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I don’t want to wind up spending my summer working at the bakery the same way I spent the summer a couple of years ago working at Blockbuster: putting in 30 or so hours at a place where I’m, in all honesty, not-so-well-versed in the product. While I most definitely enjoy seeing movies, the combination of not having much time outside work to make full use of my rental privilege of 5 free movies each week and the lack of someone to spend movie-watching time with made for a decidedly film-free few months of employment at an entertainment giant.

In order to encourage me to sample more of our options at the bakery, I’m declaring a new project that doesn’t necessarily have to be limited to myself. This idea will serve a multi-fold purpose: I’ll become knowledgeable about the tasty treats at my bakery, I’ll have something new to write about at least once each week, and I’ll encourage other people to be equally inquisitive with boulangerie-centered foodstuffs!

Guilty Pleasure Sundays will see it’s first entry on June 11, wherein I will describe at least one baked good sold by La Bonne Boulangerie that I have eaten that day. If I can possibly manage to try everything (that I’d actually like to try–and I’m not allergic to) by the end of the summer, I’ll consider it both a success and an invitation to switch it up to treats from other local eateries. :)

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with a couple of reviews of things I’ve already tasted…

Banana Nut Muffin
Our muffins are the standard, generously-sized hunk of quickbread baked by most American bakeries. Where they deviate from the formula is with their yogurt-enriched batter base. The result is an incredibly flavorful and moist muffin, with a slight tanginess to balance out any breadiness and the sweetness. I think it also has the effect of enhancing the flavors of the particular muffins–even though this muffin only has a swirl of fresh banana purée in it instead of all throughout, the taste of banana permeates the entire muffin with rich, real fruit flavor.

One peeve of mine when it comes to any baked good featuring some sort of “add-in” is a too-generous hand with the addition. Nothing can ruin a banana nut muffin faster than the presence of too many walnuts. The name of the food is banana nut–not nut banana. ;P Since nuts in general tend to be very flavorful and can easily overpower any dish, the line between “enough” and “too much” is very fine. Somehow our baker has perfected the art of balance with our muffins because the every-few-bites presence of a perfect walnut was enough to have a pleasant nutty flavor in the muffin and an intermittent hunk to delight my teeth with something to chew down on without being the least bit stronger than the banana flavor.

Overall, I’m not exaggerating nor am I patronizing when I say that this was hands-down the best banana nut muffin I’ve ever had. Between the surprisingly intense moistness and the wonderfully natural and fresh flavors, it’ll be extremely hard to top.

Low-Fat/Grilled Veggie Wrap
Yes, you read that name correctly; my bakery actually sells wraps. We also have (all homemade of course!) soups, salads, fruit bowls, focaccia and croissant sandwiches, yogurt parfaits, dips, fresh mozzarella, and other market-type goodies. La Bonne is actually both an authentic European-style bakery and a café. :)

Of all the sandwiches we offer–and there’s actually quite a few!–the veggie wrap was of course the first to catch my eye and hold it long enough for me to drop the $6.99 to take it home. After popping open the package to discover a hulk of a halved wrap inside, I actually think that while it sounds a little overpriced for a simple sandwich, the amount of food is truly rather impressive. At this point I’ve already had this sandwich twice, and being famished the first time after not eating a bite all day, I did actually eat the entire thing at once, but the second time I bought it, I found it was absolutely plenty for two meals for me.

What inspired me to have this wrap twice within a two-week timeframe despite having the option of trying many other different sandwiches is the mind-blowingly-delicious quality of the veggies. Seriously, whomever devised the recipe for the marinade our owners use deserves an award and already has my undying love. On top of being infused with fabulous flavors, the veggies were perfectly grilled–the zucchini and summer squash weren’t at all too mushy, the asparagus was pleasantly crisp, and the red peppers had incredibly sweet, charred flavor.

Even something as seemingly insignificant as the wrap itself clearly receives the same level of intense attention as the vegetables. Thanks to its immenseness, the sandwich is as I said, a substantial portion. It also holds up incredibly well: even cold, it doesn’t crack, tear, or break but rather maintains a level of chewiness that is really quite enjoyable and nicely conducive to wrap-consumption without wrap-disassemblage.

All in all, I’m willing to bet this sandwich will be gracing my table again sometime soon and many times after. It’s flavorful, satisfying, and definitely well worth the expense!

2 Comments Categories: Breads · Breakfast Foods · Food Musings · Main Meals · No Photos · Vegetables

I had a bunch of random things just laying around waiting to be put together into something fantastically yummy for dinner tonight–so I took advantage of them, of course! First, I cut up some onions and crushed some garlic as I heated some extra-virgin olive oil in a pan. When it was good and hot, I quickly cooked the garlic and then added the onions. Once they were nicely sautéed and slightly caramelized, I added some egg white to the pan. That finished cooking a little after the pasta was ready, so I worked quickly to finish the rest.

All put-together and waiting to be consumed!

In went a nice dash of slightly-spicy, very flavorful Korean red pepper flakes, and after a quick stir, a couple of splashes of Chardonnay to deglaze the pan and make a sauce. As soon as that reduced some, I removed it from the heat and tossed in the cooked linguine. A few minutes later and a very light sprinkling of fresh, sharp parmigiano reggiano, and it was ready to eat!

Sooo good… :yum:

While I wound up not liking the Chardonnay for drinking after tasting some, it worked beautifully for the sauce. All of the flavors came together so perfectly: the sweetness of the onions, pungency of the garlic, subtle fruity notes of the wine, spicy tastiness of the pepper, and the sharp and salty cheese. This was a perfectly satisfying dinner, yum! :yum:

2 Comments Categories: Egg Dishes · Italian · Main Meals · Pasta · Photos · Vegetables

Yesterday, I was really feeling like chicken, and I still have quite a few onions left from the 5 pound bag I got on sale insanely cheap a few weeks ago, so I made them for dinner last night.

Last night’s dinner–envious? ;)

I took a couple of the onions (they’re small), peeled and sliced them, and sautéed them in a little butter. When they were getting caramelized, I added a little sesame oil and tossed in chunks of chicken breast. I seared that well and then finished cooking it all. Once I was confident the chicken was done, the pan was removed from the heat, and I added teriyaki sauce to deglaze the pan. Oh, deglazing…getting all those little browned bits off the bottom of the pan. You don’t get that with non-stick pans, oh, no. You need good stainless steel pans for that. And let me tell you, those tiny caramelized flecks of yumminess make me confident my $400 investment in a set of Calphalon pans was well worth it. ;) :yum:

Mmm…perfection…

It was torturous giving it some time to rest and cool a bit, but it was so good I was bouncing while I ate it once I did. I’m incredibly proud of my ability to cook the chicken just right–all the way through, but still fantastically juicy and tender. And the onions…oh, the onions. I can–and have–been perfectly satisfied with a meal of caramelized onions. Balance, what? I don’t care. There’s nothing on the face of the earth like soft-but-al-dente onions that have been cooked until their natural sugars are in full force, browned and rich. It’s a guiltless treat, I say–they’re vegetables! And sweet like dessert! Woo!

Inspired by Robyn’s recent ramblings, complaints, research, and so on about her paper on Japanese snack foods and their “kawaii” quality, I’d been wanting to try the banana-flavored Koala’s March cookies my sister had about a week ago but couldn’t bear to save any for me to try they were so delicious.

Look at the happy Koala getting full of banana–for me! Mwa ha ha!

Suffering the higher cost here at the campus convenience store, I had a box in my possession after class yesterday. After opening the package, I was immersed in the scent of artificial banana flavoring. For someone highly allergic to and yet also highly fond of bananas, it’s about the closest I can usually get to eating them (cooked banana is okay, but since they have to be very thoroughly cooked, I tend to err on the side of caution and only eat even cooked ones when I’ve done the cooking and can be sure it’s well enough).

The cuteness of these cookies is too much!

The first bite of one assured me that I would be fully satisfied with banananess and yummy-cookie-ness. The Japanese have an incredible knack for making cookies that are just a million times better than American packaged cookie products. And their creme fillings are perfect–in consistency and flavor–every time. For a processed, packaged food, they seem to come the closest to what I call the “realness” quality of homemade foods. When I eat an Oreo, it feels and tastes like I’m eating something that was pumped out by some machine in a factory. When a happy little Koala jumps in my mouth, it tastes fresh and yummy and delicious and oh, how I wish I could make these myself!

…But the cuteness is not enough to save him from being DEVOURED!

Today is my sister’s birthday. :) She’s turning 21 already, which means I will no longer get requests for bottles of vodka or beer or anything else when I’m going shopping. We’re going out to dinner with the rest of my family tonight, and she’ll be able to order a drink for herself instead of just tasting mine. And after we get back, dessert will be had here, in the name of an amazing creation of mine that took four and a half hours of manual labor and the suffering of blisters, a deep cut on my finger, and impossibly sore arms this morning to produce. I’m sure it will be worth it, though, and you can bet photos will be forthcoming. ;)

4 Comments Categories: Appetizers/Snacks · Food Musings · Main Meals · Photos · Poultry · Vegetables

I had requested to do Thanksgiving dinner this year about a month ago. Starting after we returned from the diner on Wednesday night, I undertook making a complete meal from start to finish. On the menu was pumpkin bread for daytime nibbling, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed sweet potatoes, mashed cauliflower, green beans, stuffing, and pumpkin pie. With an incredibly brief break for sleep in the wee hours of the morning, I was in the kitchen from about 10pm Wednesday until 4:20pm on Thanksgiving Day. I tend to do things a little on the slow side when it a) involves an unfamiliar recipe and b) involves any sort of cutting–my knife skills, while safe, are certainly not yet very efficient.

My preparation got underway with setting up the turkey to brine for several hours. I cooked up a nice brine in a huge stockpot, let it cool, put in the fresh turkey, and let it soak up all the flavors and get succulently moist. Once that was resting out in the garage, I put together the cranberry sauce because it had to chill overnight. After that was done cooking and set aside in the fridge to cool, it was time to prepare the crust for the pumpkin pie. That came together pretty quickly (as is necessary with pastry crusts), and next up was to bake some pumpkin bread for everyone to munch on for breakfast and throughout the day on Thursday while waiting for dinner.

A happy loaf of pumpkin bread

There was a recipe in my brand-new The Baking Handbook by Martha Stewart that looked fantastic, so I passed on baking my mom’s traditional recipe, which she does every year at both Thanksgiving and Christmas. Clearly, Martha knows what she’s doing and sometimes it’s definitely worth it to fix something that isn’t broken. While my mom’s bread hasn’t been labelled as “bad” in my book, it’s totally been knocked way down on the list in the face of this new recipe.

I simply had to try a piece as soon as it was cool enough!

Thanks to Martha, I’ve discovered the wondrousness and glory of a super-moist, super-tender, not-overly-sweet, very-pumpkiny-and-flavorful pumpkin bread. And I never considered my mom’s recipe terribly unhealthy until now–the Baking Handbook recipe uses one-sixth of the oil my mom’s does, and yet it’s still a bazillion times more moist. I’m going to attribute it to the buttermilk, because the red velvet caked I baked back in September had the same kind of moistness and also called for buttermilk. I have now decided that buttermilk is a Kitchen Essential and Makes Everything Better. Seriously, I think I’m going to be very critical of any cake-like recipe that doesn’t call for it from now on, and I’m going to continue experimenting with using it elsewhere (I’d tried it with oatmeal, and dude, does it make the best oatmeal EVER).

Consumption of that slice took place, the turkey was turned in the brine, and then I settled in to get some much-needed sleep for a couple of hours. After waking up a bit earlier than I had planned due to other people starting to make noise through the house, I got the turkey out of the brine and set up in the roasting pan to go in the oven later and put together the pie so it would be done and cooling all day and the oven could be devoted to the turkey.

While the pie was baking, I cut up the bread for the stuffing. I have to say, it’’s really ridiculous how difficult sourdough bread is to cut. Jesus. It took me an hour to cut it into pieces, and most of that time was spent just cutting the slices because it required so much effort! I actually had to take breaks to rest a couple of times!! While I loved the taste of the sourdough for stuffing, I don’t think I’ll be putting myself through all of that again. ;P The pie was done baking by the time the bread had succumbed to my will and sharp tool of doom, so I set that out to cool and toasted the bread cubes. Those were set aside until it was time to put the stuffing together, and I got to work chopping the aromatic veggies to stuff the turkey.

The turkey was stuffed and prepped for the oven and began cooking just about noon, right on time, woo! I set to work chopping up the seemingly massive amount of onions and celery and carrot for the stuffing, and then I started putting that together. I couldn’t help tasting after I browned the sausage, hee. Italian turkey sausage has been added near the top of the “Animal Proteins I Like” list. ;x Yum! :yum: The mountain of veggies were cooked down and stirred into the bread cubes, and that was set aside until the turkey came out of the oven and it could get finished.

Once I’d readied the stuffing, I took a brief sit-down break and then got working on the other side dishes. First was the green beans with pan-roasted red onions and balsamic glaze, then I cooked and mashed the sweet potatoes for the brûléed mashed sweet potatoes, and last was the beginnings of the prep work for my mashed cauliflower. All of the sides came together just in time for the turkey to come out at 3:30pm. It was set aside to rest while I gave the stuffing it’s final prep of pouring broth over it, putting it in some pans, and baking for 20 minutes. Around four, I started making the gravy, and by 4:30 we were sitting down to eat. Of course, not until I’d taken photos of everything…

All of the food set out to be served

Mmm…crisp grean beans and sweet red onion

Fruity, meaty, flavorful stuffing

Oh, the caramelized brown sugary goodness…

Smooth, creamy mashed cauliflower

That turkey tasted just as good as it looked!

Perfectly sweet-tart cranberry sauce

Everyone was getting impatient while I photographed everything. ;) As soon as I was done, my dad set to work carving the turkey, and soon we were all sitting around the table with our respective plates of food, ready to give thanks and dig in!

Waiting for everyone to be ready was torture!

I got compliments throughout the meal on how good everything was. My dad said that it was absolutely the best turkey he’d had in his life, and considering how many turkeys he’s had to compare it to–and the fact that it was the first turkey I ever cooked–I’m quite proud of myself for it. :) :) It was a very delicious turkey: incredibly moist but not undercooked, very flavorful, and gorgeously browned on the outside. As for the side dishes, the green beans were perfectly crisp-tender and very well complimented by the sweet red onions and light balsamic-brown sugar glaze; we polished off an entire dish of the stuffing during dinner and very little was left by the time I came back to school last night–we usually have apples in it, but I definitely like the pear so much better, and I already raved about that Italian sausage; my dad said that the mashed cauliflower really could almost pass for mashed potatoes, and it came out really good with chicken bouillon and a little milk and butter; the mashed sweet potatoes were definitely a welcome variation from the dessert-like sweet potato casserole we’ve always had; and the cranberry sauce was fantastic, garnering much approval from my grandma–and everyone else. ;D

Overall, dinner was an absolute success, and I’ve already been named Christmas Dinner Chef this year. :) Considering it’s only a month away, I can’t believe I already have to keep it in mind to plan the meal! I’ve become quite settled on doing a standing rib roast for the main dish. A bit more complicated to get right than a turkey, I think, but I have confidence my dad will be raving about it just as much as yesterday’s turkey. ;)

The crust was the best part

My mom, grandma, and myself cleaned up once everyone was done eating, and then we had dessert. To be honest, I don’t think I’ll use the same recipe for pumpkin pie again. While it had great texture, it wasn’t sweet enough. The crust was fantastic, though. The pecans were great, nuts make everything better. ;D My mom had also picked up a peach-praline pie from Stop and Shop, and that was quite good. It made up for the lack of sweetness in the pumpkin pie tenfold, heh. There was also some ice cream to have with the pie–Häagen-Dazs Light Dulce de Leche and Rum Raisin. Ohhh, boy. :D

We all rolled away from the table after that meal. And no one was averse to having leftovers the next day, either, it was all so good. :)

3 Comments Categories: Breads · Desserts · Main Meals · Photos · Side Dishes · Thanksgiving 2005 · Vegetables

This morning I’d settled on making rice pudding using arborio rice for lunch, but come the end of my morning class, I decided something more savory and lunch-like was a better idea. Rather than attempting to transform my remaining arborio into a sugar-laden confection, I went for my take on fusion cuisine: teriyaki risotto. To be perfectly honest, I can think of no better food combination than Japanese and Italian, and this risotto totally proved me right.

A lovely little Asian soup bowl brimming with risotto

Normally risotto is made with some kind of broth or wine or combination of the two as the liquid, but I decided to use teriyaki sauce diluted in water instead. Sautée the rice in some unsalted butter until it’s clear except for the little center pearl of white, and then begin the tedious process of gradually adding the simmering liquid until you get that delectable creamy-saucy texture that defines a perfect risotto. Once all the liquid was added and absorbed, I stirred in some heated mixed baby string beans and carrots, a little extra teriyaki sauce, and a light drizzle of sesame oil. Sprinkle with a bit of salt, and voilà! a fantastic lunch for two (my sister shared it with me, and confirmed the risotto was “OMG SO GOOD” ;)).

Mmm…morsels of creamy ricy veggie goodness…

Unfortunately my camera is being highly uncooperative lately and refuses to take anything but blurry photos of my food. :P Hopefully it’ll shape up over the course of tonight and tomorrow so I can legibly photo-document what should be a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner prepared by yours truly! I’m the chef for this year’s family feast for the first time, and I hope to create the best ever meal we’ve had for the holiday. :D

On another food-related note for the day, one of my Chinese suitemates has a bowl full of tapioca in the fridge, and every time I’ve gone in it to get something the past few days, it’s made me crave bubble tea. Naturally, this necessitated a stop at the Kelly Tea and Coffee House on the way back to my room from my last class today. ;) Looking over their menu of bubble tea flavors for the day–strawberry, sweet tea, and taro–I was immediately drawn to that last flavor scrawled in lavender marker on the menu board. Through my recent research of Asian desserts I’d come across the mention of taro several times, and it definitely piqued my curiosity, what with the enthusiasm people so frequently possessed when talking about it.

Happy beads of tapioca swimming in sweet, delicious taro-ness!

After a very short mental debate between strawberry and taro, I chose to go with the unusually-purple drink over the cotton-candy-pink option. I most definitely was not regretting that choice after the first sip, and I subsequently added “something made with real taro” to my mental list of Unusual Foods to Try. ;D I’m definitely a fan of bubble tea–the novelty of slippery beads of tapioca mixed in with sips of a sweet, fruity- or tea-flavored beverage is just too much! Yum! :yum

And now I need to get more of this darned art history paper written and plan out the timing for all the things I’m cooking for Thanksgiving dinner. I’m determined for it to be a blazing success! Well, hopefully not blazing in the LITERAL sense… :?

3 Comments Categories: Beverages · Fusion Cuisine · Italian · Japanese · Main Meals · Photos · Rice · Side Dishes · Vegetables

Last night I tried some of my sister’s scones leftover from her breakfast, and they necessitated recipe-sharing. Looking over other recipes from the same site, I found one for sweet potato scones that was simply begging to be made! She had sweet potatoes, and I had all of the other ingredients, so the begging ceased and baking commenced.

I halved the recipe that follows but used five teaspoons of sugar, since we really didn’t need that many scones and I prefer mine on the sweet side. I also put all of the butter in at once because I don’t like a too-crispy and browned crust on my scones, and it seemed like it would be good with all of the butter in the dough. On the other hand, I do like the crust to have a teeny bit of sparkle and crunch, so I sprinkled a little sugar on top before baking the scones. It wound up making four good-sized pieces of moist, tender, biscuity goodness that was enough for my sister to taste, me to eat, and then have some leftover for breakfast this morning. The sweet potato probably has the same properties as pumpkin in baked goods–keeping it really moist and soft. Even after quintupling the amount of sugar called for, they still weren’t especially sweet. I thought it was perfect for the recipe–somewhere between “biscuit” and “dessert.” My sister thinks they need to be sweeter. ;) Overall, I was thoroughly pleased by these scones. The texture had that perfect combination of slight crusty outside complimented by soft, moist-crumbly insides; the taste was mildly sweet, slightly sweet potato-y, and buttery-but-not-rich. They were wonderful both fresh out of the oven and cooled.

While I would so make this recipe the same way again, I think I’m also going to try varying it a little–maybe adding more sugar or substituting another sweetener like maple syrup or honey, adding some cinnamon and nutmeg, and maybe trying a little vanilla extract. This recipe can easily be made into a sweet scone. On the other end of the spectrum, I might try making it with the original amount of sugar called for and mixing in more savory ingredients like some grated cheese and herbs. The sweet potato flavor would lend itself well to either a sweet or savory scone, I think.

I’ve also decided to start using Flickr for my photos in this blog. They have some nice features that I can take advantage of, and it’ll give anyone who’s interested the chance to see larger versions of the photos I take. It’s too much of a hassle for me to make multiple sizes to upload here, but Flickr automatically does that for me. ;) We’ll see how much I like it over time.

(Linked thumbnail photos of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

5 Comments Categories: Breads · Photos · Recipes · Vegetables

To see me eat this dish, you’d think I had ants in my pants. I was excited for HOURS after I first made it–seriously, I told everyone I ran into about it!–and now that I’ve perfected it with a second attempt, I’m making the recipe public. :) It took me forever to figure out what I could possibly do with rooibos tea for this month’s TeaChef, and using it in place of broth when making mashed cauliflower just randomly came to mind during some of my brainstorming.

Personally, I find it so flavorful and the texture so delightful that I can eat it by itself, but it would make a great substitute for mashed potatoes or go beautifully with roast poultry. Yum! :yum:

(A photo of the prep and a recipe can be found on the second page.)

0 Comments Categories: Photos · Recipes · Side Dishes · TeaChef · Vegetables