Flaky Friends

I saw this free pattern from Michael's and immediately thought of one of my girlfriends.  The text says "Some of my best friends are flakes."  Yeah, that's us.If she sees this post, let's hope she forgets about it by the time Christmas comes around.  I will leave the final finished project a surprise just in case. 

It's stitched on 18 count Aida in Delft Blue Pale with regular DMC floss.  Finished stitched size is just under 4" x 6".   The backstitch for the words is done with two threads to make them stand out a little more. It took me about a week to complete it.   

In other news, I matted and framed the big Rose of Sharon piece!  I was too cheap to get it professionally framed, and it looks like a DIYODS-er (do-it-your-own-damn-self). I got all of the pieces individually: glass from Lowe's ($11), matte from Hobby Lobby ($5), frame from Hobby Lobby ($15).  My guy helped me cut out the matte.  (Note to self: Lowe's doesn't sand the edges of the glass pieces they cut. Put band aids on the grocery list.)

It's a cheap framing job, but maybe later on I can get it done right. Right now I still need mounting hardware to hang it. I don't think I'll try to do one this size again just because of the difficulty finishing it with a frame.  It would have been a lot easier to find something in 18" x 24" or 16" x 20" sizes.

I also received a care package from my sister.  I love it when she does that!  Included this time was a "rug mug" to put my coffee/drink/snack on at work.  Check out her post on how she made them! Totally in love with them and more in love with her.  The "life is good" coffee mug was a Christmas present and is my new favorite.  The other side of the mug says "Do what you like/Like what you do." The scones were the breakfast I provided for my team that day.  The upper left corner is the Keys to My Heart project I completed.  The upper right is a picture of me and my sister from her basic training graduation. Aren't we cute?

Scones for Me, Scones for You!

My group of coworkers in the office has a routine of bringing in breakfast once a week.  Responsibility of providing the food rotates among team members.  Recently it fell to me.  My coworkers are not very adventurous eaters. Normal provisions are either breakfast tacos or bagels.  I must be the only person in San Antonio that gets tired of breakfast tacos.  Most of my culinary tastes are not shared with my coworkers, so I have to be careful of what I decide to bring in. 

Scones seemed a good midway point.  They are really close to biscuits, so it wasn't a big stretch for most people.  The recipe I used came from Professional Baking by Wayne Glissen, my pastry textbook. We made half a batch of plain scones, a quarter batch of raisin scones, and a quarter batch of cranberry scones.

The tricks to making great biscuits also are the ones to make great scones. In particular, there are two main tips.  First, don't overwork the dough.  Too much kneading will make biscuits hard like hockey pucks.  I could tell that our set of raisin scones were kneaded a little too much. They were much flatter than the other ones and not as flaky.

Next, BUTTER.  Butter is actually important in quick breads like biscuits and scones.  The steam generated from the butter melting is a major portion of the leavening activity.  When you mix the butter in to the flour, leave it in small pieces about pea size.  This will make sure you have little pockets of buttery goodness and aromatic steam when you break open a piece.  For these scones, we used both Crisco and butter. 

We used 2"-3" square cookie cutters to cut our dough. It made the scones small enough for people not to feel guilty for having one of each.  And then seconds.  The egg wash we used to create the shiny crust on top was made from eggs, milk, and a touch of granulated sugar.  On some of the plain ones we added some granulated sugar as well.

They definitely needed something to help wash them down, which could have been fixed by using all butter. They did not contain a lot of sugar, so people with a sweet tooth added honey or jam.  Everyone else just swigged their morning coffee.

Overall, the scones got rave reviews. I bet they will be talking about these for quite some time.

Mongolian BBQ - Dessert Course

Mongolian barbeque restaurants are becoming more and more popular for their endless possibilities of flavor and texture profiles.

Patrons select ingredients from a raw bar and hand them to employees to stir fry on a large griddle.  Many establishments offer several meat selections usually including chicken, pork, beef, tofu, and a token seafood item.  Noodles are also popular and range from lo mein to yakisoba.  There are lots of vegetables that include go-to stir fry veggies -  bell peppers, onions, mushrooms, baby corn - but also offer some more adventurous items - bean sprouts, bamboo shoots, and cabbage.

Sauce bars are where the really creative stuff happens.   Most places recommend using 5-6 ladles of any combination of sauces for a single bowl of ingredients.  Venues have in-house versions of classic sauces - teriyaki, Thai peanut, and sweet and sour, to name a few - but also have unique offerings all their own.  Add some basic broths and oils, and you have a million different options for your sauce!  (Actually, HuHot has closer to 24 factorial, or 6.20448402 × 10²³, if I remember my formulas correctly.)


The options are unlimited!  You will wish your stomach was unlimited when faced when going through the buffet!   Mongolian barbeque restaurants in the San Antonio area are limited to  HuHot and a few recent openings of Genghis Grill.  Hands down the best Mongolian barbeque place I've been to was Fire+Ice in Boston. 


With so many choices, it's easy to let your eyes get bigger than your stomach.  Most of the time you won't have room for dessert.  The offered dessert menu doesn't impress with items like an Attila the Hun themed cheesecake.  You're going to want to save room for this stir fry dessert!  It's simple, fresh, and a very light way to end a normally heavy meal. 

Grilled Pineapple and Coconut
- 1/2 cup shredded coconut  (Look for it at the toppings end of the bar!)
- 1 cup pineapple chunks 


Sauces, one ladle of each: 
- teriyaki sauce
- sweet and sour sauce
- lime juice
- sesame oil

Extra toppings
- more shredded coconut
- minced raw peanuts


Combine all ingredients and sauces in a bowl.  Let the guys grill it up for you.  Top the grilled pineapples and coconut with some peanuts for crunch and more coconut for an extra kick.  You're going to want to pass this around the table, if your dining partners have any room left!

V-Day 2010

Happy Valentine's Day to you!   

I celebrated my third Valentine's Day with the BF yesterday.  We do a low-key date at home, so that we don't have to mess with the hassle and expense of going out to eat.  We had another Mollydooker wine, this time Two Left Feet. It was a really nice wine and worth the extra penny we spent on it.  So far I'm a huge fan of their whole line.  We decided to do some recipes out of Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook, which BF got for Christmas.

First was some Blue and Yellow Cornbread Muffins.  My iPhone really doesn't do the color justice.  They looked really good, but ended up tasting kinda dry.  Maybe that's the last time the BF gets put in charge of baking.  We must have done something wrong though, because we couldn't get enough of them when we ate at Mesa Grill Las Vegas.  They're a must if you ever go there.

BF was also in charge of grilling the steaks: Black Pepper Crusted Filet Mignon with Ancho Red Pepper Sauce and Goat Cheese.  We really lucked out at Central Market because the filet mignons were on sale.  And they looked excellent, even raw!  I was in charge of the sauce, which also turned out excellent.  It had a really complex flavor, though perhaps a little too heavy on the tomato.  The goat cheese went on top and then got all gooey and delicious under the broiler.  Overall, it was a really good meal.  Even though mine was a little overdone, the meat was still tender and delicious.  It gave me an excuse to have a bit extra of the sauce, so all was well. 

For dessert, BF insisted on cheesecake, where I insisted on dip-your-own strawberries.  So we both got our way.  I got my strawberries and BF stole some of the dipping chocolate to top his cheesecake.  I must admit, I demolished the whole plate.  The strawberries were really juicy, much better than I would have thought possible for off-season strawberries.

For our date night entertainment, we watched the recorded season finale of Worst Cooks in America, one of my new favorite shows.  Most of the people just want to learn how to cook just so they can better provide for their families.  It is such a humble desire, but so heartening to see how passionate they are about being able to give something back to the people they care about. 

After that, we watched Couple's Retreat.  I have liked Vince Vaughn since I saw him in A Cool Dry Place, though I try to ignore the fact that he was in Old School and Dodgeball   It was awesome to see Jean Reno as the guru-guy considering his previous roles like in Ronin and The Da Vinci Code.  It wasn't the same humor as Old School, thank the movie-making-powers-that-be.  It was very adult humor, with really great writing, and some overall great insights about couples.  The movie was way better than what I was expecting it to be. 

It was a very nice, very low-key Valentines Day for us.  Very similar to our normal days, but just done up a notch.  

Oh, and if anyone still wants to see Valentine's Day, let me know.

Orange-Champagne Salad

Last night in my cooking class our assignment was to make a salad to go with our salad dressing we made in the previous class.

Mine kicked @$$!

I'm super proud of it.  It was really pretty.  It tasted awesome.  We had to lay the plates out for group critique, and one of the other girls in the class said that I inspired her.  She wanted to eat my salad before she ate her own.  It made my day.  Quite possibly my week.

I have eaten a lot of salads.  I got tired of them really quickly, so now I look for unique ones.  So this assignment was right for me.   (If you're tired of salads, try some of the ones at California Pizza Kitchen!)

This one is made of shredded lettuce as the base, with orange sections, yellow bell pepper, red onion, and cilantro.  I'm calling the dressing Orange-Champagne Viniagrette.  It's made from champagne vinegar, olive oil, orange marmalade, garlic, salt, and pepper.   It was tangy with a sweet finish. I really enjoyed it.  And I'm a salad dressing snob. (Also from eating way too many salads.) 

My salad had some critique points about it.  Normally you should put diced items in salad so people don't have to chase them around the plate.  It was too large, as it's spilling over into the rim.  I shredded the lettuce with a knife, which will bruise it if prepared a while before serving. 

I don't know what grade I got on it, but it doesn't really matter.  I challenged myself.  I had fun doing it. And I inspired someone else.  That's all I really want to do in life.

Day of FAIL, Night of WIN!

In case you didn't already know, my life is very glamorous.  Here's the play by play on a semi-typical night.

 
7pm - Day of FAIL! Plans in place to transform into Night of WIN!  Champagne chilling (Editor's note: Martini & Rossi Asti, my current fave).  Cleaning counterspace for making doughnuts.

730pm - Started doughnuts and drinking champagne.  My Life in Ruins is on, and laughter should be coming shortly.

758pm - First laugh of the evening.  The creepy innkeeper hits on what's-her-face (Editor's note: Nia Vardalos) to try to convince her to sleep with him in order to pay for postage.

830pm - Realized I got Italian bread instead of pizza crust.  Oh well.  Mmm bread!  What's-her-face (Editor's note: Nia Vardalos)  looks pretty hot in this movie.

9pm - There is beauty in a good long marriage.  Beauty I would like to see first hand.

908pm- Movie ends.  But there's still wine, bread's coming out of the oven, and the doughnuts aren't even frosted yet!  Putting in Post Grad.

933pm - Doughnuts are done! Complete with Valentine's day Sprinkles! I laugh at the Nestle warning label: Do not consume raw cookie dough.

941pm - Damn... this dude is hot. (Editor's Note: Said dude is Zach Gilford.) Like Channing Tatum hot. The scale is going to hate me in the morning.  Michael Keaton is hilarious. Oh man -that's the guy from Love Actually. Hottie alert. (Editor's note: Said hottie is Rodrigo Santoro.) Tonight has been awesome. Making doughnuts was really found.
950 pm- Maybe this movie is funnier than I thought.
10:02 -  Now out of champagne.  Yeah, definitely funnier than expected.  They are burying a dead cat in a pizza box... to the tune of "Memory" ... from Cats.

10:09 Oh yeah, that feels good.  PJs are WAY past due.  So glad that this guy (Editor's Note: this guy = Love Actually hottie) ends up half naked in all the movies I've seen him in. Michael Keaton is HILARIOUS. First LOL tonight.

10:22 - Good anthem song (Editor's note: "One Day" by Jack Savoretti). Wow she (Editor's note: Alexis Bledel) has REALLY blue eyes. Like my sister's.

10:52 - Smiling like a moron. What a glorious feeling.  I miss it.


Well, there you have it folks.  Don't you wish you could be me?

Cowboy Breakfast

The San Antonio Rodeo is kicking off this week, beginning with the 32nd Annual Cowboy Breakfast.  The event holds the Guinness World Records for Largest Free Breakfast and Largest Coffee Event.  Only in San Antonio will thousands of people brave cold and rain for free tacos.

St. Phillip's College Culinary Arts program receives a $20,000 scholarship from the event.  In return, our Chef-Professors encourage volunteering to help prepare the food.  Since my day job doesn't involve wearing a hairnet, I took the opportunity to get more experience in food service.

Long post guys, courtesy of lots of pictures from my iPhone, mySA, and WOAI.  

My day at the Cowboy Breakfast started at 2am at one of the grills used to warm up some of the 150,000 tortillas. I worked with a family of a father, three daughters (Mariah, Erica, and Mandy, left to right), and one boyfriend (Jeremy) there.  The girls were really cute and had a great relationship with each other.  They reminded me of me and my sisters, which started my day off on a really good note.


We received logo bandanas for volunteering and Jeremy took the opportunity to transform to "The Tortilla Bandido."

Unfortunately, about two hours into it, Erica got really bad burns on her hands after a stack of tortillas fell on her.  This job is dangerous, folks! So they all left to take her to the hospital.  I love the way they all banded together to see to her safety and I know I would have done the same thing. I don't know how she's doing, but I hope for the best.

When the family left, the grill was taken over by culinary students.  On my half of the grill was Genado, who was awesome to work with.  Really efficient and had a good humor.  The other half was very disorganzied and had a bunch of people who obviously didn't care about being there and it showed in their work ethic.  I'm glad none of them are in my classes right now.

Intermittently, the sky would open up and we would have a downpour for a little while. There was a leak in the tent in a place perfect to drip on my shoulder.  It didn't take much to start a river underneath our feet.  When we happened to drop a tortilla, it almost immediately floated away to somewhere else in the tent. 

One of the guys at that end of the grill was interviewed by a couple different reporters and I might have ended up on WOAI this morning.   I'm the face in the very top left corner in this WOAI picture.  Does this count towards my two seconds of fame? 

After that, my Chef pulled me off tortillas to work the filling for the chorizo and egg tacos.  There were a few other guys at that grill that were hilarious.  One was making up his own theme song.  They were really fun to work with.  But, I am ashamed to say, the old cowboys working the grill next to us showed us up.  They worked like they had been doing this for thirty years.  Who knows, they probably have.

There were a couple guys there that were very interesting characters.  The first was Herb who sported an eye patch handsomely.  He was kind of our supervisor at the tortilla station.  He reminded me a lot of some of my uncles.  Then there was Dickie who was responsible for keeping the fire going and providing all the grills with hot coals.  I love this picture of him from mySA.com.  The best part is the reflection of the bonfire in his glasses.  Both he and Herb had the weathered leather-looking skin that comes from years of long days working outside. They were perfect caricatures of a classic cowboy, but still uniquely themselves.

I had a blast. I a lot of expectations and hopes for the event, but I wasn't disappointed.  I haven't done much volunteer work like this since college, and I'm really glad I did.  A lot of the guys took breaks to chow down tacos, but I kept going.  Even after being there for five hours on my feet I was pumped.  It might have something to do with the two Red Bulls I had, but I think the adrenaline of it all was the real reason.  Even now, reliving it, I feel like jumping around or dancing.  Or doing it all over again.

I love being in my chef's coat.  Similar to putting on a uniform or costume, it changes my persona.  I love how easily I can direct people and how most people respond positively to my direction.  Even a week into my kitchen class, the other students look to me for instruction, and I'm a newbie just like them!  It's a leadership style works better in this format than it does at my day job.  My classes and experiences like this are great outlets for me, and I gain so much from them.

This was a great way to start the day.