There's been a lot of talk about summer cooking on the interwebs recently. It's the end of the season and the available produce is ridiculously abundant. However, who wants to spend too much time in a hot kitchen when the outdoor mercury is also near to bursting out of the top of the thermostat?
If you're one of the many people who prefer easier cooking in the summer, here's a round up of recipes for you.
Petit fours have been becoming increasingly popular over the last few years. They're perfect for those of us concerned about portion control. You can satiate your sweet tooth without overindulging with the bite sized sweets.
There's a certain conception that most people have of petit fours. Most of us think the treats have to be small square or round cakes with a poured fondant icing and a piped decoration on top. There's much more to it than that. Petit four translates from French as 'small oven,' which refers to the ovens after the large items had been baked. The heat in the oven was a lot lower after the bread or large cakes (in the case of the nobility) came out, so things like smaller cakes and cookies that needed lower temperatures could then be baked.
In a strict sense, a petit four can be any small cookie, cake, creme puffs or tartlet. Even sugar coated nuts and fruits could be considered petit four, technically speaking. According to Larousse Gastronomique, petit fours became popular during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King himself.
When we work on the small desserts for teas or buffets in my pastry kitchen, we use almond cake to make the petit four glacés. It's a very dense almond cake that we then layer with different flavors of marmalade, top with marzipan (only on the top layer), and then pour fondant over in a very thin layer (after cutting the cake into small squares of course). They're so rich it's a good thing we cut them in such bite-sized pieces.
I realize this topic may be a little more suited to Valentine's Day, but I think we should treat every day as Valentine's Day. Besides, I am a firm believer in the saying that food is love.
Eric over at the Jew and the Carrot was reminiscing with his parents about the home made latkes his mother used to make for his father. This led to the question, posed to readers, of how you might show your love with food. I personally like to make my special chocolate cookies for new boyfriends, and birthday cakes for family and friends. Also, every Christmas I like to make special goody packages for close relatives that live far away.
I think it's so strange that a tobacco company is making a supposedly breath freshening bottled water. That's what a Japanese firm is doing, though.
According to Trends in Japan, Japan Tobacco has come up with this product, which is geared for men (it actually has "for men" printed on the labeling). I guess all the cigarette smoking is causing a nation-wide masculine bad breath crisis. Hmm, I guess Japan Tobacco wants to be the solution as well as the problem.
I guess this situation is not so strange after all. Do know of any other companies with problem/solution products?
Today for lunch, my sister and I did something we don't do very often. We went to an Italian restaurant. Italian just isn't one of my favorite cuisines. After a minute of looking at the menu, she asked me what cannelloni was, at which point I realized I had no idea. Imagine my surprise when I got home and found this post from Baker's Banter. It's a how-to on Sara Moulton's (Sara's Secrets) version of cannelloni, which uses crepes rather than pasta sheets. It looks incredibly delicious, and would probably make a great, easy, special dinner.
According to this article in Wikipedia, cannelloni can be made with either pasta sheets or crepes and still be considered correct. It was really interesting to learn about this dish, especially since it found me rather than the other way around. It occurred to me that cannelloni is similar to baked enchiladas. Now I'm curious if there are similar recipes from other cuisines. What do you think?
Having worked in a bakery setting since I was 18, I've seen my share of groom's cakes. Actually, I had never heard of the groom's cake until I started working in a bakery. Most of them are chocolate cake with a golf or foot ball theme. My best friend's groom went with a caramel cake, which was very delicious. This one really takes the cake, though.
The Black Widow Bakery came up with the best groom's cake I've ever seen. There's not even any fru-fru cake to ruin the manliness of it. It's a meat cake. The layers are made up of meat loaf, with a special glaze filling, and mashed potato icing. The decorations were created with that same glaze, which is made from Worcestershire sauce , brown sugar, and ketchup.
All the details are here. I'm pretty amused by this cake. I actually think it's a really neat idea. Have you seen any really great groom's cakes recently?
Can you imagine eating a whole, raw onion by itself, let alone polishing it off in a little over a minute?
J.R. Kuka achieved that feat in the onion eating contest that's part of the Pine Island Summer Fest. Mr. Kuka ate the eight ounce onion in a record 75 seconds, where the previous record had been 1 minute, 55 seconds. Reportedly, this year's winner was cool as a cucumber and smiling as he cut and consumed the onion. He also took his $100 prize and goody bag and left the festival before the local reporter could interview him.
Apparently, the Pine Island onions are known for being much stronger than other onions. I'm personally not a big fan of uncooked onions, so I can't really see myself doing this. For $100, I might enter the contest, but I wouldn't be able to eat it very fast. How would you do in this onion-eating contest?
It appears that right now is not a good time to be in the food business. First Bennigan's closed the majority of their stores and now Mrs. Field's Famous Brand is planning on filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
According to Forbes, the cookie maker won't be able to make a scheduled debt payment in September. The company is currently "soliciting votes from creditors for a 'prepackaged' bankruptcy reorganization plan." That means that the people in charge at Mrs. Field's are talking to creditors to see if they'll agree to the company's reorganization plans. So far about two thirds of the creditors have agreed to the prepackaged bankruptcy deal.
For the plan to go through, Mrs. Field's has to file by August 25. It's been forever since I had a Mrs. Field's cookie, and if lots of other consumers are like me, that's probably part of the reason they're heading into bankruptcy. Are Mrs. Field's products good enough to save, or should the company just give it up?
Brioche is one of the original enriched breads. Enriched meaning that it contains lots of butter and eggs. According to Wikipedia, there was mention of brioche in print as early as the 13th century, though it's believed to be the descendant of a type of Roman bread.
The that quote usually attributed to Marie Antoinette about letting the peasants eat cake, many people think it was actually mistranslated and refers to brioche. She was saying to let the peasants eat brioche. According to Peter Reinhart, in his Bread Bakers Apprentice, there was two versions of brioche during that time in France. One of them was for the rich, which was chock full of butter, and one was for the poor, which had minimal amounts of butter. There were apparently strict rules governing who could buy which version. By saying "let them eat brioche" Marie Antoinette was saying let the poor eat the rich person's version of the bread.
Brioche is an amazingly rich, soft, flaky, delicious bread. It's kind of strange in that it contains so much butter, but it still turns out bread-like. In fact, brioche can have anywhere from 50% to 90% butter (that would be half as much butter as flour to almost as much butter as flour by weight). The most traditional and recognizable form of brioche is the brioche à tête (pictured above), but you can shape it any way you want.
Brioche makes a great brunch bread just because it's so buttery and tasty. I recently found a great formula for strawberry almond brioche from Cyril Hitz, a very well known baker. You can check out my version after the jump.
Farmers everywhere are being squeezed by high production costs and low prices for their products. Even malting barley farmers in Ireland are being hit, but they're trying to do something about it.
The Irish farmers, about 400 of them, converged on the famous Guinness brewery in Dublin to protest their situation. The farmers want the brewer to do more to support the industry (which I suppose means supporting higher grain prices?). However, Guinness maintains that they get their grain from an agricultural supplier and has little say in the prices the farmers are paid.
A company spokesperson says that the beer maker also has to do what it can to compete with other beverage choices in a poor global economy. I feel bad for Guinness being caught in the middle. They won't have the grain they need if all the farmers go under, but they also prefer the lower grain prices to keep their own prices down. What do you think about the situation.
Do you remember those commercials that Splenda used to run? You know, the ones where they said that their product tastes like sugar because it's make with sugar? Well, if not, you heard it here first! The sugar industry is currently embroiled in a lawsuit with Splenda and they're going to court.
Apparently, the sugar association has a big problem with the way that Splenda (owned by Johnson and Johnson through subsidiary McNeil Nutritionals) markets itself. The sugar industry representative claims that the advertising for Splenda is deliberately misleading and designed to cause consumer confusion. Marketing for the sweetener is allegedly aimed at getting consumers to think that Splenda is a natural sugar product with magically no calories.
Of course the makers of Splenda deny this and say that their advertising is perfectly truthful. Well, both sides will now have the chance to duke it out in court. A District Court judge has set the starting date of January 6, 2009. What do you think might be the outcome?
Imagine for a moment that you went to a local bakery and got a loaf of your favorite raisin bread. When you get it home you find small rocks are in the mix. Would you accept five bucks as compensation from the bakery?
That's what one customer in Somerville, Massachusetts did. As reported by The Consumerist, Michael Snyder originally asked for five more loaves of the raisin bread, but the bakery offered $5 and he took that. Apparently the raisins were from Chile and used an older production method that makes it easier for debris to get into the raisin supply. The bakery sent back the rest of the raisins.
There has been no talk about any injuries from the rocks, so I assume everyone is fine. I also suppose that things happen and you just need to be able to take things in stride, but five dollars? What would you do in a similar situation?
Until today, I was completely unaware that there were rules governing how produce had to look at the supermarket. I just thought that it was the retailers who were only accepting the "pretty" stuff.
However, in Europe there are all kinds of rules that dictate what produce has to look like. It covers the diameter of bananas all the way to what percentage of asparagus has to be green. The produce that doesn't fit those regulations gets tossed out. Recently, the European Commission decided that throwing away perfectly good produce just because it doesn't look perfect is just plain wasteful. Additionally the practice may also be contributing to the global food crisis.
As a result, the old rules are being abandoned on about 26 fruits and vegetables. Due to some opposition, though, not every variety of produce is having the rules changed. The compromise is that strawberries, pears, tomatoes, apples, kiwi, and lettuce must still meet the old guidelines.
What do you think about rules regarding produce appearance?
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
I was happy to learn recently that there is a way to try to help the situation, as there are several members of Congress that are trying to improve the food situation. According to Seasonal Pantry, Representative Diana DeGette has introduced legislation that will improve the traceability of fresh produce. The bill is HR3485 and everyone who cares about food safety should be contacting their representative and asking them to support the bill.
In addition to letting your Congressman know that you want him or her to support HR3485, Seasonal Pantry also has started a petition. If this is something you're interested in, this may be a way for you to walk your talk.
Summer time is hot. Where I live, it's in the upper 90s every day. It makes me want to tear into a frozen treat at any moment. If summer time makes you crave anything frozen, maybe some of these will get your mouth to watering and your feet headed toward the freezer.
1. Here's a whole half dozen ideas from LifeHacker. 2. These FrostBites and FrostTeas look mighty good. 3. The butterscotch banana pops from Parenthood.com may be a variation on a theme, but pretty tasty-looking. 4. The creamy, fruity pops from Frutto della Passione look quite tasty. 5. Here's some more frozen watermelon-y goodness from Eating Out Loud. 6. Why not try some easy strawberry frozen yogurt from Baking Bites? 7. This hilarious post about making an ice cream sandwich is worth a read. 8. For those of us watching our weight, eDiets has a few suggestions about frozen treats under 100 calories.
There's been a lot of talk about summer cooking on the interwebs recently. It's the end of the season and the available produce is ridiculously abundant. However, who wants to spend too much time in a hot kitchen when the outdoor mercury is also near to bursting out of the top of the thermostat?
Can you imagine eating a whole, raw onion by itself, let alone polishing it off in a little over a minute? 
You may have heard about the recent salmonella outbreak. Or possibly your brain is just generally buzzing about the sorry state of the food safety system here in the United States. I know I've been reading about those topics a lot recently, and I'm quite concerned.
Summer time is hot. Where I live, it's in the upper 90s every day. It makes me want to tear into a frozen treat at any moment. If summer time makes you crave anything frozen, maybe some of these will get your mouth to watering and your feet headed toward the freezer.
Chocolate-stuffed bananas on the grill
Tyler Florence welcomes new daughter
Beware kids' menus!
