Happy Thanksgiving!

2 (¼-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast

1/4 cup warm water (110 to 115 degrees)

2 eggs, at room temperature

1 cup canned pumpkin puree

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

2 teaspoons coarse salt

1 tablespoon minced fresh thyme (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

3 cups flour, plus up to 1 cup more

Olive oil, for greasing bowl

2 tablespoons melted butter

Sprinkle the yeast over the water in a large mixing bowl and stir to dissolve. Using a wooden spoon, beat in the eggs, pumpkin, soft butter, sugar, salt, thyme and cayenne. Add 3 cups of flour and beat until smooth, gradually adding more flour as needed to make a soft, sticky but still manageable dough. Make sure the dough is well mixed. Oil a larger bowl and scrape the dough into it, turning to oil all sides. Cover with a dish towel and let rise in a warm, draft-free spot until doubled in bulk, about 1.5 hours. Punch the dough down, cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

     For round dinner rolls, grease 2 (8-inch) cake pans with melted butter. Punch the dough down again and shape into round rolls, arranging them in pans with about one-half inch between each. For cloverleaf rolls, butter a 12-cup muffin tin, tear off tablespoon-sized balls and place 3 in each muffin cup. (If the dough is too sticky to handle easily, lightly butter or oil your hands.) Cover the rolls with a dish towel, and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in bulk, about 30 minutes.

    Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake the rolls until browned, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve hot or warm.

these rolls are delicious! and amazingly easy. they also have a warm heat at the end that will leave your guests wanting more. :)

finally something exciting to share!

my pretzels are on the cover page of the LA times today. 

you can also see my step by step and the recipe here:

http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-step-by-step-pretzel-baking,0,6909328.photogallery

:D

week one.

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing and devote our attention to eating.  - Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright, Pavarotti, My Own Story


Well, I  have completed my first week as a Test Kitchen Extern at the Los Angeles Times! I got a badge, that makes me feel awesome because it opens doors! I went into Week One of this externship at The Times not fully knowing what to expect. I knew I would be testing recipes, and learning them to the point where they can be understood and followed by a home chef. When I arrived at work on Monday, my immediate supervisor had called in sick. This was both fortunate and unfortunate at the same time. Unfortunate because I had never met Noelle at this point, and was eager to meet her and get everything started. Fortunate though, because since the interns were short a hand, I was able to jump right in and do recipes on my first day. It was a good day to do so too because they were testing a cookie recipe that they got from The Cravery, and I am the only Baking and Pastry student in the kitchen! Being able to explain why things are done in a certain order/way in a cookie recipe made me feel like I had proved myself early on, and earned respect – even if my boss was not there.

Tuesday and Wednesday were a more typical example of what a day in the kitchen is going to be like. We arrive in the mornings and begin the mise en place for the recipes we are going to test that day. We try to figure out ahead of time how many times we are going to test each individual recipe, so we can try and gather all the ingredients only one time. This week, Noelle was testing her own pretzel recipe, which was so much fun to watch as I have never made pretzels. We tried them in a number of solutions, as the typical one is Lye and relatively dangerous to use at home without proper knowledge of what you are doing. We also tested cinnamon roll cookies from The Cravery, and a plum cake recipe brought in from an intern. It was a great first week, as we did so much baking!

Thursday was a unique day, as I got to go off site and assist our editor Russ in a demonstration at the Los Angeles County Fair. We did most of the mise en place ahead of time in the kitchen, and I was basically there to make sure everything ran smoothly and he had help handing out samples of the products he made. It was fun to be behind the scenes however; it felt like being on a live television cooking show! All in all, it was a very interesting first week, and while I feel more comfortable in the kitchen and with the people now, I am still not sure I know what to expect next week! But I am definitely looking forward to it!

Gardens!

Before I left Napa (:( ), we decided to have another fun foodie adventure and raid a whole bunch of gardens! We ate at Farmstead, right there in St Helena. The WHOLE place was absolutely gorgeous, and fabulous.

We picked apples, this is the restaurant! 

I picked an apple!

Kylie picked a CRAZY tomato!

 Megan picked her first apple ever!

Who knew asparagus grew like this? The french laundry apparently. 

So we ventured through Farmstead's garden, then moved over to Yountville to raid the French Laundry Garden, and then we ended at Bouchon for a sweet treat. 

Sorry For The Delay

It has been my last week at school, so I have been out enjoying Napa and all of its wonders - as well as packing. I've done lots of yummy, foody things this week. This post will be about the awesome field trip my class took last week! We got to go on an exclusive tour of Guittard chocolate factory. We got to learn all about their history, how it is STILL a family company, which is a miracle in today's world. Ghirardelli hasn't been family owned in decades. Anywho, when you walk into the door of Guittard, the first thing you see is a really awesome Cocoa Tree. These only grow in equatorial regions, and need lots of warmth and humidity. Yet Guittard tried, years ago, to plant on in their office! We got really lucky because, for the first time ever, they actually have A REAL COCOA BEAN!

I'm still kind of new to blogspot, so I dont know how to rotate the picture, but there it is! It was really cool to see what we had been learning about and only seeing fake ones of. 

So after that, there was no photography allowed, and we got to go through the whole factory, from the sorting of whole beans, down to how they roast and flavor all their chocolates. We got to taste a lot, and we got to see the R&D lab. The funniest part of the trip to me was that the guide kept saying that CIA uses exclusively Guittard chocolate, which I have never even seen on our grounds. But oh well. 

 After the tour, we went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was the first time for many members of my class. So we had to stop and be touristy for a moment.

After that we stopped at a yummy, old fashioned French bakery/cafe for lunch in Marin County called Emporio Rulli. I thought I had pictures of this place, but apparently they have temporarily been misplaced. It was really cool though, to walk into a famous bakery and know that you have made everything in their pastry case, and probably better.

Oh, how I will miss CIA for the next five months.

Lemon Curd, one of the basics.

As promised, I have a recipe for one of my personal favorites from one of my classes. I feel like this recipe makes about a quart. Which should be plenty for anything you are going to need it for. It made us about 24 little barquettes (boat shaped tartlettes). I would use lemon curd in place of pastry cream any day. But that is because if you know me, I am a citrus fanatic. I love anything lemon, lime, passionfruit, etc. Just not really orange. Not my favorite flavor. Anywho, this could be replaced with lime as well.

Have ready: an ice bath. A bowl of ice+water, with another bowl on top where you can pour in the curd!

10.5 oz Butter - cubed
9 oz Sugar
9 oz Lemon Juice
1/2 oz Lemon Zest. more or less depending on how lemony you want it.
9 oz Egg Yolks. each egg yolk weighs approximately .5 oz, so you'll need a few eggs for this part. Save the egg whites for something else!

Boil half of the butter, half of the sugar, the lemon juice and zest.
In a seperate bowl (a little larger then necessary), blend together the yolks with the rest of the sugar. Make sure this is well blended with no lumps.
When the liquid comes to a boil, you are going to temper it into the yolks. This means, pour a little bit at a time (or if you're well balanced, pour a slow steady stream) while whisking extremely quickly until you've poured about 2/3s of the liquid into the yolks. Return everything to the pot, whisk over heat until a boil forms. You are looking for a thick consistency around the temperature 170F if you have a thermometer. Remove from heat, stir in the butter. Cool over an ice bath.

Lemon curd can be stored in the cooler for about 4-5 days, though is best the first and second day. My personal favorite way of using it is in these cute little lemon curd meringue barquettes (which will follow). Though it can be used in a large pie, in a fruit tart, napoleon, on a spoon...

This is the only, sad picture I have.
For Lemon Curd Meringue Tarts:
You will need your favorite short dough (I will post the simplest one soon). Line whatever size tart shell you are using with it. Generally, the rule for this is about an ounce per inch of tart shell. Pre-bake the tart at 325-350 until it is golden brown, on the top and bottom. It is very important that you prebake it all the way, because once you add the curd it will insulate the crust and stop the baking of it. To avoid bubbles, if possible use pie weights over the whole tart. If not possible, lightly poke the whole thing with a fork, but make sure to not go all the way through as then the lemon curd will soak through it.
Fill this with your lemon curd. Place back in the oven only for about 4-5 minutes until set.
For the topping, make a basic italian meringue. A basically ration is 1 part egg white (that you could have saved from separating eggs earlier!) to 2 parts sugar. Place the whites in a mixer bowl with the whisk attached. In a pot, add the sugar and enough water to look like wet sand. This is not a lot of water. Put the sugar on med-high heat and let it cook. If you have a thermometer, then when the sugar reaches 216, begin whisking the whites on high. If not, this should be very shortly after it begins to rapidly boil (the entire pot). When the sugar reaches 240 (about 5 minutes after it begins to boil), begin to slowly, consistently pour the sugar down the side of the bowl into the whisking whites. Once all the sugar has been added, whisk a little longer. Then top the curd with the shiny, sturdy meringue however you please! The sugar was hot enough to cook the whites to a safe temperature. You can torch the meringues, if available.

Rutherford Grill

Rutherford Grill was not on my earlier bucketlist, but mentally it was supposed to be. Rutherford Grill is not necessarily known for its outstanding food next to places like Bouchon and PRESS, etc, but it is known for making the best profit and business whatever nonsense. Who cares, I care about food. But we got out of class very early one day last week, and decided to take advantage of our new found time and go to dinner here. It was packed, but also a huge restaurant so we only waited about 20 minutes. We sat outside on their lovely patio, next to the only broken heater, so that was unfortunate. But our food was very good.

So we ordered the daily Chips N Dip appetizer, which changes every day. We got lucky and ended up with guacamole (our personal favorite) that had sweet corn in it which was awesome, once we figured out what it was. The other dip I'm not entirely sure what it was as we stopped listening at guacamole. It was some sort of spicy queso dip. It was good, but not as good as the guac. The chips tasted fresh, but not oily. I had to add salt to them though.

This was my main course. Perfectly cooked and well seasoned grilled salmon on a bed of mashed potatoes and greens. The greens tasted like a mix of kale and spinach. They were good, but slightly bitter for my taste but I liked the cheese on them. The mashed potatoes were also good, especially with the salmon juice, but had a few too many green onions. The salmon though, was absolutely perfect.

Megan's burger was juicy and cooked very well and the fries were good too.

This though was the best part of the meal. Oreo cookie ice cream, sandwiched with oreo cookie crumbs, with an espresso chocolate sauce. Amazingly delicious. I'm drooling just looking at it.

Next post, I promise a recipe.

Bouchon Bistro

I have eaten out several (probably to many) times this week. And I knocked a few things off my bucket list. Most excitingly, I ate at Bouchon Bistro with my cousin Miraya today. It was absolutely divine. Only problem is we did not get dessert! But fear not, I have many dessert posts to catch you up on as well! But Bouchon today was impeccable. I loved every thing that we tried.

So, to avoid a wait, Miraya and I sat at the bar. We sit down, and we are given bread plates with a napkin wrapped in the menu. Very cute idea! 

The bread they give is the same bread that I buy at Bouchon Bakery all the time, and it is great. It is the Epi Sourdough bread, perfect sourdough flavor and crunchy on the outside and soft and warm on the inside. 

Miraya and I decided to split a few things, starting with the Lobster Bisque special. We were given a bowl with root vegetables and summer squash and even two mussels, and then the server/bartender poured the soup into the bowl in front of is. The flavor was excellent, a little bit of spicy but not enough to say spicy. It wasn't too heavy or creamy either, very well balanced. 

Since my dear cousin is no longer a vegetarian (thank goodness!) we split the Steak Frites. This is easily the best steak I have ever eaten in my life. We ordered medium, and medium it was. So tender and perfectly juicy, with a layer of tiny caramelized onions and an herb butter. It was cooked perfectly, seared on the outside to be a little crunchy but still so soft on the inside. The french fries even met our incredibly high french fry standards! They were also perfectly prepared. Not going to lie though, was hoping for a little more seasoning on the fries, but they were awesomely cooked. 

And another thing Miraya and I cannot turn down, Macaroni Gratin (or mac and cheese for us normal folks.) It was some kind of swiss cheese with a weird name that I can't remember on top and their deliciously decadent mornay sauce underneath that. Ugh, I'm drooling looking at the pictures. Not that I feel like I could ever eat again. 

After. 

You're welcome Bouchon, I will hopefully be back very soon!

Road Tripping

I’ve run more risk eating my way across the country than in all my driving. Duncan Hines

I'm driving from Napa Valley, CA to Los Angeles, CA in September. Two of the countries food centers. And I can't figure out where I want to eat! The problems of an eater. 

This is my list of places to eat before I leave Napa. Some I've eaten at and will miss, some I just feel the need to eat at before I move. All of them I suggest you eat at if you're ever in Napa!

Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen: try the backstreet fry, the artichoke, the adult grilled cheese, the tostada, the burger, ... anything. 

Model Bakery: try the english muffins, and usually the tartine sandwich. I hear rave reviews about the iced coffee as well. 

Press: try the caesar salad, and anything off the side dish menu, and a steak. also, I hear great things about their bar. 

Bouchon Bistro: this is just a necessary stop and I haven't been there yet!

Bouchon Bakery: the only place I will eat a french macaroon. aside from maybe France, one day I'll see.

Grace's Table: fantastic food, every time, no matter what I get. Their desserts are made fresh daily, with fruits from the farmer's market or the chef's own backyard! always always always amazing. 

Mustard's: this is owned by the same chef as Cindy's, so I want to try it too!

Go Fish: see above.

I'm sure there are more, just can't think of any right now.

I'll post pictures from my visits!

Happy Birthday, Julia!

The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook.  - Julia Child

Happy 99th Birthday!

Gluttony.

I am not a glutton – I am an explorer of food.
Erma Bombeck

The proof I am my father's child: I would rather eat out alone then eat my leftovers. 

The Essentials

Welcome! My name is Skyler. I am currently a Baking and Pastry student at the happiest place on earth (most days), The Culinary Institute of America in beautiful St. Helena. I am about to leave for externship for five months which I will spend working at the LA Times Test Kitchen. I could not be more excited. The one thing I miss about "regular" college/schooling, is writing. So I figured I would get back into it and do it about something I love: FOOD! Mostly desserts, but thats okay. For some of my older recipes, check out my old blog: skylerscreations.blogspot.com. I do not have access to that anymore, and I am looking for a sort of different feel on this blog. So my first post will be about the essentials that any home kitchen needs to have in the pantry at any given time. (These are mostly for baking, but I'll try and throw in the little I know about cooking as well.)

Flour - mostly All Purpose (AP Flour) will do, as clearly it is all purpose. Bleached or unbleached, up to you. Cake Flour its a great alternative. It is usually softer, and great in ... cakes. As well as some cookie doughs, etc. But does not have as strong of a structure so cannot be used in all products. Bread Flour is very strong structure-wise and is great for bread's an laminated doughs - which you will probably not be doing at home. Bread flour adds a better flavor and structure to bread, but if you aren't going to be making serious bread at home, this is not necessary. AP will do for most.

Vanilla - my favorite vanilla of all time is Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean PASTE. It has a yellow label, I buy it at William-Sonoma, but most specialty food stores will carry it. Why is paste in caps? Because it is the best of both worlds. It has the same intense flavor as extract, and is just as visually pleasing as a vanilla bean. Bean's are both expensive and relatively useless. They have a lovely aroma, and are great for things that you are actually going to see (ice cream, for instance) but the paste adds the same speckled effect. Vanilla extract is fine and will give you the flavor (somewhat) but will not last you nearly as long and be nearly as delicious as the paste. 

Eggs - this is simple. When recipes call for a number of eggs instead of a weight, they are referring to large AA eggs. 

Fat - butter. Straight up butter. Do not give me that margarine stuff unless a recipe specifically asks for it. Which 95% of recipes do not. They are not the same, they do not have the same taste, and they do not give the same result. Olive oil is also a fat used in baked products and can SOMETIMES be a replacement for melted butter, but not always. It is important to have oil for baked goods, which can be cheap olive oil or canola oil works fine. However, for the "hot side" (savory cooking), it is important to have a good olive oil that has a strong delicious flavor. You can have fun playing around with different olive oils. I usually have garlic olive oil for cooking purposes, but thats because I think everything needs garlic. So, garlic would be another essential. 

Sugar - plain and simple. In my cabinet I usually have granulated, light brown, and powdered. Though at school I have become quite used to and fond of superfine instead of granulated - it does not really make a huge difference. 

There are of course other essentials, but with flour, eggs, sugar, and fat - you can throw something simple together at the last minute if you need to. Just add some flavoring, chocolate is a big one that takes a lot to go rancid, so keep that around too. Chocolate is an ingredient that when buying, you actually want to spend time figuring out what chocolate you like, and making sure it is of high quality. Play around with other flavors, extracts or purees' work great.