Making it up as I go along!

The wedding I catered on the weekend was very special in so many ways. I have known the groom and his family for over 10 years now and while I only met the bride a few years ago, during the planning of this wedding she has gained a very special place in my heart.

As I do these weddings I love to make up an appetizer or special item that I haven't used for any other event. One time it was wontons filled with cranberry and brie, the previous week it was heart shaped peppermint patties. For this wedding it turned out to be something that the bride doesn't even like, but turned out to be a big hit even with her.

I make spanakopita rolls all the time, but I experimented this time mixing the spinach and feta with cream cheese, sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil and oregano from my herb garden. I rolled it up in phyllo and froze them. For a planning meeting I baked a roll and took some to the bride and her maid of honour only to find that the bride didn't like cooked spinach. I mean I could still use them, but it couldn't be the signature dish. Well, she tried them and ended up taking the rest of the roll with her, raving about them as she went out the door. With 12 rolls which cut into 10 slices each, I had my signature appie.

I was going to make some mini samosas as well but didn't get them done in time. So, I hunted for ideas and saw something where tortellini was cooked, cooled, marinated in lemon and skewered with baby spinach. I had an assistant take the tortellini, marinate it in a balsamic vineagrette, skewer it with basil wrapped tomatoes and stick each into a mini bococcini ball which was cut flat on one side so it would stand up. These I called Caprese salad on a stick. They were a big hit as well and it was a good thing I brought the stuff for this along because we had over 225 people show up for the after ceremony tea!

What I loved about this was that a few friends said (even though they hadn't had either appie before) that they recognized my style in these two dishes and loved what I had done with them.

For me, the piece de resistance was the fruit plate. I use that term very loosely because the whole point of it was that there was no plate. I had my staff cut up all the fruit in slices and chunks, wash the variety of berries and just put them in bowls and on plates. We then put plastic wrap on the table, covered the edges in a large loose circle with leaf lettuce and laid the fruit down with the melon and pineapple slices in rows and the berries and kiwi scattered all over. We then set tongs down for people to grab what they wanted. It actually slowed the line up because people were looking at it and taking pictures (including my hubby which is why I have one!).
This is what I live for. Creating or adapting recipes that bring out my imagination and love for food and people.

I guess that is why I never wanted to work in a restaurant making the same things over and over. I would rather just make it up as I go along.

Complacency and the Wedding Cake

Wow, has it really been this long since I posted? My attentions for the last month and a half have been on wedding season, which started last Saturday, June 6th with a marathon of a dessert reception and cake that day and then two days ago dealing with a tea reception, dinner and cake all in one day. Fun stuff.

This second wedding was for a family I have known for over ten years and have been very special in so many ways. The groom I have watched grow up from a teen to a wonderful thoughtful man and in the last couple of years I have come to know and love his now wife. They and their families have been through a lot and I felt honoured to be a part of this special day.

I felt I had the food under control as not much could be done in the week so I set my attentions to the cake. It was a very traditional looking 3 tiered cake with the top two tiers "floating" on clear pillars. It was to be covered in ivory fondant with matching butter cream piped dots and silver dragees.

I was not worried about this cake in the least when I started. In fact, as the blog title suggests, I was approaching it pretty well as routine.

The cake was lemon and a recipe I picked up from Warren Brown's book "Cake Love". I have made the 9 inch layers several times and felt very comfortable working with it. However, I found some difficulty translating it to our large pans and getting the cake baked evenly from edge to centre. Originally it was going to be 4 layers high, each 4 inches (torted to have two raspberry and one lemon curd filling in each tier). But the larger cakes just didn't work and I realized that with that height, I didn't need that much cake for the size of the wedding. The bride had originally wanted only a 3 tier cake anyway, so I cut my losses on the bottom ones and went to the decorating phase.

The afternoon before the wedding I filled and frosted the cakes and that night began the final process. The new brand of fondant I bought was a breeze to apply. I had never been more happy with a fondant job and decided to just keep decorating as I would be busy with my team the next day on other things.

The piping went well, with the butter cream an exact match for the fondant. The placing of the silver candies (3 different sizes) went smoothly with a pair of tweezers. I knew I would have some repairs when we arrived at the venue, but I looked at that cake, sitting there in all its sugar beauty, and was very happy with myself. Other than the initial baking challenges it was the easiest and best work I had ever done. I covered the bottom with its pillars and the top two tiers with the topper lightly with some plastic and went to bed very satisfied.

The next morning hubby helped me pack up the cars and he drove the one with the cake. It wasn't until he was packing it that I realized I goofed by putting the edging on the middle "floating" tier and knew at this point I would have to repair that. As we made the first turn onto the road, hubby stopped, got out, walked to the side the cake was on, looked, went back and drove on. I was sure there was something, but figured by the fact he didn't say anything that it was minor. I was still in my complacency that the cake was a done deal.

We got to the venue and I got out of my car. He looked at me a little concerned and said "I am sorry I took that corner too fast, but it isn't bad, you can fix it." I looked and the topper (which I should have removed and meant to) had fallen off, taking a good slice of the top tier with it. The bottom of the two actually shifted so all the layers inside the fondant were slightly askew. I said in a fairly calm but resigned voice "it can't be fixed", meaning I could, but not within the time of the day. Well, I stayed quiet for awhile, and then went into the room where the cake had been placed by myself and surveyed the situation. Yes, it could be fixed, but it would take work that I didn't feel I had in me.

During the day I had to keep helping my staff with the tea and the meal and kept thinking that there would be time for the cake. But I had the icing in the cooler and never thought to put the cake in the fridge so it would harden a bit to make decorating easier. I straightened the bottom tier as best as I could, removed the top tier fondant and "glued the slice of cake back on with icing. I redid the fondant and then the icing in the piping bag was too hard to use so again I had to wait.

By this time we are in dinner crunch time and I am exhausted. I tend to my staff and then realize the cake needs to be out there as guests arrive. So I go to pipe but everything is too soft. I decided I was defeated and announce there will be no cake for the wedding.

In come two young ladies from our youth group and they ask what they can do. This sparks my energy and I realize that we can work it if we take out the pillars and just set the cake on top of the bottom one so that the new piping has something solid to stick to. I said "here are the piping bag and the decorations. Follow the bottom tier and do it however you like". They came 1/2 hour later and said it was done. It was a far cry from the "beautiful creation" of the night before, but it possessed a new "inner beauty" of a lesson learned - don't get too confident or life (and the Lord more specifically) will throw a couple of curve balls your way.

I was told the cake, the meal and the evening were a total success but I was quick to give the credit to Christ and all the people he put in my path during those 13 hours (and beyond because a volunteer cleaning crew came in and sent me home)".

I will never be complacent again when it comes to food, people or life in general. Food has once again been my teacher.

Too Much of a Good Thing?

Right now Peppermint Patty is my least favourite Peanuts character. It's nothing personal, but it is what it is.

Have you ever made something so often that you get to a point you never want to see, smell or taste it again?

I am gearing up for wedding season and am trying to get things out of the way that can be done ahead of time. One of my couples decided they wanted peppermint patties as part of their reception because it brought back memories of where they met (and where I met them as well). I determined that I could make the centres ahead of time and freeze them. Then all I have to do is dip them in chocolate the week of the wedding.

Well, I made a quadruple batch knowing I would have some leftovers but that is good in case some don't look nice or I decide I need them for another use. I figured I would do 130 for the wedding and if I could squeeze out 3 dozen more that would be great. Well, I worked for a couple of hours on them the first night and got 160 (about what I wanted) and still had some peppermint "dough" leftover. I put in the fridge and two days later I decided I would use it up. I kept making them and making them and ended up with 322 centres in my freezer! Now peppermint is a very acute scent. It can be pleasant, unless you are inhaling it for long periods of time. It permeated into my nostrils and even 3 days later I am still smelling it! Now I am not complaining, because I love my work, but I am making lots of notes on how many a batch actually does! At least I have a few weeks before I go on to the second phase to desensitize myself from the taste and smell of peppermint. Oh, and dear bride, if you are reading this, I love you to bits and would do it again in a heartbeat for you!

This brings me back to a memory of my maternal Grandmother. She would come stay with us during summers when I was growing up. One of my jobs in the summer to earn more allowance (so I could spend more time at the pool!) was to pick raspberries from the bushes in our back yard. I would do them in the early morning or evening so that it wasn't so hot. But my Grandmother was a diabetic and also happened to love raspberries. She ate them morning, noon and night and as such wanted me to pick them morning, noon and night! She was always asking if I could go get her a fresh bowl full even though there were tons in the fridge already waiting to be eaten, frozen or turned into jam. I would go, but after three long summers of this it got pretty tiring.

My friends used to call me "Raspberry" because I constantly smelled like them and my hands were often dyed red from the juice. For about 20 years I would get sick at the sight and smell of them and never wanted to ever be in contact with them again. But it finally wore off and I do eat and cook with them, in moderation. And when I do, I can now look back fondly at those days I had with my Grandmother and realize it really wasn't a high price to pay to make her happy....and I got paid for it too!

Isn't that the same in life? That we can get too much of a good thing and have to leave it aside for awhile. I got thinking of Susan Boyle, the Scottish singer who wowed the world with her beautiful voice that didn't fit the package it was wrapped in on "Britain's Got Talent". Within days she was all over the internet, TV, radio, papers, you name it. What is sad about this is that by the time she gets to the next round of the show two things may happen - people will be tired of the story and/or she will have been made over and the magic will be gone. I hope that they give her the space she needs to be herself and the rest of the world a chance to desensitize from the hype so her next performance will be as magical and enlightening as the first!

Keep Your Fork

I don't know why, but on this Good Friday I am reminded of a little anecdote I first heard in church and have since seen many times in my email in variations on the same theme.

It starts out with an elderly woman who has no family and she is in very poor health. The pastor comes over one day to visit her and take down the arrangements she would like for her funeral. They go through all the basic information and then she makes one more request. "Pastor, I want you to make sure that I am buried with a fork in my hand". Now the Pastor had known this woman for a long time and had never known her to do anything out of the ordinary, so he was totally taken by surprise by this comment. "Why a fork"?, he asked.

She said, "Well, at all the church banquets I have attended, we have always been asked to keep our forks when the tables are cleared before dessert and I looked forward to that because it was always the best part of the meal". So, I want to be ready with a fork in my hand as I go to heaven, because I know the best is yet to come".

Isn't it true, that many of us see dessert as the best of any meal, no matter what is served at any course? I remember growing up I would always make Christmas dessert. They started with simple Jello concoctions and got more fancy every year. And the extended family would always ooooo and ahhhh over it and I would feel so special.

It is nice when we can put that same enthusiasm into other expectations in our lives, whether it is doing well on an exam, finishing school, meeting the right person, getting married, having a child, going on a trip to a place we haven't been, or, going to heaven.

So food can represent expectation. This can be positive, like a wonderful dessert or, sadly it can be the expectation of where your next meal will come from and when. Kinda sounds like life, doesn't it?

When life gives you lemons...make lemon cake!

Have you ever had one of those days where you just can't seem to get anywhere? Well, I have been having one of those weeks. I had left some ground beef in the fridge to make lasagna for yesterday and we ended up eating out with Dad for both lunch and dinner so I never got it made. I went to make it today, too late for serving tonight but I wanted to use the beef up and I realized I miscalculated the days and it was bad. 2 pounds of extra lean organic beef wasted.

I pulled a pound of unsalted butter out to do some baking, only to find it had gone moldy....in the fridge!

Many other little goof ups during the week, some food related, some not, and I was ready to pack it in. But I had one of my summer brides coming over and I still hadn't tried out a new recipe for lemon cake to see if it would be suitable for her wedding cake.

Now I have a cardinal rule - don't bake if your mind isn't on it and your heart isn't in it because it won't turn out and you will just feel worse! But I decided to ignore this rule and make the cake anyway - a fairly complicated recipe - with only two hours before the bride was due to arrive.

I started grating the lemon rind and caught my finger on the rasp. I then stabbed myself twice while separating the lemons into supremes (the sections without the thin skin on them). I finally got the lemons done and realized I hadn't got my butter out to soften (which is when I noticed it was moldy). Thankfully I had another pound and a microwave.

Well, after that point things turned around and the cake came out beautifully. The perfect flavour and texture for a wedding cake. It was cooled just as the bride came in and we had a piece each. She loved it! And I started having a much better day from there on.

So today food was a life lesson for me. Next time I am having a rough day, I will head to the fridge for some lemons and make a cake.....or, maybe even some lemonade!

Now I can't share today's recipe because it is copyrighted, but it is from Warren Brown's book, Cake Love - an excellent cookbook from a baker extraordinaire!

Meatloaf and Memories

I made meatloaf tonight. I was actually quite nervous about it too. Why would a so-called trained cook be nervous about making a simple meatloaf? I make them all the time, but NOT for my Dad. It is one of his favourite comfort foods and I remember the wonderful smells of meatloaf and fried potatoes wafting through the air in our home while growing up.

I don't make mine the same as my mother did. I of course don't use flour or crackers or oatmeal. Instead I use a little bit of sweet rice flour. No, it isn't sweet tasting, just more glutenous than regular rice flour without the wheat gluten that affects Hubby and I in different ways. I also don't use pepper so I have to rely on salt and my herbs to season everything.

So, as I threw this comfort food meal together I was filled with memories of a mother I miss who taught me more about cooking than I learned at school, and with a nice bit of anxiousness that it pass the taste test of her number one food fan, my father.

His eyes lit up when he saw it on the table, and after we said grace I watched out of the corner of my eye to see his first reaction. Much to my relief and delight, he had a very satisfied look on his face as he gobbled the plate full of food down. This is the man who wasn't eating much before he moved in with us and here he was wondering what I would do with the last of the fried potatoes, ready with fork in hand to save them from the garbage can (also known in this house as the dog dishes!).

Food can just be a way of sustenance or it can be a memory in the making. It all depends on how you want to look at it. For me, specially since Dad moved in, it has been a way to connect with a Mother who has been gone for many years, but lives in my heart and my kitchen.

Mother's Meatloaf (Modified)
2 pounds lean beef (I use extra lean)
1 small onion chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons mixed dried herbs (when I have fresh I use them)
salt and pepper as desired
2 eggs
1 oz (1/8 cup) sweet rice flour (or you can use cracker crumbs or regular white flour)
2 Tbsp ketchup
2 Tbsp BBQ sauce (home made is best but store bought is fine)
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Mix together with hands and press tightly into a large loaf pan, making a small trough all around the edge for the fats to run off. Cover the top with ketchup and/or BBQ sauce and bake at 350 for about 1 hour until the centre reads 170 on a meat thermometer or juices run clear. Drain fat off a few times during cooking. Let rest five minutes in pan, drain one more time and then turn over onto serving plate.

Stoup

I was reminded today about a time a few years ago which really brought home the importance of food in our lives. A friend started going to an area of Vancouver which had become the haven for the homeless with a bunch of sandwiches and drinks.

He spoke about his experiences with his young son and the people they met on the streets. My hubby and I, as well as others, wanted to get involved and I started making a five gallon pot of something that was heartier than a soup but not as thick as a stew, hence the name "stoup". We had other volunteers make sandwiches and desserts and still more going out to deliver them.

I went out a couple of times and found myself referred to as "the stew lady". It was very humbling to see a drug deal going down with someone you just handed some food to or to see a young woman come for food between "dates". But these people were real and their stories were real and their hunger was incredibly real - not just for the food, but for the respect and love we tried to give with each sandwich, cup of stoup or cookie.

At Christmas we collected socks and other items to give to them and doubled our pots to two and sandwiches to 200. We have out oranges, butter tarts, and other items that would make them feel that they were not left out over the holidays.

We eventually moved our route to an area closer to home and just as needy. We decided for Easter one year that we would give them a sit down meal of ham, scalloped potatoes and all the fixings at a nearby shelter. But we weren't prepared for something. People started lining up for the food like they were used to and we said "no, we want to serve you". This caused quite concern because they were not used to it and as they saw people at tables beside them get food and they didn't they were uneasy.

It was hard for us to understand that they were used to certain things and more comfortable that way. In a line, you know exactly who is ahead of you and who is behind and there is no fuss. But if you sit at a table and see someone get food that sat down after you it is just not cool. But there were incredible moments that day as well, like the man who sat in a corner sobbing his heart out. Another woman and I went over and asked what was wrong, thinking he didn't get enough (or any) food. His reply stays with me to this day. "No ma'am, I had lots to eat. It is just that I ain't tasted no ham in about 20 years and it was so good!".

One of my fondest memories was praying over the food as it was leaving our house and saying "Let this food not only nourish their stomachs but their hearts as well". I learned through those couple of years that it isn't totally true that you can reach a man's heart through his stomach. In feeding his stomach, you can also reach your own heart.

Tonight I served my Dad and I some small steaks I cut off a whole sirloin tip I bought last week and thought of how many people would be happy to have a cup of stoup, a sandwich and a glass of juice. Makes you think, doesn't it?

STOUP
6 pounds ground beef
3 pounds onions, chopped
5 pounds potatoes, half diced and half cubed
3 pounds carrots, sliced
3 pounds turnips and/or parsnips, cubed/sliced
3 liters of canned chopped tomatoes, with liquid
1 cup beef bouillon powder
6 cups elbow macaroni
salt, pepper, Italian herb seasoning mix to taste

Brown the beef in large stock pot (at least 5 gallons), drain and add the onions until soft. Add the canned tomatoes and stir to clean the bottom of the pot. add diced potatoes, carrots, turnips/parsnips, boullion powder and seasonings. Add water to cover all and simmer until vegetables are almost tender (diced potatoes should almost dissolve and thicken). Add macaroni, cubed potatoes and more water if needed. Cook until macaroni and potatoes are done. Stir often and do not let boil too much or vegetables with sink to the bottom and burn. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary. The stoup should be thick enough that a wooden spoon placed in the centre will stay standing!