True Portions

I use 2oz portion cups a lot. From SAMs (Club) they average about 1 cent for the lid and the same for the cup. Total investment costs 2 cents. - Also known as condiment cups.

Quite a few people in the 'business' make the mistake of not measuring, or weighing for accuracy. I always go by weight unless something is pre-packaged and portioned for me. Some of you will say this is a no brainer, but I can't count the times I have seen this miscalculated in costs and portion control. Different products can physically take up the same amount of space but not weigh the same.

Below I illustrated with a simple video of shredded cheese. If you buy a 5lb bag of finely shredded cheese it's 80oz. If you have 2oz portion cups you would assume it would make 40 2oz condiment cups, no? No. It will make 80, and possibly 90. Yes, if the cheese were solid this could be argued. But that is part of the point I am making.

Getting your scale-out and weighing a few things as you do your daily prep can help you 'tighten up' those costs, orders, and preparation time which makes a smoother running kitchen and saves time & money.

*On a personal note, the 1oz condiment cups usually cost the same. I don't use them at all. If you are going to use just part of the 2oz cup it still looks like more and gives room for dipping in the case of a sauce.

A few more examples of using the cups and weight.

Sour Cream

Real Bacon Bits

Sometimes...

When I am not cooking, Tytus and I play with play dough...I think sometimes my creativity gets the best of me, AND my wishful thinking!

Sickness

It seems this winter season 2012-2013 has been the time for MUCH sickness...Both my immediate family, extended family, and close friends have been rotating sickness.

I personally had/have a lagging cough/throat problem left over from my pneumonia that seemed to have never gone completely away. My youngest son (baby) Ezra had RSV twice, the second time included an ER visit and hospital stay. My other son had a cold, virus, and ear infection (actually for both boys) and my wife has struggled with various ailments and trying to keep us healthy or happy while we were miserable! My sisters family, mom & dad, and various other friends at work and church have been combating colds,virus, flu...whew!

Needless to say this has effected my frequency of posting. But no worries mon, I plan to get back at it!

(photo courtesy of my old blog - Kitchen in Dangriga, Belize)

Cambro Sweet Experiment - Modern Twists on Old Classics

I entered a contest held by Cambro called Sweet Experiment: Mini desserts are making a big impact! Now is your chance to showcase your most creative mini dessert creation with Cambro's Dessert Glass and have a chance to win $3,000 in Cambro products! Free to enter — we send you the dessert glasses, you create the sweet experiment!

So I figured, hey, I can get a cool set of mini dessert glasses (6) and make some creative mini desserts. The $3,000 in Cambro products was for the business establishment that employs me in my food service role, so it was not entirely a selfish involvement. Ha! Who would not enjoy new products in the kitchen/food department that they work in?

Unfortunately, I did not win. But I had fun entering, receiving my free glasses, and being creative with the desserts.

I titled my dessert submissions 'Modern Twists on Old Classics'. In the below pictures are my submissions from left to right.

Left: S'mores, graham cracker pieces or crumbs, marshmallow, and chocolate. Easily heated in the microwave melting marshmallow cream and chocolate. ( either melt marshmallow in pan or use the marshmallow cream or sometimes called fluff, because if you try to melt this dessert to desired taste in the microwave the marshmallow expands in the glass and pushes other ingredients out)

Middle: Creamsicle, layered vanilla bean ice cream and orange sherbet topped with a mandarin orange slice...reminiscent of that popsicle offered at the corner store or ice cream man riding through the neighborhood.

Right: Peach Cobbler, layered peaches, banana bread, homemade granola, and caramel sauce...spices with a little cinnamon and brown sugar.

Calamari Pasta / Gragnano Italy

A few nights ago I wanted to throw something simple together and reached way back into the bottom cupboard because I knew there was a bag of 'gourmet' pasta back there somewhere. I say 'gourmet' very lightly because it seems everything nowadays is 'gourmet' or 'artisanal'. Humph. Whatever.

I just wanted to cook it up and use it. The one I found is called calamari because the pasta rings look thick cut and big like rings of real calamari that are usually fried and eaten as an appetizer at most restaurants.

Starting by pan searing some Italian sausage then throwing the pan in the oven to continue to cook while I put together a quick marinara sauce with roasted garlic. Pasta water just started to boil so I salted it heavily then threw the pasta in...meanwhile the sausage came out of the oven and I put them in the pan with the sauce and let simmer till the pasta was done. Because of the size of the pasta I used a spider (instead of using a colander) to fetch all the pasta out of the water and dump it in the pan with the sauce and sausages.

Even when the whole dish was done the pasta still had a bit of a chew and great taste. I was surprised. So today I looked up the name of the pasta and where it was from because it seems like any knucklehead company is making any pasta shape they want and pass it off as being 'gourmet'. Well, there is an actual pasta called calamari that comes from Gragnano Italy where the company there still uses bronze cutting die  and they still air dry the pasta.

My wife and I loved it even before I checked for the origin of it, and like most dishes of this nature my wife said it tasted even better the second time around. She took it to work and shared it.

We usually buy bits of food things here and there 'on sale' and throw them in the cupboard or fridge to try later...sometimes disappointing, sometimes surprisingly good.