Sticky Pans

A big part of my endeavor with this project is to learn precision. I have to tell you I don't think I'm doing so well. I'm just not sure it's in my nature (well, maybe it is with cakes...but even with cakes and baking I don't go overboard). I've had this conversation a few times with little Missy who works for me. A lot of people in the ad business - well, at least account people - are detail-oriented, project machines. I'm not one of those people. I like being able to dip in and out of projects, and I like having a lot going on at all times. This, compared with little Missy who needs to be ALL in, ALL the time. I'm a 70/30 girl myself - meaning, most of the time, I need about 70% of the information available to make a decision and move on. The other 30% is gravy, and I'm not going to spend my energy chasing after it.

So...last night's dinner. I started out by making some 11. Clarified Butter, which, I'll admit, I've made before (shame on me, but hey! it's in the book!). This was made for the 12. Caramelized Sea Scallops that took several more steps than I expected. I've made scallops before and have always wondered why they didn't turn out as yummy as last night's did. First of all, you have to brine them a bit. Scallops taste wonderful on their, own, but who woulda thought 10 minutes in a brine would bring out so much flavor? Yum. Also, I was careful to rinse and dry them on paper towels. People forget to do this step all the time (um, people like me, actually). You want a good sear on them and unless you mop up all that excess moisture, you're going to have soggy scallops. Yuck. Now, here's where the 70/30 principle failed me. Thomas Keller's recipe for Caramelized Sea Scallops takes up 2 large pages - it's a beautiful spread of a recipe, with detailed instructions and pictures. I read the recipe several times, and although I "resisted the temptation of using a non-stick pan", I somehow missed the amount of clarified butter I needed to put in the pan. So, my sear was real good on those scallops, but unfortunately, a lot of it adhered to the bottom of the pan and not my scallops. Damn non-stick pan! And stupid me. Why didn't I just look at the pictures!? I think I got a little cocky. :(

Anyhow, I redeemed myself on the other side (when I flipped them over), thus why the picture below looks pretty darn good. The .13 melted leek rounds was a perfect complement (though I did not use the full amount of butter the recipe called for - those leeks would have been swimming in oil...gross). To round out the meal, I used the rest of my garlic confit to whip up some 14. roasted garlic vinaigrette that dressed some arugula. Topped the salad with some toasted walnuts, sauteed baby portobellas, and gorgonzola. Bon Appetite!

(I should note that Boy had very little to say about the meal. I couldn't help but notice he didn't go back for seconds, which he always does. But I wonder if it's that he doesn't like scallops very much. He mentioned "that feeling" you get on your teeth (I'm at a loss to describe this other than saying it's a little like eating raw spinach with no dressing). Oh well. I thought it was a nice meal.)

Another Birthday Cake!

This one was commissioned by some friends for a double birthday. Love that! The brief was Red Velvet with blue, white and some red. I thought it turned out very nicely and we got some great stock shots for the website (thanks to my photographer boyfriend). Whoo-hoo!

10 down, A LOT more to go

So, listen, I'm just not going to be able to detail out each and every recipe as I do them. Because frankly, I don't think I'm going to have enough interesting content and this project is going to go on all year. However, I will say that I'm done with the first 10 and I'm loving this cookbook. The sweet onion tapenade was INCREDIBLE! I served it on water crackers with some smoked salmon and whipped cream cheese. Boy doesn't even like olives and he liked it - whoohoo!

The tomatoes were a bitch (7. Oven Roasted Tomatoes). First of all, we are in the dead of winter, and there's just no getting around the fact that good tomatoes are scarce, if non-existent. Trouble is, a good handful of these recipes call for the oven-roasted tomatoes, so I'm going to have to make them several more times. Let's hope I do a better job in the future, because I butchered the ones I did last weekend. And, they weren't amazing with the meat (which was quite good on its own, and perhaps didn't need anything except the onions). Oh well. I thought the meat was good (skirt steak), but a little on the greasy side. Keller uses as much if not more butter than Ina Garten (how is that possible??), and these were swimming a bit.

This week, I made dinner for me and the boy on Thursday. I did 8. Herb-crusted rack of lamb with 9. Creamed Spinach made with 10. Mornay Sauce. I am still learning how to make a good sauce, so was excited to try this. The whole dinner was killer, I have to say. The lamb chops set me back $24 for 4 of them, although the fellow at Esposito was kind enough to french them and grind the scraps for some tasty meatballs I'm going to make next week. But they tasted that expensive - wow. The breadcrumbs had minced anchovies and garlic with the herbs and it was just delicious. The creamed spinach was fantastic as well - a perfect complement to the lamb. I also did a risotto but about half way through cooking I realized I had no parmesan. Oops! A dash of truffle oil and some salt made brought it home.
All in all, delicious! (Now, this picture is not so great...I need to work on that).

Birthday Cakes!

Getting my website ready to publish is proving to be more difficult than originally intended (well, aren't these kinds of things always that way??), but meanwhile, cakes are being made! Here are two I did (the same weekend as the wedding cake...whew what a whirlwind that was).

This one is for my Leah (who used to work for me, but is such a rock-star she got promoted into my role when I left my old agency for greener pastures). Leah is one of those people you meet and you feel like you've known your whole life. And when you're in a conversation with her, she is 110% IN (people who live in New York will appreciate this - how often do you find the person you're speaking with you watching, looking, staring at anyone but you!?). Anyhow, it was delish and she was happy!!

And this Ruby Red Velvet, made for Missy (who will remain anonymous for now :) was super fun to make - I'm so glad the swirls on the side held up! I think I might have to try that again it worked out so well... Missy loves Red Velvet, so of course I had to make it for her. :)

Chicken Dinner Americana

As we sat down to our first Ad Hoc meal, Boy asks me "so what cuisine is this exactly"? Good question. The chicken was paillard-style with yellow curry and sweet paprika with a white-wine, shallot and tarragon sauce. Hmmmm. I said, well, I suppose it's American, but maybe with a twist? 

Wikipedia defines "New American" as "combining flavors from America's melting pot with traditional techniques, New American cuisine includes ethnic twists on old standbys, Old World peasant dishes made from luxury American ingredients and molecular gastronomy." Let me reassure everyone that there will be NO molecular gastronomy taking place in my house any time soon. I can't even turn around in my kitchen - there is absolutely no room, even with the fold up table I bring out. Last night we broke a bowl (it had salad dressing I'd just made in it...) because we were just trying to do too damn much in too small a space (ps, a tomato press is an acceptable sub for a food mill but takes up a ton of room). Anyways...the kitchen size is not going to change. More about that in a bit.

So I have to say I was very pleased with the way things turned out. The three recipes I tried (Chicken with Tarragon, Puree of Garlic Potatoes and Garlic Confit) were the perfect first recipes to try out of this book on this cold winter night. I'm not a huge curry (which I associate primarily with Indian food) person...this is something I'm trying to be open to because I really want to like it. But I didn't grow up with it, and well, I think a lot of it smells like BO. I know, I know. I'm working on it. Anyways, I have to say that all of these flavors just came together so beautifully. And I didn't overcook my chicken (easy to do when it's that thin) and the pan sauce came out fantastic...oh I do love white wine sauces. I'm trying to pay attention to the heat of my pan when I load things in, the temperature of ingredients when they come together, the balance of acid to fat. This exercise I call being mindful in the kitchen. I'm secretly hoping this will transfer to other areas of my life, as I've heard does happen for a lot of chefs once they get it down. I am about the clumsiest person you'll ever meet - I have the bruises on my hips and legs to prove it! - so maybe being more "mindful" will help me also be more cognizant of my surroundings :)

The garlic confit and potatoes were soooo good. Thanks to Boy for putting that tomato press to work and for praising my efforts: "these are the best mashed potatoes I've ever had". Ahhh, music to my ears. Do I think they could have been better? Depends on how you (or I) qualify "better". They could have been richer, for sure. But I think something else I should learn through this is not to cloud or mask flavors. I have a tendency to overdo things and before I know it, I've killed a dish with too many ingredients, garnishes, seasonings, you name it. I want to learn to sharpen my palate and to let dishes be what they're meant to be. And sometimes this requires shockingly simple preparation...so I have to learn to stop myself.

Another word about the kitchen. I'm in it for another year, so I better make the most of it. This means I think I need to rearrange some things to make them a little more accessible. I think it's time for a trip to the home depot and container store.

So here is dinner - with a green salad mixed with a champagne & green tobasco vinaigrette I made up on the spot, which was quite good!:

Getting Started

Ok, here's my plan for the week.

Wednesday Night Dinner:
1. Sauteed Chicken Breasts with Tarragon (this also has curry and white wine!)
2. Puree of Garlic Potatoes
3. Garlic Confit (needed for the potatoes)

Appetizer for Dinner at Emma's on Friday:
4. Sweet Potato Chips (this requires my mandolin...which I have taken out exactly once in the past 2 yrs)
5. Sweet Onion Tapanade

The Bears play Atlanta on Sunday:
6. Marinated Skirt Steak (which I will serve with oven roasted cherry tomatoes, caramelized onions and goat cheese on a crusty baguette)

But let me tell you something. It was not easy choosing these recipes. Many I had to count out because they a) took too long or b) I don't have the equipment. This little project could get very expensive...and exhausting. I probably shouldn't be saying this - I haven't even started!

Let's see how I do - promise to report in after it's over.

The First Week of the Year

Woah, what a whirlwind week. Last Sunday night I talked about starting this Ad Hoc at Home project, and I WILL start it this week, but I had the opportunity to do a wedding cake last week and I had to jump on it! I got home on Monday from Chicago and got myself organized (and took down all my Christmas decorations, which always makes me a little sad) so I could begin on Tuesday night.

I knew the week would fly by and it definitely did. I truly felt like I had two jobs. Advertising executive by day and cake baker by night. Overall, I think it went really well. It was my second time working with gumpaste, which I don't know a lot about, but thank the Lord for the internet. There is no way I could have done my gardenias without it (given I ordered the kit on Sunday night and it didn't show up until Thursday). All and all, I was so pleased with the cake flavor - Hummingbird - and the cream cheese frosting, which I played around with until I got to proportions I liked. It's honestly the perfect frosting. Here it is for y'all.

The Perfect Cream Cheese Frosting

2 8oz packages of cream cheese, room temperature
1 stick of butter, softened
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, sifted

Whip cream cheese and butter until fluffy and smooth. If there are any bumps or lumps, keep whipping (it means either your cream cheese or butter wasn't warm enough). Add vanilla and beat until blended. Add powdered sugar, 1/2 cup at a time. The sifting is important - otherwise you'll end up with little clumps of sugar and you don't want that!

So here is my beautiful cake! It's the first wedding cake I've done in a frosting (not fondant) and it was really fun to do. The spackling technique took a bit to get the hang of, but the back of a spoon dipped in hot water every three turns or so did the trick.

I saw the bride and groom this afternoon (they are friends of mine, so it was nice to do this for them), and they raved. Yay! Happy customers make me happy too.

This is the year!

Alright everyone. No more procrastinating. I have resolved to get myself together this year. Last year I "committed" to a few projects - one of which was this blog. As you can see, it was a failed attempt. I'm pretty sure it had to do with the fact that I didn't have defined goals. So this year I am setting out to LEARN the fundamentals of cooking and technique via Thomas Keller's Ad Hoc at Home, which promises to be the type of cookbook that teaches you not just the "hows", but also the whys".

Last year I read "The Soul of a Chef" by Michael Ruhlman (http://ruhlman.com/my-books), a book comprised of three stories about chefs in "pursuit of perfection". Indeed they were. The third story was the most inspiring to me; it was about Thomas Keller's rise to greatness. I've never tried his food, but I have been to Alinea in Chicago (and it was the best meal I've ever had, hands down), started by Grant Achatz. Achatz worked under Keller at The French Laundry in California. So after reading about his tale, his philosophy and discovering he was Achatz teacher...well, let's just say I have a new celebrity crush. And I want to learn how to cook his way: with precision and intuition.

So I've ordered this cookbook and it will arrive this week at work. I will get started on the recipes next week, after the blitz of cake-making is over (three in one week - one a wedding cake!). There are over 250 recipes in this cookbook. The boy said "there's no way that'll happen in a year". I can do it. If Julie Powell can do 524 of Julia Child's recipes, I can do this.

There are other things I want to do this year too. Have been procrastinating putting pen to paper on this in any kind of meaningful way. Perhaps because I am afraid I have too many resolutions to be realistic. I want to make sure these are things I can actually do. But this blog will be the place where I chronicle what I make and what I discover.

This is the year!!