Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Unblogged

















Greetings Blogosphere!


I've been a horrible blogger as of late, I apologize. To be perfectly honest I have no excuse except that I've been exceptionally lazy. Alas, I've brought you some delicious stories and pictures.


This first one is a picture of a beauteous spread Jake and I made upon his arrival home from Oregon. The tomatoes, basil and plums were from my yard, the cucumbers were from the Farmer's Market and the berries came from a berry stand on the way home from Oregon. The rest is from Nugget and the Coop including a delicious Pinot Noir that complimented everything wonderfully. YUM! This kind of meal is perfect for summer dinner. Not only is it healthy, diverse and interesting in flavor combination, but it's not too shabby on the eyes either. Yay finger food!


So, the other day I was stressin' out and decided to do some baking to heal myself. But, I couldn't decide what to make. As I flipped through one of my various pastry books, I was inspired to make mini mille fueille, a traditional French pastry that features creme anglaise and fresh fruit. Off to the store I went for my ingredients, excited to create something lovely. However, I baked my puff pastry and realized they'd come out too salty, and I had to leave my project for the next day. I've been wanting tart pans since... well forever. They've been on my baking tools list (yes, I have one) for a long time, and so I thought I'd redeem my baking project with trusty AKT "foolproof" pie dough. Oh YES! I par-baked the tart crusts, filled them with my kick ass creme angliase and topped it all off with some fresh berries. They were truly sensational and I can't wait to work with the tart pans again.


Now, the second part of this success story lies in the puff pastry. I decided I'd use some cremini mushrooms to create a puff pastry appetizer. Cremini mushrooms are tasty little buggers, full of delicious flavor, and they work well in a variety of capacities. So I sauteed the mushrooms with some garlic, olive oil, fresh thyme, salt and pepper. I then shredded up some of my favorite cheese, black diamond chedder and mixed it all up together in a big bowl. I cut the pastries in half and stuffed them with the savory mushroom/cheese mixture and voila! This was probably one of the easiest, most delicious appetizers I'd ever invented.


I hope you're all enjoying summer and taking advantage of all the beautiful food we're so lucky to experience here in california! I'm getting ready to move up to Oregon and I'm SUPER excited to see what kind of culinary adventures I find myself wrapped up in there.


Happy Eating!

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