To all my Rosh Hashanah celebrating friends out there… Have a Happy and Sweet New Year!
Happy Baking!
-KM
Top Chef is Back!
This post will be brief and is really just a friendly reminder. Top Chef is back on Bravo! Yippee! This is one of my favorite shows. And season 6 is off to a great start. It’s only 3 weeks in and the competition if fierce! This year there are brothers, Michael and Bryan, competing against each other and some seriously impressively trained chef’s like Jennifer who has worked under Eric Ripert. Usually by now I have a winner picked, but this years cast to simply too good.
This is my one and only must see show of the week. I put on my PJ’s, poor myself a nice, big glass of wine.. and nothing can get me off the couch for this one hour. I get soo excited to watch how creative the chef’s are. And, I get even more excited when a see a chef make a kick-ass dessert. I loved Karla from season five, who always made a bang with a baked good! I specifically remember an apple tart served with a piece of cheddar cheese… OMG it looked soo good… which reminds me… it’s almost fall and apple season is right around the corner! mmm… I love a good apple dessert!
I am totally looking forward to see how this season will unroll! Be sure to watch every Wednesday (TONIGHT!!! YIPPEE!!) at 10pm (I know. I sound like a commercial huh… but I just seriously love this show that much!) More blogs re: Top Chef 6 will be on its way!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-KM
My Alter Ego!
Kitty Forman. Yes, you read correctly. My alter ego is Kitty Forman, the mother from “That 70’s Show”. This was so eloquently pointed out to me by my boyfriend on our most recent weekend adventure. Before I go on any further in my explanation of why I am Kitty, let me explain a little bit about the character if you have never seen the show. Kitty is a generally optimistic mother of two, who works as a nurse at the local hospital and likes to either bake or have an adult beverage when things get stressful. While I may not be a mother (unless having a puppy counts?!), I am generally optimistic, work in a hospital as an art therapist and like to bake and have adult beverages (sometimes I like to combined the baking and adult beverages!). So far, the comparison is pretty spot on.
Now my boyfriend and I have been watching “That 70’s Show” non-stop lately (well mostly my boyfriend… I am usually blogging or falling asleep on the couch… This seems to be a common trend for us…We get really into shows that are no longer on the air and watch them over and over till we can’t stand them anymore, then move on to a new one.) I opted to change my schedule at work last week so I could enjoy the long Labor Day weekend like the rest of America (working in a hospital = working lots of holidays and weekends.. bummer!). Therefore, my boyfriend was home by himself most of the week leading up to Labor Day weekend watching all the episodes of “That 70’s Show” he could get his eyes on. “That 70’s Show” is almost like “Seinfeld” or “The Simpsons” in which you can find it on some channel no matter what time or day of the week it is. He has been watching it at all hours of the day, everyday of the week.
So, on Saturday, I was able to pull my boyfriend away from the TV to meet some of our friends at their hotel pool in Newport Beach for a wonderful day of sun and drinks by the pool. (FYI! the Fairmount Hotel in Newport Beach has a fantastic pool!) On the car ride down to Newport, my boyfriend decided to break the silence by saying to me, “You know what, you are just like Kitty from ‘That 70’s Show.’” My boyfriend says a lot of random things from me which I usually just ignore but I felt that this on needed an explanation.
He told me about an episode he recently watched, where Jackie (one of Kitty’s son’s friends) became an assistant to the host of a “Today Show” type of morning show. Jackie gave her boss some of Kitty’s homemade brownies. Of course, the boss absolutely loved them and decided to featured the brownies on the show the next day. When the show aired Kitty was so excited that her brownies were on TV that she seriously almost burst. (And yes, I would have done exactly the same thing.) The host went on to give Kitty’s brownies the biggest complement someone can give a baked good… “The brownies were so moist that you did not even need milk.” (OMG! Freaking awesome compliment!) To a semi-professional baker like myself, (and Kitty) this compliment is like winning a gold medal at the Olympics or a Nobel Prize. Well, Jackie ended up taking credit for the brownies to try and impress her boss. But, like in all TV shows, Jackie ends up confessing that Kitty, not her, made them. Jackie told her boss the truth on the set of the morning show while Kitty sat in the background pretending she was hosting the actual show. Let me tell you… if I ever end up on the set of any morning or Food Network show, I would totally pretend to host it was well while no one was looking. Seriously, who hasn’t watched one of those shows and thought “I could do that”.
Now let’s do a final comparison: Kitty is gitty and optimistic. I am gitty and optimistic. She works in a hospital. I work in a hospital. Her husband Red is generally grumpy. My boyfriend is generally grumpy. She bakes and drinks when she is stressed. I bake and drink when I am stressed. She flipped out when she saw her brownies on TV. I would TOTALLY flip out if I had a baked good on TV. She fake hosted a morning show. Embarrassingly, I would do the same. The only real difference is a 20-30 year age gap and two kids. So, as my boyfriend perfectly explained to me, I am Kitty Forman and proud of it.
So, I hope the next time you watch That 70’s Show…. you think of me as well!
Happy Baking!
-KM
The Best Movie of the Year!
The day I had been waiting for finally arrived… Last night Kate and I went to see Julie and Julia. Yes, you guessed it and what a surprise… I FREAKIN’ LOVED IT!!!!! So did Kate! We laughed, we smiled, we cried… yes, both Kate and I cried! Meryl Streep made such an amazing Julia Child and Amy Adams made Julie to be an amazingly like-able character despite her bits of narcissism!
So of course, there are differences from the book. There were no corporate friends in the book and neither were the many details about Julia Child’s life included, but I enjoyed the little adjustments that were made. What I think I loved the most was the beautiful love story of Julia and Paul that is less prominent in the book. They were so in love and lived a life in Paris that I could only dream of. I think the cutest part was at the very end. Paul was helping Julia organize her pots and pans in her new glorious Kitchen at the their new home in Cambridge MA (which just happens to be the same city I went to college in). It was the sweetest thing ever. He was so careful and meticulous… I swear it made me melt!
Julie, on the other hand, was a seriously relate-able character. I loved that she was herself, she had her melt downs, but kept cooking. She totally took charge of her life. I swear I don’t know one person who hasn’t been in a rut and simply needed a way to dig themselves out. Cooking was her shovel, and she dug her way through! Cooking is totally my self care as well.
After the movie Kate and I went for a glass of wine to chat and we both were in love with it, and a bit inspired. It is a serious must see. It was really much better than I ever could have anticipated. I swear I had the most ridiculously giddy smile on my face for the rest of the night. A good movie, a good friend and good glass of wine…. I don’t if last night could have been any better! Now its the count down till its out on DVD!
GO see this movie! It’s Freaking Fabulous!
Happy Baking and Watching!
-KM
