New Look!

You may have noticed a little update to my blog. The very talented Kate Gabrielle drew the super cute drawing that you now see gracing the top of my blog. She also has the cutest blog http://www.scathingly-brilliant.com/ and etsy shop http://www.etsy.com/shop/flapperdoodle.

A big thank you to her for taking the time to do this for me!

Sense & Sensibility

Do you ever turn to a certain film whenever you feel like you just need a great big hug to feel better? Well I do, and for me that film is ‘Sense & Sensibility’ from 1995 based on the classic novel by Jane Austen of the same name. This is without a doubt one of my most favorite books of all time, so when it came time for me to see the movie my expectations were extremely high. Emma Thompson who not only stars also wrote the screenplay for this fantastic film adaptation and does Ms. Austen every bit of justice as this book deserved.

The story follows three young sisters & their mother after the sudden death of their father. Due to the laws of that time the next male in the family in line was to have control over the man’s estate, thus Mr. Dashwood’s home & fortune befell a distant cousin and his horrid wife. The sisters & mom are forced to leave their home & move to a cottage away from everything they’ve ever known & live on a small allowance provided by said cousin. Before they leave the eldest Miss Dashwood falls for her cousin’s wife’s brother, Edward, but must leave his company before love can be expressed. Sigh.

'Can he love her? Can the soul really be satisfied with such polite affections? To love is to burn - to be on fire, like Juliet or Guinevere or Eloise.'-Marianne

Once everyone is settled in their new home the Dashwood girls start making new acquaintances including that of Col Brandon, played by the ever dashing Alan Rickman. The Col falls for the middle sister Marianne, but she’s not interested as she has eyes on a much younger & much handsomer man named John Willoughby. Ew. Now this is a Jane Austen story so multiple love triangles, wealth, social status, & behavior all play a part in these two young ladies lives as they try to find true love.

Ang Lee directed this picture so beautifully with simple coloring, gorgeous cinematography, & a nice homey feel. The love just within the walls of the Dashwood family is so beautiful it makes me feel all warm inside & reminds me of the relationship with my own sisters. Ang Lee puts a lot of focus on the scenery & the earth, but in the most simple way. Therefore I wanted to create a menu that expresses how I feel every time I watch this classic.

First up rosemary foccacia bread dipped in extra virgin olive oil. Next, a rustic homemade chicken noodle soup full of nice earthy flavors. And for dessert we have organic gala apples dipped in caramel & chocolate. These recipes are super easy to make, yet feel like they have the flavors of love, family, and earth.

"The air is full of spices."-Col Brandon

Rosemary Foccacia Bread

1 lb pizza dough ball (you should be able to find this in the bakery of your grocery store)

6-8 Sprigs of Fresh Rosemary

Coarse Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper to taste

¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Allow pizza dough to come to room temperate if removing from refrigerator. Cut dough in half so you have two loaves. In a large bowl with hands combine all ingredients except oil. While blending the S&P with the rosemary and dough drizzle enough oil to make dough somewhat wet. Use your best judgment here to determine how much oil you’ll need until all ingredients are well combined. Round dough. Bake each loaf in an 8 inch round cake pan for 15- 20 minutes or until bread is golden brown. You can turn the loaf over and tap the bottom of the bread, if it sounds hollow it’s done! In a small dish you can either buy some Bread dip seasoning and add olive oil on top of it, or simply just use some fresh ground black pepper. Rip, dip & enjoy!

"Oh, please don't say anything important."-Margarete





Chicken Noodle Soup

2 cooked chicken breast-shredded

One large onion-roughly chopped

4-5 Stalks of celery-roughly chopped

2-5 carrots-roughly chopped

Two 32 oz containers of good (preferably organic) chicken stock

2 cups water

One bag Egg Noodles-cooked and drained

½ teaspoon dried oregano

Fresh flat leaf parsley

Salt & Pepper to taste

Start by sautéing carrots, onions and celery in a large stock pot with olive oil together until just tender for about 4 minutes. Turn down the heat and add chicken stock, water, chicken, egg noodles, and oregano. On low to medium heat simmer soup for 20 minutes. Rough chop fresh parsley and add on top of each serving bowl. Enjoy with warm foccaica bread.





"People always live forever when there is an annuity to be paid them."-Fanny

Chocolate Carmel Apples

4-6 small Gala Apples

1 14 oz bag of individually wrapped Caramel Squares-unwrapped

2 Tablespoons Milk

2 Cups Ganache (See ‘Cabin in the Sky’ Menu for recipe)

Wash and completely dry apples. Combine caramel squares and milk in a small pot, and melt on low heat stirring occasionally. Insert sticks from craft store in tops of apples, and dip in caramel. Place on a buttered cookie sheet. Put ganache in a pastry bag and cut off the tip. Heartily swirl chocolate over caramel apples to make stripes. If using decorations place on now while apples are still wet (I used pretty sprinkles that look like leaves. I also bought some twigs at the craft store, which after dipping, I replaced the sticks with these. It looks like I just picked caramel chocolate apples right off the tree! I also added cooked bacon to one before covering it with chocolate. I couldn't resist!) Refrigerate for 30 minutes and Enjoy!

"I-I've come here with no expectations, only to profess, now that I am at liberty to do so, that my heart is, and always will be, yours."-Edward





I love this menu as a segue into the fall season! My friend Megan and I enjoyed this meal with a bottle of Barefoot Sweet Red Wine. I hope these dishes make you feel as good as I know this movie will.


Sense and Sensibility: Genre: Drama Romance. Directed by Ang Lee, Released in 1995 Columbia Pictures. Starring Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, Harriet Walter, Hugh Grant, Gemma Jones, Alan Rickman, Greg Wise Hugh Laurie. Won Academy Award for Best Screenplay. Nominated for Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography, Best Score, & Best Picture.

"Lovers' quarrels are swift to heal."-Mrs. Jennings

Lessons in Bosnian Baklava

                                        
This past Christmas one of my associates made some chocolate baklava that was so delicious, I’m surprised I got any work done that day because I kept creeping back and forth into the office to indulge myself. And I’ve been craving it since then. Unfortunately, life gets really hectic and we don’t always have time to do everything we’d like to, so I’m only just getting around to trying to create a recipe for it myself. I’ve only ever made baklava one time in my life. I was in the beginners baking class in Culinary School, and we soaked it in an orange liquor simple syrup mixture. We all made one batch as a class and had to let it sit overnight. Most of us had never had this dessert before and were extremely anxious to come in the next day and try it. To sound really lame, I’m pretty sure I missed out on sleep that night from excitement. What can I say, I’m a girl that loves my sweets!

We went into the class the next morning and very first thing, our Chef instructor served us pieces for breakfast. The class took our first bites together. Silence. Widened eyes. Blank stares. I spit mine out and yelled ‘Why the hell does this taste like cough syrup??’ Even our instructor couldn’t keep chewing her bite. Something had gone horribly wrong, and I just decided I did not like baklava. If all of the work, butter, and sugar could produce that bad of a taste, I never even wanted to try it again.

Luckily I had completely avoided any contact with the stuff for 7 years. Not even a mention of it, until my newest cake decorator had brought some into work as a gift for the holidays. I didn’t want to be rude so I took a piece and very skeptically headed it towards my mouth. It was like slow motion. I kept thinking of the horrible taste that day all of those years ago. I pictured myself accidentally spitting it right back in her face. I wondered if I could act well enough to swallow it down, and if I would make it in the bathroom in time to throw it back up. Baklava was my only bad dessert experience in life and I may have blown the whole thing out of proportion in regards to my dislike for it. It was here, the flaky pastry was touching my lips. I bit down. Chewed. Chewed some more. Shoved the whole piece in my mouth before I was done chewing the first bite. Next thing I knew I was grabbing another piece. This was amazing!! It was rich, sweet, buttery, and delicious. After eating three pieces in a row, I spent the entire rest of the day either eating baklava, or picturing myself eating baklava. I was in love.

I hated myself. Not for eating so much of it, of course not, but for avoiding this heavenly pastry all of that time! I had been missing out on amazingness and all from one bad experience. Donna had completely changed everything, she showed me why baklava is such a big deal. Why everyone loves it, because if done correctly, it really is the best dessert one can have.

Now, smarty-pants McGee, thinks based on my knowledge of pastry making, and the fact that I HELPED make baklava one time 7 years ago I could figure out a recipe on my own and make it sheer perfection. I’m an idiot. I quizzed Donna on her layering and set out in the grocery store on my own accord to gather my ingredients. I spent some time in the frozen food aisle and somehow kept passing up the fillo dough. I went to the next aisle over and asked the clerk where I could find it. She walked me over there and in a very beautiful, thick Bosnian accent asked me what I was making. I told her, and her eyes got very big and said, ‘that is from my country!’ (Bosnia, gets most of it’s culinary influences from Turkey where baklava originated.) How lucky was I?? I told her I really didn’t have a plan for it, except to put chocolate between the layers. She told me how she grew up in Bosnia making it all the time, and she still makes it for her family here quite often. Her expertise tips and tricks are the only way I was able to make my recipe perfect. I would have ruined it otherwise because everything she told me I needed to do…I wasn’t planning on doing before.

Firstly, 10 layers of fillo on the bottom, 4 between each filling layer, and 10 on top. Cut your pieces BEFORE baking. Bake at a very low temperature for an hour and a half or else you will burn all of the sugar. Cool simple syrup mixture before pouring over hot pastry. If using nuts, they need to be very finely chopped, pecan meal is also very popular.

Now that I had my ingredients and authentic tips I was ready. And I must admit, not only does my baklava recipe look really pretty, this is one that I am most proud of. A BIG thank you to Donna and Svedva for helping me out. I enjoyed this with some Nutcracker Sweet tea, that tastes very similar to vanilla, and I’ve also been having it for breakfast with coffee. I hope you have fun making it, and enjoy!!!

Chocolate Baklava:
1 box fillo dough (thawed)
1 pound butter (melted)
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
½ cup cocoa powder
½ cup granulated sugar

Simple sugar mixture:
2 cups water
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup honey

 

Butter every single piece of fillo

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Grease the bottom of a cookie sheet. Mix chocolate chips, cocoa powder and sugar in a bowl. Carefully roll out fillo dough from package. Have damp cloth completely covering dough while you’re using it or else it will dry out very quickly and will not be useable. On greased sheet place one piece of dough, brush with butter, and layer next piece, do this 10 times. Sprinkle 1/3 of chocolate mixture over dough. Layer piece of fillo on top of mixture, brush with butter, and do this 4 times so there are four sheets in total, Yes, brush every single piece of fillo with butter. Add another 1/3 of mixture, four pieces of dough, then remaining mixture. Top with 10 pieces of dough (you better be buttering every single piece!) With a paring knife, cut dough into nice even pieces, (I did triangles) before baking. Bake for an 1 ½ hours to 2 hours until light brown and flaky.

Keep dough covered!

One layer of filling

Cut pieces before baking

 While baking combine water, sugar, and honey in small sauce pot. Boil on medium/high heat until sugar is dissolved and you have a nice syrup. Let cool. Once baklava is baked and out of the oven, pour syrup over hot pastry. Cover with foil and let it sit in the fridge overnight.

                                         

Heart Shaped Donuts

Back in February when Valentine’s Day was over and I was hoarding up on clearance candy I came across a baking pan for heart shaped donuts. They had it marked down 50% because apparently people have no need for heart shaped baked goods outside of the 14^th of February. Bêtise. So I grabbed that too and have been really anxious to use it. So for today’s Tea Time Tuesday post I’m baking cake donuts that are so simple to make and just as yummy as any artificial donut you’d get in a box in front of the milk isle of your local grocery store. I’m rolling some in cinnamon sugar and dipping others in a very simple glaze and topped with sprinkles. So grab your own donut pan, pour some Chai Tea and enjoy!

Baked Cake Donuts
2 Cups All Purpose Flour
¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup milk
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, softened



Cinnamon Sugar
¾ Cup Granulated Sugar
1 tablespoon Cinnamon
(Mix ingredients together)

Glaze
1 Cup Confectioners Sugar
2 Tablespoons Hot Water
½ teaspoon almond extract
(Stir ingredients together)




For donuts, mix first six ingredients together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl combine final four ingredients. Pour wet mixture into flour mixture and beat on a medium speed until just combined (occasionally scraping sides of bowl). Lightly grease donut pan, and fill each cup ¾ full. Bake at 325 degrees for 10-14 minutes or until donuts spring back and feel quite cakey.

Once baked, remove from donut pan immediately and those being coated in the cinnamon sugar must be rolled while donuts are still very hot so the sugar will stick nicely.

For glazed donuts they may be cooler before dipping. Dip the tops of the donuts in glaze and if adding sprinkles do so immediately so they stick to the glaze before it dries. Have fun with this recipe, decorate the donuts anyway you’d like with other kinds of icings and glazes that you may fancy.

Once cooled, arrange donuts on a tray or platter and enjoy!

                                     

50 Years And Counting

A couple of weeks ago a customer came into the bakery with the most beautiful vintage wedding photo I had ever seen (other than that of my own parents of course). She was asking that we put the image in edible form on the cake for her parents 50th wedding anniversary. These kinds of cakes are actually very rare since the divorce rate is quite high these days, and not to sound morbid but due to our current lifestyles so are the death rates. As a manager I get stuck being the 'face of the bakery' and often times doing a lot of paper work, but this cake I had to do myself. I couldn't pass this one up. When the day came to make it I was actually really nervous about it. The daughter of the couple was very sweet and gave me complete reign on whatever I thought would look good. She was maybe hoping we could recreate some of the flowers in her bouquet. The cake size they were getting was rather small, and I wanted to keep the photo the main focus. So I used some gold accents since it is the official color of the 50th wedding anniversary and only had enough room to fit just a few flowers around the picture.

That afternoon a small older lady came to pick it up and when I handed it to her she fell back into her buggy and started crying. I've never seen such a reaction to a cake before. I looked at her closely and asked 'Is this you?!' she replied 'Yes it is. I haven't seen this photo in 20 years. And those buttercream flowers, they match my bouquet!' And she started crying again.

I was hoping this meant she liked it.

It took me 20 minutes to get her calmed down. Then I started crying myself. Her name was Barbara and she explained how her and her husband had been married 50 years ago on St. Patrick's Day, the luckiest day of her life. She got the man of her dreams. Now Barbara's husband has Alzheimer’s, but their love from their wedding day is still there.

She hugged and kissed me and thanked me a thousand times for making it so special. What an honor to create the centerpiece for such a magical day. But let's be honest, the centerpiece was this outstanding couple.

Barbara let me take a picture of her with the cake so I could keep that memory with me forever. I've made a ton of cakes in my years as a decorator, but that by far was my absolute favorite. Though very simple in design, it's meaning meant so much.

She came back in today to see me, still raving over the cake and she showed me all of the pictures from the party. Her husband looked so happy, and she looked radiant. I've never seen such a handsome couple. And have never been so proud to be apart of something so special. So here's to you Mr. and Mrs. Benny, and many more years of wedded bliss!