Puree Pumpkin Shortage, Problem or Prospect?

Alert! Alert! Central Florida and other parts of the US affected by massive pumpkin shortage as we near Thanksgiving.

To illustrate the ripples this shortage has created in the reality of holiday bakers, let me set a scene for you. Picture me with armfuls of groceries at the Winter Park Village Publix searching the fresh produce, baking products, and canned fruits aisles frantically with darting eyes, hair piled atop my head flopping in cadence with my stomping, stern gate, and gaped mouth stunned that I can not find nary one can of Libby Pumpkin Puree. In a full tizzy, I yank on the sleeve of a lovely produce re-stocker (not my proudest moment) begging him to fill me in on the pumpkin situation. Gently he tells me of a massive freeze in the Midwest depleting the fall harvests. Freeze in the Midwest? I have heard of no such thing, but perhaps my abrasive approach encouraged the young man to do anything to get the crazy baking lady away from him as soon as humanly possible including falsifying a weather emergency.

After seeking out more pumpkin puree in more Publix establishments and other area markets, I settled for the one carton of pumpkin pie mix I could find and stretched it for two desserts, mocha pumpkin brownies and raspberry walnut streusel pumpkin bread. Yet, due to the pumpkin shortage I am not planning on any additional pumpkin dishes for the up-and-coming Thanksgiving holiday. If this has happened to me, than it is most certain all Orlando area bakers are feeling the pinch of the Fall 2009 Pumpkin Shortage Fallout.

How in tarnation did this shortage come to be? To find out the answer to this pumpkin mystery please read on in my examiner.com/orlando article: http://ww.examiner.com/x-14532-Orlando-Food-Examiner~y2009m11d19-Puree-pumpkin-shortage-problem-or-prospect

Raspberry Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Bread

***Please vote for my Raspberry Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Bread in the Bon Appetit Mag Blog Envy Bake Off. My entry is in miscellaneous, and you don't have to sign up, give our email or anything. Vote Today!***

In honor of today's significance, either National Quickbread Day or National Homemade Bread Day (I'll let you choose), the generous people at Driscoll's Berries, whom not only grow my favorite strawberries, additionally supplied with me coupons with the hope and dream I might be able to bake a scrumptious bread using their berries in celebration of this holiday of sorts. Well, wake up my good friends at Driscoll's because the aroma of delicious baked berry bread is wafting through the air. I am totally head-over-heels in love with the smells, tastes, and textures of my Raspberry Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Bread (adapted from Dede Wilson's Blackberry Walnut Streusel Bread recipe). Without further ado, I give you the recipe and tasty pics.

Makes 1 9x5” loaf; apprx. 10 servings.

Spiced Toasted Walnuts:
1 cup lightly toasted walnut halves, finely chopped
¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cinnamon

1 tblsp brown sugar

Raspberry Walnut Streusel:
1 cup of spiced, toasted walnut pieces
1/3 cup almond flour

2 tblsp all purpose flour
¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

2 tblsp granulated sugar
½ tsp cinnamon
3 tblsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled1 cup chopped Driscoll’s Raspberries

Pumpkin Bread:

1 cup fresh Driscoll’s Whole Raspberries

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt 9 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick plus 1

tablespoon), at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

¼ cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp cinnamon

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1/2 cup Pumpkin Pie Filling

Make the Spiced Toasted Walnuts: place a small pan on low heat. In a food processor add the walnuts, spices, and sugar. Pulse about 5-7 times. Add the mixture directly into the heated pan and toast for 5 minutes stirring occasionally. When you start to smell the walnuts, they are done and remove them from the heat. Set aside.

Make the Streusel: Toss the dry ingredients and toasted walnuts together in a bowl. Add melted butter and stir until combined. Divide mixture in half into two bowls. Chop 1 cup of Driscoll’s Raspberries and toss them with half of the reserved streusel; set aside.

Make the Quick Bread: Arrange oven rack in center of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9”x5” loaf pan with nonstick spray; thoroughly coat with flour, removing any excess.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt to aerate and combine; set aside.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer until soft and creamy. Add sugar and brown sugar and beat until combined. Beat in vanilla extract and cinnamon. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the dry mixture in three additions, alternately with the pumpkin pie filling. Begin and end with the dry mixture and beat briefly until just smooth.

Scrape half of the batter into the prepared pan, spreading evenly with a small offset spatula. Top with streusel/chopped raspberry mixture, forming an even layer.

Scrape remaining batter on top, spreading carefully to cover center streusel layer. Top with remaining streusel and place remaining whole raspberries evenly over top, pressing gently to help adhere.

Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 10 minutes or until a bamboo skewer inserted in the center shows a few moist crumbs when removed. Cool pan on wire rack for 15 minutes, then unmold directly onto rack, right side up, to cool completely.

Finding the Sunday Brunch Balance

Sunday brunch is my second favorite meal of the week tying Friday night sushi and following the almighty apex, Sunday night dinner. Normally going out to eat brunch is either horribly disappointing or fantastically tasty, filling, and balanced but hardly ever is there a median experience. Because brunch out is a fifty-fifty gamble nowadays who wants to take the risk of possibly sacrificing not only hard-earned funds but also a chance to nosh an excellent meal for the second best meal of the week? In my opinion, no one with a brain and a knack for cooking would pass that up - perhaps a bit extreme but sometimes that is how I roll. Given today's current economic climate, Pete and I have taken the Sunday Brunch in approach over the past few weeks with surprisingly delicious results.

This past Monday I was so tickled when I tackled the Irish staple of corned beef and cabbage for the first time ever. While I've been half-Irish and half-Italian my whole life, it is rarer than a black-and-blue steak that I actually prepare Irish fare. Perhaps you caught my tweet about it showing off this incredibly modest dinner plate?

Modesty aside, I ably prepared the corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes properly and Pete and I enjoyed the brined beef brisket and braised cabbage all week long.

Come time for Sunday brunch and the end of the beef brisket was staring at us dead in our eyes daring us to make a corned beef, onion, and potato hash topped with an over-medium egg. Momentarily, we locked gazes. Silently, I slightly nodded my head signaling my acceptance of the corned beef's brunch challenge and got cooking straight away.

Frying perfect potatoes for breakfast potatoes or a nice hash is trickier than meets the eye. I myself have struggled here many, many times. Oil's too hot and you burn the potatoes; too cold and they soak up too much oil waiting to crisp. Too much oil, and the same sponge effect will take place; to little and again, expect to eat char. I think choice of oil is also important. I do believe most folks will have vegetable oil as part of their normal stocked cupboard and I also enjoy the taste of it in my fried breakfast foods. Fried potatoes in vegetable oil tastes like America. Therefore, in a large sauce pan I heated about 1/4 cup vegetable oil for 4 small Yukon gold potatoes, 1/2 cup chopped corned beef, and 3/4 cup chopped sweet onion. Admittedly, I do believe the 1/4 cup was too much oil given my medium-heat setting. Perhaps if I had a higher heat and were brave enough to willingly risk the tiny snake bites of oil bubbles snapping up and out of the pan to nip at my arms, hands, and face, I would have rendered the perfectly crispy fried potatoes. Or, if I had less oil and medium-heat I would have achieved the same desired results.

So here is our grand lesson learned: For the amount of the aforementioned ingredients to yield a two-person hash use two-three tablespoons of vegetable oil over a medium-high heat such as 6.5 or 7. While in the pan, salt and pepper the potato pieces. Cook on each side about 4-5 minutes. Remove dark brown pieces with a slotted spoon onto a prepared plate with paper towels. Add onions and chopped corned beef when beginning to turn over pieces and taking out the first fully fired ones. Remove the rest of the hash from the pan and let hash rest on the plate while making the over-easy eggs.

For the eggs we poured out the pan's excess oil, lowered the heat to a medium-low setting, and then Pete took over. One other supremely awesome thing about Sunday Brunch in is cooking together nicely in the kitchen. Plus Pete is whhaaay better at cooking eggs than I am, for real. As he prepared the eggs, I peeled up a tangerine to split, and cut small pieces of the recently baked Raspberry Walnut Streusel Pumpkin Bread (post coming rather soon) completing our plates.

As we sat and ate I knew I didn't achieve my expectations for a stand-out brunch due to my imperfect potatoes, yet many of the flavors and textures that construct the greater Gestalt of a perfectly balanced brunch were indeed present. My bar for 'above average' to 'excellent' brunch is balance. Is there something salty? Something sweet? Something fried or toasted? Something fresh or raw? Is there a starch or two? Is there a meat? Is there egg? If we are going to make two meals one, it needs to taste as if these two meals married and had a divinely delicious baby for us to eat (it's a metaphor or brunch still I promise). Reader, please also note a buffet doesn't meet this bar of brunch balance because all of the flavors and textures need to harmoniously sing together in one plate in average size portions. Mounds of food will not replace quality and it's many ranges of a dish of good food. That's what I found about brunch in; it's about one supremely tasty plate of good food for the supreme day of rest.

Sayounara to Summer Salads Part 2: Pancetta & Peas Potato Salad

First, a disclaimer - I am aware that summer is well over and done, and we are all in full plans and preparations swing for the upcoming holiday season. But that doesn't mean we still can't dream and cook with the whimsy of summer and enjoy it everyday of the year. Rules my friends, are meant to be broken. In Part 2 of my Sayounara to Summer Salads Series I wanted to bring it back home. Back to the simpler times of simpler meals. Back to my memories of many, many meals shared with my Italian-American family over cookouts, holidays, and Sunday dinners. For this salad, I took a classic homestyle Italian pasta dish and morphed it into a potato salad for those of with an aversion to the typical mayonnaise dressing nearly every summery potato salad contains.

Pancetta and peas is one of my all-time, favorite childhood comfort foods which I hold in the highest regard because it utilizes three of my favorite foods: ricotta cheese, bacon, and pasta. Ah, the holy trinity of taste and satisfaction. The Pancetta and Peas Potato Salad is prepared very similarly to the pasta dish except instead of boiling pasta, this dish requires roasting Yukon gold potatoes.

Recipe

5 medium Yukon Gold Potatoes

1 cup chopped pancetta

2 cups part-skim ricotta cheese

1 cup chicken stock

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese

1 1/2 cups frozen peas

olive oil

salt

pepper

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
• Wash and skin the potatoes.
• Cut the potatoes into 1"-1 1/2" pieces.
• Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
• Spread 2 tblsp of olive oil on the baking sheet. Put the potatoes on the baking sheet and using your hands, coat the potato pieces with the olive oil. Sprinkle salt and pepper over
• the pieces and roast in the oven for 18-20 minutes. You want to roast them until a fork easily pierces the flesh but you don't want the potatoes to brown at all.

• In a medium sauce pan over medium heat, put in the 2 cups of ricotta cheese. Let it come up in temperature and using a whisk, mix in the chicken stock. Continue whisk every two minutes. Add the grated parmesan cheese and continue to whisk until you reach a creamy, smooth mixture-about 8 minutes. Keep over low heat until the dish is nearly complete and whisk occasionally.

• In a large pan over medium heat, add the pancetta and cook until caramelized, approximately 5 minutes. Add the frozen peas and cook 2-3 minutes more.

• Remove the potatoes from the oven (remember to check them with a fork to ensure their doneness) and add the pieces directly to the pan of pancetta and peas.
• Mix together and let cook all together 3-4 minutes.
• Turn off the heat and take the ricotta cheese mixture and pour it into the large pan. Mix the ricotta cheese mixture in and transfer to a large bowl.
• Serve immediately as a warm salad or let cool for 1 hour and serve cold.

The second half of this series requires pairing the salad with an Antinori wine and a low-fat

protein completing a full meal. For the Potato Pancetta and Peas Salad I went for two different proteins for two entirely different meals. First, Chianti Braised Chicken Thighs with Fried Capers. Second, a turkey hot dog. Yup, that's right a turkey hot dog.

If you can't eat your potato salad with a hot dog than it just is not a good potato salad. Period. Hot dogs are good, old-fashioned, American comfort food and in my Italian family a chianti wine was the everyday, comfort wine.

Each night at our table whether we were having eggplant parmesan or sausage sandwiches, the wicker encased chianti bottle opened up and dinner began. The sentiment of home and the Italian traditions of my youth came rushing back when I first smelled and then tasted the classic chianti Peppoli 2006 from Antinori Wines. This full wine first has the puckered tartness of the grapes followed by bursts of currant and raspberry flavors rounded out by the robustness of coffee and sweetness of vanilla. In addition to being a staple wine to drink, chianti is an excellent cooking wine which in-turn motivated my super easy Chianti Braised Chicken Thighs with Fried Capers.

Recipe

4 skinless chicken thighs

1 cup Peppoli Chianti

1/2 cup chicken stock

2 tblsp capers

olive oil

2 cloves garlic

Directions

• Marinade the chicken thighs in the chianti and chicken stock for 1 hour. Afterwards, let the chicken and marinade mixture come up to room temperature.
• Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan and add the roughly chopped garlic cloves. Cook about 2 minutes.
• Place the marinaded thighs in the oil and sear on both sides, 2-3 minutes. Add the rest of the marinade and braise the thighs for 10-12 minutes more.
• In a small sauce pan, heat 2 tsp of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add capers and cook 3-4 minutes.
• Remove with a slotted spoon and serve over the chicken thighs.

With the braised chicken thighs, I served the warm Pancetta and Peas Potato Salad. With the turkey hot dog, I served it cold. This salad is easy to make and even easier to eat. And although both meals were polar opposites in style and formality, the Peppoli chianti dressed up or dressed down enhanced the flavors of the salad as well as the chicken thighs (ok, and the hot dog for real) and sent me on delicious trip down memory lane dropping me off at my mother's dinner table.

Contestos Galore! Starbucks, The Orbbies & Examiner Photo Contest

Dear Foodies & Foodettes,

The time has come for me to shamelessly ask for your approval in the form of online votes. We are all trying to get a little ahead in this blogging world, and right now I'm trying the contest thing. Muchas Gracias, Grazie, Merci, and oh yea, Thanks!

First up, Mocha Pumpkin Brownies is an official contender in the Starbucks Via recipe contest. All you have to do is give a 'thumbs-up', that's it! Note, if you are so inclined friends and I have discovered if you have multiple browsers on your computer, you can vote from each one. :-)

To vote: http://www.starbucks.com/via/occasion/recipes/post/1844

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Secondly, Laptops and Stovetops currently hails out of Orlando, FL. The Orlando Sentinel newspaper is now running The Orbbies contest to find the best blogs in the Orlando area. This one is a bit trickier, it does require voters to start an Orlando Sentinel account. Its free, and you can chose to not receive their emails. Scroll to Food Blogs and there is where you will find me.

To vote:

http://www.orlandosentinel2.com/data/orbbies/voting/

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Third, I have entered some photos in the Examiner.com Photo Contest. Of course in the Amateur Round! The following 6 photos are each in the running. Simply click on the URL under each image to vote.

Caribbean Club - http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903903

Puff Pastry - http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903916

Berry Good Biscottis - http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903902

'Stealing a Kiss' - http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903898

My Milano Wave - http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903910

Pre-roasted Chicken -http://photocontest.examiner.com/bin/Rate?image_id=1008903921

Thanks for reading and keeping up with L&S's progress. Hopefully one day I can call myself a winner and know that all my friends helped me get there. Cheers!

Brownies, Cookies, and Cakes Oh My!

It's probably not a shocker to find out my favorite part of Halloween is the treats. Every year, the IST office runs a pumpkin carving competition among the labs. Accompanying the competition is a bevy of sweet selections supplied by employees. Sure, I could have stopped just with the two trays of my previous post, Mocha Pumpkin Brownies with Strawberry Frosting, but of course it didn't. To partner with the brownies I also whipped by Apple & Squash Amish Bread Squares with Ricotta Sweet Cream and Sour Cream Sugar Cookies.

The week before our office party, a co-worker passed on Amish Friendship Bread starter to me. Being raised in Southeastern Pennsylvania, I am more than familiar with this tradition, but now a bit older and wiser I really did not want to use the instant pudding mix my passed-on recipe called for. I echo many other online food writers that I'm 100% positive the Amish never used instant pudding mix as an ingredient in this age-old cake, so why should I? There are a few alternatives to using instant pudding, and I chose to use homemade granny smith apple sauce and steamed acorn squash. Admittedly, my bread is more bread than cake but the fall flavors are undeniable.

The brownies' full flavors and rich texture satisfied those with adventurous palettes and the Amish Friendship Bread supplied the traditional fall flavors, so to ensure everyone at the party palette's are accounted for a super sugary dessert is needed to round out a lovely, varietal spread of Halloween treats. To fill that flavor profile are a simple sour cream sugar cookie covered in purple sugar and then decorated with orange cookie frosting. So, yea. Sugar, sugar, and more sugar.

As if all the baking wasn't enough, I decided to get crafty using holiday decorative straws as tray labels as well as stuck Moo cards for L&S in each and every individual delight. I call it sugar marketing, and I think the trend will absolutely catch on! To cap the entire office Halloween experience is, of course, the office Halloween party costume. Using all props I already own, I was a food judge with a tenderizer-gavel. If I don't like your dish, I not only discredit it, I smash it. Think Gordon Ramsey crossed with Gallagher, or a chef's worst nightmare.

While our lab's pumpkin entry didn't take home the prize, my ghoulish goodies were all the rage! Making and giving treats makes my Halloween the Happiest of all.

Mocha Pumpkin Brownies with Strawberry Frosting

***Please vote for my brownies in the Starbucks Via Recipe Contest. Vote Today! Thank you :) ***

Remember those French Macarons us Daring Bakers posted for the October challenge? Well, maybe not us. I, for one, did not complete this challenge when I had a complete macaroon melt down. Truth be told, I rushed it but I did get feet so I am not a total, utter failure. Its just that I couldn't pipe circular or uniform shells rendering Hunchback of Notre Dame macaroon shells (with feet) instead of smooth and demure shells we have come to know and love. My macaroon filling, a strawberry cream cheese frosting, was chilling for days looking at me with the lonely, longing eyes to be a part of an Autumnal dessert. How could I deny this frosting a place atop an artfully crafted confection; the crown on top of a Princess? I could not muster this kind of negligence and with the office Halloween party just around the corner, to the dessert drawing board I went.

As per usual here at L&S, I found my inspiration for Mocha Pumpkin Brownies with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting through the exceptional pumpkin brownies posts floating around the foodie blogosphere this October like StreamingGourmet's pumpkin brownie, Natalie'sKillerCuisine peanut butter pumpkin brownie, and BakingBites pumpkin brownies with pecans. I wanted in on the pumpkin brownie club, so I went to the cupboard and got to work.

Recipe(s)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting

1 80z. strawberry flavored cream cheese

1/2 butter softened

3 cups confectionery sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp salt

(I add ground cocoa roasted almonds leftover, so I added 2 tblsp of those to add an allusion of seeds in the frosting. This is entirely optional.)

Pumpkin Batter

1 1/2 cup pumpkin pie filling or pumpkin puree* (Amount spices and sugar amounts depending on your choice. The following is for the filling, you will increase the sugars and spices with puree).

1 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

1/4 melted unsalted butter

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mocha Batter

3.5oz. 85 % dark chocolate

1.5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate chips

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 cup pack dark brown sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 Starbucks Via Colombia instant coffee packets

1 cup flour

1/4 tsp baking powder

Directions (you will need several bowls and counter space galore, fyi.)

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting: This can be done days or hours before baking the brownies. The chill time is necessary to firm it up.

Beat the cream cheese, butter, vanilla, and salt until smooth. Add confectionery sugar one cup at a time thoroughly mixing after each cup.

Optional: mix-in ground almonds.

Store in an air-tight container in the refrigerator to chill. For best results, chi

ll 3 hours.

Mocha Pumpkin Brownies

Preheat to 350 degrees and grease a 9" x 13" pan with butter. My mom taught me to save butter wrappers because they are perfect to grease pans with, so there is my little nugget baking tip for you!

Melt the two chocolates and butter together in whatever kind of double-boiler you can configure. Whisk constantly to melt the mixture together. Whisk until smooth and remove from the heat and let come back up to room temperature.

Mix the dry ingredients for the mocha batter and the dry ingredients for the pumpkin batter separately.

In a larger bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for the pumpkin batter until fluffy. Add the pumpkin pie filling and vanilla and mix until combined. Next, add the melted butter and spices; mix well again.

To complete the wet ingredient batter for the mocha portion, mix the brown sugar, Starbucks Via Colombia Instant Coffee, and vanilla to the melted chocolate. Beat in the eggs

and combine thoroughly.

To mix the 2 mocha batters, gradually fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Use a spoon so you mix it well enough but you don't over mix.

To mix the 2 pumpkin batters, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using whatever kind of mixer equipment you got. Again, do not over mix.

Pour the mocha batter into the greased pan and be sure to evenly spread it around. Pour the pumpkin batter evenly on top.

Using a large tablespoon, swirl the batters together gathering mocha batter in the spoon and pulling it up to the top and vice versa. Also don't over-swirl which mixes the two batters together.

Bake for 30 minutes. Test with a toothpick.

Let brownies cool completely and ice the brownies evenly using a butter knife. Chill the frosted brownies for at least 1 hour to let them firm up.

Cut into small squares and serve to hungry Halloween-ers! :-)

Trick-or-Treating Orlando Events

Dear Greater Orlando Area Parents,

We know you are concerned about your childrens' safety this and every Halloween. However let's remember from your kid's point-of-view, Halloween is almost as awesome and amazing as Christmas.The promise of copious amounts of free candy consumes their little minds for weeks on end. I should know; I was once a kid obsessed with Halloween. I also was a kid who was tricked, and therefore ended my tenure as a trick-or-treater. By the eighth grade at age fourteen I might have been too old to be out and about dressed in full Army fatigues going door-to-door asking for candy, but that didn't give local high schoolers the right to drive haphazardly through the neighborhood egging young revelers from the bed of thier pick-up truck. As they whipped around a corner, I was struck directly on the crown of my head with a egg hurled with such force I fell right down like a sack of stones. Dangers can be afoot during this year's Halloween holiday too, but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of trick-or-treating options open to the public where the priority of safety is second only to the priorty of the fun of free candy. To see the listing, visit Kid-Tested, Mother-Approved Trick-or-Treating Events.

Blogger Awards from Laura @LittleChef&I

What is the best way to start a Tuesday? I think a new, shiny award is the best way to start a Tuesday. The lovely Laura from Little Chef & I across The Pond named L&S as one of her fav blogs and passed on the following two awards to me:

Per my acceptance speech, here are 7 things about moi:

1.) I have 3 tattoos and I want more. My tattoo-artist boyfriend and I are coming up on our two-year anniversary. Yay!

2.) One day I think I'd like to attempt stand-up comedy. In short, I want to Single-White-Female Tina Fey.

4.) I can't turn down curry at anytime of the day.

5.) I'm kinda pissed I can't put down candy like I used too on account of the hypoglycemia and all. Too much sugar makes we whoozy.

6.) My Great-Grandmother was not only an astounding Italian cook, her name was Elviria which I find alluring.

7.) At first, I hated Twitter so much I mocked it and now I am addicted.

Now onto my 7 Award-Worthy blogger friends:

1.) Mardi my Canadian Comrade @Eat, Live, Travel, Write

2.) Dara, another Crafty Cook hailing from Canada @Cooking Canuck

3.) Linda, a saucy lady saavy in the kitchen @SaltySeattle

4.) Silvia, a super creative chef in San Fran @Citronetvanille

5.) Miranda, a super mom and cook @My Food and Life Encounters

7.) DoggyBloggy a super fun food enthusiast, @Chez What?

Thanks to everybody in the foodie blogosphere for being you. Don't go changin'!

The Stoner from Stardust Coffee

If I told you there is a coffee drink out there with more calories than a full steak dinner would you believe me? It exists. The legend goes by the name of The Stoner, and you can find out what is in this mythic drink at my latest examiner.com/orlando article, Fall Coffee Preview Stardust Coffee & Video.

Sesame Chicken 2x's Thanks to Asian Food Grocer

Once again, Foodbuzz Tastemaker's Program has rained down gifts from the food gods in the form of a $30 FREE coupon to Asian
FoodGrocer. Just like the Japanese, I was super-awesome-mega-ultimate-excited because I have never, ever made any type of Asian dish from scratch. Eating Asian food has never been a problem. Well, eating anything in general isn't a problem for me; except for Wing Wah candy. A co-worker of mine just brought back some of Hong Kong's popular candy called Wing Wah, or at least that's the part of the package in English making it now called Wing Wah. There are various flavors of plum and licorice and, um...tuna. Yes, candy made of tuna the fish. At first everyone in our lab thought it was made from tuna via the smell and tiny info Danielle brought back with her to the West. Then we did the smart thing and asked one of our researchers whom is from China. He told us is the candies are probably made from tuna meat, but it is flavored with beef as indicted by the symbol for cow on the wrapper.

So, is that still candy? In our actual lab of science, we scientist-type people have come to a consensus that it is indeed not at all a candy but a bouillon cube. And instead of sucking on it, we should make soup. Or, give it out to kids this Halloween as a really mean trick. Speaking of tricks, right now Wing Wah is spread out in front of a carved pumpkin on the reception desk in our building duping technologists and other scientists into thinking its delicious Halloween candy. MOOO HA HA HA!

Wing Wah candy was exotic and fun, but it's not part of the Asian Food Grocer grab bag. Until now I shied away form the big scary beast that is Asian cuisine telling myself without a wok and the right ingredients, me cooking Asian will never come to be. Sure, I dabbled in a semi-homemade curry or two but that was it! I made my mind up to respect the Eastern giant from afar. However serendipity had other plans. With a little generous push from Foodbuzz and Asian Food Grocer, I am able to take a prepared leap into my first Asian dish-Sesame Chicken.

(My Asian Food Grocer Bounty from left to right: mirin, Sriraci, rice flour, fish sauce, sesame oil, an *extra free* set of 10 tiny tea cups (in box), dry nori, curry power, and pickled ginger.)

The cardinal rule when beginning to write anything is, "Write what you know." I think that is true in some ways for taking on new cooking challenges as well. Sesame Chicken is one of my all-time, favorite Americanized-Chinese dishes so I set my sights on making a sesame chicken dish that could be passable as for reals take out. In addition to the online coupon for Asian Food Grocer, Foodbuzz is running a Tastemaker recipe contest for best recipe using the ingredients chosen from the promotion. Personally I don't think I am in the running. The recipe for my dish is not my own. I followed the Flawless Chicken Sesame recipe from Recipezaar.com. I'm not going to start exploring with map! I can be adventurous but I'm not stupid.

I ended up making the dish twice because the yield of the sesame sauce was whhaaay more than then needed for the chicken portions. Not wanting to waste and thinking I could always use more practice, I fired up my fryer again and re-used the stored sauce.

(Batter Marinade of batch #1-Above, Battered batch #1-Middle, Battered batch #2-Below.)

The only difference really between attempt 1 and attempt 2 was rice flour vs. regular flour in the batter. I used rice flour first because, well, I just got it in and wanted to try a new flour! The outcome wasn't nearly as crispy as the batch made with regular flour, which came out much closer to the take-out we know and love. The other alterations to the recipezaar.com recipe are:

• In the Marinade: Marsala for the cooking wine.
• In the Sauce: cider vinegar instead of rice or white vinegar & Sriracha for the chili paste.
• For Frying: vegetable oil instead of peanut oil.
  

(Mmmm, Sesame Chicken 2X's, batch #2.)

Lastly, in the heat of the moment I forgot to toast my sesame seeds in attempt 2 rendering that element they were left out all together. The second dish was much better over all. In the first dish, the rice dish was flavored with ginger.

(Sorry about the blurry photos. Too anxious to eat to take a proper picture! Dish #1-Above, Dish #2-Below.)

The spice of the ginger and the spice of the sauce clashed instead of complimenting. The broccoli was a bit rubbery from over cooking plus the chicken was only semi-crispy and crunchy. In dish two, I used regular flour in the batter, cooked the rice in a combo of vegetable broth and white wine, and quickly braised the broccoli in water over a high boil.

Re-heating the sesame sauce to change it from a congelled, squat cylinder to a velvety smooth sauce was a bit tricky. First, before I started frying my chicken, I put the solidified sauce in a small sauce pan over medium heat. In between frying batches, I returned to the sauce and with a whisk, vigorously stirred the sauce as it bubbles. At the point where the sauce is more liquid than solid, I gradually began adding hot water and lowered the heat. I added approximately 1/3 cup of hot water incrementally to the sauce whisking all the time. The method really seemed to work, and by the time the broccoli was up and I pulled the warming chicken out of the oven, my sauce reached the proper coating consistency.

Thanks one last time to the folks at both Foodbuzz and Asian Food Grocer for making this possible.