October Smells Like Cake

Cakes have been a major component of my life for the past few weeks.

I found myself with some time on my hands this month
and it coincided nicely with receiving Rose Levy Beranbaum’s new book
Rose’s Heavenly Cakes.

Although I’m not a big cake eater
(I’ll take pie over cake
and ice cream over them both)
I love to bake them.

Given my tepid feelings towards cake consumption
I consistently have a problem with what to do with cakes once I make them.

The thought of having too much cake on hand
and then it going to waste
is what normally stops me from baking
but I put that concern aside for a little bit earlier this month.

Inspired by the new book
I took an evening to lounge around in bed and page through my new treasure.
The dogs kept me company as I looked through it
passing by the chocolate chocolate chocolate cakes
and then suddently staring at a photo of a beautiful four layer cake
called Woody’s Lemon Luxury Layer Cake.

While I like milk/dark chocolate
I never really crave it.
I do crave lemony things, however.

That yellow cirtus has my heart for sure.
Have you ever seen a piece of fruit look so happy?
It’s BRIGHT YELLOW! It FITS IN YOUR HAND!
You can cook/bake/clean with it!
It’s MULTIPURPOSE!

I go through a lot of lemons and need to plant a lemon tree already.

Now that you know my feelings on lemons
you could understand why I would be drawn to a recipe calling for zest in the sponge, curd to fill, and curd in the white chocolate frosting.

Sponge set up

Zest bomb

Out of the oven

Pulling away from the pans
as it should
after a few minutes

I left it to cool and started on the curd.

I would have photos of the curd in progress
but the first batch turned out poorly
and it was because I followed directions.

PSA: Don’t make anything that is lemon-based in a stainless steel/metal container.
Just don’t.

I don’t care what the recipe says.
Use a glass bowl and wooden utensils and I promise you
your lemon whatever won’t taste like it passed through water fountain pipes.

Cause that’s what happens in a stainless steel pot.

PlusIgoofeduponanotherthing
but we don’t need to talk about it.

(Don’t forget to add the eggs when making your curd.
You can’t just add them in at the end.
Yeah. I did you a favor and learned for you.)

So I made another batch and then set everything aside to cool overnight.

The next day I made the buttercream.

It had a fair amount of white chocolate

Melted

Back to the stove with some butter, eggs
and vanilla

The frosting base had to cool too
(notice the name of the cake did not say “Woody’s Quick Lemon Luxury Layer Cake)
but after cooling I whipped in some butter

then the some of the lemon curd

and ended with a whole boatload of amazing buttercream.

I put that aside and went back to working on the cake layers.

Cooled and torted

Simple syrup to keep them moist
(helpful since they were already a day old)

Curd in between

I sigh a happy sigh.
It looks like sunshine.
Who wouldn’t want to eat sunshine
…that tastes like lemons (and not of fire)?

Whoever doesn’t want to
well, I’ll have their piece of sunshine then.

Buttercream on top and in between the sandwiched layers

Crumb coat

I know some bakers don’t do a crumb coat
but I swear by them.

True to its name
this is the coat that captures all the crumbs in your frosting
that way they don’t end up marring the surface of your pretty cake.

After I applied the crumb coat
I put the cake in the refrigerator to set up a little bit
so as to make the final frosting layer nice and smooth.

That was the goal at least.

Perfectly smooth buttercream frosting on a cake is one of the hardest thing for me to do.
Possibly harder than Pie Crust.
If I ever met Crust and Buttercream in a dark alley at night
I would run away
screaming in terror.

Buttercream won the battle this time.

It also seems I was so enraged at losing the Battle of Smooth
that I could not take a decent picture of the finished product.

It was a night of failures
because I also added some yellow food coloring to the icing
and it turned splotchy from lazy mixing.

Thats what you get.
Bad lighting
subject cut off
and the equivalent of cow spots on the cake.

You’re just going to have to like it
or not like it.
Whatever you want.

It wasn’t winning any beauty pageants
but hot damn it was good.

If you’ve ever wondered
what it’s like to try to get a nice slice of cake for a photograph
it looks a little like this

I quit after three slices.

The insides

You can see the buttercream filling is a little bit cracked.

After I finished frosting the cake I put it in the refrigerator to set up again.
When I took it out
I didn’t wait until it had warmed up all the way through to slice it
so it cracked a little.

My problem with having too much cake was taken care of when I tweeted that I had a lot of cake and no one to eat it.

Summons were issued
and the cake went a’traveling to a little ol’ Houston bar.

I still came home with a few slices
but it was better than having the behemoth sit in my fridge for a week or two.

This cake was not the only cake to come into my life this month.

I made an angel food cake too.

Good ol’ Woody liked a lot of egg yolks in his cake
so I had about fifteen whites in a big bowl in my fridge.

You can see theres a few spots where the flour didn’t incorporate well.
It was still pretty fluffy and light
and since it was my first angel food cake
I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

I didn’t do all the cake making this month.

Dorothy Young put on a Cheesecake making class.

The master showing us how it is done

Some students listening and reading their notes

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

Dorothy Young’s tasty pumpkin cheesecake with candied pecans

This guy was also there
making coffee

and of course
for those who couldn’t attend the class
there were plenty of people live-tweeting it

This isnt even a full round up of all the cakes I’ve seen this month.
October is also not over
and of course
I have a few more cakes planned.

I will practice again with a cake with a buttercream frosting
trying to attain perfect smoothness with a non-crusting frosting
and probably get frustrated with it
then stalk off to do something where I am not involved with preparation
like eat tacos.

Thankfully that respite won’t be too far out of reach this weekend.
I have giant plans involving taco trucks this Sunday.

To maximize the taco-rest opportunity
I should start the cake on Saturday
go to bed pissed off at the cake that night
wake up to eat tacos
then come back blissed out and issue a beat down on the buttercream.

Yeah
you better watch your back buttercream.
When I’m done with you
you won’t even dare to wrinkle.

I’ll get your friend, Crust, in November.
In the kitchen
with a pumpkin.

Eatin’ Some Food in Bahstan – Fancy Pants Edition

Last weekend Husband had a conference in Boston
and I went with.

I grew up in Massachusetts
and figured it would be fun to rent a car and drive past my old houses
especially since the foliage was supposed to be pretty in those parts of the state.

I’m a sucker for red, yellow, and orange leaves
and those just don’t happen in Houston.

We were to leave on Friday morning and stay through Monday evening.

It almost worked out that way.

We missed our flight on Friday.
Well.
They wouldnt let us board the plane
but that’s not the point of this entry.

I am watching my mailbox for vouchers though
because you better believe got all up in Continental’s business after having to deal with the GATE GUARDIAN IN RED
and customer service
WHICH WAS NOT SO CUSTOMER SERVICEABLE.

::huffs and puffs::

Onwards.

We spent most of our Friday sulking in IAH
and arrived in Boston too late to really do anything.

It was about to start raining
and to top it all off
I thought my eardrum ruptured on landing.

Luckily this turned out not to be the case
but it still hurt tremendously
and I couldnt hear out of it for about ten hours.

I concluded that the only way the day could get better
was to end it
so I went to sleep while Husband frolicked at the first night of his conference.

The next day
it was still raining
Hub went back to the conference
and I was left to figure out what to do.

With all the rain
I decided that renting a car was not going to happen.

Getting around in Boston proper was a little crazy
and I wasnt comfortable driving around on unfamiliar highways in a rental car
especially in the downpour.

Instead I picked up from where I left off on researching Boston restaurants
and decided to try Marliave.

I made reservations on Opentable.com
and commented that I would like to do a three course meal
chef’s choice
with the only restriction being no seafood.

I don’t like seafood.
I’ve tried and tried to like it
but it all tastes disgusting to me.

I’ve had fresh seafood of all types
and no matter how hard I try to fall in love with it
it always tastes like something at the bottom of a freshwater fish tank to me.

Say what you will
but thats how I roll.

I made reservations for 1:30p
and when I got there
the hostess didn’t seem to be aware of my reservation.

The hostess asked where I would like to sit
either upstairs or downstairs
and I chose upstairs for the light.

In the upstairs dining room
there were only two other tables with patrons
both of which were paying their checks.

The server came by and introduced herself and asked if I’d like a drink or anything to start with.

I guess no one was aware of my reservation or request.
I asked if I could do a three course meal
chefs choice
(sans seafood)
and she looked a little confused.

“Like… appetizer, main, dessert?“
“Yes, that would be great.”
“Ok, let me go check with the chef.“

She came back a few moments later
and by that time the two other tables were gone.

“The chef says that’s no problem.“

So it began.

Standard nibble delivered to all tables.

Bread panfried in olive oil
with olive oil
and olives.

It was a bit olive-y
if I do say so myself.

1st course:

Duck rilletes with brioche toast and apples.

I thought the rilletes were a little muddy tasting on their own
but when put together with the apples and mustard or brined items
they were quite good.

The caperberry was best with the duck however,
and I would have been happy for a few more of those on the plate.

2nd course:

‘Hand-stuffed’ ravioli in roasted tomato sauce.

I could tell the ravioli were made earlier in the day
because the edges were a little tough
but the tomato sauce and filling were outstanding.

I thought this was my main course at first
and was a little bummed that they forgot about the wine pairing
but it dawned on me halfway through
that this was the pasta course
and this was going to be a four-course meal.

I began to pace myself accordingly.

Sure enough
the server cleared my plate
and set down a big steak knife and new fork.

iPhone photo, sorry

3rd course:

Pancetta wrapped stuffed rabbit loin with leg, whipped potatoes and mushrooms

The only downside of this dish was that the salt in the pancetta
took away some of the thunder from the rabbit loin.
It was just a little too much.

The wine that was paired with the entree was
(at least what the sever said)
a 1994 California Cabernet.

I can’t find that on their wine menu
so the world may never know.

I am not a huge wine drinker
but enjoy a glass when it is paired properly with food
and such was the case at this meal.

4th course:

Pumpkin pie with cranberry relish

The pumpkin pie was straight out of the fridge
and I like mine better.

The cranberry relish was very good though.

I appreciated the fact that the chef let the tartness of the berries play a role in the dessert
instead of trying to make the whole thing sweet sweet sweet.

After I managed to eat almost all of the dessert
I asked for the check.

Between the time the server cleared my plate and brought me the bill
Chef Scott Herritt came out to see what I thought of the meal.

I was struck by the fact
that he was wearing a perfectly starched and unwrinkled blue shirt
and all I could think was that he kept that in a closet somewhere
specifically for occasions when some random chick comes in alone
and orders a massive lunch.

SOMETHING’S UP AND REQUIRES FORMAL ATTIRE.

He spent only a few moments at the table
(literally. Like five seconds)
but I remarked upon the cranberry relish
and also that I loved the caperberry with the duck rilletes.

He looked at me warily and smiled,
said he was glad I liked it and thanked me for coming in.

When I got the bill
I saw they comped me one course
which was nice
and fair
since I only asked for three.

During the meal
I wasn’t sure if I needed to say something
“Scuse me, am I supposed to be getting four courses? I only asked for three… BUT DON’T TAKE IT AWAY! I LOVE THESE RAVIOLI!”
or leave it be
and I opted for the latter
waiting to see how they would handle it.

That being said
I was something between touched and flattered
that the chef would want to share his work with someone that walked in and said
“give me what you think is best.”

That or he thought I was a restaurant critic
and was trying to ply me with as much excellent food as I could eat.

I’ll take it either way
thank you very much
because it was quite delicious.

Marliave
10 Bosworth St.
Boston, Massachusetts 02113
ph. 617.422.0004

Not-so-fancy-pants edition of eating in Beantown to follow.

My Pita Poofed!

I’ve been sick for the past week.

That means not much cooking went on in my house
even though I tried to guilt trip Husband into cooking for me.

Instead, he picked up Lipton noodle soup at the beginning of the week
and got Chinese takeout at the end of the week.

Hot Pockets also made an appearance in there.

It was not a proud week
but it did remind me a lot of summertime as a teenager.

Back then I made what I could find in the pantry and freezer
and I guess that was a lot of Lipton, Hot Pockets, and eggrolls.

Saturday and Sunday still found me dragging myself from one flat surface to another
but I was going a little bit crazy from not cooking.

Since Husband was neither going to use up the tomatoes eking past their prime
nor the cucumber languishing in the refrigerator beside the bell pepper
I decided it was time to return to the kitchen.

Wasting food almost causes me to lose sleep at night
and since I was already coughing most of my nights away
I decided it was time to make some gazpacho.

Modified from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

2 pounds ripe red tomatoes (about 10 plum tomatoes)
8 ounces cucumber (about 1 cucumber)
3 ounces green pepper (about 1/2 bell pepper)
1 tablespoon sherry vinegar
1 garlic clove, peeled
3/4 cup Spanish extra-virgin olive oil

Note: I recommend a lighter olive oil. Lucini is great and doesn’t PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE with olive oil flavor. Depending on what olive oil you use, the flavor be overpowering, so stick with one that is on the buttery side.

Salt to taste

DIRECTIONS

1. Chop up all ingredients (peel cucumbers, remove seeds and top of bell pepper, tomatoes can be cored, but leave the skins).

2. Throw everything but the salt and oil into a blender.

3. Turn on the blender and blend until smooth. Take a taste and see if you need more vinegar. The sweetness of the tomatoes will vary from batch to batch. Add some more vinegar to balance out everything if necessary.

4. Add the olive oil and salt and reblend.

5. Strain mixture through fine mesh strainer. Your mixture should be smooth with a lot of body.

6. Chill. I like mine very cold.

I like to serve the soup with grilled toast brushed with olive oil.

Andres has an elaborate garnish component in the book
but I rarely prepare it.

Husband and I nibbled (sipped?)
on the gazpacho all Saturday
and by Sunday I was still self-quarantined
but could not hold myself back from cooking a full meal for any longer.

First I made pita bread

Post-roll, pre-oven.

I couldnt be arsed to break out the real camera
so just used my phone.

I make no excuses.

My fourth attempt at this recipe
finally succeeded
and my pitas poofed.

Like the elusive Big Foot, this puffy pita was hard to photograph.

Is that enough alliteration for you?

I slid pair after pair of dough rounds in the oven
and after a while my reward was this:

I would be inclined to say they we’re pillowy, puffy, pitas
but that might be pushing the ‘p’ theme a bit
so I’ll just say that they were soft and had the appropriate pocket in each.

I also made “New Bride” Chicken Curry with a red onion raita.

Both recipes are from Ruta Kahate’s 5 Spices, 50 dishes
a short cookbook with which I’ve had great success.

I improvised some saffron jasmine rice as well
which consisted of steaming some jasmine rice in chicken broth with saffron.

The chicken curry was pretty simple.

Brown some onions

add the spice paste and garlic, stir around for a while
then add the tomatoes

cook the tomatoes down a little bit

add water and the chicken
(I’ll use broth or stock next time)
and simmer until chicken is cooked through.

The book says to cook the chicken uncovered
but I covered it for the last bit of stove time
since I wanted a looser sauce.

I discarded the skin after cooking
because anything less than shatteringly crisp chicken skin is not for me.

The recipe calls a bit of apple cider and sugar to be added at the end
which I loved.

When I tasted the saffron rice straight out of the pot I didn’t care for it too much
but found was great with the curry.

Sunday lunch
in Technicolor!

I halved the recipe
because I only thawed a pound and a half of chicken.

I love rice with any type of soupy gravy or broth
so next time
even if I halve the recipe
I would double the base.

The onion raita didn’t go perfectly with the chicken
but I liked the flavor of it.

Next time I think I’ll serve it with something other than chicken.

I think it needs to accompany a stronger protein so it doesn’t overwhelm it.

Husband proclaimed the meal
a ‘make again’ meal
although he politely picked around his onion raita.

I have liver and onions with grilled polenta up next on the list
and I’m hoping that it turns out well.

My experience with liver has not been a good one
but this is from our meat CSA
so I’m hoping that it turns out better than other liver I’ve had.

We’ve heard nothing on our vegetable CSA.
The owner deleted my comment from her blog
never contacted me about helping them
and hasn’t updated anyone in three days about what is going to happen.

For all that arm flapping and doom and gloom
it doesn’t seem like she’s very serious about making this work
but who knows
maybe she’ll come back with a plan.

I don’t know what she’s doing up there
but I’m not sure she does either.

CSA Woes

For the past couple of months we’ve been having issues with our vegetable CSA.

We’ve received very few of our weekly deliveries lately
and the owner of the CSA (a co-op) has cited family emergencies, weather, and just plain exhaustion.

I get it.
I’m not standing there
expecting a delivery like clockwork every week from a group of farmers.

I understand that when it rains
you can’t just SLOSH ON THROUGH your fields to pick tomatoes.

Things like car repairs come up
and for someone running razor thin margins
getting the radiator fixed can’t always happen on the same day that it breaks.

What is frustrating
is that I’ve heard the same things week after week lately.

For the first half of the year
we did not have any problems
and the deliveries were amazing.

Things seemed to go downhill quickly these last few months.

More often than not
our delivery is delayed by several days
and there have been instances that when it does show up
the produce is bruised or past its prime.

My husband and I have had numerous conversations about whether or not we will renew in January
since we prepaid for the year.

The last conversation we had
we were both tired of the lack/wild variation in timeliness of deliveries, poor produce quality as of late
(a whole bag of green beans was moldy)
and exasperated by the fact that we received an email stating that we would receive a delivery that week
and nothing ever showed up.

Nice.

We were not the only ones with less than squishy lovey feelings for our CSA.

Yesterday I received a notification of a new blog post from the owner on the social networking site
(one we had to join to receive updates about deliveries and pertinent information)
and scrolled on down in the e-mail to read it
(at least that was convenient).

Below are some excepts:

In the last 2 months 22 members that were supposed to, by the agreement all members signed, did not give any notice and dropped their membership. When I got back on line this morning two more members had dropped without adequate notice. All members (on their honor) agreed to give us at LEAST 2 months notice but, these ex-members did not give us this courtesy. In addition , over the last two months we’ve only gotten a few new members~ most of which were only quarter shares. Of those remaining members due to renew this month , only one paid their renewal on time.. . . I have put $6000 of my own personal money into the CSA over the last two months , trying to keep it afloat, but now I am totally tapped out and cannot affoard to (simply don’t have it) put another dime into it. I don’t stand a chance of seeing that money again.

We need to get at least 4 shares sold in the next week or the CSA is going to go bust.. . . We must get the renewals that are owed in immediately, we must get the renewals that are due to come in over the next few weeks in on time and we must get the shares sold that were abandoned or it is the end of the only CSA in the Houston area. That is brutal but, it is the plain truth of the matter.

I am putting the future of the CSA into the members hands. We have come up with several ideas to try to regenerate interest in the CSA.. . . Two months of money going out at the rate they have been ~ with very little coming in at late at best, have put our CSA into a serious downward spiral. If you have any input that you feel may be constructive, we are very open to your suggestions.

As things stand as of right now, we have no operating capital to get deliveries out. As soon as we do we will deliver the remaining undelivered members currently due deliveries. We will then shut down for the remaining time~up to a month, if necessary~ until our membership can support the costs of deliveries again.

Well
that explains a lot.

I’m not sure why she waited so long to clue the rest of the members in
but there ya go.

I posted this response in the comments section:

“I think many members feel the same way that I do in regard to the CSA at this point. There have been MANY deliveries that were not made, even when e-mails went out that the deliveries would be made that night or that week. In addition, the deliveries are very rarely made on the day they are supposed to be made. Please do not think that I (or we) believe that you can control situations like rain or emergencies, but when something happens almost every week that prevents/delays the deliveries, it becomes very frustrating. In addition, I’ve received several deliveries with moldy fruit and vegetables or items that were obviously past their prime. The issues in getting the produce even delivered prevented me from contacting you because I did not want to add to the apparent stress that you all were undergoing. Looking back, I should have contacted you to give you a heads up on the situation if you were not aware of it.

If you want to run the CSA like a business (which I feel like we’ve received conflicting information about), I would suggest sticking to the contracts we all signed and ceasing delivery when a member does not pay. Given that it takes months to cultivate crops, perhaps consider a deposit so that if the member does not renew on time, you take the deposit and can recover some of your losses of growing the produce for those months in anticipation of a renewal. Alternately, stipulate that the member must notify you within two months of their renewal date (YOU need to be tracking this, NOT the members) if they will not be renewing. If they do not give notice to what they will be doing, then do not deliver to them until they do. People will take advantage of you, inadvertentlyor not, if you give them the opportunity.

A few other constructive ideas: move the e-mail list to something besides [weird social networking site]. I get many notifications from [site] that I don’t need to see and it would be helpful to separate the members into their respective lists and send them relevant e-mails. I’m not concerned about when other lists are being delivered, just mine (you could set up a Send To All e-mail group if you need to send something out to everyone, like this e-mail, or if you’re notifying when people will be late). People’s inboxes are already full and would rather see less e-mail than more.

Start a group on Facebook and set up a Twitter account for the CSA. Both free, free, free and I can’t tell you how many people I’ve had ask about the CSA because I am active on both of these sites and have mentioned the CSA before. The [site] is hard to navigate and not many people are on it. I had to set up an account simply to get e-mails about the CSA. Make it easy for people to access you and that will help alot. In Facebook you can set up photo albums and make postings for recipes if you wish. On Twitter, tweet (send a message out) about the produce you’re delivering that week to generate interest.

We are due for renewal in January, but given the issues that the CSA has been having, we will probably not be renewing our membership either. I hope to see things pick up for BlueStar Acres, but I think it will take action on the members’ part as well as yours.”

I tried to be fair and honest.
Farming is hard and is not something that you can force to a schedule and expect quality out of it.

I don’t expect to get my deliveries EVERY WEEK AT THE SAME TIME.
Some consistency would be nice
and I really don’t want to get an e-mail saying that our delivery is going to be late ‘because everyone is just so tired.’

That does not make me very confident in you
nor does it make me want to give you my money.

You want my business, you win me over.

Many of the commenters reiterated a line from the welcome e-mail all members were sent upon sign up
that the ‘CSA is not a business.’

Uh-huh.

Whether its a profitable business or not is a different matter
but when I get an e-mail from the owner saying they can’t continue providing a product because they don’t have enough money to pay people
doesn’t that sound like a business?

The CSA is not run like a business
but it is a business operation.

There is a lot of debate on the blog going on right now–
some people out-and-out ripping the owner a new one
others sprinkling flowers everywhere and shining love out of every orifice.

I volunteered
along with some others
to help transfer files over to Facebook to get them started there
and also to build a database for better tracking of membership and renewals.

The owner is supposed to get in touch with me today
but I’ve yet to hear from her.

I haven’t quite given up on this CSA yet.
There were quite a few months when our deliveries were beautiful;
the fruit and vegetables were ripe and heady
and the selection was enough to make Central Market jealous.

I really want to see them succeed.
I love fresh produce and have been challenged wonderfully this year to try new recipes.

It was also an eye opener as to how hard it is to identify some items without a neat little printed sign in front of them.

Husband couldn’t tell the difference between a zucchini and a cucumber
(there was much pointing and laughing at him)
but I’m proud to say he’s done been learned.

If anyone is interested in joining this CSA
please let me know.

I know that seems strange to plunk out here after all of this
but honestly
when they’re in their groove
they really impress.

Plus
I’d really like to get the rest of my deliveries.

Edit: You know what, nevermind. The ridiculous saga that has taken place in the past few days with the owner has only enabled us to settle firmly on NOT renewing our membership.

I’m sorry to say that a lot of flapping arms and incoherent posts on her behalf do nothing to make me want to help the CSA
especially coupled with the owners consistent inability to follow through on ANYTHING.

Saturday Night at Brisa

(Cross-posted on the Houston Chowhounds board because I know a fair amount of people picked up those Restaurant.com gift certificates.)

On Saturday night my husband and I finally decided to give Brisa a try. They have plastered more menus on our car windshield than we can count and Restaurant.com had a listing for them on their site. Taking advantage of the opportunity, we purchased a $25.00 gift certificate to the restaurant at a discount.

We arrived at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday night. There were seven tables occupied out of about 25 (not counting bar seating, where I swear I saw a tumbleweed roll through), mostly two tops. You could see into the kitchen beyond some glass and everyone was standing around back there, unoccupied. In short, the restaurant was not busy at all.

When we arrived, the hostess passed the menu onto our server, and we were instructed to sit anywhere we wanted. We sat ourselves and wanting to avoid any problems when presented the bill, I asked if we could use the Restaurant.com gift certificate towards alcoholic drinks. Our server, I believe his name was Ronny, said he would check with his manager. He returned a few moments later saying “I have some bad news. The manager said we don’t take these.” I asked him to bring the manager over, wondering why the manager didn’t advise us of this himself. Daniel arrived at our table and reiterated that he could not accept the gift certificate. I asked why and he launched into a story that changed a few times. He repeated several times that it was out of his hands and that the owners were having problems with Restaurant.com. He said that they “cancelled their agreement with Restaurant.com six months ago” which I found hard to believe since the restaurant has only been open since May (that would be four months for anyone counting). Then towards the end of the conversation he said that they had been having problems with Restaurant.com for ‘a while now’ and then ‘a month’ popped up somewhere in there too. He also seemed to imply that we bought the certificate a while ago and were now just trying to honor it. I drew his attention to the date printed on the certificate and also told him that they were about to get inundated with these certificates due to the big sale Restaurant.com had on them.

He asked us if there was anything he could do to which my husband, irritated after listening to an ever changing story, retorted that he could honor the gift certificate we bought just last week. Daniel said he could offer us a free appetizer or dessert and at that point I thanked him, but said politely that we would leave. It had the feeling of a bait and switch operation, especially since Daniel’s story kept changing the longer we talked to him. I’m sure it truly was out of his hands, but the whole thing just seemed shady. I didn’t want to patronize a place where I felt that we were being taken advantage of or not being told the whole truth, even if it was ‘the public’s version’ of the whole truth.

At that point Daniel said he would honor the gift certificate and he apologized profusely for all the problems. He said he would still give us an appetizer or dessert for free. We thanked him and set about to ordering our meal.

We asked our server for chips and salsa (to which he replied: ‘we only bring it out if you ask, and you just asked… so… I’ll bring it out’ Uh, thanks!)

For an appetizer we got the cheese ‘tortilla’ stuffed with beef. Husband enjoyed this but I found the cheese wrapping kind of tough. The skirt/flank steak was tender and well seasoned though. The guacamole perched on top of lettuce was tasty too.

For an entree I got the chile relleno and Husband got the Gulf red snapper fillet, recommended by our server.

(Chile picture did not turn out)

Fish:

Husband enjoyed his fish and said the sauce on top of it was quite good. However, the beef in the poblano chile was terrible. It tasted old and was loaded with lard (I think?) that tasted almost rancid. The upside was that all the sauces/salsas were delicious, especially their tomatillo sauce and what I think was an ancho sauce on my plate– the server didn’t know, said he thought it was a chipotle sauce but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t. Beans and rice were unremarkable.

When the bill came, Daniel came back out with a business card and explained that he couldn’t offer us our free appetizer because that would reduce the total bill below $50, which is what we had to spend in order to use the certificate. He presented the business card to us with a handwritten note that our next app/dessert would be comped for us when we returned. We thanked him and didn’t complain because that was what the fine print said on the coupon, but goodness. You’d think he would try to focus more on making our visit NOW good than our next one…?

Given the hassle it was to use our certificate, the attitude of the manager, and the hit or miss entrees, we won’t be returning any time soon. Our server was spot on and wonderful, but I need more than a nice server to get me back to a restaurant. The same goes for chips and salsa. I think the only reason our gift certificate was even honored was because it was a graveyard there that night. Better to have $25 come through the door (plus tip) than nothing at all I guess. Too bad it won’t be coming back.

Houston Chowhounds’ Pork Belly Throwdown

On August 14, 2009 the Houston Chowhounds got porked. Twelve chefs from the Houston area came together to find out who could take a slab of pork belly and transform it into further greatness.

The challenge for Chowhounds (besides eating all that pork) was to turn out the best pot of beans.

The event was held at Catalan and the crowds came out.

Some dressed to turn a head, others wearing wife beaters that said ‘I [heart] pork belly.’

All types make for a happy event
especially when the food is outstanding.

The top three choices from the judges for pork belly:
Cody Vasek of Voice with pork four ways
Randy Evans of Brennan’s with a pork torta
and Manubu Horiuchi and Jean-Phillipe Gaston of Kata Robata with pork three ways.

See, us Chowhounds know how to have fun. Four ways and three ways are what its all about.

On the beans side
Karen Rittinger took home first place for Fabada Asturiada.

Some pictures from the event:

Red velvet cupcakes from Jody Flood.

These were great, and I’m not even a huge cake eater.
(Making them is another story.)
Jody also does vegan and gluten free cakes and is a lovely, lovely person.

My plate. The salad was great.
(Seriously!)
From Cullen’s I believe.

Dessert from Chez Roux.

Inside Catalan.

Contestants being their beany selves.

Tasty bread and snackables.

Like I said; we know how to have fun.
Sometimes this means getting a little dirty.

Winning beans.
Loved the presentation.

Judges and some luckly Chowhounds who secured a spot next to the judges’ table for leftovers.

You need good wine to go with pork belly and beans
and good wine there was.

Next throwdown involves oysters prepared by the professional chefs.

I’m lobbing for #okra for the Chowhound side
although there are a few haters out there who might swing the vote.

I’ll keep you posted.

Eating Alone

I was browsing over at SeriousEats during my lunch
as is my usual Monday-Friday routine
when I started reading a thread on what people eat when they eat alone.

At first I thought it was silly
‘of course I would just eat leftovers’
and then I got to thinking
and in reality
I usually don’t eat leftovers when I eat alone.

My favorite meal for one is chicken and rice.
Not chicken and rice with garlic, spices, and a salad
but a chicken breast roasted with seasoned salt and freshly cracked pepper
with some chicken broth added in during the last half of roasting
then when it’s ready
the chicken gets shredded and unceremoniously dumped over steaming white rice with the broth.

That’s my meal for just me.

I find myself eating cereal a lot too
or just Triscuits and cheese.

This week I’ve had cereal two days in a row.
The first time it was because Hub was on call and I didn’t feel like cooking
and the second time was because I just used up all my energy trying to work out an argument.

I felt that if I cooked anything it might end up with only the hottest spices in the house
topped off with a splash of HATRED and ANGER.

So cornflakes and whole milk it was.
It seemed safer that way.

Last night I did start making watermelon sorbet though
and will finish it tonight.

I can’t promise there won’t be cayenne in it
but it actually might be better that way.

I’ve done some heavy duty cooking this week
and this weekend will be much of the same.

I made macarons for the first time last week
thanks to a recipe from this guy.

They turned out beautifully
and they are slated to be made this weekend again
because Hub and I ate every last one of them the same day they were made.

Playing around with fillings will be the project this time around
I have a few Rose Levy Beranbaum recipes lined up
Nutella in the pantry
and home-made jam in the fridge.

The jam was a gift from a coworker
because, sadly, I have not yet marched into preserving territory.
I do have a book on it
but the fear of inadvertently poisoning myself and Hub has not yet dissipated
so fun and games with with berries, cucumbers, tomatoes, chiles…
(you get the picture)
will have to wait.

Also on the list for this weekend is finding what to do with the rest of the watermelon I have.

Our CSA delivered it to us right before July 4th
and half of it went into the sorbet.

The other half is sitting in my fridge
laughing at me.

It’s been quite meloney at our house lately.

We got cantaloupe in our CSA delivery this week
and I think that is going to go with some cured ham of some sort
since I’ve actually never paired it with that.

My favorite way to eat it is with super cold cottage cheese
(why yes, that has been an alone meal)
but I’m trying to branch out here.

I might as well get through the tried and true combos
that way when I want to get WILD AND CRAZY
I’ll have some sort of foundation on which to build.

That has been my mission lately:
to try out the classics.

I feel like I read about them so much
and see how people play with them
but when I get to thinking about it
I realize how much I haven’t tried
and that’s simply unacceptable.

Lately my weekends have turned into project-cooking-time
and the projects recently have been classic recipes and pairings.

Seeing as that has resulted in things like macarons, stuffed squash blossoms, and progressively better stock
I think I shall continue the trend.

Meal Plans and Easter Dinner Musings

Well, our CSA has decided to start delivering to us TWICE a week
but I don’t think they are aware of the fact yet.

As much as I love strawberries and green beans
I can’t go through that much in a week
and uh
I’ve only paid for half of what theyre sending me.

So I guess I need to be a good person and call them to let them know theyre delivering to use twice in a week.

I now have more lettuce than I know what to do with
(four heads!)
and even though I made a dent in the green beans last night
I’m back up to my orginal bumper crop in the refrigerator.

Siiiiiiigh.

I did use some strawberries last night though.
I diced them up and ate them with some panna cotta.

I’ve been playing around with recipes for panna cotta
and like the one I’m working with now.

It’s from Cook’s Illustrated
just a simple vanilla one
but I’d like to take it up another notch and make it a strawberry panna cotta
served with some candied fruit
and a berry coulis.

Goodness knows I have enough strawberries now.

With all of this food in my fridge
I need to stay on top and FOLLOW my meal plans.

I’m usually pretty good about sticking to them
but need to really use up food this week.

Here’s the list so far:

Thursday: Shredded Rasperry-Chipotle Chicken over green leaf salad with walnut oil and parmesan vinaigrette
Friday: Red Potato Soup and Mustard Greans
Saturday: Hot Paprika Chicken Breasts with Collard Greens and Golden Raisins

Sunday: Prime New York Strip Steak with Creamed Spinach and Potato Gratin
Monday: Braised Oxtails over Polenta
Tuesday: Roast Chicken with Mashed Carrots, Roasted Brussel Sprouts and Garden Salads (sometimes I like to do a big meal in the middle of the week for no reason)
Wednesday: Chicken Salad Croissant Sandwiches with pickles and potato chips (easy peasy)
Thursday: Friend’s birthday dinner!
Friday: Veg. leftovers
Saturday: Lentil Soup with Cornbread

Still no idea what the Easter meal is looking like.

Husband will be on call at the hospital all night on Saturday
so he will be a useless lump sleeping in bed on Easter Sunday.

Boo.
Maybe I will make ham just to spite him.

I love a spiral sliced ham with super tender lima beans and my grandmother’s recipe for ‘Pineapple’ (pineapple chunks in thickend syrup).
It brings back sweet memories.

Husband
on the other hand
does not like spiral sliced ham
so we usually do a leg of lamb
(HA i typed lamp. I love lamp)
prime rib
or a red meat that we both can agree on.

I should just say NYAH to him this year and do it
or just hop on over to my aunt’s house and eat dinner there
while husband sleeps the day away.

She’ll probably be making ham anyways. heh.

Of Cabbages and… Cabbages.

Between two jobs, two blogs, two dogs, and one husband, I just don’t get around here enough.

I’ve started Twittering
along with the rest of the world
and have been trying to document what I make for dinner ever day.

I would do lunch too
but taking a picture of a Lean Cuisine every day would be a little depressing.

So instead
I take bad iPhone pictures of my dinner
none of which want to post to my entry
so I’m going to stop trying.

Last night dinner involved white rice
something I try to eat in moderation
but I’m ashamed to admit that dinner tonight also involved white rice.

BUT
there are no photographs, not even on Twitter
so we can all pretend like it never happened.

It was red beans and rice with tomatoes and balsamic vinegar if you’re wondering.
Complete white trash cooking
but delicious.

Brown up some 80/20 ground chuck
season with garlic and good ol’ Lawry’s seasoned salt
dump in a can of red beans with a little bit of water
let reduce for a few minutes
and spoon over white rice.

Top with sliced tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and then go sit out on your front lawn with a wife beater on.

Tasty as it is
I think it could be better.

I was thinking about the tomatoes today
and how they are my favorite part of the dish.
Right now
tomatoes obviously are not at their peak
but perhaps I could elevate this dish to a slightly higher socioeconomic status by making a tomato confit and a reducing the balsamic vinegar down to a glaze.

Then
maybe replace the ground beef with braised beef
(oxtails, perhaps? I like this dish a little bit on the fattier side since it tastes like sawdust if a low fat cut of meat is used)
and use long simmered red beans instead of my salted friends out of a can.

Ideas, ideas.
I probably will just stick to my regular recipe until I finally get so ashamed of it I’m forced into making something better.
This probably won’t happen for a while.

In other news
on Friday at Restaurant Job
Chef said that we would be taking part in Outstanding In the Field.

My face nearly cracked in two because I smiled so big
and Sous Chef was ecstatic as well.

Chef said he would need our help
and we both told him we would be there in full force.

Its not until September
but I’m still so stupidly excited.

It will be fun to work at such an amazing event.
I’m trying to do my part to eat more local food
although I’ve been taking baby steps.

We did join a CSA for our fruits and vegetables though
and its been an adventure.

Our first delivery in January looked like this:

and our weekly deliveries have been some variation on that theme so far.

We’re getting greenbeans and lettuces now though
which make me happy.

I’ve meant to photograph our deliveries every week
but that hasn’t happened.

Those personal failures aside
joining the CSA was a wonderful decision.
The farm is a little bit spotty on regular delivery
but its nothing that messes with meal planning too much.

Food is fresh and unblemished/unbruised for the most part
and it averages out to about 20$ a week
a great price for the load of food that arrives at our front door every Wednesday(ish).

However
I might PAY someone to take all the cabbage we’ve been getting.

I’ve forced unwanted heads on people at Job 1, Job 2, and the next person in line is going to be the guy panhandling on the street.

Guy: “Homeless, hungry, anything will help“
Me: “HERE! Take a head of cabbage!”
Guy: “What am I supposed to do with this?“
Me: “I DONT KNOW. I’ve been asking myself the SAME DAMNED THING.”

Husband started looking at me with a pained expression
when week after week
he would open up our box and find one
or even TWO
heads of cabbage in it.

I finally called the farm and asked them just to leave it out of our box
not replace it with anything else
just leave the blasted cabbage in someone ELSE’S delivery.

I think I’ve done everything legal in Texas to a head of cabbage now.
Next, I think I am just going to candy it or stick it in my ice cream maker and see what happens.

I can’t imagine that would be anything good
but you never know.

Daring Baker’s Challenges – September and October

This is my second month doing the Daring Baker’s Challenge.

The first month was muddled up by Ike, but hey, I DID manage to get two dips for the crackers done:

A spicy olive and caper tapenade
and a dried fruit compote
both vegan.
I never did get to the crackers
so we’ve eaten the dips with Triscuits.

I have a feeling they would have been better with September’s challenge
which was lavash crackers.

Still, Triscuits performed admirably.

They dips are are both out of Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison.

October’s challenge was “Pizza Napoletana” from Peter Reinhart’s “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.”

I already have a go-to pizza recipe
so I was not too thrilled about this
especially since I was hoping for a sweet challenge
but I gave it a go.

Maybe my go wasn’t good enough
because while everyone else who made this recipe raved about it
I was not impressed.

I’m pretty sure I have only myself to blame
and I’m sure I will try this recipe again
because I do like thin crust pizza.

Mine was just TOO thin
and didn’t crisp up in the middle.

I got busy baking before I started taking pictures
so no mise en place for you.

Also it was dark outside
and the lighting in my tiny kitchen is pretty bad
so the pictures are what they are.
SIGH.

On with the show.

Dough in the mixer:

Properly pulled away from the sides
and still attached to the bottom
per the instructions:

Blob ready for splitting:

Asexual reproduction, RIGHT ON MY COUNTERTOP:

I put them in the fridge for an overnight rise
and the next day Husband took them out and flattened two for me for dinner that night
(maybe I can blame the less than impressive pizza’s on his hand in the whole thing…)

The rested there for two hours
and then it was time to stretch them out.
We were supposed to toss them
but that was not happening with this dough.

Instead I carefully stretched it
and no matter how hard I tried
it still had holes

I pinched them shut
and no one was the wiser
except for all you people on the internet now.

We’re old fashioned here in our household
so it was just reg’lar pepperoni pizzas

I shredded ball mozzarella on top of the sauce
for which I used a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

(Note to self: try to find pepperoni without so much dye in it. Probably not good for the health to eat this much red dye.)

I previously cranked up my oven to 550F
(or so I THOUGHT!)
and my pizza stone had been in there for at least half an hour too.

After about 8 minutes in the oven
THIS emerged

The outer crust was great
it was just too thin in the middle
with no crunch.

I think next time I will just have to make them thicker in the middle.

Pizza No. 2 came out the same way as the first
so for kicks I threw my oven thermometer in the oven to see if it was really reaching 550F.

The answer was HELL NO.
It was only about 450F
so this probably did not help my uncripsy pizza.

The moisture content from the ball mozzarella probably didn’t help either.

Again
I think the unsuccess of these pizzas rests entirely on my shoulders
and not on the recipe itself.

I’ll be revisiting it again
with a lower moisture content cheese
thicker crusts
and aiming for a much hotter oven temperature.

Goodness knows the recipe made four other balls of pizza
so I’ve got enough practice dough to last me a while.