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.