Are you ready to drool?

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

At first I considered passing on this month's challenge, mostly because I knew temperatures would be crucial and we are still hitting 100 degrees here. But as I read people's completed challenges I realized that it wasn't that difficult a challenge and that if I used the refrigerator as my friend, I could get it done. I did wait until the last minute, though. I was hoping for a cooldown. Today is 99 degrees and the last weekend of the month. Oh well. Time to get down to business.

My first obstacle was mixing the dough because the directions required a food processor, which I do not own. I did my best to mix it by hand and I guess I succeeded well enough. You then rolled the dough into a rectangle and put cold butter on the center, folded the sides over it, and then rolled. The idea is to roll the butter into layers with the dough to create the flaky layers that puff pastry has. You continued to roll and fold until you had done so for six 'turns'.


The final rolling is to about a 1/4 inch thick. Then you cut your vols-au-vents. These are the small puff pastry containers you often get appetizers or desserts served in. Most professionals would have the cutter sets available so that they would do circles with hole cut circles on top. I didn't have the cutters, so I did my best with squares. You stick the tops onto the bases with an egg wash.


Here they are fresh from the oven. I did succeed with getting the required layers, but not as high as I would have liked. You can see I kept the baby squares that I had cut out of the tops.


The nice thing about vols-au-vent is that you can use them for savory or sweet fillings. Here I filled one with Thai beef curry.


Here is my masterpiece. I made a rosewater whipped cream, sliced some strawberries, and drizzled everything with a reduced balsamic honey sauce. Deee-licious! And how could I not like it when my favorite pastry is a Napoleon? All the same ingredients, just different assembly.

Will I make puff pastry again? Perhaps. It wasn't all that hard. The thing is, why gamble on how high your layers may rise when you can take the easy way out by buying puff pastry from the freezer section of the grocery store? We'll see.

Taste of Sacramento is a big fundraising event for Easter Seals. In the past I haven't gone because I think they charged more. This year it was only $25 and included about 40 wineries/breweries and about 50 food vendors, so it seemed a good food to dollar value.

We arrived for the opening of the doors at 5:30. You have to be there right at the opening for these food events because food does run out and huge lines form. We were able to do one quick circuit around the hall before the lines started to really form. By the time we left at 7:45, the lines were huge and some vendors had already run out.

Unfortunately my camera battery ran out before I could get too many pictures.

I, of course, skip all of the alcohol tables and just focus on food. One of my favorite things about events like these is seeing small companies trying to make it with some food product that they were famous for. Like the woman I met who had the House of Chantilly table. Gena came from New Orleans with a family recipe for chantilly cream. She was famous for bringing it to potlucks or food events that she finally decided it was time to turn it into a business. Chantilly cream is a pretty generic term for a sweetened cream. Gena has come up with some combination of flavors or sweeteners to create a unique version. She sells the mix in liquid pouches and you mix them with sour cream. She was serving it with a variety of items. I had my taste with strawberry and biscuit. Chris tried his with chocolate and blue cheese. This sounded gross to me (hate blue cheese) but he loved it and thought it gave it a cheesecake flavor.


Here were the ladies from Kelli's Cookies.


And another small business, The Chocolate Architect, with a selection of her fudges.


Some of the food vendors were better than others. I liked the presentation here for the Classique Catering company. It was braised short ribs that were super tender on top of small onion tartlets. The only fault was that it was served cold. Another favorite was the raw ahi tuna and watermelon salad from Mason's. It was so light and refreshing. I also enjoyed a pot roast and mashed potatoes from, I believe, Hawks.

I will mention one winery because it is my chiropractor's, or, rather, his family's. I led Chris and Christina to try it and they really enjoyed the Pedroncelli wines they tasted, especially since they had just had one across the room that they hated.

We ended by going over to look at the items up for the silent auction. They were primarily sports and entertainment memorabilia. Things like picture/autograph/souvenirs framed together. There were a few jewelry items and other things, but mostly those big framed sets. The sad thing was that hardly any of the items had bids on them. Whether it was because people were waiting to the last minute or it was a statement of the poor economy or the poor selection/variety of items, who's to say? But I hope that they did get some money in the end.

I've been divorced for 9.5 years now. The first couple years were on/off with the ex trying to make it work. The last 7.5 have been dating with three long relationships in there. But now I'm single again and dating afresh.

A few years ago the book He's Just Not Into You came out and created quite a lot of discussion. The author, Greg Behrendt, spilled the beans on a lot of actions guys do that women just don't pick up on, all boiling down to the fact that he's just not into you. It was a revelation into how men think. It caused enough of a stir to be turned into a movie with an all-star cast acting out many of the scenarios.

Early on in my post-divorce dating I coined the phrase "disappearing into the ether". This is when you've gone out with a guy once or a few times, maybe even months, and then SILENCE! No calls to you, no calls returned. Which boils down to the "he's just not that into you" as he disappears into the ether.

OK! I don't have a problem with that. Not everyone is a perfect match and sometimes it takes a few dates to figure that out. But why can't guys (and gals) have the cojones to just say something instead of disappearing into the ether???

This is the most incredibly frustrating thing! It's just a matter of respect and courtesy. It doesn't have to be a long, drawn explanation with reasons about this or that. It can simply be "I don't think we are a match but thank you for your company." Is that really so hard?

Now I will admit to disappearing myself ONLY ONCE. And that was after I had already given the "I don't think it will work out" talk. It started getting drawn out and so I finally had to just disappear into the ether. But I did have "the conversation" first, so I'm exonerated from the evil deed.

Guys (and gals), be a bigger person and be honest and polite and just say it and then be done with it. Don't take the coward's way out. It makes you look like a schmuck for having no class.

I had a nice evening of people watching at the 17th annual Saca Ball for the Sacramento Food Bank. Cakegrrl Kristy had asked me to join her at this gala event held in Carmichael.


People were enjoying appetizers supplied by various restaurants when we were all told to look upward. A couple of well-dressed skydivers drifted down and landed in front of the Saca home.


There were photographers taking formal portraits in the main house. In the backyard pool and patio area there were bars and plenty of food. Some of the restaurants/caterers included were Aiolis, PF Chang's, Panera Bread, Java City, and Leatherby's. The basketball court was the main dining area where we were served from stations that included Ruth's Chris, Lucca's, Scott's Seafood, Roxy and others. Dessert was provided by Freeport Bakery, Tarts & Truffles, and other bakeries.


There was both a silent and live auction of donated items ranging from artwork to Hawaiian vacations. The money earned from the auctions as well as the $250/plate tickets will go to support the Sacramento Food Bank & Family services. With the lousy economy these days, they say they've seen a 37% increase in families needing help. Here you see Kelly Brothers acting as auctioneer.


We didn't stay long enough to find out the totals of how much was raised, but hopefully it was better than last year, even during these tough times.

Alonzo's Stuffed Pizza

My first house 19 years ago was in Citrus Heights. If you live in Citrus Heights you know Sunrise Blvd. pretty well. Go east past the mall and you'll come to the complex with the Hometown Buffet in it. Tucked into the corner of the complex is Alonzo's Pizza Depot. Even though I live in downtown Sac these days, I will actually make the trek to Alonzo's for their pizza once in a while.

My ex and I still love Alonzo's. Deon even said once (when we had moved to house #2 in Rocklin) that if he won the lottery he would want to have him open a second location nearer our new house. I met up with him last night at the familiar digs.

Alonzo's does regular, deep dish, and stuffed pizzas. We always get the stuffed. We have two favorite combos. The Instant Love, pictured, has sausage, mushrooms, and spinach. The Artie's has artichoke hearts and feta and sausage. We also always ask for extra tomato sauce on top.

Because the thicker pizzas have a long baking time we normally order in advance. The stuffed can take close to half an hour to bake. We ordered a small and only ate half of it. We each took a quarter pizza home for left overs. The stuffed is that thick and filling.

The crust is a yeasty bread crust, nice and chewy. It holds up for the support it provides to the heavy toppings. After all, stuffed slices are about an inch thick. Stuffed has the bottom crust, the cheese, sausage, spinach in the center, another thin layer of crust, and then the sauce and mushrooms on top. Alonzo's doesn't skimp on the ingredients either.

Tonite I'll reheat my leftovers on a baking stone in my oven. (I'm not a cold pizza/leftovers person.) It will come out just as great tonite as it did last night.

I've become a big fan of Masullo's for thin, Italian style pizza. And Chicago Fire does a good stuffed as well. Theirs are just boring though. In that, they don't have any unusual combos. They just have basic stuff like meaty or veggie combos.

So if you are in the vicinity, check out Alonzo's. I'm sure you'll be a fan too.

I found that I had a forgotton package of pork loin from our pig buy hidden in the back of my freezer. It's also fig season. How to put the two together?

I found a recipe for Citrus Grilled Pork Loin with Mint Fig Sauce at allrecipes.com. Seemed like a great solution, even though reading the ingredients made you wonder just a bit. But the reviews were favorable and so I gave it a go.

I ended up just grilling the pork on my George Foreman instead of on a BBQ. I'm not convinced that the bacon was really necessary - and it's an added cost. But if you did use a BBQ, I could see you losing some of the moisture of the loin without the bacon protection.

My friends said it was good but weren't overly enthusiastic. I thought it was delicious. But I am a sauce person. The orange juice and balsamic give the sauce some tang along with the mintiness. It was easy to put together as it just requires a blender. It is not a heated sauce, although, I suppose you could heat it if you wanted.

Minty Fig Sauce

6 fresh figs
1 cup fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon honey
1/2 cup orange juice
1 pinch sea salt and pepper to taste

Blender it all!

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

It was invented in 1885 by József C. Dobos, a Hungarian baker, and it rapidly became famous throughout Europe for both its extraordinary taste and its keeping properties. The recipe was a secret until Dobos retired in 1906 and gave the recipe to the Budapest Confectioners' and Gingerbread Makers' Chamber of Industry, providing that every member of the chamber can use it freely.

This was a great cake! I really like the sponge layers for this cake. My issue came with how to make them even so that you would have a beautiful flat, even cake like the professionals do versus the higher in the middle and sloping sides. Yes, I've taken cake decorating classes and know about carving a straight line across the top of a cake - but that's with thick layered cakes. You can't do that with a bunch of thin layers. A pro cake baker (Audax Artiflax) latered shared her technique so that she had lots of thin, even layers as you see here:



So now I am compelled to make the recipe again and try her technique to see if I can get a more professional looking cake.


The part of the challenge I didn't like was the caramel wedges at the top of the cake. They seemed so unnecessary and were thick and hard for eating. Jim said it seemed like they really belonged to a different dessert entirely.

So my verdict? Awesome cake, just forget about the top caramel layer unless you are trying to really impress someone with it as a decorating element.


Sponge cake layers
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
pinch of salt

Chocolate Buttercream
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.

Caramel topping
1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)

Directions for the sponge layers:

1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F.
2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)
3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes.

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:

NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.

1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.
2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.
3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.
4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.
5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Directions for the caramel topping:

1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.
2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.
3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.

Assembling the Dobos

1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.
2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.
3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.
4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

I have a party today and decided to bring a salad instead of baking. I chose a broccoli salad because it is super easy and I just needed to get some broccoli and raisins at the store.

7 stalks of broccoli, chopped
1.5 c golden raisins
1 red onion, chopped
1.5 c mayonnaise
2 t sugar
2 T red wine vinegar
bacon bits

Mix everything but bacon bits together and refrigerate overnight. Add bacon bits before serving.

original post - 4/22/09
updated post/new review at end - 8/11/09

Grange = Price > (Value +Taste)

Do you remember your algebra? The Grange equals price greater than its value and taste. For all the hype I've read and heard lately, I was sorely disappointed in what I got for a bill of $102 (without tip). It's been six months since The Citizen Hotel and The Grange opened. In that time they have been able to work through any early learning curves with service and timing. I certainly have no complaint on service. The staff were all very pleasant and enthusiastic as well as attentive. My disappointment lay with the food. As I've read in reviews and articles, the server explained that the menu changes daily because the chef focuses on locally grown, seasonal produce and meats. On this day there was nothing strikingly different on the menu. A new item was the chilled strawberry/rhubarb soup. I'm not a fan of chilled soups in general, but decided I wanted to give this one a try. It was light and refreshing with a swirl of creme fraiche and a bit of chopped mint. I enjoyed it, but wondered on having a smoothie as a soup course. I ordered the duck breast. It arrived on a bed of faro and wilted spinach. Everything was cooked well, but there was no seasoning or flavor popping out. I found it all pretty bland and the duck meat a bit tough. After I finished the dish I requested the menu again so that I could review the description. It mentioned the breast, the faro, the spinach, and then a strawberry/rhubarb gastrique. There had been only two bites that I had any of that. And I enjoyed those bites because the sweetness complimented the duck meat (and why duck is often paired with cherries, oranges, or other fruit). Someone had been extremely frugal on putting that on my plate. You can't even see any in the photo. My roommate had ordered the salmon which arrived, as you see above, over a bed of steamed vegetables and an aioli. She was confused because she had seen the word 'salad' on her item. Again we referred to the menu where the description said salmon with a spring vegetable salad. To her that conjured an image of some leafy spring greens, not steamed vegetables. As for the salmon and aioli, she found them to be pretty simple and regular for a price of $32. Considering the large piece of salmon, it could have used more than the trickle of aioli you see above. We both felt that when you eat out at an upscale place such as this that you want to have food that you would not prepare for yourself at home because of complexity or originality. As we reviewed the rest of the entrees listed we decided that all of them were pretty simple. The meats were basically grilled and then plated with some rather plain sides. So am I paying the high price purely because the stuff is organic and grown locally? Because it certainly isn't for any strikingly special treatment of the dishes. (Afterthought: Recently the Paragary's group has been doing three courses for $20 at their restaurants. Interestingly they all ran the same low cost items - salmon and chicken as the two entree options. So if salmon is a cheap meal to make, why does Grange charge $32 - even if it is a larger piece and line caught wild salmon. Still don't see what we got as justifying $32.) The desserts did show more creativity and I had to pick between three items that caught my eye. I figured I would stick to my Napoleon comparison and order their version with honey pineapple sauce. It was artfully presented with the puff layers all askew. It was not bad, but the puff squares were too thick and dense and difficult to cut through. There could have been more cream as well. The pineapple was fresh and sweetened with a bit of honey. Good, but not great for $9. As you can tell, we were disappointed with the value of our meal. We did have two cocktails on the bill as well, which brought the total to $102. For that amount of money I would appreciate more flavor and complexity than what I got.

8/11/09 update It's always good to give a place a second chance. Last night I had a much better meal at The Grange. Our meal started off with a salmon tartare made with fresh, raw salmon, avocado, a soy-ginger sauce, and cilantro. I had expectations of thin slices of raw salmon drizzled with the sauce. Instead we got the above mixture of chopped salmon and avocado set in shape with a mold. The whole thing was very flavorful and fresh, although there was one citrusy flavor note that I just couldn't place that was a little too strong for me. We still ate it all up though. The Grange has been written about a lot and one article went on about how they are serving goat. Goat, it turns out, is one of the trendy ingredients of the moment. No matter that cultures such as African, Hispanic, and Middle Eastern have been eating goat for centuries. I saw that it was one of the featured entrees this night and selected the goat shank and loin with goat cheese fondue and spicy pepperonata. As you see, the dish was split in two. On the left was not a shank, but rather a couple of ribs that had just been roasted. This side of the plate was very disappointing. First of all, it was a struggle to get any meat off of the bones. Certainly it could not be done in a proper, delicate manner with knife and fork. It was demanding finger picking action. I decided to pass. After all, besides the struggle, it just wasn't all that tasty and worth the effort. The pepperonata underneath was nice enough, but I ended up eating it with the other side of the plate. The loin on the right was a hit flavorwise. I don't know how one would properly describe goat-taste, but I suppose if you like lamb (which I love) then you know you'll be OK with goat. The goat cheese fondue was naturally a perfect compliment and nice and creamy. My complaint with this side was that the meat was tough. Isn't loin supposed to be one of the most tender cuts or an animal? My date ordered the ribeye with mushroom ragout. He received a nice sized steak which he enjoyed. Careful to scrape off the offending mushrooms, he offered me a few pieces and I must say, it was the best tasting beef I've had in a long time. So full of flavor. I did note that it was really leaning to the rare side of medium rare and there was quite a bit of fat that my date was trimming off. But again, the flavor was fantastic.

We had watched with amusement as the couple beside us had ordered three desserts. The amusement came from the lovely panna cotta. Play the video and see why. I've never seen a better jiggle in my life. My date couldn't resist ordering it himself and we were definitely pleased with how light and delicious it was. I wanted something new and different and so I selected the chevre tart. It arrived at a nice warm temperature so that the goat cheese was so smooth and creamy. It was a generous size too. Both of us agreed that dessert was our favorite course. The Grange certainly did much better this time around. Our total dinner bill this time came to $118 but at least I felt more comfortable about getting what I had paid for.

So I have recently picked some of my first homegrown tomatoes. The funny thing is, I'm not really a tomato person. I don't eat raw tomatoes and will always say, "hold the tomato" on any sandwich, salad, or burger. But I will eat them when they are used in salsa... and I make a lot of salsa in the summer time. I love the freshness of all the ingredients and that it is a healthy snack.


I planted three tomato plants. One is a Green Zebra and I actually can't remember what the other two are. Shame on me. Anyway, two of them are producing a few fruit. Not a lot, which suits me fine. If I had an abundance of tomatoes I wouldn't know what to do with them. The small crop suits my salsa making plans just fine. The third plant I haven't figured out what's wrong. It flowers, but it doesn't produce fruit.

I've sold Pampered Chef products for 12 years now and in my heyday I got the ruby ring and trips to Cancun, Rome, and more. I think a lot of my success was because people were educated at my shows. I wasn't just selling products, I was teaching about food. I often shared about tomatoes and how people store them incorrectly.

I'll recommend a great book to any true foodies out there. It's called The Food Lover's Tiptionary by Sharon Tyler Herbst and it has a treasure trove of food information from A-Z. I particularly love all the entries on produce and meat because it will tell you how long things will store for before they spoil, how to pick what's ripe, etc.

Here are some of the important things you should know about tomatoes:

Do not store them in the refrigerator. Cold temperatures turn the fruit pulpy and destroy the flavor.

Tomatoes should be set with the stem side down, on their shoulders. That's because fruit ripens on the vine from the bottom up. Think of your half ripened tomato. It starts turning red from the bottom up to the stem. So that means the bottom of the tomato is the most ripe and the faster it will mush and spoil. Store the tomato stem side down on its shoulders, the firmest and last section of the tomato to ripen.

Never cook tomatoes or a tomato based sauce in an aluminum pan - the tomatoes will lose their bright color and you will get a bitter undertaste.

Tomato slices will hold their shape better if you slice it vertically vs horizontally.