My attempt of being frugal and a foodie

This weekend I decided to bring my breakfast and lunch to work to save some money. I also have some time to test out some recipes that have been burning up my to testing list. 


First up Breakfast
Greek yogurt, banana, homemade granola and local honey. Been wanting to try Alton Brown's granola recipe for a while and had the time this weekend. Adjusted it a litte, switch out pecans for almonds [what I had in my freezer] and added a 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon plus I added some craisins. 




At first, I had my doubts. Didn't smell as I thought it would, I nibbled on a litte kind at the beginning, kind of bland. I was hoping I didn't have to toss out the whole thing. That would be such a waste. But an hour and fifteen minutes later [stirring every 15 minutes], it turned out great. Makes a lot, I think enough for 2 weeks of breakfasts. Not too sweet and not bland, just perfect with my yogurt and banana. Nice and filling.


My Lunch
I'm writing it as I'm eating it: Roast Beef [from the restaurant], spring and vidalia onion marmalade [onion from my produce bag from work] on a hard roll with a broccoli parmesan fritter. Broccoli has become my new favorite veggies and I found this recipe on Smitten Kitchen. I actually at the whole recipe by myself this weekend. I loved it with sweet chili sauce. I'm eating the last one with my sandwich. Wish I had more.





Another Recipe Test
I had some very sweet strawberries from Costco this week and wanted to try out this strawberry pie recipe from Sauver. Wanted to make a fruit pie with what was in season. I'm still not sure about it. Very juicy but tasted good. I think the crust need some work. Last time I made this crust it was great. It's probably me. I guess I need to work on my pies. Maybe I'll try a pie a week.

If I get a chance . . .

I've been itching to test a few items for the restaurant.

• Just tested edamame falafels with cucumber salad and sweet chili sauce for an appetizers at my office. It's a thumbs up but I still would like to tweek  it a bit. Maybe adding a some cilantro and mint to the falafel. Need to fiddle with it more, kind of to soft to put in the deep fryer. Need to get it a bit firmer but not dried out. I was thinking maybe adding some grain?
• I have an idea for pan like in an pan, with caramelized apples with or without homemade an. For those who don't know what an pan is is a sweet bun with sweeten red bean in it. 
• I just saw spring roll with apples tastespotting. Thought I could make it and add some caramel sauce on top? Thais make a banana fritter that way.
• coconut syrup for the shave ice. I was thinking of combining simple syrup and reduce coconut milk
• And that leads into almond float--I tried it before and liked it but want to do it again. Instead of almond I made it with vanilla instead. Maybe I can combine it together with shave ice and the coconut syrup.
• Dango for shave ice. Need to figure out the shelf life of it. If it is too short, not worth it. 
• 2 different cupcake flavors: hummingbird and tiramisu. Both of these have beautiful presentation-a pineapple flower on the hummingbird and mascarpone frosting dusted with cocoa on the tiramisu.

Don't know when I can do this as I barely can keep up with my current  baking schedule. 


And speaking of having no time, yesterday, when I drop off my baked goods to the restaurant, WG and a friend was having lunch and talking. He springs an idea for afternoon tea at the restaurant during a slow times. 

Test Baking

UPDATE: I found the where I got the pear tat recipe. Here's the link: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/409177. And made a second one for the restaurant, pears not as ripe. Would have been better if I waited a couple days. My suggestions is to wait to the pears are really ripe, like "juice run down your arm if you bite into" ripe. It will totally be worth it.

Been testing a few things past few months when I can fit things into restaurant baking schedule. A few needs more testing, one winner on first try. I'm sure the people at work are happy with me testing as many recipes as I can. Got a few pictures to share.

Pear Tart [looks more like a cake]

Been wanting to try out this recipe for ages. Simple, with the minimum of ingredients and I had the perfectly ripen pears for it. The problem is I can't remember where I got this recipe. I'm trying my best to find because it was such a hit at work.

It's has 3 very ripe anjou pears cut into 8ths then smushed into this buttery batter. It takes a long time to bake (about an hour) and in the beginning I thought it was a disaster. Batter looked so soupy from all the juice of the pears, the batter wasn't rising and it wasn't browning. But then about 1/2 way into the baking time, the batter start enveloping the pears and the browning begins. The finish result is a cake-like tart with creamy, custardy, chucky pear center. So delicious.

My Quince Obsession

UPDATE: I just realized I never said what it tasted like. When it was cooking up, the smell was very wine-y and intense. The taste is very hard to describe--sweet, wine, port, prunes are few words that come to my mind when I taste it. But the taste isn't intense like what the smell when it was cooking up. Texture is a little chunky. I can see how it would go well with some cheese as the Spanish would do.

has been quiet, in the background of my ever crazy mind since I heard the story on npr [Reading up on it, find bath products scented with it, never in the stores, never getting to the farmers' market to see if they have any]. I recently spotted a lonely scrubby quince tree near my route to the restaurant and have been plotting how I could pick me some [on private property, no where to park without getting noticed]. So when someone at work told me she got some from our office fruit/veggie people, I jumped at the chance to buy some.

If you never heard or seen a quince, it looks like a bumpy pear/apple in a yellow green color as you can see above. It's scent is incredible when it is ripe, can be almost too sweet of a scent. It can't be eaten raw, tastes horrible. But has lots of pectin in it, to make it perfect for jams and jellies. Now I have  2 lbs in my hands and I will cook up some jam this weekend to add to vanilla cake or maybe some Earl Grey Tea cake with vanilla buttercream.

Brownies

Been wanting to test this brownie recipe for a while. Thought that it probably would sell well at the restaurant. So I left the restaurant early today, [I was crabby, not a good mood for being around people] and decided to bake.

First things first, cheesecake. Needed to get this week's cheesecake done. [check]

I've made these brownies before, it is very chocolate-y. Over a pound of chocolate [no, wait, it's closer 2 pounds] divided into 20 pieces. I wanted to test them to see if the customers would like them. And of course, I'll bring some into the office. They are really my official taste testers [last weeks tasting was nutella rice crispie treats, thumbs up].

I must admit this baking sure help my bad mood [or could it be I just need a break from the restaurant].

Recipes testing and my broken cake

UPDATE: 9.10.11

I crossed off what I tested.
_____________________

With the long weekend here, I'll have some time [one day] to do some recipe testing. Here's my list of what I want to test:

nutella rice crispie treats

chocolate malted cupcakes

plum crumble or crisp

brownies

mango something

chocolate dobash--like Delite bakery in Hawaii--maybe turn into cupcake

cream puffs

mochi something

macarons

My recipe testing list is so long and always growing. Most likely, I will only get to 2 of them. I also have make up a cheesecake. That extra day isn't enough.

As for my broken cake, I tried making one of my favorites, Sour Cream Apricot Cake for the restaurant. It's a very moist and delicate [not too sweet] bundt cake with chopped dried apricots soaked in some kind of liqueur [I used some Applekorn]. I thought it would be great with dollop of whipped cream. Well, when I filpped it out of the pan [I knew it was going to be bad when I had to shake the pan to death], only the bottom half came out, the top was stuck in the pan. I guess I did a very sucky job and greasing and flouring the pan. 

Oh well, not Oat and the staff at the restaurant can enjoy my broken cake. I tried it, it was delicious. Maybe next week, the customers can enjoy, too.

I'll post some pics of my testing soon.