Category: cooking

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a friend in need is a friend with cheesecake

Happy Dad
No, I am not tipsy... but I am enjoying myself at the Justin Winery CLICK on the picture above to visit the Justin Winery

Let’s just say that one of our friends, one of our very good friends, sent an invitation to dine at the Justin Winery just east of Paso Robles. The trip reminds me of how fun it must have been to visit Hearst castle in the 30’s navigating over old country roads… it took a while to get there, but the dining experience more than paid for Mr. Toad’s Wild ride! We enjoyed a marvelous five courses, each served with a specially selected wine ranging  from the fruity and sweet early in the evening to a full on Cabernet over three hours later.

Karen, Laura and me at Justin Winery
Karen, Laura and me at Justin Winery in Paso Robles

Karen really doesn’t drink, but she did sample each of the wines at the appropriate times and seemed to thoroughly enjoy herself! … and who wouldn’t?

Dad inspecting the wine

I deeply appreciate our friends kindness and generosity… how can I ever properly thank him?

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make some truly fab bread pudding

I’ve resisted for as long as I could… actually months! The problem is that real bread pudding is one of my all time favorite desserts! When I first started the evolution of my own recipe, I studied all of the recipes from hundred plus year old cookbooks, restaurants and internet chefs and home chefs. The problem is that in virtually every case… there were unacceptable short cuts.

From the use of butter, eggs,  heavy cream, brandy, rum and rye whiskey to the various breads and cakes all topped with an exquisite sauce and various nuts… it is a wonderful holiday treat! Fortunately, I believe everyday is a holiday! 😉  If you really want to make something nice… it takes time, care, quality ingredients and a variety that makes it interesting. BREAD PUDDING

So I have my fruit ( dried blueberries, sultanas and 3 scraped vanilla beans) all soaking in their favorite alcoholic mixture… until I need them…. in a week or so.

One bite is way too much… and a million is not enough!

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crumpets with local jam

More Crumpets?? CLICK picture for recipe

Don’t you love it when folks ask for more of what you just made? It is certainly satisfying to make something that everyone enjoys and our Crumpets are a family hit… I tweaked my recipe a bit to fine tune the air bubbles so popular in what we call ‘English Muffins’… but sometimes ‘rediscovering’ old secrets can be fun… even tasty!

Our Crumpets with Mama's Blueberry Preserves... YUM!
Our Crumpets with Mama's Blueberry Preserves... YUM!

At our local Farmer’s Market , I found a very nice vendor who produces a very superior Jam and Jellies called “Mama’s Preserves.” What drew my attention are two of my favorites… one was a blueberry and another a Plum Jam…. we don’t often find these out here and I couldn’t resist trying them out!

BTW. I prefer to find Jams and Jellies that don’t use HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP…. and , unfortunately, most of the labels of the large commercial companies, even many gourmet jams and jellies use it.  Although it may be a coincidence that America got ‘fat’ at exactly the same time this stuff hit the market… I don’t like what I read about it… and what’s bad, they now want to change the name.

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Crumpets or English Muffins are delicious with butter and jam

crumpets
Crumpets or what we call English Muffins is an easy and fun treat to make! CLICK on the picture for my recipe

Frankly, I don’t know anyone who makes crumpets or English muffins from scratch… and I do know a lot of folks who cook! Naturally, I thought with so many English folks raving about their own crumpets that there must be something special going on….. and my investigation said there was!

Wikipedia says the following:

“Crumpets may have been an Anglo-Saxon invention.In early times, they were hard pancakes cooked on a griddle, rather than the soft and spongy crumpets of the Victorian era which were made with yeast. The crumpet-makers of the Midlands and London developed the characteristic holes, by adding extra baking powder to the yeast dough. The term itself may refer to a crumpled or curled-up cake, or have Celtic origins relating to the Breton krampoez meaning a “thin, flat cake” and the Welsh crempog or crempot , a type of pancake. However, since many English words share a heritage with other languages, it may be cognate with the similar German word krumm (from Middle High German krump, krum) which means “bent”.“

In any event, it is a wonderful snack , toasted in the toaster and then smothered with butter and jam! For me it is perfect with a cup of coffee!   CLICK here for our recipe

Roger

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holiday cookin’ and fun

Some -- but hardly -- all of the fun foods we will be cooking this holiday season! CLICK on the picture for our abridged family favorite foods!

Laura passed an article to me that I found a little sad. It had to do with the tendency of young women to lose contact with their poor ol dads. After reflecting on it a bit I realized that this is probably true of all people who lose common interests. Fortunately, all of my daughters are foodies and cooking is what we do together! It isn’t too unusual for them to give me a call and say, “Dad, you left something out of this recipe… what is it?” or “How do we make (this or that) again?” I feel fortunate.

As long as they enjoy cooking… we’ll be in contact!  😉