Jammin' it up!

I spend a lot of time by myself in my kitchen (since I have my own baking one.) I recently got this craving to make jam like my grandmas'. I began formulating a plan to make it. Luckily I have a great friend who goes along with my crazy baking ideas. She was more than happy to jump aboard the jam train.

I arrived at her house with many strawberries, pectin, sugar, my amazing immersion blender, and jalapenos. (I said I had a lot of time to myself.) We opened the sure gel and read the instructions thoroughly and were off.

We quickly accomplished one batch and decided it was pretty easy. Now on to the next three! The second batch is the one we decided to try with jalapenos. It was fun to keep trying it to see how hot it was in an attempt to not make hot inedible jam. It came out really great. I'm really excited that my crazy idea went well. My friend is thinking of using hers as a meat marinade. I think it's a terrific idea.

The only downside it that I touched my eyes with my jalapenos hands. It was painful and embarrassing. That's all I'll say.

The jam came out beautiful and I am so excited to smother toast in it and share it with many others!

My friend made her's all cute and crafty. She's amazing at it! So this is a picture of her jar....mine are sad and bare.

Bacon Flavored Ice Cream

So I've blogged about how amazing bacon is before and I stand by the fact that you can do almost everything with bacon....take note that I say almost.

We have a soft-serve ice cream machine at work and it's my job to fill it with delicious unique flavors of ice cream. The goal is to basically out do Ben and Jerry without all the swirls and chunks of goodness. I've been doing amazing. We've had some really great ice creams....until we decided to try bacon.

I arrived at work early and was discussing ice cream flavors with our chef as my brain has somewhat run out of flavors. (3 ice creams a week and you will run out to.) We decided on maple a fan favorite and then the task was to decide what would marry well with it so that our twist would be delicious. We both thought for a few minutes with our eyes gazing around our spice shelves and storage areas to try and find something I could turn into ice cream.

Just when I thought all hope was lost my chef got a wicked smile on his face and said, "Let's make bacon ice cream." It was genius! We had lots of bacon from some samples and it was going bad. A perfect solution.

I quickly agreed and we started cooking some off. I quickly heated my milk cream mixture and started to seep my bacon. I loving tending to my bacon ice cream for three hours. Stiring, tasting, adding sugar, adding bacon, skimming the fat off, straining the bacon out. I finally decided it had to be ready. (Plus lunch service was starting in like two minutes and it takes at least fifteen to freeze.)

I ran it to our soft-serve machine and quickly got it freezing. The waiting began....I stood around for about fifteen minutes and finally the green light came on. It was ready. I poured a little out for me and my co-workers to taste.

I tasted it first and my first reaction was hmmmm....not exactly what I had hoped. My chef tasted it and his thought was that it was weird. The reactions from others varied to hmmmm...and I don't think I like that. Everyone was trying to be so gracious to me but the straight facts were. Bacon ice cream (at least in soft-serve form) is disgusting. It's like eating creamy smoke that's really salty.

I was so sad it was horrible. I'd spent so many loving hours tending to it. I quickly agreed with my chef that we couldn't serve. We make amazing ice creams and my reputation would not be ruined by bacon. I just couldn't let it happen.

I melted the ice cream, removed it from the machine and slowly poured it down the drain vowing to keep bacon as an ice cream topping (we make a delicious maple sundae with candied bacon. It's really good.) and not actually as an ice cream flavor.

Crazy few months!

I know I'm a bad blogger! My life has been insane the last few weeks or months rather! Things are so busy at work! New desserts for spring! Yah! Also, a dreaded soft serve machine....It makes my life so unhappy sometimes! I promise to blog more soon and be a better blogger!

Happy Birthday!

I'll accept--Congratulations, TA DA, You did it, You made it, and of course you survived. We just celebrated our first year anniversary. We've been open for a year. I'm feeling very blessed to have made it a year. We didn't have a big party or anything (sadly, I thought we needed something huge!) but I did make cupcakes for everyone. I continue to be in awe that we've survived a year and I hope there is many more years to come.

However,above my excitement about surviving a year I must wish happy birthday to what has affectionately been dubbed my child, named Junior. He is also one year old and I am impressed that he is still alive since he's tried to die a few times. Junior is my bread starter.

Now for those of you who don't know what a bread starter is, it is about the consistency of mud and is made from fermenting flour and water for a long period of time. They can live for years and years and years and I'm proud to say mine's one!

Bread starters are kinda gross if I think about them for to long because I'm basically growing a fermented yeasty, flour, water concoction. I fed mine about three times a week and am so excited every time to watch it grow up the containers I place it in.

There's not a lot to say about bread starters but they give bread such a delight taste and is what makes me so proud of my french loafs and their delicious sour taste!

So, Happy Birthday Junior!!

Oh no it's burning!

So I know I normally blog about just food but what happened at work this week is just to good to pass up.

My week was going pretty slow. We had a really slow week and desserts especially weren't selling so I was in a pretty boring place while waiting for bread to rise (especially since it takes forever now that it is cold!) I had cleaned my kitchen thoroughly and multiple times so I decided to head over to the other kitchen and offer my assistance.

Upon my arrival, one of our Sous Chef was cleaning and finishing up a few things so he could go home. I offered to help since I had to be there and he didn't. So I was tasked with the assignment of blending our salsa verde (It's amazing by the way, I could just eat a jar of it anytime!) Now it's made from tomatillos which require cooking to be delicious so I was blending it just out of the oven, scalding hot if not hotter.

We use an immersion blender to blend most of our stuff since it's huge and impressively strong. I have a hard time holding it and always have to set whatever I am blending on the floor because the blender is about 3 feet tall.



So I had set the salsa on the floor and began blending. It blended quickly and I was ready to move on to the next step. This is when the chain of events began that unraveled it all.

We add piquillo peppers to our salsa verde which makes it technically salsa roja but it also makes it more expensive. I now needed to add them. Since I didn't really plan ahead I left the salsa with the blender in it on the floor and ran to get peppers from my kitchen next door where they are stored.

I made it back quickly and found the can opener and tried to open the can. Now since the last time I opened a can (since it's not often) someone has bent our can opener. My success at opening this can was not going well. I might add that while trying to open this can about 7 people in the restaurant had decided to go out and smoke. So they went out and I continued with my can. I finally was at a loss when our other Sous Chef came back and said he would demonstrate how he opened his cans. He grabbed a spoon and stuck it in the can to pop it open While he did this he was leaning over the salsa and blender sitting on the floor and the blender was kinda like putting a spoon in a small cup we all know it too heavy for the cup.

The spoon can opener was a little more involved and the blender cord was slightly bumped and tipped over the salsa. We quickly gasped (the Sous Chef and I) and watched the salsa run but it did not just hit the floor, no it hit my feet. Which is not normally a problem but I had put on my crocs about an hour earlier because my kitchen shoes kill my feet after twelve hours.

So here was the salsa pouring into my crocs and as mentioned above it's straight out of the oven. I quickly jumped out of the salsa puddle saying ouch over and over again and kicked my shoes off. I thought that would solve the problem but I was wrong. My socks were coated and the burning continued. I quickly removed my socks only to see very sad red toes.

It was at this moment as I was standing bare foot in the middle of our kitchen with a large puddle of green salsa next to me that everyone decided to come back in from smoking. It was a interesting moment to say the least. The Sous Chef and I tried to explain but it was hard and complicated and didn't go well.

We stared at the salsa not knowing how to conquer such a disaster. Luckily for us our dishwasher handled it and washed my shoes for me.

Soon the only reminder of that moment was my squeaky crocs, my sad, cold, bare feet and one tiny little burn blister on my toe.

Popcorn Popping on the Ice Cream Tree!

So I'm a bad blogger, I realize that and for all of you who read my blog I am sorry. I'm am still slaving away in the food world and making many adventurous things. I was lucky enough to get to go to Walt Disney World in Florida with my family and got to make some amazing food. Thanks Dad!! It was so nice to eat something I didn't have to make!

The best place we went to was called the Wave. Dinner was dinner but were I got really excited was for dessert. Now their dessert was different because you got three different tasters of desserts as your one dessert. My family all got pretty much the same thing so I decided to mix it up and get the gelato. The three flavors were Rocky Road, Peanut Butter and Jelly,(both I've made before) but the kicker and a totally shocker was the popcorn ice cream. I saw the flavor and was instantly curious. I love popcorn but putting it in ice cream... I was sure I was in for a pastry chef's experiment gone wrong.

The ice cream arrived at my table and I tried the other flavors leaving the popcorn for last. I tried all of my other family's desserts (which were all fantastic) and finally got up the courage to try my popcorn ice cream.

I took a small bite prepared for the worst. The flavors slowly hit my taste buds and my brain got confused. I was had prepared for awful and what I got was fantastic. It was amazing. It was sweet and slightly caramely and yet just like popcorn. It was just amazing. I was in awe. I shared my excitement with my family quickly and they all tried only to be amazed as well. I quickly finished my other two ice creams so that I could treasure the rest of the popcorn last.

My mom even tried to steal more and I wacked her spoon with mine and quickly moved my little bowl of heaven away from her. I sadly finished my ice cream before it all melted and vowed to make it at home somehow.

I got back to Utah and spoke with one of our Sous Chefs about making popcorn ice cream.He gave me some tips and I went to work.

I tried it early one morning and carefully tried some of my base. It was perfect, it came out just like my Florida version! I felt like a very confident pastry chef and now I don't have to travel to Florida every time I want to have some popcorn popping on my own ice cream tree!

A Bit of Christmas!

So I know it's been a while! I've been super busy, mostly with work but busy nevertheless.

Yesterday at work, I was trying to convince my fellow employees to give me ideas for some new ice creams as I am bored with my flavors. I've made maple, coffee, all sorts of fruit, multiple melon sorbets, and even a tomato sorbet (It was interesting for sure.) My co-workers weren't so kin on the idea and were not helping at all when one of the Sous Chefs excitedly said, "bay leaf". I thought he was kidding, but he wasn't.

Earlier that day we had received a lot and I mean a lot of fresh bay leafs by accident and apparently they wouldn't take them back so we were left with something we never use. I was convinced that my ice cream would not be a "leftovers" flavor again, until I tried a leaf.

Jamie was so adamant that I try one. I put a little leaf in my mouth and gave it a chew. Like bubble gum I thought, although not as chewy? As I sat peeling carrots while munching on my little leaf, I decided I had been missing out.

The first little bite I got a little sweetness and thought well at least it's sweet unlike the tomatoes I turned into sorbet. Then a few moments later I got cinnamon. It surprised me. I continued chewing and got cloves. I continued munching and I wish I could describe all the flavors. It was amazing and by the time I was done chewing I felt like I had just walked through the month of December at my parent's house. It was Christmas in a leaf. It was insane.

Today many of the bay leafs became ice cream. With a bit more sugar and some cream it was easy to picture falling snow, a Christmas tree, a little bit of home.