Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone!!  And so it begins...I think that Halloween is the start of the many holidays to come.  In fact, I think Halloween signifies that the holidays are finally here...the weather is finally turning from hot to somewhat cold here in San Diego, and before we know it, Thanksgiving is knocking on our doors and Christmas is right around the corner.  It's scarily, eerily fast!!  But today is dedicated to Halloween!

Isn't she just a lil darlin'??  Just look at that adorable face!  This, my friends, is my lil mini American Eskimo, Pepper (or Pepperoni).  She is such a good girl, letting her mama dress her up like a chicken for Halloween!  See the excitement written all over her face?  Ok, back to the baked goodies!  So, I decided that I want to bake pumpkins and ghosts for Halloween this year.  But to my surprise, I realized I didn't have any Halloween cookie cutters! *Gasp!*  I know, huh?  I was a bit shocked myself until I realized that I didn't really get into sugar cookies until last Christmas.  So, off I go to my favorite discount store and was lucky enough to find a pumpkin, ghost and a leaf cookie cutter.  It was quite amazing, actually.  I went to a few other discount stores and they had no Halloween items in stock!  So, lucky for me, I got exactly what I needed without much scavenging!   Pumpkin and ghosts I shall bake up for Halloween!

So, a pumpkin and a ghost should be relatively easy to decorate...key word: should.  I don't know why, but the easiest shapes still end up not that easy for me!  This could be telling me that I should stop my cookie adventures!  I must admit, though, that decorating cookies are fun only when I am in the mood to decorate...as in, take my sweet time icing and decorating.  It's also a lot more fun when I get the color I am looking for in my royal icing.  I'm horrible at making colors!!  Sometimes I wish that I can just pick out a color I'm thinking of and the royal icing will magically turn that color.  It's my fight with coloring the icing that turns me off of decorating cookies!  But anyhow, these Halloween cookies turned out just fine for what I was going to do!  Remember how I'm selling new products at the donut shop??  Yep, these cookies were on sale the week before Halloween, up until Halloween.  It was a great success and I had a complete sell out!   So, goodbye Halloween, until next year!

P.S.  Notice my poor pumpkin?  What's missing?  Yep, I didn't notice that until it was too late...I knew something didn't look right with my pumpkin!...I forgot his poor nose!  Ah well, it gives him character, I suppose...

Sweet Scones with Fruit Preserves

Hurray for Wednesday!  Have you realized that once Wednesday come around, the rest of the week just flies by??  I always look forward to Wednesdays because then I know the weekend is right around the corner!  So, I have been super busy these past few weeks.  I am still unpacking what I think I will be needing but also having a hard time remembering and finding where I packed them!  It's a jungle of boxes in the garage!  But in due time, that will be sorted out!  I've also been asked to see if I would be interested in bringing in new products that would end up in coffee carts and coorporate office around San Diego.  That I was more interested in!  Apparantly, consumers of coffee carts and coorporate offices were desperately in want of scones.  I guess they are tired of the ol' donuts and coffee routine!  I've always been a scone kind of gal and would definitely choose scones over a muffin or donut any day!  So my task for the past week was to come up with a delicious scone recipe, which was just up my alley.  There is nothing better than to figure out a perfect recipe for scones (of which I love!).  And, I believe I did!

Especially when it came right out of the oven.  There is a slight crunch to these scones that give way to flaky, tender goodness.  It was so light and buttery.  No dryness here!  And with the dab of fruit preserves in the middle, there is no need to add extra jam.  This would definitely work as a "grab and go" kind of good (perfect for coffee carts, *wink, wink*).  That being said, I definitely had no problems sitting at the table and slowly savor each bite! 

That's boysenberry preserves I put onto this scone.  It was so, so yummy!  The other flavor was apricot...I seem to have a thing for orangy colored food.  I also happen to have apricot preserves in the fridge, so apricot scones I made!  Overall, these scones were pretty darn tasty!  Hopefully, the deal will go through and those of you in the San Diego area will be seeing these scones at a coffee cart near you!  But for now, enjoy the pictures!

Almost Sugar Free Vegan Banana Nut Oatmeal Cookies

I know.  The title is a handful!  However, they are super, super yummy!  I'm not sure if I mentioned this but since moving back to San Diego, I am helping my mom out at our family business..,The donut shop.  Yep, lots of sweets at the donut shop...and unfortunately, lots of diabetics too.  I get a lot of diabetics coming in, "cheating."  And while I can't dictate to them what they should and should not eat, I figure I could help them out by giving them other options.  So, I decided to try my hand at sugar-free baking!  I had originally found  a recipe for a vegan oatmeal cookie, but it came out super dry and this weird squishy hard....Does that make sense?  It was somewhat soft when it came out of the oven (although it was supposed to be crispy) and then hardened up to a rock-like texture once cooled...I know, not very appetizing!  The original recipe had raisins in it, so I thought to make it more moist, I'd add unsweetened apple sauce.  Later that night, however, I had a strike of brilliance: I'll make banana nut oatmeal cookies instead!  I didn't really care too much for raisins in the first place!  These cookies are almost sugar free...the original recipe called for agave nectar to sweeten it.  Agave nectar is a sweetener produced from the agave plant.  It is ideal for diabetics and people watching their sugar intake because it has a lower glycemic load than regular white sugar.  I had used a good portion of my agave nectar on my first trial batch of cookies and only had half of the amount needed to make my banana nut oatmeal cookies.  So, what I did was use the leftover amount of agave nectar and some Equal to make up for some of the lost agave...making these cookies almost sugar free!

I was pretty impressed with how these cookies taste!  I know that after-taste taste of artificial sweeteners and can usually pin point it out, but that taste is hidden pretty well in these cookies!  You really do not miss out on the sweetness of cookies with this combination of agave and Equal!  It's almost a cross between a banana nut muffin and a cookie.  It's not quite as dense as a muffin, yet not as chewy as a cookie.  I was super stoked about this product.  I really think it's something my customers can eat and actually enjoy!  I'm not diabetic and even I would have no trouble enjoying these cookies!

I'm really hoping that these cookies will be a hit!  I've always wanted to give my customers an alternative to mend their cheatin' ways and hopefully they take a chance on these cookies and never look back!  Until next time readers! 

Bagels

And it's Monday again...*sigh*...the weekends definitely goes by way too fast!!  I had a fun filled weekend, full of baking and trying out new recipes.  Remember my breast cancer sugar cookies?  I had a sell out over the weekend and had to bake up a few more batches.  I also had developed a vegan banana nut oatmeal cookie that's reduced in sugar (more on these cookies on the next post!) that I had baked up over the weekend.  However, one of the exciting parts of this weekend was finally being able to try my hand at making bagels!  It has never really occurred to me to make my own bagels until now.  I've been sucked into the whole bread baking thing and it's actually a lot of fun! And the amount of work that goes into baking bread just makes the end product that much more special.  Let me tell you, there's a lot of hard work and time that goes into bread making! But once you've made a successful batch, it's addicting...you'll want to keep baking up more bread and different kinds of yeast breads!  Well, I've got that itch and thought bagels might be a fun alternative to my usual French bread!  Plus, it's always fun for me to try different products and see the results.

So, my first time making bagels and what I realized was I should have kneaded the dough more.  The recipe that I followed didn't really give clear directions about kneading, but the one thing I learned after making these is: I've got to knead the dough until I get something more smooth than these!  This is a picture of the bagels after I shaped them and is in the process of a quick rise before I put it into the refridgerator for the night!

These bagels have already been dipped into boiling water for about a minute on each side.  I decided to make garlic bagels, sesame bagels and plain.  After the dip into boiling water, I set the bagels onto corn meal and sprinkled my flavors on.  However, next time, I decided I will give the bagels an egg white wash before sprinkling on the flavors (gives the bagels a nicer color!).

I was pretty happy with these bagels!  It definitely took longer to bake than what the original recipe said.  It also wasn't getting any color, so towards the end of the bake time, once I realized it wasn't coloring enough, I gave it a quick egg wash (which I will do beforehand next time!) and it produced these bagels, which had just enough color. So, a few things learned from this first baking session with bagels.  I plan on making another batch over this weekend, along with the changes, and see how they turn out!  These actually tasted like bagels and had a nice crunch with a doughy middle.  I did notice that my leftovers (that I had put into a ziplock baggie) lost the crisp and tasted more stale.  I'm not sure if it was because of the kneading (or lack of) that caused a tougher bagel...but we'll see the next time I make these!  Overall, they were delicious!

MIL Birthday

TGIF!!  Today's post is about my mother-in-law's birthday.  So, another year has come to a close for her and another year is starting!  I hope we started her year out right with the fantastic little party thrown especially for her.  I find that as we get older, our sense of celebrating birthdays are just not as exciting as when we were kids.  Right?  I, for one, used to looooove birthday parties!  However, as I grow older (and more tired, I guess), birthdays became just another day!  It's kind of sad, now that I think about it, but I guess that's just the way the cookie crumbles!  Anyways, my MIL was pretty excited to have the family come over and celebrate her.  She just couldn't wait for my husband and I to arrive so that we can start her birthday!  We decided that we'll just do an intimate gathering of family.  We made some super yummy hot grill (where we cook our food right on the table top!), had some delicious wine, and topped everything off with a home-made cake and fun presents!  It was a nice, leisurely day full of eating and celebrating!

I decided that instead of buying a cake, I will make her one.  It will definitely give me more practice!  My mother-in-law is diabetic and I had toyed around with making a diabetic cake (seeing as it's her birthday!), but from what I had gathered online, it seems that most would prefer a very, very small slice of real cake than a sugar substituted cake!  So, I decided to make her the vanilla chiffon cake (as that is definitely less sweet than a lot of my other cake recipes!).  Also, chiffon cake is pretty popular in the Asian community.  You'll find that most of the bakery cakes are chiffon-like.  It's that slightly sweet, soft, spongy cake we all love so much!  I'm usually more confident baking cupcakes, as  cupcakes always bake up right.  Cakes are more troublesome.  I've tried to bake chiffon cakes in a cake pan before, and they never, ever came out right.  So, I'm not quite sure what possessed me to bake a chiffon cake...a chiffon cake in my mom's crappy, tiny oven (barely fits a half sheet pan!), that is overly hot from the bottom!  But I did,  and it actually came out right!  I'm not sure if you remember, but I was cake apprenticing at a Chinese bakery in Pico Rivera a couple months ago.  They started me off doing the filling of the cakes and icing the cakes with whipped cream.  I'm also not sure if you remember, or I ever told you, dear readers, but I suck at icing cakes!  They never come out nicely even and it just gives me grief! And when I interned at that cake shop, the poor owner had to re-ice every single one of my cakes!  Over time, I did get better, but slightly so!  Anywhoo, since I decided to whip up an Asian cake look-alike, I filled the middle of the chiffon cake with half strawberries and half banana.  Then I whipped up some whipped cream and iced my cake!  It didn't turn out that bad, if I do say so myself!  I was pretty impressed with my icing skills (as it's been months since I've iced a cake!)  And it was pretty easy too!  I actually baked my cake, sliced it and filled it, and iced it in a matter of minutes!  I was pretty darn impressed with myself!  I must admit, though, that I thought the cake was a bit under-dressed.  It didn't occur to me to make lines and squiggles (or something!) on the side of the cakes...too late, because I had already dressed the bottoms of the cake already, so couldn't go back and dress up the sides!

All in all, my MIL thoroughly enjoyed her day and was so happy that we all made it out for her birthday!

Happy Birthday Mom!  Hope all your wishes come true and that it'll be a bright and fruitful year! 

XoXo

Pink for Breast Cancer

Happy Monday dear readers!...well, as happy as  Monday could possibly be...Although I guess some of you are more happy than others, seeing as it's a somewhat holiday and many have the day off.  I most certainly didn't.  I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but my family has a donut business in San Diego, and with my recent move back home, I've also moved back into a job helping out at the donut shop.  My true passion lies in baking (as if you couldn't tell..) and I could seriously see myself catering weddings and parties...that is the path I would like to travel...and who knows, maybe it will lead me into my own storefront, where I can expand my passion...ahh, the dream!  Anywho, so I'm back t the family donut shop now and I've decided that I would like to change things around a bit.  It wouldn't hurt to add new products and make whatever products we have now better.  So, I don't know if many of you have seen a lot of beautiful sugar cookie art before...I've seen some, whether it be in person, online, or in books, and I LOVE them!!  Of course, they always look sooo simple to make, but in reality, they are very difficult!!  So, my bright idea, since I'm in love withth ideas of sugar cookies, was to start putting in sugar cookies for the holidays.  How I will manage this with a 13 hour work schedule (Monday through Friday) was beyond me, but I somehow got it done!  It's a great idea in my head so far, and I've gotten around to my first batch of cookies...let's see how well they sell!

So, it is October and as we all know, October is breast cancer awareness month.  This year, breast cancer awareness has struck a cord with me as breast cancer has struck closer to home.  It's made me realize that this can really happen to anyone!  So, I've made efforts to play a  part in donating to cancer research.  I've decided that this first batch of cookies that will be sold will be the breast cancer ribbon and that proceeds will be donated to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.  It's a small effort, but at least it's something!

It all started with this pretty pink ribbon cookie cutter that I bought a while back.  I have a thing for cookie cutters, and especially the color coated cutters (and especially this one because it's a very pretty pink!).  I know, I know...the pink gets me every time!  What I loved about this cutter compared to others that I've seen is that the hole in the middle is attached to the entire cutter.  This way, I do not have to worry about losing that middle piece or getting a different center with each cut.  It was definitely worth the extra money!

Meh..see what I mean about sugar cookies being hard to decorate?  These were supposed to be simple ribbons too...I think you just have to glance at them real quick, but once you lolligag on a cookie, it's all over then!

Ahh...my skills will pick up, I promise!  In the meantime, I hope everyone is aware out there and plays a part in helping to find a cure!

Westlake Culinary Institue Graduation Banquet

Hello, dear readers!!  I'm baaack!!  Ok, so I know I was suppose to be more active with my blog, but SO much has been going on these past couple of weeks!!  I'm finally having a chance to catch up and breath!  I was feeling really guilty about having just one post for September, but realized I did a double header...that counts as two, right?  I know, I know, I promise to be more on track!  However, I know you will forgive me once you learn the horrors I went through these past couple of weeks!  So, September was our last full month living in Oxnard.  Yes, sadly, the hub and I moved out of our lovely rental (it was beautiful!).  However, we moved back to beautiful San Diego (I'm stalking my baking buddy...remember Mai?) Just kidding.  I was actually born and raised in San Diego, so I am very happy to be back!  Anyways, I digress, back in September, I had Cyndi's wedding to do and Aidan's birthday to cater...on top of packing (which, I, of course, did the last weekend of September...).  Not only did I have packing to look forward to, I also had my culinary school banquet to help out with!  I'm not sure I ever mentioned it,  but for the last six months, I've been attending a professional culinary course at Westlake Culinary Institue.  The time had come for our graduation banquet, and of course, it was scheduled for October 2...two days after I am officially out of my rental.  So, on top of packing and moving and cooking, I had to worry about where I would live for that weekend too!  See, dear readers, don't you feel for me already??

All in all, everything worked out fine...of course it does, right?  I ended up loading and moving that Wednesday morning of the last week of September, got to San Diego in the dead of night; unloaded Thursday morning/afternoon, and caught the last train out to Oxnard Thursday afternoon.  Of course, I almost missed my train, since I forgot my kitchen shoes when we were about five minutes out of the house and had to go back and get it (it was in one of the million boxes in my garage!)...but I made it with one minute to spare!  My lucky day indeed.  See, aren't you just tired reading what I went through?!  The rest of the week was dedicated to preparing for our banquet!  Now, mind you, we had courses in cooking, not putting together a banquet!  This required us to print tickets and sell them; decorate our tables, get the speaker system up and working, on top of preparing six hordourve appetizers and a five course meal!  All this, working in a professional, working kitchen!  Our banquet was held in The Hyatt at Westlake Village.  It was a beautiful, convenient location.  The kitchens at The Hyatt was fabulous!  It was gigantic!!  I had helped out with the front of the house on the day of.  It was a good thing our Hyatt correspondance was gracious enough to lend these beautiful wicker straw vases for us to use!  My flash of brilliance, using these different shaped vases to help anchor our entrance tables.  But of course, everyone had a hand in making the rooms pleasing to the eye!  The front of house committee really worked hard and in the end, it paid off because the rooms were stunning!

Aren't these centerpieces fabulous?  Allison, one of our front of house elected managers, recycled these from her front yard!  We then proceeded to tie leaves all over them to give it a more fall look.  We were also intrigued with the idea of small blossoms on our bare twigs, so blossoms were added too!  I had sent a few pictures that intrigued me and the front of house managers kind of threw them all together and this was what came out of it!  I love the look of bare branches.  It really gives a room a kind of elegance without having too much.  So, I am very happy with the decision to go with branches! All I can say is, thank goodness we only had fourteen tables to outfit!  Can you imagine making forty of these??

And on top of all this work, we had to cook too!!  We had planned on serving six different kinds of passed hordourves: Goat cheese tartletts with fig jam, Brie and pecan bouchees, bacon wrapped shrimps with jalapeno orange sauce, crab and endive salad, salmon canapes, and venison on a polenta crisp.  Yes, a lot of food!!  We had more than enough to go around; we overcooked, so everyone in the back had a chance to sample all the goodies! 

These are the yummy brie and pecan bouchees!  There is also caramelized onions on the bottom of the cheese...all this yummy goodness sitting atop a buttery goodness of puff pastry, handmade by yours truly!  I made four batches of puff pastry from scratch..I can now say I'm a pro at making puff pastry!

My beautiful cousins came out to cheer me on!  Thank you so much for the time you took out of your busy lives to help celebrate with me!  I'm glad to hear from them that the food was very much up to their standards and that it was well worth the $100!!

Of course, we had more than just the six hordourves!  We also had a line up of five courses of dinner and free-flowing wine all night long!  Not to mention, all of our breads were hand-made with love...and for those of you who ever made one loaf of bread before, you will know the dedication and time it took to make enough bread to feed 140 guests!  Our first course was two butternut squash soups, poured side by side.  Our second course was a spring mixed salad with blackberries, blue cheese and pecans, drizzled with home-made blackberry vinaigarette dressing.  The third course was our mushroom stuffed ravioli with seared scallops and shrimp, dressed with an heirloom tomato cream sauce.  We then had and intermezzo of fresh tangerine sorbet, sprinkled with edible flowers. 

Our main entree was a plate of two beefs:  braised short ribs with au jus sauce and a cut of filet mignon with bernaise sauce, both served with roasted root vegetables and scalloped potatoes.

And finally, our dessert was a trio: hazelnut torte, raspberry ice cream with raspberry sauce, and poached pear atop puff pastry with caramel sauce and toasted almonds (unfortunately, my camera-woman Christina, received a melty ice cream)...but I swear, they looked very good on their way out of the kitchen!  I am happy to say that dessert was a hit!  My family raved about the desserts.  In fact, one even suggested I re-create this dinner and charge half the price! I am certainly thinking about it!

Ahh, our very own Chef Tim.  Here he is giving a little, sweet speech about every one of us.  I believed he mentioned something about champagne cupcakes when it came to my turn.  And yes, all these wonderful people were part of my guinea pig family!  Although now that I think back on it, I should have made more, since I had such a fine array of palates!!

Mamma Mia!!  I shall sorely miss her!  I tried to get her to adopt me, but I had too much baggage (the hubby...and the dog...)

And then there's Ms Eyvonne.  She and her husband Gene actually adopted me for the weekend!  I will be eternally grateful for their hospitality!  I had a grand time with her that whole weekend.  She was one of our executive chefs and really did a great job manning the group!  It helps to have such great leadership...in the end, it really made our work much easier and much smoother!

And lastly, here's my family!  I'm super happy that they came out and celebrated with me!  I hope they enjoyed the great food, the fabulous people and the wonderful atmosphere!  (They already told me they did!)  I just want to say "Thank You" to my wonderful family, especially since they all had quite a distance to drive, on top of paying that $100!  I hope everything was to their liking and standards, but most importantly, I hope they had fun and enjoyed themselves! 

And to those of you who couldn't make it, hopefully this post will make it feel as if you were there too!  And who knows, perhaps Linda's Kitchen will be open for one night of recreating this menu!  I'll let ya know!

Salut!