supertaster

Sewing craziness!

2008-02-24T22:11:00.001-06:00

tote-1
Originally uploaded by WendiLeigh

I made this cool tote bag. I used a book and followed the directions. This is the second thing I've made with my sewing machine. I am hooked! I only broke two needles on this one, (I broke three one my first project.) I added the applique lolli-pop trees just for the fun of it. I played with that and got better with each tree. Fun Fun!

First Sewing machine project

2008-02-02T14:51:00.001-06:00

pillow 2
Originally uploaded by WendiLeigh

This is my first ever sewing machine project. I am very proud. After countless calls to my mom about thread breaking followed by three broken needles I finished it. I got the pattern from Amy Butler's book, In Stitches. I got the fabric from JoAnn's. It wasn't nearly as hard to use the machine and I realized how hooked on sewing I could become.

Merry Christmas

2007-12-25T11:36:00.000-06:00

Rick, Chewy, Frieda and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

I also wanted to share with you the annual Christmas polar bear dip photos with you all ( My uncle and I in Pensacola, FL). If you are in San Antonio next Christmas time and want to join in send me a line.

Wendi

I scream, You scream, Yeah!

2007-11-14T09:05:00.000-06:00

Ok, first I want to say thank you to Kieran at icecreamireland for the ice cream party challenge. I took the challenge to make some of his recipes and to have a party. Well, the recipes and party were both a big success. I made the cookies and cream and strawberry sage ice cream recipes. They were both fantastic. Being in America I thought there might be issues with conversion but everything worked wonderfully. The only suggestions I had for the recipes were to add more cookies than the suggested four and also to add maybe one more sage leaf and a little more sugar to the strawberries if they aren't in season and not as sweet. The extra sage just helps it have a little more of the different flavor. Of the two recipes I really loved the strawberry sage. It tasted like really good strawberry ice cream with something extra that you couldn't really place. What I did love about these recipes was the way Kieran tells you to whip the cream before you add it to the cool custard. I have never heard of doing this with ice cream recipes and will do this with all future ice cream recipes. The whipped cream makes the final texture really smooth and luxurious. That said I can't wait until his book comes out and I can make some more of his recipes. His Irish ice cream recipes will no have a special place in south Texas. Thanks!

Tagged!

2007-08-28T10:47:00.000-05:00

I've been tagged by my friends Brian and Gry at Woodward and Rick Wedding Photography to tell "8 things about myself that you might not know about me". Well here we go:

1. I wanted to be a doctor for a long time and still debated it in college for photojournalism, alas I decided I loved photography more. But, my junior year in college I got to spend a week following an open heart surgeon in and out of the operating room. Watching someone hold a person's heart in their hands and then watch the person wake up later is awe inspiring. I still watch ER reruns at the gym and think about how cool it would be. This was a God thing too because within six months my dad had to have a heart vavle replaced and I was able to comfort him and myself after seeing first hand what the surgery was like.

2. I grew up in a house full of pinball machines and juxboxes that my dad collected and was surprised to go to an arcade and have to pay to play the machines.

3. I started baking for the first time as a way to destress in college. I used to bring the food up to the photolab. They used to know when I had a big test due to the amount of baked goods in the lab the next morning.

4. The first time I met my husband Rick, I thought that is the guy I am going to marry. Five years later we started dating and six and a half years later we got married.

5. I still read comic books and am a bit of a sci-fi geek. I blame an older brother who I always looked up to for that.

6. I love candy! And I am a bit OCD about it. Every holiday has a specific candy that I associate with it. I buy a lot of that candy and eat it and then I make sure I have enough to hide away in the freezer so I can have some all year round. Examples, Halloween=Candy Corn, I likie the harvest corn the best now and the best is the mini pumpkins; Christmas=those chewy peperments with the trees on them; Valentine's day=Conversation Hearts; and Easter=Cadbury Mini eggs, I love these things and I also get a few creme eggs but they are a bit overwhelming. The most OCD thing about candy that I do though is how I eat it. Every candy has a specific way to eat it and I really can't take a bite out of candy bar. The main thing I do is I eat the chocolate on the outside first starting with the ends, then the sides and then the top and bottom. If it has layers, like a kit kat, I separate a layer at a time eating each one. I am a freak but it makes the candy last longer.

7. I once was rather large and lost close to 40 pounds in college and when I went home for holidays people didn't recognize me. I became a bit of a gym rat and still am, it relaxes me.

8. I am a bit spontaneous due to how I grew up. My parents are both teachers so we had the summers off and we used to go on long road trips that really were never plannned. The best example is the time we decided to take a two week trip up the east coast from our home in florida with the final destination, Maine. We decided to do it the night before and some how convinced my grandmother to come with us. I am always up for a road trip no matter what the notice.

Whew! I am done. It was really hard to come up with eight things, I feel like I am pretty open about myself. Hopefully some of this is new to some of you.

pretty sky

2007-08-24T17:38:00.001-05:00

pretty-sky
Originally uploaded by WendiLeigh

The sky Wednesday night from my backyard! God is awesome. We have had beautiful skies this summer in Texas. It almost looked like a painting to me.

Lego music video

2007-08-22T11:18:00.000-05:00

I know this is another non food related post but I have been busy and my husband is trying to loose weight. Oh Well. I love the Ok Go video however corny it might be. When I saw the lego version I smiled so I thought I'd pass a smile on to you. Check it out here

A new Addition

2007-08-17T12:36:00.000-05:00

In T-7.5 days we will have a new member of the Poole family. A fluffy little bear who is yet to be named. So if you can think of a cool name let me know. I like Chewy as in chewbacca, because I think chewing will be a favorite pass time. So, if you can think of something better let me know. Heck, I might just make him his own blog. I'll let you know.

Pink!

2007-07-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

On a lighter note I bring you Sugar! These yellow cupcakes with very pink frosting are very yummy. My friend Terry needed help makeing some cupcakes for a bacholerette party and I said sure. So, I made a couple dozen of these guys. Terry gave me the recipe which is from the Magnola Bakery cookbook. I am now saving the yellow cake recipe I used for the cupcakes because it is one of the best yellow cakes I made. Oh so moist and delicious. Pink is the brides favorite color, not my choice but I think they looked cool. Also this is the first time I've gotten paid to make anything. Yeah.

Goodbye

2007-07-05T14:58:00.000-05:00

This is the hard. This isn't about food or photos really and not at all happy. I guess I putting this up here are therapy for me and a tribute. A little over a week ago we had to say goodbye to a member of our family, our dog, Jake. We had four short years with him but they were good years. I miss him so much and that is one of the reasons it has taken me so long to get this up. The photo was taken the morning he died. And as usual I am crying as I write this. It is so hard hard to say goodbye. I know some people say, it's only a dog, but Jake was a member of our family and my husband and I are missing him terribly. He was my best friend. I told him at the vet's that he would be out of pain soon and that he'd soon be in tennis ball heaven. There it would rain tennis balls and he could run from one, to the next, to the next and so on. And I know that God is now smiling as he watches a beautiful dog run a catch tennis balls in the air all day. I can't describe how hard things have been for me but I do thank God for blessing us with such a wonderful friend for the time we had him.

We love you Jake.

Blueberries!

2007-06-23T19:17:00.000-05:00

I love this time of year. The blueberries are in season and they are oh so yummy. I saw them in large quanities, cheap and I did a little dance right there in the HEB Store. SO I decided it was muffin time. I have made these muffins before and I like them but this time they weren't quite as delicious as I remembered. The recipe is from the CIA's Baking at home cookbook. They turned out well but they were a bit too cakey and sweet for me. I still have lots of berries though and if I can stop eating them straight out of the fridge I'll try and make some more muffins or maybe a pie. yum yum.

You Scream!

2007-06-05T15:55:00.000-05:00

For Ice Cream!
I got an ice cream maker a few weeks ago and have been obsessed. It is so fun and easy to use. I have made cinnamon, spicy hot chocolate, five spice chocolate and blackberry ice cream so far. The blackberry was a lot of fun. I went up to the hill country and picked the berries with my mother-in-law and had a blast. They are yummy. Then I used a recipe I found on the web at http://nosheteria.com/dailyspecial/2005/09/fresh-blackberry-ice-cream.html. The original recpe is from the Greenmarket Cookbook and it is heavenly. It tastes like fresh blackberries but is very smooth and creamy. yum yum. Anyway I am always up for new ice cream flavor ideas so if you have some let me know.

Brownies

2007-05-07T16:17:00.000-05:00

These are so GOOD! They are the praline topped brownies from Alice Medrich's book "Bittersweet." They have a thin layer of rich fudgey chocolate and are topped with a carmel like topping chock full of chopped pecans. They are really easy to make and you can do it all by hand. They truly are the best brownies I've ever had or made.

Birthday Yeah!

2007-04-24T06:44:00.000-05:00

Happy Birthday to Me!!!!!
Today is my 27th 'B'day, Yeah! This is the birthday cake I made for my friend Misty and I's birthday party. It is cake on the cover of Alice Medrich's book "Bittersweet." This is the third time I've made this cake and it is getting easier each time. That said, this is a time consuming recipe but the results are very yummy and impressive.

Easter!

2007-04-21T18:01:00.000-05:00

Ah! I have taken a while to post. Work has gotten busy and I decided to paint my kitchen. The kitchen is only half done and it seems like it might stay like that for the time being. Back to food. I abked the Lemon Sables, or shortbread cookies, from Greenspan's "Baking From My Home to Yours." This was my second time making them and they turned out awesome and were very easy. A great stand by recipe and you can store the dough in rolls in the freezer and take them out to bake when you need them. Too Cool. I also made the super easy yeast rolls from the Betty Crocker cookbook. As always a big hit and very simple. Yum Yum.

To Souffle or not to Souffle?

2007-02-09T19:18:00.000-06:00

I made my first Souffle today. Well, these are souffles that you allow to fall so they aren't so special for height. They taste wonderful though. They are Fallen Chocolate Souffle with Chocolate Bavarian Cream with Carmel sauce from The Royal Chef, Darren McGrady, www.theroyalchef.com. These taste like gooey brownies with yumminess. The thing I thought funny was that there are port soaked prunes in the souffles. I thought they would taste funny, but they are very good and you would have no idea they were prunes.

Red!

2007-02-09T19:14:00.000-06:00

cake 2
Originally uploaded by WendiLeigh.

In honor of Valentine's day I decide to try my hand at the reddest dessert around. Red Velvet Cake with cream cheese frosting. The cake is from the Lee Brother's cookbook I got for Christmas. It turned out beautiful, but the flavor was lacking somewhat. The cake was rich and flavoriful but it was dry. I will try it again, but add some oil and liquid to make it moister. I did ace the cream cheese frosting for the first time.

ginger snaps!

2007-02-01T16:36:00.000-06:00

These are the Sugar Topped Molasses Spice cookies in Dorie Greenspan's book "Baking From My Home to Yours." They are great giant ginger snaps. At first when they were hot I loved them and then when they got cool they were very, very crisp. I didn't like how hard they were. Now I seem to keep snacking on them. They really are good and spicy and better than the store bought ginger snaps I seem to enjoy. Next time I might make them smaller so they are more snacky. They would also be good dipping cookies.

lemon creme

2007-01-04T11:55:00.000-06:00

I made this on Christmas day. Actually I made the parts a couple of days in advance and just baked the crust and put it together on Christmas. This is the Lemon Creme Tart from Dorie Greenspan's "Baking from My Home to Yours." I love this thing and I mean it. It is the best tart/lemon pie I've ever tasted. The white stuff on top is whipped Creme Fraiche with a pinch of sugar added. It's a nice touch to the lemon. I will definately make this again but next time I'll bake it in the approraite 9" tart pan versus the 11" one I made it in so the filling comes up to the top.

Lemon Sables

2006-12-17T14:28:00.000-06:00

I made the traditional french sable recipe from Dorie Greenspan's new book, Baking From My Home to Yours, but at lemon zest. They are a yummy, buttery, shortbread cookie. I like them because they aren't too sweet, the sugar on the outside edge add enough sweet but do not over power the richness of the cookie. They were easy to make and I will definately do it again. They remind me of those danish butter cookies you get in tins around Christmas, the ones with pretzel shaped cookies dipped in clear decorater's sugar, yum yum.

Truffles galore!

2006-12-17T14:20:00.000-06:00

These are some of the 100+truffles I made for Christmas gifts this year. I got the recipe from Carole Bloom, cookbook author, teacher, and more, during a cooking class I took. The same class as the peanut brittle. She made the Chinese five spice truffles for us in class and gave us the recipe for it. I took that recipe split it in half and made three different flavors using the same basic idea as the original recipe. I made 5 spice, orange, and mint truffles. My favorite is the orange, I used the fresh zest of an orange that I steeped with the cream and a couple teaspoons of grand marnier over the chocolate. I also really like the 5 spice which are different but addictive. I used 70 percent Schrafen Berger chocolate which is my go to chocolate. The recipe says it makes 60 truffles but each half recipe of mine made 35-45 truffles. I guess I made mine on the small side but I kinda like it that way because they are that rich.

peanut brittle

2006-12-13T17:41:00.000-06:00

I made peanut brittle last night. It was the first time I have tried and after I burnt the first batch of sugar, which made the whole house smell like toasted marshmellows, I succeeded. The recipe was from cookbook author Carole Bloom. I took a class with her at the cooking school in town and she made them. Hers was the best brittle I ever had so I had to try and make it for Christmas. She dipped hers in chocolate, which I might do, but I liked it plain. It was an easy recipe to follow and except for my burning sugar, it came out perfectly. I liked the fact that I didn't need to use a candy themometer. I should have some more of her recipes up in a few days. Yum yum.

Me write good

2006-12-03T22:40:00.000-06:00

Here is a long over do photo of the cake I made for my sister-in-law's birthday in September. It is the same cake I made and wrote about last spring, a recipe from Alice Medrich. It tasted and looked just as wonderful the second time around. I really am posting this so that my brother can see that I do have decent penmanship when I use frosting.

Gram's best

2006-11-18T19:16:00.000-06:00

I found this recipe for Chicken Pot Pie in an issue of Saveur magazine, my favorite zine. The recipe said it was really chicken n' dumplings and they were right. The recipe, which requires you make your own stock, is easy to follow and very very yummy. The thing that is really cool is that they taste just like how I remember Great Gram's, my great grandmother, chicken n' dumplings tasted. We have been trying to recreate her amazing dish without any luck since she died. I was excited when I saw the recipe and thought I might have found something to compare to hers and I was right. It is just like I remember hers. I make it all the time and the leftovers are quite yummy reheated or cold.

fall food fun

2006-10-30T17:47:00.000-06:00

This week feels like fall finally. I am making lots of yummy fall things curtesy of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I am making many different things from the October issue. Yesterday I made the apple cider seltzer. It was good but a little sweet I think I might put in more seltzer water next time. Today I made the yummy desert from one of the menus, apple three ways. It consists of a baked apple, apple cake and apple ginger snow. I photographed like they did but my favorite is the second one. It is very yummy. I wil definately hang onto the apple cake recipe, yum, yum, yum. The apple ginger snow is very light and good too. It is basically lightly sweetened egg whites whipped with apple sauce folded in. So I learned how to make apple sauce yeah. The tastey part is the maple syrup you drizzle over the top, the real stuff.

cupcakes

2006-09-01T19:11:00.000-05:00

I made fun cupcakes today! Yeah! They are yummy. I used the recipe for fast fudge cake in Alice Medrich's Chocolate holidays book. The cake is awesome, very moist, chocolatey, and easy to make. I think this will be my fool proof cake recipe from now on. It took me 5 maybe 10 minutes max to make the batter and only 20 minutes to cook the cupcakes. The other cool part is that I had everything to make the cake in the pantry and most people would have it too. Very delicious, almost brownie like but not as heavy. Then I made the frosting, which was another winner. I got the buttercream recipe from the CIA Baking at Home cookbook. I made the regular buttercream and the mocha buttercream. Both of them are very yummy and taste amazing. I love the recipe because you don't have to make a sugar syrup and then add it to the butter while its creaming. I always get a mess that way and nothing edible. This recipe was fast and easy and you cream the butter and then added powdered sugar. It's well worth making and the recipe will also be my standard frosting recipe from now on. Now I need to work on my decorating skills. Yum Yum.

Fun tourist shots!

2006-08-31T19:17:00.000-05:00

These are fun photos from my trip up north this summer with my folks. I personally think went all the way to Montana to she the giant penguin, but the offical story is to see the parks, teton, yellowstone, glacier, and Banff. I also like the shot of my dad "the Exhibit," but my money shot is of the lake in Glacier. I took it on 120 also but it's not the same becuase by the time I got the camera out of the car, my dad had moved the car down the road to the bathroom, the water had ripples on it. Never leave the car without all needed gear.

hmmm

2006-08-22T21:40:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to say I was big when I was little.

I made a real pie!

2006-06-30T10:15:00.000-05:00

I did it. I mean I really did it. I made a real pie. Yes, it was not pie soup, but real old fashioned blueberry pie. This time I mixed the berries with sugar, cinnamon and lots of flour. It was awesome. The crustt was very flaky and the inside was good and juicy and held it's shape like pie should. Now I think I can do it. It is a step in the right direction.

Biscuits!!!

2006-06-30T10:09:00.000-05:00

Yeah, I love biscuits. These were good ones, too. I tried the buttermilk biscuit recipe in the CIA book and they were great. The best part were they were flaky. I folded the dough as I rolled it and I think that is why there were distinct layers in the dough. The cool part was that you could pull off layer by layer of the biscuit. yum yum yummy. I will make them again.

Muffins!!

2006-06-12T18:17:00.000-05:00

Muffins make me happy. And the blueberry muffins in the CIA book make me very happy. They were easy to make and they are some of the best all around blueberry muffins I've ever had. Rick, my husband, liked them but thought they were a little too sweet and too light. I think poo poo on him. They are awesome and yummy in my tummy.

pie

2006-06-12T18:12:00.000-05:00

I can not make Pie. But, in the next few weeks I am determined to learn how. I decided to make a blackberry pie using the crust recipe in the CIA book. Well the crust was good, but I have another crust recipe I like a tad bit more. The bad thing was that like usual I had pie soup. Way too much liquid. I even added cornstarch to thicken it. It didn't work. The thing, pie I mean, was ok if you can drain it first. I did look nice. Stay tuned for more pie making atempts.

Blackberries!!!

2006-06-12T18:05:00.000-05:00

I love pick your own berries. This past week I went up towards Fredricksburg, Texas and picked blackberries. It was fun, but HOT!!! The sad thing is the farm that I pick at, like other farms in the area, was hit with terrible weather and doesn't have a single peach on their trees. Peaches of course are their main crop. But, they had yummy blackberries. They are the coolest people and gave me some of their surplus squash and cucumbers.

white bread

2006-05-31T16:11:00.000-05:00

I made another recipe in the Baking at Home with the CIA and it was yummy. The recipe, White Wheat Bread, was easy to make and pretty quick for yeast bread. The bread reminded me of the hot white bread loaves you get at restaurants before dinner. The only trouble was scoring the bread. I really need a straight razor to make a clean neat cut. I also need to make a deeper cut. Hopefully I make another loaf soon.

cool site!

2006-05-28T18:54:00.000-05:00

I have found a very cool website. I think I might just have to get their catalog. The site is www.boiledpeanuts.com. They sell southern food a staples for those of us who can not get their favorite southern snacks like boiled peanuts!!!! I love boiled peanuts! The coolest thing is the t-shirt with the solgan, "I brake for Boiled Peanuts." I might just have to get me one of dem.

more bread

2006-05-21T10:47:00.000-05:00

I received a wonderful book for my birthday, CIA Baking at Home. It is great and it teaches you how to make bread,s pastries, cakes, desserts and all good things baked. So, I read through the intro to the book and decied I would try and bake everything in it start to finish. I don't know if I'll be able to meet this challenge, but I will try. The first recipe is a honey wheat yeast bread. The recipe is one of the easiest yeast bread recipes I've seen. The bread turned out o.k., but it browned to fast. The only problem was the instructions for putting the bread in the baking pan. I ended up up with good tasting bread that was a little too brown and had a skinny center. All and all it was a good recipe with decent results.

Red

2006-05-21T10:29:00.000-05:00

This is great movie advertising for Nacho Libre. I hope it is as funny as it looks. I got a cool medium format photo of this too.

Strawberries and Cream

2006-04-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

I seem to be stuck on Strawberries. I have so many strawberries now I am getting tried of them. This is a dessert I made for Easter lunch. It's a light and yummy dessert perfect for spring. I made strawberries and white chocolate mint cream in a cookie cup. I got the cookie recipe from this month's Martha Stewart Living Magazine and I got the mint cream recipe from Alice Medrich's Chocolate Holiday's book. If you like mint you would love this. I used El Rey white chocolate which really makes a difference. The cream was heavenly. This is a fun easy dessert that impresses, but doesn't take a lot of work and is somewhat healthy.

strawberry shortcake

2006-04-10T15:45:00.000-05:00

In honor of the wonderful strawberry season I decided I should go strawberry picking. After a couple of days of nursing sore muscles from bending down and picking berries, I decided I needed to do something with the over 5lbs of berries that I picked. Then I opened up the May/June issue of Cook's Illustrated and saw exactly what I needed to make, "The Best Strawberry Cream Cake" on page 24. It was a fun and pretty easy recipe to make. The cake tasted like a perfect strawberry shortcake. It was sweet but not too sweet, you mostly taste the fresh berries in the wonderful whipped cream. The chiffon/sponge type cake had a good structure and I did a decent job of cutting it into three layers even though it was my first time cutting a cake into layers. The cake cut easily next time I need a longer knife. I also think it might be a good blueberry cream cake, but I might add more cream cheese and sugar to the frosting for a slightly different taste. cheerio.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2006-03-18T08:28:00.000-06:00

Today I made brown bread for St. Patrick's day. I got the recipe from the March 2006 issue of Saveur Magazine. The recipe is for Doris Grant's Brown Bread. It turned out pretty good but very dense. I still haven't found recipe that tastes like the stuff we ate in Ireland with every meal. I was very tried of brown bread when we left after a week on th emerald isle, but after a few months I craved it again. I guess finding good brown bread is a good excuse to go back, huh. If I could only convince my husband that that was true. This recipe was good if you put some butter and maybe a little orange marmalade on it. I hope everyone enjoied their Guiness and Corned Beef and Cabbage.

Mmmm Chicken

2006-03-14T10:57:00.000-06:00

I have found the best fried chicken around. Yes, the best. The best was at one time in my home town of Pensacola, Florida at Hopkin's House. But, alas, Hopkin's is no more and the chicken is gone. Then there is Babe's Fried Chicken in Burleson, Texas, 10 miles south of downtown Fort Worth. It's a family style restaurant where you get yummy fried chicken and unlimited sides and biscuits. I get to go to the mecca of chicken goodness once a year after the Southwestern Photojournalism Conference in Ft. Worth. It's a tradition for everyone to go after the conference and a good tradition at that. This year I showed a part of me that few people see and became a Babe's Hokey-Pokey superstar. I was honored. I cna't wait for next year.

mardi gras

2006-03-06T12:06:00.000-06:00

Last week was fun. I went home for an extended weekend and photographed Mardi Gras in Mobile, Alabama with my dad and some friends. I then hung out in Mobile some with my friend Carisa it was a blast. I ate enough moonpies to last me a long while and as the photo shows they were everywhere. Carisa is a moonpie purest and says you should only eat the original Moonpies, but I just say as long as they're orange flavored then they're good. The other photo is of beaded nuns on Fat Tuesday in Mobile. I saw this and it made me smile, but I was chicken and Carisa had to kick me just to go shoot it. It's just a portrait but it makes me smile. I especially like the short nun on the right.
More to come soon of this weekend's photo conference and Babe's Fried Chicken in Ft. Worth.

fortune cookies!

2006-02-14T12:55:00.000-06:00

Happy Valentine's Day!
Here are some fun Valentine's day cookies. These easy to make and you can write you own messages or fortunes on the ribbon. They taste wonderful too, much better than those conversation hearts. They are also good for parties of all kinds. Have a great day. The conversation hearts do have their place though.

danish anyone?

2006-02-10T18:16:00.000-06:00

This week I decided to make a Danish Braid. The recipe is from the book, Baking With Julia. The danish took a couple days to make because you have to chill the dough overnight. The making of the danish wasn't hard or really too time consuming and the finished product looked similar to the photo in the book. The cool thing is that the dough can be refridgerated for a while and you can use it for other pastries, the recipe for the braid only used half the dough recipe. The end result is very pretty and impressive even though it is not too difficult to make. The down side is that it taste good but not great. I used a berry filling with pastry creamfor the inside and it tasted like those nutri-grain strawberry and cream granola bars. Then I cut another piece and sprinkled some of the coffee sugar glaze on it and it tasted better. I think the second piece had more of the cream and that helped, the first piece was on the end. My conclusion, make it if you really want to impress with a fancy looking danish but throw away the end pieces and definately pour on the glaze. It was fun and now I can say I made a danish, plus I got to use my food processor I got for Christmas for the first time. Adios!

Mmmmm Chocolate Cake.

2006-02-03T15:31:00.000-06:00

This was fun. I made this chocolate cake this week. I went to a chocolate class taught by Alice Medrich, the chocolate queen before Christmas and learned how to make this cake. A friend's birthday was this week so I made it for his birthday, but I really was just looking for an excuse to make the cake. The cake is three layers of devil's food cake with a whipped choclate ganache between the layers and coated with a bittersweet choclate glaze and chocolate fans attached around the sides. I used Scharfenberger semi-sweet and bittersweet chocolates and a little white chocolate on the fans to create a color contrast. The cake was fun and I would meke it again but only for a special occasion. First, it's not a cheap cake to make, between $30 and $35 dollars if you use the good chocolate, and second it is time consuming, you can make it over a few days but the day you assemble it requires a least half a day.
I have to say the cake is worth it. It has so many different flavors of chocolate and melts in your mouth. It is very rich though and a small slice will satisfy anyones chocolate cravings for days.
Adios!

Krystal!

2006-01-29T18:59:00.000-06:00

Long time no post. But, I'm back and maybe this year I'll keep up with this thing. Now to important things.

I am excited! I mean excited! My krystals have arrived. No longer do I have to drive to Mississippi on I-10 to get those greasy gems. Tomorrow morning the first Krystal burger will open in San Antonio, Texas.
I love these burgers. Why? Becuase they are yummy. So called meat squares with onions, mustard, one pickle on a bun that is greasy in spots along the edge, and it comes in a little square box who can beat that. I grew up on these things in Florida. They had one across from my dad's office and we'd eat there if I went to work with him when I was out of school. Then when I was in high school they put one on my way home. I think I gained 20 pounds in a year and a half thanks to those yummy burgers. mmmmmmmm.
I went to college in south western Kentucky just north of Tennesse and found a funny thing, White Castle. Yes, White Castle, a sorry attempt at making a Krystal. What was so funny was that we were on the Krystal/ White Castle line, we had them both across the street from each other. If you went north of the town no Krystal, if you went south no White Castle. I decided to test the two one time and there was no comparison. KRYSTALS!!!!! Win, eight thumbs up. So tomorrow I will make a krystal trip and taste that yummy goodness again, no more 8 hour trips to feed my craving.
I am glad it's about 25 minutes away, maybe I won't gain any extra weight htis time.

the start

2005-01-20T16:30:00.000-06:00

Hmmm.

I have been called many things but the one I love is "supertaster," hence the blog title. This is my attempt at talking about the things that make me tick. I'm a photographer with a side hobby, food. I hope to talk about a lot including food and photography. Get ready for the ride.

yeehaw!