Fiesta Friday

Sort of. So the Kitchen has been a bit lonely as of late because Ms Jones (and yes, I'm referrring to myself in the third person) has been a little busy. So no fun unnecessary projects have been going on. But hopefully, a few creative dinners will come over the next week in my attempt to eat myself out of house and home before I go on vacation starting on April 7th.

Last night I went out to dinner with a few friends of mine at a classic Bowling Green restaurant El Zarape. Normally, I'm impressed with the eats there. Totally worth the money and you leave adaquately fed. Not the case last night when I ordered the Zarape Salad. Basically a green salad with grilled shrimp. No big deal...but what I was expecting and what I got were two totally different things. At any given time, I can pretty much be expected to pack away my body weight in veggies. This left alot to be desired. I think about 5 teensy shrimp and a couple cups of iceberg coupled with a few pepper slices and onions. I would have been 10 times better off with the veggie skillet. So if you go there and are expecting a good sized meal out of the Zarape Salad...think again and go with a Vegetarian combo.

Tonight my father is in town and has his heart set on Fujiyama for a giant plate of sushi. I'm going to try to get him to switch to the new Bistro Wasabi in Levis Commons. Keep your fingers crossed gang. Sushi Saturday for all.

Sunday most of my day will be spent at Ford Field for the totally cooking unrelated Wrestlemania. But you can bet that I'll have a field cuisine report on your desktops early next week.

I think I require more coffee...

xx--

The Kitchen

Its incredible

Just how much you can create in an hour and a half. Little known fact about me, until yesterday, I had really never made any of this candy business in my life. Overall, I think that I amassed a hefty amount of product because I was the only person who showed up for class last night! But it was nice, because the Cake Arts owner, Dorothy, Pam (one of the cake decorating teachers), and I just did our own thing in the kitchen for the entire time. A bit of instruction from Dorothy for me, who was just starting out...but other than that, we just had free range to do what we wanted. Everything, like most things I've done so far, was alot less complex than i thought it would be. All this is what I ended up with:

The stuff that fit in the box
What didn't fit.

So lets get into a bit of detail as to what the heck these monstrosities are. First the picture above this sentence. Its called 'breakfast cereal.' Essentially, its fruit loops (or any cereal of your choosing), m&ms, caramel bits, and mini marshmallows mixed with white chocolate. You can pretty much do this with any combination of candy...even dried fruit and nuts. Just spread it out on a parchment covered baking sheet to cool in the fridge and break it up.

These are by far, my favorite thing that I did yesterday. Deviled Eggs. A Half egg of solid white chocolate, topped with a mix of yellow chocolate and crisp rice. Sprinkle some red sugar 'paprika' on the top and just by looking at them, you can't really tell the difference between them and real thing.
White chocolate covered Marshmallows. Without the milk chocolate drizzle, they're 'Bunny Tails.' The graham crackers are dipped in Mint Chocolate. The log-esque thing in the middle of the photo is like a Clark bar...peanut butter inside, milk chocolate outside.
Self explanatory. Underneath the chocolate is caramel twisted around the pretzel.


This is more of the really fun stuff. the dark discs are Ritz crackers covered in mint chocolate. The cordial shapes are actually raspberry filled milk chocolate truffles. More 'Clark' bars and there is also one chocolate covered coconut ball to the right of the 'Clark.' The filled truffles were super easy to do...and there's a plethora of filling options like Black Walnut, Strawberry, or Cherry...they'd be the best (because of my love of it) with Dark Chocolate. They are time consuming though because you use a specific mold. You have to paint the bottom of the mold, let it set for a few minutes in the fridge, then re-paint and re-set until you hold the mold up to light and can't see anything through it. Then press a ball of the filling into the cavity and fill the rest level with the chocolate. Totally worth the extra wait time...or at least I assume so...I haven't actually tried anything besides the 'Breakfast Cereal' yet. Just to pretty to eat AND I'm going to try to make what I'm saving for myself last as long as it can. The sugar buzz I'd probably get would be insane if I went to try everything in one sitting.
More of the grahams, coconut balls, Thin Ritzs, 'Clarks,' some mini chocolate covered pretzels, and white chocolate ducks!

A better view of the ducks. Painting the molds before filling them is yet another task that takes true precision and the right sized paint brush. Patience while the colors set up doesn't hurt either.
I like to call these 'Baby Hueys' Kind of creepy with no black in the pupils. Normally, the beak on these would be orange, but we didn't make any orange...so yellow for everyone!
Birds Nests. Chocolate covered chow mein noodles and jelly beans. Easy peazy lemon squeezy.

This is all living in my fridge at home at the moment. The only thing I'm not giving any away of is the 'breakfast cereal.' I think I'm storing away two of each thing for my personal candy stash...the rest of boxed up and ready to be given away. It was really nice to be the only one there yesterday...a rarity at that place, but I'll take what one on one lessons I can get. I might try my hand at more of this on my own, I just have to get the means to create! Its not that expensive or difficult. It will be especially easy since I've doubled my refrigerator capacity and work space. The wheels for an all chocolate 'vegetable tray' are turning AND I have some great ideas for the Rib Off cake in the summertime. Anyone want to donate to the 'Ms Jones Airbrush' kit fund? They can do lay-a-way at Cake Arts. I accept checks too.

AND if you see something you like on here, let me know if I can ever make it for you. Heaven knows I'd be more than happy to.

Shaping up

Ms Jones Kitchen (version 205) is just about ready to be unveiled. What I have to STOP myself from doing is going to Bed Bath and Beyond and buying the entire line of 50's diner inspired tableware and accessories. I can't guarantee that some of it WON'T happen...but I might be calling a couple of you to talk me down from squandering money on the entire set.

What I did pick up last night whilst running errands was silicon whisks. I'm eager to try them out. I see alot of teflon whisks, but those look like they just wouldn't hold up when whisking cornmeal or farina. Considering I am an avid hot cereal preparer, I was looking for something a bit more substantial. Farberware came through for me. $4 bucks later, I have two small sturdy wire whisks, with the actual 'whisk' part coated in heat resistant red silicone. I even picked up a silicone spoon rest.

Silicone is one of the things in the kitchen, especially as of late, that I have a problem with. I refuse to purchase silicone bakeware. I know its gaining popularity in homes, but something about it just seems wrong to me. There's no way that the end result could possibly be as good as the standard heavy duty metal bakeware. A couple people I know have used it to make bundt coffee cakes with and discovered that the middle of the cake just falls apart no matter what. That could be attributed to heat distribution in their ovens, but I'm guessing its more to do with the pan itself. But, I suppose I'll never know more than what others tell me though, because I will never spend the money to test it out on my own. Nothing's worse than spending money on things that don't work. At least with non-kitchen related items you can get your money back...but if the pans or muffin tins don't perform well, they wouldn't refund your $$ for something you've already baked in. That's like wearing underwear once, deciding you don't like how they fit, then trying to get that $5-7 bucks back. It just isn't happening.

In my non-expert opinion...if you want to buy silicone...do it when it comes to spatulas, potholders/trivets, spoon rests, and coated whisks. None of this bakeware crap.

I did move the coffee maker to over by the dining room table to clear up a bit more counter space. The only things that still need a place to live are my leftover cake boxes and my cook/recipe books. Once those are all happy and put away, photos will be taken and displayed.

Tonight I'll be making candy. What kind, I know not. But you'll all find out soon enough....

Moving

I have a whole new kitchen to play in now! Its definitely not 100% put together yet (yeah, like it came in a box) but its really coming together. I think I may rearrange a couple appliances and get some more storage as well. However, it will be dinner party worthy in NO TIME! You'll all be invited, don't worry about that :)

Saturday was a lovely last dinner in #245. Grilled Yellowfin tuna and a simple salad. If you're thinking about getting a tabletop grill/griddle...DO IT! So worth the $$ (actually inexpensive) and such a time saver. I recommend getting a multiple use unit that you can grill and stew in.
Last night I didn't cook in the new place because the fam wanted to go out to dinner. None of us had been to Rumors on Monroe St. in a while, so we basically HAD to go there. If none of you in the Toledo area have been there, do yourself a favor. Like many other places in the city, its Lebanese and American cuisine and the price is GREAT for the actual amount of food you get. My personal favorite (Falafel dinner) feeds me for 4 days straight. Kevin, my brother, had never been there before, but my folks knew what they were in for. Yet, this didn't stop them from ordering appetizers along with dinner. More so my dad and brother though...its impressive and kind of gross the amount they can pack away.
The falafel is probably some of the best I've ever had. Its really a shame that I can only eat one ball of it (bigger than a golf ball, but smaller than a tennis ball in size) by the time I'm done eating the salad that comes with the meal. So now my new fridge smells chick peas and fava beans and spices.

The remainder of the wedding cake from class is sitting in the break room here at work as we speak. I DID keep one slice for myself. The top tier (sunset) went home to be shared between my sister's clan and my parents.

My goal in the kitchen tonight - find a better place for the coffee maker. Pictures to come of the most adorable kitchen table ever tomorrow. Nothing says 'Ms Jones Kitchen' like a pink speckeled table and pastel pink matching chairs. Would a matching clock be overkill? Perhaps not...

until tomorrow....

The Weekends

Are full of culinary possibilities because I usually have time to sit and legitimately cook. Tonight is my last dinner at Apt 245. Its heartbreaking...thinking about all the great (and not so great) things that have come out of that kitchen.

The dinner party I threw the first winter we were in the apartment...Beth making random pots of soup...the fire alarm going off even when nothing was burning...all fond memories...

So the real question is what the crap do I make to mark this occasion? I could do some of my standard favorites: pumpkin oatmeal, vegetarian reubens, spinach omlets, tofu stirfry, fatoush with lentils...i'm sighing with my wooden spoon in my hand.

But I figured why not dress things up a bit. So i have a hot date tonight with my indoor grill and yellowfin tuna. And because its St Patricks Day, i HAVE to eat cabbage. I wish i had the ways and means to whip up more traditional Irish desserts...like Apple & Barley Pudding, Donegal Oatmeal Cream, or a whiskey cake...but the cabbage will be good enough for me.

My new kitchen will hold another world of possibilities...and i can't wait to pack up the Kitchen Aid and get settled there. Twice the counter space will be nice for me, who's all arms and legs when it comes to cooking. I'm a deadly weapon in there...

I'll report on the Tuna finale for #245 on Monday. Gorge yourself on bangers and mash. But leave room for Guiness.

Oooooodles of Noooooodles

So as most of you know, and can relate to, I'm an avid HungryGirl.com reader. Lisa (HG herself) is the goddess of guilt free cuisine and makes brilliantly witty observations and reviews about new products and old ones that might have slipped your mind. I mean, thanks to her...most of my bowls of old fashioned Quaker oatmeal are chock full of 100% pure pumpkin. But the one product that really intrigued me that she RAVES about is Shirataki Noodles by House Foods. Of course, because its something I want to try, there's no store in the Toledo area that I can find them at. UNTIL NOW.

A few weeks ago, I was browsing through the natural food section at Kroger on Holland Sylvania. Went over to the tofu and meat substitute refrigerator area, where a normal spread of House Foods tofu is usually on the shelf. Imagine my surprise and EXCITEMENT when i saw the noodle shaped Shiratakis on the end of one shelf!!! Thankfully, there were no employees or consumers standing next to me because I think I might have blindsided them with a David Lee Roth style jump kick. I snapped up 4 pkgs of the suckers (didn't want to buy them out all at once) and took them home to let the science experiments begin.

So far, the only thing I can say is every rant that HG made about these noodles are 100% justified. Once they're rinsed and patted dry, you can pretty much do anything with them. Furthermore, because they're tofu...they take on any flavor that you put with them. So far, I've made my own version of Skyline Chili by covering the noodles with Boca Chili, put them with stirfried veggies, and made a cold pasta salad out them. I've also created my own spin on one of my mother's comfort foods 'Beefy Goulash,' by using Shirataki instead of egg noodles. I don't have that particular recipe in front of me right now...but I can post my version compared to the old version tomorrow.
I've also used them in an HG approved recipe for a great breakfast casserole type dish. Peach & Cottage Cheese Cinnamon Kugel. Its basically:

1 pkg Shirataki Noodles (rinsed, drained, and dried)
1/2 c fat free cottage cheese
3 tbsp egg whites (i use two large egg whites)
1 large peach
1 tbsp Splenda granular
Cinnamon to taste

you preheat the oven to 425, combine all ingredients, and bake it for about 25 minutes until the top is a nice golden brown.

Now because of my limited resources (ie - the fact that Kroger here only has the noodle shaped Shirataki) I had to change from the HG original recipe. She used the fettuchini shaped ones in her version. I think that substitution might have led to the small amount of liquid that I have at the bottom of my Kugel when its done baking. I found its also imperative to use a peach that's slightly underripe. The mushier ones tend to leave more liquid after cooking too. I thought it might be a good thing to try to soak up a bit of that moisture left at the bottom by adding a box of Golden Raisins to the mix (overall, it only adds 90 calories to the entire recipe). While it good, it doesn't soak up everything. But you'll be all set if you simply use a slotted spoon to serve this dish out. Its got a mildly sweet flavor that the cinnamon really compliments well and a strata like consistency to it. In all honesty, with the egg whites and the cottage cheese, it really reminded me of the innards (not taste wise of couse) to fayater. Light and airy. In fact, I might just try a spin on this recipe and make it savory using spinach, onion, egg substitute, and a bit of feta and hot sauce. Can you tell its almost dinner time here? Haha.

Next on my list of HG Shirataki recipes to try are her Zucchini Pancakes. And I might attempt a Swedish Meatball-y experiment with the Shiratakis, soy crumbles, and Laughing Cow light cheese. Or sautee up Cabbage (it is just about St Pats Day after all) and have cabbage and noodles...I'll let you know how those test runs go as soon as they're done.

Overall, these noodles get two BIG thumbs up from me. If you're lucky enough to find them around you, pick up as many as you can and just have fun! Here they seem to be perpetually on sale for under $1 per package.
If you're wondering, the entire 8 oz package only runs about 40 calories total. Think about all the calories you're saving compared to 8 oz of regular pasta. As long as Shiratakis are around and readily available...I'll never eat boring spaghetti again!

On a completely unrelated note, I've also made HG's very own Blueberry Scones...another great recipe. I was concerned about baking them because they went in a little watery (next time I might decrease the amount of light soy milk). But they turned out lovely! Perfect for ladies who brunch.

I wrote an email yesterday to Lora Brody, the author of 'Basic Baking' among other titles. That very same day, I got a nice response from her thanking me for the email and asking me to send her best to Christopher Papagni when I get to the FCI. I'm totally going to pass the message along.

Tonights an egg night. Until tomorrow....

Destination Wedding

Its been over a week since I've been able to get to this...things would be so much easier, particularly for this blog if I was able to do it from home. This way, I could communicate directly from my kitchen. Someday, there'll be a power Mac on one of my kitchen counters for me to get to you guys faster with thoughts that quickly leave my brain when I'm in cook mode. I promised a rant on Shirataki Noodles last week but didn't deliver. That will come, and you have my word on it, by the end of the week.

This week, unfortunately, was my last week of Cake Decorating classes. For our 'finale' if you will, we needed to bring in two stacked, crumbed, and smoothed round cakes. One 8-inch double layer and one 6-inch double layer. So my baking process started on Sunday night. There's so much, like I've said in the past, that goes into getting a cake from just baked to smoothed that I have to start a few days in advance. Plus, its not like I have time to come home and quickly smooth it inbetween leaving work and going to class.
My idea for the flavor to this cake was a direct result of the cake mixes I had at the apartment. Doing a 'tropical' flavor theme, each round cake consisted of a layer of spice cake and a layer of pineapple cake. The rounds were torted and filled with a coconut filling. Essentially making each round: spice, coconut, spice, coconut, pineapple, coconut, pineapple.
I only needed two 8-inch and two 6-inch cakes for class. Due to the fact that it takes 1.5 mixes to make each full cake, I had alot of batter left over. It was compounded because I made an 8-inch and a 6-inch out of each batter mixture...So all in all, I ended up with two 8-inch, two 6-inch, two 9-inch, and 9 cupcakes. And yes, it may sound really complicated, but its not. I simply had a kitchen table covered in cooling cakes. After they had cooled and I had torted, filled, stacked, and crumbed...this is what the dining room table looked like:
and here's everything individually...

The two 9-inch cakes I decided to leave as is for now. They'll keep just fine, since its not too warm out anymore AND i ran out of frosting...its just as well because one batch of the frosting made just enough to stack, crumb, and smooth the main cakes I needed for class. The 9-inches will get sent home to my sister and her family. Know that EVERYONE loves cake, whether its frosted or not. My particular favorite part of the baked cakes are the tops that get cut off pre-stacking and frosting. Especially when they split a bit on top and crisp around those split edges just slightly.
At any rate, the kitchen was awash in a sea of cake.

The first couple days of this week were unseasonably warm. Infact, we reached 70s. Normally we're in the comfy 40s at this juncture in the year. I would mind overall, if the temperature didn't affect the ability of the frosting to smooth so much. I found myself yelling at the cake to cooperate and not getting the response I wanted. I think there might have been a couple times where I almost threw my spatula across the room as I tried to frost. In the end, things turned out alright. If we had more cake friendly weather, they would have looked a bit better. Then again, I am still in the beginning stages of mastering the smoothing technique. Practice Practice Practice.

Got to my class right on time Wednesday and started to formulate ideas for this wedding cake. Probably something I should have taken into more consideration, but it was hard enough for me to be able to hammer out my idea for flavors and fillings. Baby steps. I pereused through the books that the shop had on site for inspiration, finding myself drawn to floral patterns that vined up and over the top sides of cakes. Then I had to take into consideration my limited resources for decoration. Since I didn't really plan ahead for what the cake was going to look like on the outside, I didn't bring much to class with me to help me put it all together. And I didn't want to have to spend oodles of cash for this. Color on wedding cakes really caught my attention as well. Most 'traditional' wedding cakes are pure snow white. While it appropriate for any ceremony/reception...I think that with the more modern feel to weddings that's been prevalent recently, why not add color and a bit of panache to the design. Fondant would probably have been ideal if I was working on an unlimited budget...but then I considered trying my hand at airbrushing again. It was so much fun the first time, why not give it another go, while I had the tools at my disposal.

Taking into careful consideration my 'tropical' theme to the flavor of the cake...I decided to do a destination wedding cake perhaps for a couple who got married on a remote island. The top tier (6-inch cake) would represent the setting island sun and the bottom tier (8-inch) would be the deep blue ocean.

With airbrush gun in hand, I layered yellows, oranges, reds, pinks, and purples for the sunset. The ocean was a mix of hawaiian blue and violet. After that was done (and i had profusely apologized to the woman directly across from me for unknowingly splashing her snow white cake with a misting of blue...) I set to work on the frosting for the tops and sides. Insipired by vine work, i created a coral-esque orange color and piped it in a fashion around the sides of the 'ocean' to look like sea plants. I then made a sandy beach color out of walnut brown and golden yellow gel icing colors and created a private island that would sit on top of the 8-inch and inbetween the pillar stands holding up the top tier. Once the island was formed, I planted a few palm trees for a finishing touch.
Using the same coral orange, I iced the sun on the top of the 6-inch and completed that tier with a few white birds coasting off towards the setting sun. Overall, this is how it turned out:






I think that if I was ever to do a design similar to this, I might try to cover the pillar legs with a wood look to them. ..or make THOSE the palm trees and decorate the underside of the top tier plate with palm leaves.

Having this cake sit on my dining room table makes the whole apartment smell like sugar. Now that class is over, I'm not sure what my next project will be. But I DO know that tomorrow I'll have the Shirataki review I keep promsing and probably post those miscellaneous flower pictures I have in my files. I may take on a baby shower sheet cake challenge in the very near future. My first paying gig. How exciting! Its just a matter of figuring out how I can fit it into everything else...

Still reading Pepin's autobiography, which I enjoy more and more each page turn. I even emailed Lora Brody to tell her how much I enjoyed her Basic Baking cookbook. Its a possiblity that I have become more nerdy than when I started this blog. And its only been two weeks.

Airbrushing a Cake

So the airbrush gun is a horse of a different color. It takes a very delicate steady hand to produce the color consistency you want. As i've been learning in cake class, most of this stuff takes a patience that is hard to grasp at first. This is especially true for myself, who normally works at a rather efficient rate. But being in this class has taught me to pace myself during the creative and creation process to make sure my pieces turn out the way I planned...There's still a couple of rough spots to the cake coloration...I may have gotten a bit excited at times or the machine may have hiccuped...but here's my first major attempt at Cake Airbrushing:

Not terrible...In all honesty, I hadn't had to bake a cake in two weeks for the class, because we were concentrating on sugar flowers for a spell. But once again the pan insulating strip:

really really did the trick again.

i'm always impressed with its ability to make the cake so level! It really helps too considering my oven is completely for crap in my apt.

Therefore...if you are considering investing in insulating strips, its worth the money! Less waste of cake and it just makes things look pretty!

I've also been doing 'research' in preparation for my tour and class audit of the FCI which is coming sooner than I probably realize. Currently I'm engrossed in 'Basic Baking' by Lora Brody AND I was able to track down 'The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen' by the one and only Jacques Pepin. Brody's book is great information, written with a healthy tongue in cheek dose of 'Dr Phil'-esque kitchen common sense advice. I really appreciate the way it talks about the actual science of basic ingredients and how they work together to produce desired results. Pepin's is brilliant so far and I'm only in the 3rd chapter. I personally love autobiographies, so learning about his mother being a restauranteur in France and his father not being much of a sous chef, but having an extensive knowledge of wine, is fascinating. More to come on this title and a couple other baking essentials books I currently have on loan to come as I trudge through them happily. I'm also trying to work through 'The Nasty Bits' by Anthony Bourdain. But I think I'll finish Pepin's first, since I own 'TNB.'

This coming wednesday is the last class in the Advanced series. Funny to think about how I've been taking classes for the past 9 weeks! The 'finale' is a wedding cake. I have to bring in two double layer cakes: one 8-inch and one 6-inch, already crumbed and smoothed. I'm going for a tropical taste theme here. Each cake will be one layer of Spice cake and one layer of Pineapple cake. Then I plan on torting them and using coconut filling inbetween. I'll post pics of the progress I make there soon enough.

Tomorrow look for my rant on Shirataki noodles and the fact that they're everything the 'Hungry Girl' cracked them up to be. Also, I'll eventually be tossing up photos of sugar flowers that will keep forever! They can even be sent in the mail.

In a week or so, I'll be moving into a new apartment. Here's my new 'Test Kitchen':

it isn't much...but it'll do :)

Random fact about me: Thanks to friends in high places, I have a cookie with Anthony Bourdain on it. I plan on having it shellaced and then cased up tighter than the constitution.

Welcome!

You're probably demanding an explaination from me. Ms Jones, you're saying, why in heaven's name would we want to read about your failures and triumphs in the kitchen of your teensy apartment? So this is how I would answer you:

Chances you, YOU might not want to read about them...but I do. And I needed a place to spout off about all these mishaps (some being happy ones) without feeling like I needed to add in extraneous information about my personal daily life. Food has become my passion...therefore, my passion needed a new home. Hence, Ms Jones' Kitchen. I'll be posting not only text, but pictures of my culinary adventures, gearing myself AND you up for my eventual dive into Pastry School in the fall. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them here or email me directly.

More information on me personally is in my user profile. I won't go into too much detail here, seeing as most of you reading this already know me pretty well. I'm about to turn 25 this year...and am not completely happy with what I am currently doing with my life. I enjoy working, but there's some sense of true fulfillment that's missing. This is where cooking comes in. I feel really accomplished when I complete a task, which is more than I can say for most of the work I do now. I plan on starting a 9 month pastry program at the French Culinary Institute in NYC in the fall. My facility tour and class audit is the second weekend in August and it can't come soon enough. I have always enjoyed cooking, but for most of my life, I enjoyed eating more. But over the past three years and counting, I've paid more attention to what I was putting into my body. As a result (and a rigorous exercise program) I was able to lose about half my starting body weight and gain a tremendous interest and love for cuisine creation. So when I cook now, I'm usually on the hunt for a new way to decrease calories in food while increasing its nutritional value. Nothing makes me happier than putting effort into a great meal and watching people I care about enjoy eating it as much as I did making it.

I think that going through what I have in the past few years is just a sign that the move to cooking school is a step in the right direction to get what I'm looking to get out of life. Don't get me wrong, I still LOVE eating...but its the entire process getting to the final results that really makes my mouth water.

I can't promise this will be very exciting, seeing as how most of the other foodie blogs out there are composed by people with ways and means that i don't have. But I have spirit and a willingness to experiment. So this should be fun. Welcome to Ms Jones Kitchen. Hungry yet? I am...