i'm back!

"When frosting a cake, throw your diet out the window."

I really suck at blogging.

BUT I MADE ICE CREAM!

My daddy got me a kitchen aid Ice Cream Maker attachment. And I was literately jumping for joy the entire time this was spinning.

Passion fruit sorbet. :)

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.