Thoughts on Coffee

I have traveled quite a bit on ships, trains, planes, and automobiles thru the Caribbean, Central American, Europe, Africa, Canada, and of course the U.S.. I have also tasted and visited a few coffee places, estates, fields, and shops. That being said I will not call myself and expert except on the subject of my own palate. So for a moment lets knock out any one-off coffees and talk about chains and corporate. Here is what I found for my tastes...

Although I am from the South and Krispy Kreme seems to be the doughnut king when the light is on...it's coffee is lacking. Starbucks is great for specialty coffees and maybe buying their coffee and making it at home but why does their house brew always taste bitter, burnt, or harsh? My wife and I LOVE Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf both specialty and regular cup of coffee but this place is not found to many places in the USA, some high traffic cities and mostly California...and oddly enough a bunch of them in Malaysia! So still no everyday options for me. Waffle House has good coffee that is pretty consistent from coast to coast (because it is made the same) but lacks that inviting atmosphere and is not available for purchase at home. From what I remember Tim Horton's was pretty good (Canada) but that was a distant memory. Illy coffee imported from Italy is hands down my favorite coffee that my palate loves straight from the French press but OH does it cost a pretty penny.

But as I sit here today in the first of many Dunkin Doughnuts coming to my city in the South I am reminded of my trips to Boston and New York where every corner seems to have one on it. it also reminds me of why I love their coffee so much. I get just the regular coffee with cream and sugar (they add it) and the mix and taste seems to be just right for me every time. The price does not break the bank. Their take-home bags of coffee taste just as great when you make them at home and are affordable...and I guess their doughnuts aren't to bad either! (Wink!) But don't tell Krispy Kreme I said that.

It's Busy!

Lately at our household we have had so many commitments, social engagements, and additional work details that it was almost to hard to keep up with! And our household (wife and two small boys, toddler and infant) has had an ongoing case of the sniffles, coughs, and pneumonia (myself) that keeps on hanging on and dragging out more doctors appointments. So, of course the first thing that starts getting behind is my posting.

I have a few posts in the draft mode coming up...recently I joined a contest that involved using some new dessert glasses from Cambro and will be posting soon. One thing I really need to work on is taking more pictures! Recently we did a Christmas Banquet for the academy teachers and I was to busy to get pics. Sigh.

Merry Christmas everyone!!! (In case you or I don't make it back here again!)

Low-cost bread follow up

My last post was a video of low-cost fresh baked bread and showed an alternative way to decrease freezer space and also decrease the amount of money that it cost for buying different kinds of bread in this post I have attached a picture to show you the different kinds of bread that you can probably do.

From the bottom what we have is an oblong focaccia style loaf, a sub sandwich style loaf (which if tightened up and skinnier would resemble a French baguette) and the last one was a freestyle loaf with cheddar, garlic, and herbs rolled into the middle.

Low Cost Fresh Baked Bread

Using frozen dough balls from Sam's Club for low cost bread and minimal use of freezer space while also creating several varieties of bread items. Ideas for small commercial kitchens based off of my current experience as Food Director for a private academy.

(Video may be a little shaky, somebody had to hold the camera! LOL)

Hot Wings / Buffalo Wings

Last week I talked about the men's retreat. One of the food items we had at the men's retreat was hot wings or buffalo wings.

When doing wings I don't like to mess around with the piddly pieces so I'll buy the fresh jumbo wings and cut them down. Wings usually tend to lose a lot of water. When defrosting (and cooking) frozen wings you end up with some real small wings that look terrible!

We season the wings beforehand and bake them up on large sheet trays in the oven. We flash fry the wings as needed. Our standard wing sauce that we like to use is half Frank's hot sauce and half butter (melted) and mixed together.

Our wings are always cooked through and taste great because we season and bake them first before frying. We don't use flour or any other coating on our wings when we deep-fry them. The skin that's already been baked crisps up real nice and crunchy as it fries and it holds up well adding hot sauce later.

Men's Retreat

Weekend before last we started our annual men's retreat on that Friday night. I was suffering with a bad hack that I just could not cough past or get better. Unbeknownst to me I was developing or already had pneumonia. It was a rough weekend but a great time!

It was the standard menu (as in almost identical to last time)...man food. We started Friday night with grilled ribeye steaks and loaded baked potatoes. Yes, we had some veggies. Broccoli. And some real nice yeast rolls. Followed by apple and pecan pies served with vanilla bean ice cream, some of that 'all natural' stuff.

Saturday morning we used the leftover ribeye's to cut up as tips and cut & fried the baked potatoes from the night before. Also served bacon, eggs, biscuits, sausage gravy...had butter, jelly, jam...you know all the extra stuff with coffee, milk, and/or orange juice to drink.

Lunch was pretty simple, meatball or kielbasa sub sandwiches with chips.

I was going to do nachos mid afternoon but everybody was still so stuffed I just added them to the dinner menu. We had a late dinner that night about 730 or 8pm I think. We had Nachos, hot wings, and homemade pizzas! And of course anything else left from all the other meals were thrown out there too! The remainder of pies And ice cream came out again afterward.

The funny thing about the equipment there in the kitchen is sometimes the ovens are a bit quirky. Last time we did pizzas it was a two step process...the oven was hot enough to cook them but left the bottom soggy, so we threw them on the flat top grill for awhile and it seemed to remedy that. But, my right hand man last time (PW) was not going to be there for the dinner this time!!! So he went around telling everybody about how I was going to make my homemade pizzas then he split on me!!! LOL

BUT I figured out a way to do it and pulled it through even a little easier than last time and with crispy crusts! I started making all crusts that afternoon after all my dough balls had ample time to relax. Then I started shaping my crusts and par-baking them on sheet pans to a light golden color/crust. Later that evening I just sauced and topped my par-baked crusts and they had enough structure I could finish them straight on the oven rack which produced a nice crispy crust on bottom without another step in the process. Success!

Sunday morning is always simple, homemade cinnamon rolls and coffee...then cleanup and off to church service!

Everything came out great!

This year my sous chef, Roberto, was there attending the retreat but he still helped out! And thanks to several other men at the retreat who helped! ~ Always a great group of guys.

Favorites This Week

Below are a few things I found this week I like. Each picture was borrowed from, and has a link to the original post so hopefully I am not breaking online etiquette. Merely trying to bring attention to some cool ideas and a few new things.[click pics for link back to articles]

Ah yeah sounds like a good easy one! Bourbon Baked Apples, or maybe spiced rum, or cider? Looks delicious for cold weather! Over at How Sweet It Is!

Cool Idea!

Free Prints for the KITCHEN!

 

For Real? This looks like a delicious 'replica' of Avalanche Bark from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory - Recipe Included! ~ From The Brown Eyed Baker!

Roasted Sweet Potato - Bulk Prep

Need a few pounds of sweet potatoes this holiday season but prefer not to use the canned ones? Let your oven due the work for you! Very little actual prep time involved besides waiting on the oven to cook them.

Pulled Pork - Convection Oven

 I am trying out a few introductory videos from the work kitchen and maybe even my home kitchen. They will be short and to the point. If you would like more details of the video in each post, please be sure to comment!

We do a pulled pork sandwich about once a month with coleslaw (mayonnaise based) and potato wedges, sometimes substituted with Tator Tots. This uses up the leftover potatoes from Loaded Baked Potato day(earlier in the month).

In the video we are using a standard Boston Butt...

Bad Packed Lunch

People, feed your children good food.

Over the years I have really paid attention to how kids eat and what's in their packed lunch and I gotta tell ya it's getting bad.  But more specifically where the schools have started letting them use microwaves and bring in reheat-able foods.

Most meals are carb heavy w/(fattening rich) sauces galor, skinny kids bring lean cuisine and weight watcher meals, and for the parents we know don't cook...yes, we can tell you packed your kids lunch with leftovers from whatever restaurant or take out joint you ate at last night, night after night after...

Once again, I paraphrase a great quote from my friend PW, "Never seen anybody get fat from eating school lunch!".

Red Beans and Rice and Random Bits

Things have been moving right along at the academy...last week we had Red Beans & Rice and I feel it was a 'keeper'. Some of the staff were surprised that the smaller kids knew what it was, they liked it, and ate it up. We served it with Kielbasa.

Pancake Breakfast: from time to time the school has fundraisers and pancake breakfast seems to be a big hit. It runs from 7am to about 830am on a regular school day and the cost is $5 dollars. Parents and grandparents are welcome to come and eat. Its kind of like 'all you can eat' but we don't say that. We start off with two pancakes about 5 inches in circumference and let you know you can come back for more. There is a table set up with toppings such as Redi-Whip (that whipped cream in a can) chocolate syrup, original syrup, mixed berry syrup, fresh strawberries, chocolate chips, and butter. The syrups are kept warm in chafing dishes. We provide milk and orange juice(also on the table). It was pretty successful.

Our next fundraiser is a 'Thanksgiving Dinner for Four'. Our advertisement/announcement for that will probably come out today, or tomorrow until then the following may change at any time.

 

Thanksgiving Meal for Family of Four - $40

• Sweet Potato Casserole
• Cornbread Dressing 
• Green Bean Casserole 
• 2 pounds Roasted Boneless Turkey Breast and 16 oz of gravy

AND then offer a pumpkin pie at $9 OPTIONAL.

 

We have worked out a great meal at a great price. I have researched these food items locally so its pretty competitive, not to high or low.

 

Students Favorite Meals so Far (based on total orders for a single day): First - Taco Salad/Nachos, Second - Baked Ziti, Third - Loaded Baked Potato. I feel like today's lunch will have an increase in orders next time too...'Breakfast for Lunch!' which consisted of scrambled eggs, hash rounds, biscuits, and sausage gravy. All the menu items are doing well so far.

Favorites This Week

Below are a few things I found this week I like. Each picture was borrowed from, and has a link to the original post so hopefully I am not breaking online etiquette. Merely trying to bring attention to some cool ideas and a few new things.[click pics for link back to articles]

Tomato Soup w/Poblano Chiles - Chef Steve, although he would probably call himself  'Camp Cook' over at 'Round the Chuckbox (one of the blogs I read, its on my sidebar) always comes up with, and/or has some great recipes on his site. This one looks like a sure add-in for this Fall.

Yes, even I want to save some money and use coupons. This site starts the first page with -
Top Forty Stores with Awesome Coupons - then on the right in the sidebar it breaks down the coupons by popular categories. Very helpful and quick (smart phone app available too). On The Frugals page it lists helpful sites that can save you more money.

5 Tips for Freezing Pasta - Probably good general knowledge for those of you who want to do that dish ahead of time (like lasagna) and freeze it for later, or freezing leftover pasta dishes.

"Saturated fats have gotten a bad rap over the past few decades, but are they really as dangerous as we have been led to believe?" - Great article on Benefits of Saturated Fats! Detoxinista says "...I have a hard time believing that eating a fresh coconut can possibly lead to heart disease or cancer, even if it is brimming with saturated fat!"

Dish Soap / Hand Soap

This cool set of 'bar type' dispenser bottles by Tablecraft are originally used for oil and balsamic vinegar. Bed Bath & Beyond have them for about $12 but we paid about $7+ at Target, or was it Walmart? Anyway...

My wife came up with a cool idea: We put antibacterial hand soap on the left, and Dawn dish detergent on the right. The bottles are on the window sill right above our kitchen sink (at our house, not at my work...in case there was confusion).

The only problem you may have is some hand soaps are real thick and may not flow from the bottle with this type of dispenser on top. You can thin down the hand soap if possible, but sometimes if you don't do it right you will end up with a lot of suds and frustration.

It looks cool, and its functional! And at our house with the colors involved and location of the bottles you will not be confused and try to use it on your food! LOL!