Sweet Southern Cornbread

Recently, Flo and I have been making  a ton of different things that complement cornbread, the 4th of July being a big hit, we decided that we were going to explore the world of the corny bread.

There's so many different things you can do with it, and we've only begun to test the waters! First, I'm going to share with you one of my favorite recipes for it, then tell you some of our favorite ways to serve it, then I'll leave you to discover your  own favorites :)


Sweet Southern Cornbread
(I make mine into mini loaves, makes about 9, or one 8x8 pan if you like those square-like pieces)

• 1 cup yellow cornmeal
• 1 cup AP Flour
• 1/4 cup Sugar (I know a lot of people who don't like their cornbread to be sweet, but it really needs a hint of sweetness.)
• 1T Baking powder
• 1t salt
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 cup whole milk (I use Lactose due to Emma getting sick with regular milk)
• 1 egg

1. Mix all together well. The first time I made this recipe I didn't mix it as well as I should have in fear of over-mixing, and there was bubbles of baking powder on the top of a few loaves. Gross. Mix away! Also, letting it sit for a few minutes will make it kind of foamy because of the reaction of the baking powder, just fill as usual.
2. Place in a greased baking dish
3. Bake at 400 degrees until done (14 minutes for mini loaves, and 22 minutes for 8x8)

Flo really likes a couple pieces of cooked bacon chopped up added to his cornbread batter, along with some jalapeno slices on top of the batter for a more spicy route, while I like mine with some actual corn kernels mixed in and some cheese sprinkled on top before baking. Emma likes hers just cut in half with some cinnamon butter or sometimes some jam or jelly, but be careful because this cornbread is very crumbly!

We've also discovered that you can place the batter into a few different baking dishes for a few different dinners. Last night we had mini loaves cut in half and smothered in chili, cheese and fries (a lot of food!) even though we would have much rather put the cornbread batter into a waffle iron and made waffle cornbread chili plates, but sadly, we don't own a waffle iron...yet.

A while back, I also put the batter into mini muffin tins and stuck a few pieces of a cut up hotdog right in the middle of each one before baking for a new take on corndogs. It was a hit due to a few batches filled up a bunch of kids who were in awe that they were having corndog cupcakes :)


Enjoy!

Fourth Fun-ness

Fourth of July was fantastic!

My shirt was amazing, and Emma and I may have been the best dressed and most patriotic there.

 
 

Even though I wasn't able to live up to the saying on my shirt, I did do my part and had a beer and a jello shot when we first arrived. :p



















I seem to always make the mistake of over-cooking, so there was some left overs, but for the most part, it was a hit.

The cornbread was the biggest favorite of the crowd. Everyone really loved that I put just a bit of sugar in the batter, so its not just a heavy brick of bread. My cornbread seems to come out very moist and crumbly as well, also a plus in my book.

The butter went hand in hand with the cornbread, and the coleslaw was the iffy addition. I guess no one had ever had a vinegar-based coleslaw, so it was a new taste to the palate. It took some getting used to, but once everyone had a taste of all the sweet BBQ, sweet cornbread, sweet drinks, etc... the tangy coleslaw came in handy.

The jello shots were insanely loved by the adults, and  I can't quite tell you how long those lasted. once the kids had eaten and were chasing each other around the yard, the adults put the bucket of jello shots on the table and a game of dominoes begun. I don't think they lasted long, as it almost seemed that as a domino was picked up, a shot was thrown down.








Emma and her cousins in Uncle Mike's truck, ready for fireworks!

The fireworks too were lovely, although I see fireworks almost every day at Disney, there's just something about 4th of July fireworks that are so special. With every good experience, comes a bad though...with all the kids loaded up in the bed of the truck, we lit off our first firework, when it ignited and flipped itself over and began to shoot out towards everyone! it was so scary, Flo and I had immediately dove over Emma, and our friends also grabbed and dove over their kids. After the firework was over, we were in a symphony of crying kids who thought the night was ruined. It was all fixed with some juice and hugs, and the firework show commenced.

I was so dang tired from working that morning from 2am-10am, that by 11:00 pm, I was laying on the concrete listening to the fireworks with my eyes closed.

All in all, it was a great night, complete with good food, friends, fireworks, and festivities.

Emma and her cousins Laila and Elijah enjoying a hot dog

Emma and I in our 4th of July outfits

Mom's Poolside Chicken Salad Sandwiches

So, since moving out, I find myself missing my mom's cooking and a lot of childhood meals I loved. I constantly e-mail my mom and ask for the most random and simple recipes so I can go out and stock up on the small stuff for when I get the nostalgic urge to have one of my moms poolside chicken sandwiches that I cannot seem to match her recipe to save my life.

As pathetic as it seems, reverting back to my 9 year old self, swimming in the pool at my grandparents country club eating these sandwiches actually sounds like a pleasant idea. It being 2:00 in the afternoon, and about 80 degrees, I think I'm going to post the recipe for you all to enjoy, and then go make some myself!


Mom's Poolside Chicken Salad Sandwiches (yields about 4 sandwiches)

• 2 cans of white chicken in water. (Water drained)
• 1/2 cup of mayo (not light mayo) or more according to taste
• 1 T of mustard
• 2 stocks of celery chopped small
• 1 large dill pickle finely chopped or 2T of dill (NOT sweet) relish
• 1/2 t of black pepper
• 1/2 t of salt
• 1/2 t of garlic powder
• 1 whole apple (pink ladies are my favorite) chopped into a medium dice to get the most out of the flavor

 

Stir and chill for 1/2 hour.

Chilling the chicken salad is a really important step, so that the flavors have time to meld and thicken up a bit.

Take out, stir and add more seasoning if necessary.

 

 

I personally like my bread un-toasted, but Flo and Emma LOVE theirs toasted. Slap some (by some, I mean a lot) on some bread, open your favorite bag of chips and enjoy! ***Note, the messier, the better:)

 

-C

 

 

 

Here Comes The Bride

Hey guys, sorry for the extremely long delay, please allow me to explain.

I graduate June 20th! So while finishing up the loose ends of schooling, I literally have no spare time.

I've finished my cakes class, in which I'll post the pictures up on here in this post.



During my Advanced Cake class, I have completed a complete turn around from cake decorating, although I thought I started out pretty well, however, as the quarter progressed, so did my work.

The first picture is of a group cake that myself and 3 other teammates did, and the theme was "Vintage Wedding"

Top view of our cake; we chose to do a classic pearl and rose.

 

Side view, 100% Italian Buttercream.

 

 

The next cake we did as a group was much more challenging. We had to complete a sculpted cake. We originally decided on a dog, and actually stuck with it, but through the process it went from looking like a pig, to a turkey, and finally, kind of a dog. Not bad for our first try, but we definitely could have done better.

 

 

Yeah, that's all I can say.


 

And finally, this is my most prized cake, although the inside was Styrofoam, the outside was fondant, royal icing and gum paste. This was my final project, which I received an A on. It was inspired by my love out the outdoors.

 

I was most proud of this cake because of all the different techniques I learned and used. I became really happy with my airbrushing skills.

My next post is going to reveal my results on my exit exam, although most already know. Will post in couple hours!

<3



I Love You

Since transitioning into my cake class, I've been real nervous. I also noticed that cake decorating is a lot harder than I expected, but then again, it is only week one. With practice comes perfection. Anywho, here is my first cake guys! It's a  6 inch high-ratio (which means a LOT of sugar compared to flour) chocolate cake, with a raspberry buttercream. It's not the best in the world, but it is my first cake.

Take a look at those buttercream roses, not bad for my first attempt!

My cake was made for my favorite people, Emma and Flo, however, all they got was a picture. Were not allowed to bring product home. Boo.



My whole, finished cake

Buttercream Roses...and pretty damn good ones!



My cut cake, 3 layers.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Alright guys, sorry for the delay in school pictures. I'm going to be pretty brief as I'm at Flo's house, and since Emma and I don't get to see him often, we try to spend as much time as we can when we can.

My plated dessert section of my class ended, in order to start our cake decorating section. The last class of plated desserts was really cool, we got to learn a whole bunch of sauce techniques. As it's right before Valentines day, these red sauce techniques really came in handy.

On a MUCH higher note, Last year, I applied for a $500.00 scholarship my school set up by writing a 500 word essay about a positive and negative experience that lead me to The Art Institutes.

I received a call a week ago informing me that my essay won, and that the money was going to be credited to my school bill, and to come in immediately for a picture with the president of my school. YAY!

Here's the pictures of my plated desserts, my final and my picture with the president.

Strawberry and mango trifle



Lousy chocolate souffle

Roasted Chamomile Pears

Baked Alaska

Raspberry Tart

Goat Cheese Panna Cotta

Our teams final: Petit Fours

Me, my check, and the president of AI.

Macaron Madnessssss

Okay guys, so I don't know what triggered this rampage; perhaps it was me looking at the pictures from week 1 in class with the raspberry macaron, but I haven't been able to get my mind off of macarons. I've been told that that's the spell they put on people, I'm a sucker, I guess. I had to do something about it. The raspberry ones were not made by me, but by my chef instructor who decided to take over the macarons as there was no oven space for 4 trays of macarons. I've attempted to make them in another class before, at least 3 times, attempted being the key word. They not only turned out horrible looking, but horrible tasting. I couldn't believe that all the hype over French macarons led to...that. A woman in my class at the time, told me not to base my opinion on macarons using the ones we made, due to the recipe not being a very good one, but to try a place in LA called Bottega Louie. I go to Long Beach often to see Flo, so I wrote it down thinking I'd give it a shot, but the spark never ignited.

After having one of Chef Annie's raspberry ones, I was impressed. I was impressed that I even gave them a 4th chance. I actually liked them, I guess it's always like that when someone else makes them (especially when that someone else is a trained professional.) I delicately ate one and moved on. It took two weeks, but that little French gift from God somehow entered my mind, and I haven't been able to get it out.

I began looking through pinterest the other day using the keyword "macaron" just to look at the endless flavor combos and beautiful bold and pastel colors they come in. I oohed and awed, but didn't consider making any because of my previous luck I've had with them. I looked and looked and looked. I looked for a few hours, tried to distract myself, looked for a few more hours, tried to sleep, woke up, went to Winco and bought almond flour. The deed was done, and now I HAD to do it.

I don't know what made me buy that almond flour, but I'm glad I did. FOR REAL.

I came home and made a batch of chocolate macaron's filled with a salted dark chocolate ganache.

I did a bit of research before hand, on tips for making macarons, and I believe it helped along with the tips I learned in school, but I think the key to them rests in 3 important steps:

1. get the almond flour as fine as possible. I threw mine in a blender, food processer, anything I could find to get it almost like powder. I'm not sure why I think this helps, but I do in fact, think it helps.

2. after piping the macarons, let them sit. forget about them if you can, and let them dry out before you put them in that oven. the outer shell has to get dry so the feet can develop in the oven.

3. use a convection oven. This goes for anything delicate, ovens have hot spots and uneven spots, no matter the make and model. Convection seems to be the only thing to get the heat evenly dispersed.

I watched anxiously throughout the process of my chocolate macarons, and I was actually pleasantly surprised with them, even after each step. the only thing is that I have to get the piping down right so there isn't a little lip  on the shell, other than that, it was great.

Another tip that I not only read about, but experienced first-hand is to wait to eat them. They will taste great freshly filled, don't get me wrong, but waiting to eat them until the next day is the best thing you can do for your taste buds. I, or my family, didn't have the patience to wait for 24 hours, so by day 2, there were 5 left, which I ate, which leads me to this opinion. They were so much better after aging. The wait is worth it.


They were so damn good, that I had to make more.

I came home from school today, and noticed Emma wasn't yelling, "Mommy's home!". I remembered that my mom and aunt had promised to take her to Chuck E. Cheese this afternoon, so, I sat there. I made something to eat and sat there some more. I got really bored, and then those sneaky macaron's crept into my mind again, and my body followed.

I had to make more.

I tried to think of a different flavor, a fruity one. I stepped outside to get inspired, and I saw our lemon tree being weighed down with ginormous vibrant lemons.

LEMON MACARONS.
bingo.

again, more success. that's all I can say really; that and: I THINK I'VE GOT THE MACARON BUG.


I look forward to making more.
and more.
and more.

Here's some pictures from my two days of macaron madness!









THEY HAVE FEET!





 

Emma helping me make the salted chocolate ganache


 

Finished Salted Chocolate Macarons

 





Finished Salted Chocolate Macarons

 

 







Station ready for the lemon macarons

 

 



Lemon Macaron shells


 



Inside of the lovely lemon macarons

 

 



               

Finished lemon macarons





Pâtisserie Vancée

Hey everyone! I'm really excited about this post. I know in my last one I said to give me an hour, but I do have a 3 year old, and as much as I wanted to post, Em's got the best of me.

For those who don't speak French, the title of this post is "Advanced Pastry". Since October of 2012, I have been waiting to take THIS class that I'm currently taking. Despite the amount of nerves I had walking into this class, I am glad I'm finally here. Right now, I am taking Advanced Patisserie and Display Cakes with Chef Annie, who in my opinion, is one of the most qualified to teach this course.

The way the class goes is like all the others, teams of four, prep one day, plate the next, except this class is divided. By the name of the course, one would think one would jump straight into cake display, but that's not the case. out of the 11 week course, the first 6 weeks is all about the art of plating. We aren't even touching cakes until the class is halfway over. I thought that this would frustrate me at first, my thoughts were something of the sort: "I've waited and waited to take this class, and I have to wait another six weeks to touch cake!" until I actually spent time doing some plating. Plating is such a complex, planned and scientific process, and you never even know it when you receive your food at a restaurant. It's an art in itself, and is just as stressful as preparing the food that's getting plated.

I learned very quickly how to let go a little bit and back away from a leader's standpoint, seeing as I am working on one plate, with 3 other just-as-eager teammates. It's hard at first, as we all have totally different visions in our heads, but were all learning each other's styles and work-habits, and by this past week, our styles began to merge.

Each week we have 3 menus, which translates into 3 separate plates, with 3 separate desserts. Each team has to work on each menu together, and plate them together, so there IS NO taking ownership of something. The teams also have full reign to plate however they want, just as long as all the elements are on the plates. After we plate, we take it over to the photo station, take our pictures for our portfolio, and break down our station. Simple. Prep, cook, group into menus, store, unpack, finish cooking, plate, pictures, clean up, go home. Simplicity; yeah...right.

Nonetheless, it is one of the most fun and interesting classes I've taken. Previous classes have been about making the food taste good, but now were past that. We know it's going to taste good, now its time to make it look good.

The recipes do taste good, don't get me wrong, but the presentation is insanely beautiful, and sometimes, we don't even know what our hands are capable of doing until were actually doing it. We just finished up week 2 right now, and with each of the 6 plated desserts, I was in awe of our work and what we were able to accomplish together as a team of artists.

Here's some pictures of each of the 6 desserts over the past 2 weeks, but make sure to follow my instagram and facebook for quicker updates on pictures and details, since I can't seem to upload any captions right now. -.-

 

 

Tomorrow, make sure to check out how my French Chocolate Macarons turn out, and I'll also be posting Emma's pictures from our trip to the March Air Field Base Museum this past Saturday!

 



 

UCLA

I have been asked to cater a 3 day event at UCLA! Flo's uncle goes to the prestigious school for film, and is filming a movie for class, and asked me to cater for his cast and crew! I couldn't have answered faster. I'll be leaving Thursday night so I can prep and cook for Friday, Saturday and Sunday! Gema and her boyfriend, Daniel will also be going to give me a hand with cooking and Emma...thank God for them and their help! Ill keep you all posted with the experience and pictures when I get back, I'm sure I'll be far too busy to post each day.

"Sconay's"

For my birthday earlier this month, I received a bunch of gift cards to a local kitchen supply store, Kitchen Fantasy. I spent them all within a week, and I'm pretty sure I have enough equipment to open my own bakery...(I could always have more though.). I bought various things like different size cake pans, to a bunch of decorating tools I need. One item in particular has come into play in the house almost everyday, in some sort of way: a mini scone pan...or "sconay" as Emma and I say while playing around.

I first saw the mini scone pan in a King Arthur Flour magazine  that my teacher gave me, and I thought it would be cute to have, but do I really eat or make scones all that often? Like I do with all magazines, I circled the item and continued skimming. After looking through the magazine, I headed to Pinterest to get my hourly fix of the "Food and Drink" category. It seemed to me that there were a lot more scone recipes then normal, so I took it as a sign and decided to buy the dang mini scone pan, even if I only used it once or twice.

I felt a little guilty buying it, as the traditional way of making scones, and they way I was taught, is in a free-formed circle and cutting it into 8 so that they are all off by just a little. Using a specific pan to produce 16 perfectly shaped scones seemed to be cheating to me, and I know my teachers would kill me.

I took my 3 large bags from Kitchen Fantasy and put all my new equipment away, but that stupid pan kept calling me: "Make some scones, Claire...some scooooooones." So that's what I did. My family likes to buy super mini scones sometimes for breakfast, but it's a treat since it's so far in between, so I figured making them fresh would be even better. That was convincing enough for me.

My newly-acquired taste for pumpkin led me to do a pumpkin scone, and what's anything pumpkin without spice? I ended up making a pumpkin pie scone with a spiced glaze, and dang, they were good. I immediately lost all regret I had for buying the pan.

Pumpkin Pie scones after being glazed

Those dissappeared pretty fast, and my dad even took a few to some of his friends, they seemed to like it, so I'm glad.

Cream of Heath scones cooling

I usually try to bake something every day, or else I go through some type of withdrawal process, so within the next couple days, I decided to make a new type of scone. I found the recipe for a classic sour cream scone through pinterest, but changed the recipe a bit to my liking. I personally like cream scones, but I wasn't sure if everyone else would due to their lack of sweetness. I debated with myself on whether or not to add a sweetening agent, and right as I was going to place the batter in the pan, I chose to throw in some sweetness. I looked through our pantry and tried to think what everyone would enjoy. Cinnamon chips? No...not the right profile I was going for. Butterscotch? Na. Chocolate? Yeah, it would work, but it just seemed too plain...and then, I saw Heath bar chips. PERFECT! Everyone loves Heath bars, and its not as traditional as a chocolate chip scone. I threw a handful of the chips in and mixed them in, spread the batter in the pan, and popped it in the oven. About 10 minutes later I took them out and put them on a cooling rack. I decided not to glaze them, since they weren't meant to be overly sweet. I called my creation "Cream of Heath Scones" naturally.

I took a bite out of them and actually, didn't care for it. When I got the idea of "Heath" I was expecting the Heath flavor to be a bit more overpowering than it was. Oh well.

Emma was the first one to try them. She's my main tester since she's so unbelievably picky. I would consider it a "win" if I even got her to try it. She did, and she actually liked them...a lot. She had another before I took the tray around for everyone else to try. I watched nervously as everyone took a bite; I was sure that this one wasn't going to be a keeper. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed them, they insisted that the sweetness was at a perfect level for them. Which is good for me, I wanted them gone. That's what every chef wants. 

I guess my dad was now a believer of scones, and decided to try one at his job site today with some of the guys he works with. He must have felt pretty strongly about this particular scone, because he called me to tell me how disgusting it was, "It was hard and it was burnt around the edges! I mean the chocolate chips were okay because its chocolate, but the scone was disgusting." He continued to tell me that this sparked up a conversation with the guys about the scones I've been making at home, and how I have now been summoned to make a batch for him to take to work on Saturday for him and the guys. He said there's one guy who seems more interested then the rest of them, and constantly asks my dad when he's going to bring something else of mine. I guess he told him about my Pumpkin ones, and the guy expressed how much he LOVES pumpkin pie, and yet, my dad insists that I make the Cream of Heath scones for the batch he takes to work. I'll be excited to hear what they have to say. Hey, its 'networking' isn't it?

Thanksgiving Meal, AI style

Class was great today. I was already in a good mood about how well our showpiece turned out yesterday, and today was going to be a breeze!

I decided to spend my practice time designing and making a chocolate box, so I'm not walking into it blindly for finals next week. Our team also decided to practice their box-making skills. There was SO MUCH CHOCOLATE! You never thought you'd hear someone say they were sick of seeing chocolate, did you? Yeah, well...that was me today. We literally have a GIANT bin of chocolate that we reuse for showpieces since they don't get eaten, they can be remelted and reused. I wouldn't be surprised if this bin weighed 50 lbs...no joke.

The time-consuming process of making a chocolate box begins by making a box template. A bottom, a lid, and four sides (a handle, drawers, legs, and different styles of boxes if you want to be more crafty) cut out of cardboard. Next is to temper a LOT of chocolate. Enough for all your pieces. Doesn't seem like a lot of chocolate, but trust me, it is. After the chocolate is in correct temper, we spread it on a sheet of acetate, and let it set up to almost firm. At that stage, we place our template down, and score the chocolate. After letting it harden completely, were able to take a hot knife and finish cutting out the pieces, and the final step is to assemble.

My chocolate spread onto acetate and beginning to harden.

This isn't so much difficult as it is annoying. You could be the cleanest person on the planet, and I firmly believe that after working with chocolate in bulk like this, you'll come out wearing more chocolate than what you worked with. Trust and believe.

I chose to start off with a bit more complex box. A box that had no straight edges, a wavy box perhaps. The lid was to have a handle and was supposed to lift straight off of the box. I glanced over at another table, and one of the lady's boxes kind of resembled a jewelry box. It reminded me of my favorite jewelry box, one that my uncle had made me when I was younger. It wasn't until my chocolate was tempered and ready to pour that I decided I wanted to change my template. Bad timing, seriously. I quickly changed it from a lid piece to a drawer piece, and designed a box with three permanent sides, and a pull out drawer. I cut out my new template as fast as I could and poured my chocolate.

I've never been really good at tempering chocolate, as that too is a long process, but my chocolate seemed to be in perfect temper and was really cooperating well with me (crossing my fingers that it's like that for the actual final.) I sat down and waited for it to firm up a bit.

It was then announced to our class that our restaurant (located on campus and run by upper class culinary students) was serving free Thanksgiving meals to all students. WOO! We all jumped up and ran to the restaurant to get in line. We received our ticket and walked through the restaurant picking up beautiful turkey, cheese potatoes, stuffing, gravy, veggies, cranberries, a freshly baked roll and a fry-sized piece of pumpkin pie (Hey, don't judge- we have a lot of students. :]) We went back to class and turned the back tables into a Thanksgiving banquet hall. We all sat there, the girls and I, and even Chef came over. We laughed, chowed, and laughed some more; everything sort of fit into the Thanksgiving Spirit! So much fun.

After eating and laughing, I noticed that our chocolate was ready. Nervously, and quickly (only an hour left of class) I began cutting out my box. I was so shaky, but after the first couple pieces, it was nothin'! I placed them in the refrigerator to firm them up faster and then assembled my box. 

Only a couple mistakes, not too bad for my first box. I know what I have to work on template-wise for my final next week, but all in all, I was happy with it.

My chocolate box; ta-da!

After completely assembling my box, I'm so much more confident in next week's final. BRING IT ON! I'm just on a roll of things actually turning out decently, and not to toot my own horn, pretty proud of myself. I really thought this class was going to take over my life, but now I can say I have successfully made a chocolate box, fully capable of holding - take a guess - chocolate candies!

Be sure to check out my Instagram (link located on the left) for more pictures related to this post and the rest of my blog!