Who Do I Truss? ME THATS WHO!

Two Posts today, but I couldn't resist.. At school today we "took the cap off" a roast..after the TA demonstrated, I ask if I could do it.. then I trussed it (photo not the one I trimmed) which really means tie it up with twine. Me being the clown I am, when someone said "oooh u trussed it" I started saying who do I truss? me dats who" After I trussed it, we seared it and roasted it.. then I wanted to carve it, but it will be used for sandwiches..

the end I tasted was good though..

TWD: Malted Whopper cookies.. AKA "I love you mommy!"

This weeks recipe was chosen by Rachel of Confessions Of A Tangerine tart

I read the recipe again, more than once.. I am so getting better at this.. While I was making these cookies, EJ comes up to me and said "I love you mommy.. you know why?" I said why EJ.. "because I love your baking" he replied with a sheepish grin. THEN he ask me to lick the beater.. I know him to well, so I knew it was coming..


Ok, back to the recipe. I used to LOVE ovaltine, when I was in kindergarten, living on Pierce and Eddy in San Francisco, ummm hmm after school ovaltine was da bomb.. OK, so I went to the store and got the ovaltine and the bittersweet chocolate, fussed at the kids, for arguing who was gonna! ask hubby to bring whoppers so I can make the cookies,and he brings me milk duds.. I won't complain, milk duds are like my favorite chocolate candy aside from whatchamacallit, 100 grand, Reese's. Did I mention the I prefer fruity candy? (more specifically tropical Starburst). OK I digress, so I made the cookies after a dinner of crab and artichoke twice baked potatoes. And I promised that they would get to have one before they went to bed.

I wasn't sure I would like them, because chocolate is not my fave thing, but OH MY GOSH.. I ate at least 4! (4 is the magic number for me, look at my eclair post.)

How Daring Am I?

WOW my first Daring Baker Challenge (hosted by Meeta of What's For Lunch Honey and Tony of Tony Tahhan)was chocolate Eclairs... I was too excited for a few reasons:
1. Pierre H. is like a Pastry god
2. I absolutely love eclairs
3. I already know how to make pate a choux, courtesy of fundamentals of baking

I actually read and re-read the recipe a few times, wanting to be prepared, not to mess up on Sir Pierre's stuff..

I purchased bittersweet chocolate but used it for my TWD challenge so I had to buy more.. anyway on to the eclairs.

I made the choux, and it didn't go how I learned at school (at school we baked at 350 for God knows how long and then turned the oven down to like 250 to let the puffs dry out) but lest I not follow the rules, I followed the directions.. I only had like 7 puffs too, I guess they were larger than they were supposed to be. 7 minutes? WHAT the heck? I cooked the paste for 7 minutes, opened the door and my puffs deflated.. so I closed the door and t hey puffed back up! wow, it's magic.. they still weren't done afterr the umm 18 minutes? so I turned the oven off and left them overnight..

Upon waking I had some pretty decent looking puffs, but they weren't hollow.. Oh well, I know how to make choux so I'll just do what I know next time, why? because it's August 30 and I thought I needed to post!


that chocolate pastry cream? LAWD HAVE MERCY JESUS!!!! Nate wanted to eat that with a sppon warm out of the bowl. "How much of that do u actually need? He ask me numerous times.



and that chocolate sauce.. the kids say it make some darn good chocolate milk.. Here is my finished product:



oh, I neglected to mention that I ate 4 eclairs yesterday.

TWD: Banded ice cream torte

I missed TWD last week because school started for my kids (EJ went to kindergarten)and I really was not thinking about going shopping for the recipe. so I'm back this week.

Ice cream again!!! I used cookies and cream ice cream, but when I softened it to put it together I didn't even think about the ice cream not staying white LOL.. anyways.. this time I read.. YES I DID. the entire recipe.. TWICE. now how bout that??? it is super hot here, even though its 8:30pm so as soon as I took it out and put it on the plate it started to melt.. My kids got ultra excited.. I gave the first piece to my hubby.. Did I mention it was my 8th Wedding anniversary today.. nothing like a lil (or A LOT) chocolate to make the day complete huh?

Happy Anniversary to my Nate!

TWD:BLueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream

I AM LACTOSE INTOLERANT!!!!! ok whew I got that out of the way...

Even though I am intolerant (been so for 12 years, courtesy of my oldest daughter) I still eat what I want, and deal with the consequences later.. Sooooo after looking at the lil balls o' ice cream on my plate I popped one in my mouth.. I took a photo too, but It looks obscene so I'll spare you!

I had a borrowed ice cream maker just sitting in the freezer awaiting the opportunity to churn. There it was, ready to work... anyway, I'm blabbering...I liked this recipe.. I love fruity ice cream (butter pecan is my absolute fav though), and this one was easy.. I have made egg based ice cream in school, so it was refreshing not to have to do too much cooking. I used frozen blueberries (OH THE SHAME), the fresh ones were like 5 bucks!!! Nate tasted a spoonful last night and proclaimed :I need another spoon becasue I didn't get the full effect!" nothing like your own personal taste tester right? The kids were excited to see something other than chocolate or lactose free vanilla (Breyer's.. kinda artificial tasting ick) that they had no understanding WHY they had to wait until Tuesday after I took pictures. Now, here it is done and they are in bed... there's always tomorrow..

TWD: Black & White Banana Loaf

ok, there is nothing like your first "challenge" from a group to make you feel on the verge of incompetent. I was excited to make this loaf, mainly because it was my first TWD recipe and I had bananas!

I started out with a pan that was too large so after I obsessed for a while trying to decide if I should make 1.5 times the recipe for my bigger loaf pan, I ran to Wal-Mart to buy a loaf pan. there wasn't one in the correct size either so I bought some of those disposable pans. got them home and they were too small.. Oh what the heck I just won't fill the pan all the way. The recipe calls for fresh ground nutmeg. yea I looked at it while at wal-mart, but decided to use ground since I had plenty of that.. Oh did I mention that I forgot to buy lemon juice and didn't have 1 lemon in my house? So much for making the recipe right the first time!

I began to make the recipe at about 10 pm.. (genius move) and it takes oven an hour to bake.. luckily it gets baked on a cookie sheet because I forgot to not fill the pan all the way and it overflowed!

all in all, I liked the recipe ok, I'm not a huge fan of banana bread, but I do eat it. It's actually one of the few desserts I like with nuts in it.

Happy birthday to me!

One of my most favorite things in the world.. A red velvet cupcake, just for me... yesterday was my birthday! I turned 35 and all of a sudden I felt older.. I never felt old on my birthday LOL.. I have been thinking alot about gramma peach lately, and quite a a bit about what actually makes me happy! red velvet cuppies make me happy.. my husband makes me happy (more about that later), my kids make me happy, baking makes me happy too of course..

Nate took me to dinner at a place called "bobo's" in San Francisco.. We gorged ourselves on filet mignon, mussels, crab and clams.. OMG it was so good.. then he took me to fisherman's wharf for a caramel apple, and pier 39 for mini donuts.. I felt like such the tourist. I definitely ended up having a very happy birthday!

I have also been contemplating going back to school, which starts in 15 days.. school is like a job! 4 days a week 6-7 hours or so a day?! sheesh! (I actually can't wait) It's just an adjustment scheduling your life and kids lives around school.. But thats a whole nother post!

Champagne and Strawberries

Champagne and Strawberries
Originally uploaded by lilthorner

Mother's day rolled around with me, as usual, trying something new.. I have been searching and searching for a champagne cake recipe and then right under my nose, I ate a piece of champagne cake from Buttercream Bakery In Napa. the cake was ok, for we all know how much I love (NOT) bakery cakes. the cake was vanilla cake with a custard that was champagne flavored.. Wow, I can do that!

So I went home, made some creme patisserie (pastry cream) and spiked it with Champagne.. Alcohol evaps at 140 so it should have cooked out and left the flavor only (for anyone who is concerned :))

One of these cakes was taken with me to my aunt's house where we pigged out on BBQ from my aunt's restaurant, House of Chicken and Ribs (Antelope, Ca), Chocolate Mousse cake fro my moms birthday and chocolate Bomb (lava cake to die for!).

The other cake made its way with Nate to His mom's house for their Mother's Day Dinner..

Proud to say, Champagne and Strawberries was a hit!

Happy Birthday Gramma!

Blackberry Cobbler
Originally uploaded by lilthorner

Today is my Gramma Peach's birthday. She's not with us, but I sure thought about her a lot today. I made this cobbler last week. I had never made blackberry cobbler before, but making it brought back all sorts of memories of "Redwood City"- this is what we called my great-grandmother's house in Redwood City. She had a big pool, a built in brick grill, a separate lil house with a changing room in the back. and we used to climb the plum tree for those super sweet plums.. (In October we raided the pomegranate tree).

My great-grandmother "nana" taught me how to peel potatoes, and how to make cheese toast (monterey jack) in the toaster oven. She collected all kinds of cookbooks and put notes in so many of them. I recently found that the notes were other recipes, not necessarily that she tried the ones in the book. nana had an obsession with cookbooks, gramma bought tons of cookbooks and you guessed it, I will buy a cookbook before I buy shoes or clothes.

Back to the cobbler, I don't remember ever asking nana how to make cobbler, but I sure do remember how I wanted it to taste. I ask my mom what I should do and she said "the secret is....." (If I told you it would be a secret right?) I said oh really? thats all.. and she assured me that was what nana did..

so, I made a pie crust with LARD (thanks to my wonderful classmate Robert and his family ) and commenced to making the cobbler.. I prewarned my dad "don't judge me to heavily, its my first time"

after coming out of the oven, I put a scoop of Safeway Homestyle Ice Cream on top, took my lactaid, and tasted.

MMMMMMMMM just how nana used to make.. It tasted JUST how I remembered it!

nana cooked, gramma cooked,my aunt cooks, my mom cooks, I cook and I am teaching my daughter (the oldest first) how to cook. I'll call this a generational blessing!

tastes like CANDY. OWWWW

the toffee is now dipped!
Originally uploaded by lilthorner

ok ok, sorry about the song reference. I made this toffee in school the other day if this isn't heath bar heaven I don't know what is... the little toffee rectangles are coated in french vanilla chocolate (real chocolate, not candy melts) and sprinkled with a lil bit of toffee crumbs.. It was hard not to do the ole one dip for me, one for you.

I love making candy! and funny lil tidbit I learned from my aunt yesterday. My grandmother (paternal) made candy.. she loves brittle. so mom's mom made cakes the most, dad's mom baked too but also made candy! it was inevitable!

(I also made little peppermint patty centers that I started to dip but didn't finish, those are tasty too!)

Baked From Scratch

There is a new logo to the right--------> yea, over there! This logo is because I am proud to be a scratch baker. I like costco cakes, and sometimes cakes from Safeway and Walmart, but if asked my preference I will stand on the mountain top with my arms stretched wide and say SCRATCH!!!! oh and yes, I can tell a scratch cake from a cake that is made from a mix.. As a matter of fact, my 12 year old can as well. Thats doesn't mean I don't like them, but chances are I may not eat too much of one.

This preference started WAYYYYYY before culinary school. It started in the kitchen at 3555 Sacramento Street in San Francisco, in about 1988! Unfortunately, being in culinary school has made it worse. I want to try EVERYTHING from scratch. I like to look at fresh herbs, I make caramel sauce from scratch.. why buy it? I no longer make all purpose flour. I use bread and cake flour.. If I want AP flour, I MAKE IT! I have fun at it too. Being a scratch baker means that a few rules apply when I am baking a cake for someone:

1. My pastries cost more than costco, safeway, walmart, albertsons and pretty much any other grocery store you can think of, this means that if you want a price comparable to the aforementioned places, ya might want to go there.

2. If I am asked for a discount, I will probably NOT give you one. My items are made fresh to order, and can sometimes take an obscene amount of time. Ask my husband, he's the one that gets me diet cokes and makes sure I have enough coffee to keep me up. As a matter of fact, I think I worked on my sisters cake (the VS one below) for about a week (the last part was the cake of course).

With that said, I REALLLLLLLLY appreciate everyone who has supported me by ordering, tasting promoting and everything in between!

here's a batch of SCRATCH biscuits for ya!

A is for......

going to school every day, being on time (I may have been tardy one time), taking what you think are good notes, studying those notes...

I have been stalking my school's information system WAITING on my grade for fundamentals of baking to be posted... YES I know how to bake.. YES I been doing it a LONG time, but there is a difference between commercial baking and kitchen baking.. AND there is something special about having to be at school at 7am when you haven't had to leave the house at 6:15 in a very long long time! I would say I am proud of myself, but I really want to thank God (and the academy...) for bringing out what I had in me..
I tell everybody at school "hey this is my 4th try". You might think that makes it easy, but if it was easy I wouldn't be on my 4th try. This goes to show that you can do anything if you seek HIM first!

PS. gramma.. This A's for you!

when your sister forces you...

Davin's cake
Originally uploaded by lilthorner

My sister is always forcing me to do stuff for her.. I guess its payback for me forcing her to do things for me when we were younger. Anyway, this is THE cake for my sister and her friend's 30th birthday party. It is a few of their favorite things... the party theme was zebra and hot pink.. Real divalicious.

This cake (or cakes) was vanilla cake with strawberry filling. This cake is still one of MY favorite things too.. I had to REALLY step out of my comfort zone to do this.. Now I am always trying to step out of it..

to see other more detailed shots of my sisters cake clicky here