The Captive Cook

Posted on August 24, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

About 2 weeks ago I had foot surgery for a bunion I’ve had since I can remember. (That’s where your bones go/grow out of place.)  My left foot has been a source of contention with me for a while now, first shoes just wouldn’t fit right, then it started getting in the way of how I lived my life.  There were times in tap class that I would accidentally hit it with the heel of my right shoe.  I don’t know if any of you have ever worn tap shoes, and caught one foot with the other, but it FREAKIN HURTS.  Something about a piece of metal, on a wooden soled shoe smacking flesh and bone.

There’s also the small, semi-important fact that I stand on my feet for a living, running a restaurant, cooking, etc.  You know it really starts to get bad though, when you can only wear 2 or 3 pairs of shoes, because your foot has outgrown all the others in your closet that fit just a year earlier.  What really clinched it for me to finally get surgery to correct it was when I would wake up in the morning, not even move my legs, and get shooting pains in my foot and ball of my big toe.

Now, you’re probably wondering “how does this have anything to do with food?”  As I have basically been sitting on my couch for the last 14 days, it’s amazing what you’ll start to think about.  All the things you could be doing with 2 working feet, all the things you can’t currently do, one of which is cook.  I think about how I can’t go to the grocery store/farmer’s market to buy fresh ingredients to make myself dinner.  About how I’m stuck ordering Chinese and eating it for 5 days, or microwaving frozen dinners.  This morning I splurged, cooked breakfast sausage and scrambled eggs with salsa and cheese, but those items are easily prepared when you’re standing on a rolling, knee scooter to support you.  Crutches are not kitchen friendly, FYI.  Last week I made a pan of Fresh Peach Cobbler, because Colorado Peaches happen to be in season, and I bought a bunch the day before I became captive.  I figured it could be easily prepared with minimal effort.  I could sit to peel and cut the fruit, as well as make the biscuit topping.

It seems you can really figure out what you love when you can’t do it anymore.  The day after my surgery I started thinking of a new cookie recipe-Oatmeal Date (because I don’t really like raisins; Grapes are best fermented) all the while taking pain pills and sleeping most of the time.  After that, it REALLY seems you know what you love, when you’re half out of your mind and captive.

The good news is my foot couldn’t look better to the Doc who fixed it, I get my stitches out on Friday and a cast applied, then just 4 more weeks until walking commences.  The other good news is that by the time that happens, it should be a bit cooler here, and then I can turn on my oven without fear of passing out in my apartment.  That and I can go out and buy a new pair of shoes that I won’t have to worry about growing out of in a year.  Not only that, but I bet a wider style of shoe will fit both of my feet now.

I’m not saying everyone should spend a few weeks captive on their couch, I’m saying figure out what you truly love to do and then go do it.  Stay hungry friends.

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It’s My Orange Peeler

Posted on July 23, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

It just shows to go ya that the right tool for the job is key.  Not only that, but said tool must be in optimal working order.  Knives must be sharpened to keep their edge, marble rolling pins should NOT be used to smash a bag of ice, and your vegetable peeler needs to be sharp and easy to use too. 

I hadn’t bought a new vegetable peeler since Culinary School, 10+ yrs ago, so it was about time.  You forget how a tool in working order can ease your body from compensating for a tool in poor condition.  The first swipe of my new veggie peeler and my arm let out a sigh of relief. WHEW! It has a large enough handle for me to hold on to and a big peeling surface.  When you need to peel 2 1/2 pounds of carrots to make your friends’ carrot cake for their wedding, a tool that cuts down on time and fatigue is, as they say, a very good thing. 

So this is my new peeler,

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The Best Cheesecake Recipe Ever

Posted on July 2, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

I can’t believe I haven’t written about cheesecake yet!  It is, after all one of the easiest things to make-contrary to popular belief. I was never a huge fan of cheesecake growing up, it was good, but not my favorite, that is until I was shown this recipe in Culinary School. I was hooked, I bought the book that the recipe was in, just so I could have my own copy of the recipe, and that’s saying something, the book cost $60! Thankfully said book has also contained many more recipes, including the one I use for Carrot Cake.  From the book The Professional Pastry Chef by Bo Friberg. I have the 3rd edition. There is a 4th out there, but I can’t attest to the contents of it.

I don’t know what “style” you’d call it, I just call it delicious. As with most recipes I find, I’ve tweaked in order to get the consistency and flavors I like. Originally it started by making an Orange cheesecake with a layer of chocolate chips on the bottom (adds texture with out the nuts and who doesn’t love chocolate?) I got rave revues, well I got silence really. Nothing says what you made was delicious until you feed it to an entire room at a party and they fall completely silent while eating. Probably the best compliment a chef could ever get.

So, today I’m making my friend Phillips birthday cheesecake, a blueberry one and instead of making one cake, I’m using my handy individual portioned cheesecake pan (thanks Pashmina!) Only there’s a slight problem. I ground up the graham crackers I had and added my melted butter, but then I got this awful smell. Apparently stale graham crackers are a new-found hated smell of mine, and the taste was twice as bad. I’m on the way to run out and buy more, then the mixing and baking can begin. Happy Birthday Phillip!

New crackers obtained and the rest of the process went off without a hitch.  Phillip had a fabulous birthday, everyone loved the cheesecake (‘Were there chocolate chips on the bottom?!’), and Phillip even had a piece for breakfast the next morning, right before he went to the dentist. “They’re going to clean my teeth anyway.”

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Brownies?

Posted on June 14, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

I’ve got these two brownies recipes……maybe I have more, but there are two I use most often.  One, is a rich dark chocolate, thick, cake-y brownie that could and sometimes does, get frosting.  The other is a thin, chewy, flaky brownie, that usually gets a little Pomegranate Molasses drizzled on the top.  Because of this, I have a question for you.  Are you a Chewy Brownie or a Cake Brownie, or both.  I think you know my answer, let’s see what you have to say.

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Small Celebrity Crush

Posted on May 23, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

No, it’s not the name of a new creation, I have this small crush on Bradley Cooper. And in honor of his movie, “The Hangover Part 2” coming out and the recent cameo on SNL the other night, I have decided to put this out to the universe and all powers that be.

Bradley, if you’re ever in Denver, I would very much like to make you dinner. Simple as that really. See, I think you’d be a great dinner companion. You’re funny, and a foodie (two qualities I like to think I possess as well).

So, being that I happen to be lucky enough to have friends who know people, who know other people, this actually has a better shot of happening than me winning the Powerball, but I am not holding my breath.

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Chocolate-Peanut-Butter-Banana-Cream-Pie

Posted on March 6, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

Yes, you read that correctly.  Chocolate pie crust, layer of peanut butter pastry cream, then bananas, then a layer of chocolate pastry cream; chilled.  Topped with fresh whipped cream, and decorated with sliced bananas.  It was just as good as it sounds, and peanut butter pastry cream was T-R-I-C-K-Y, cause it started to seize up (note to self, thin out the peanut butter with something first). 

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Stolen Recipes

Posted on February 8, 2011 by chefgullywhumper

Well, technically, they aren’t stolen, at least this one isn’t.  It was given to me a long time ago, by my neighbor.  Two doors down from my house as a girl, this great family moved in.  They had 3 kids, just like my family; two girls and one boy, all about the same age as myself and my brother and sister.  We all became fast friends, parents included (I know, right?).  Every year at the holidays their mother, Pseudo-Mom as she became known, would make 2 things that I would die for each year.  Banana Chocolate Chip Bread and Pumpkin Bread.  As we got older, and things changed (because things always change) sometimes we wouldn’t get any, or there wasn’t enough for everyone to have more than one piece, so I asked for the recipes.  They were so good, and I wanted to be able to make them whenever I wanted to. 

Thank goodness I did, because now I make them for my friends at the holidays (when I get around to it, that is).  This year I started early, buying bananas and letting them go black way back in November, then freezing them in a bag.  It’s February now (which means I didn’t make a single thing for Christmas this year.  Go ask my sister how upset she is) and I needed to use up the bananas, so I broke out the ol’ “stolen” recipe and got to work.  My apartment smelled so intoxicatingly delicious last night it should have been illegal.  I half expected someone to come knocking on my door from down the hall looking to see what it was that smelled so good.  Thankfully that didn’t happen because not only did it smell great baking, its probably the best batch I’ve ever made.  Apparently Mr Alton Brown knows what he’s talking about when he says you should freeze the ripe bananas, cause it creates this banana juice when they thaw.  (Something about ice crystals freezing and puncturing the cell walls of the banana).  The loaves came out great, didn’t stick to the pan (melted chocolate chips are like little, dark, tasty suction cups sometimes) and they’re so moist-no giant glass of milk necessary (though, entirely optional).  The best part is, it’s fruit!  And I don’t have to choke down a pasty banana to get all the goodness of it.  Mary Poppins was wrong, it’s not sugar, but chocolate chips that help the medicine go down.

ps it’s a “stolen” recipe because I fully intend to make money off it when I’m up and running.  Psuedo-Mom, you can eat it for free anytime you visit!

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Meyer Lemon Tart

Posted on January 14, 2011 by chefgullywhumper
 

I have been absent from the blogging world for a little while.  It seems the holidays and walking around on a foot with a broken bone in it will take you away from the food blog.  A very good friend of mine is in town right now though, and it made me think of something I had made for her a while back.  Something fairly simple really, but the simplest things can bring you so much pleasure.  It was a Meyer Lemon Tart with Pomegranate Molasses.  She will tell the story that only 2 things she has ever eaten in her life have made her smile, this was one of them, and making my friends’ happy with food makes me a very happy girl.

Meyer Lemon Tart with Pomegranate Molasses

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Time and a Chocolate Cookie

Posted on December 9, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

Double/Triple chocolate cookie

It’s been a while….mainly because my hard drive decided it just didn’t want to live anymore.  Thankfully my father is a Wizard and brought my laptop back to life with some memory and a new hard drive.  Not to mention that I also neglected to check the charge on the battery of my camera before Thanksgiving, so I have no “post” pictures to share.

The good news is I’ve been baking more.  I made my first attempt at a recipe from this really cool cookbook I got a while back.  Fourplay by Johnny Iuzzini is not for the faint of heart.  I decided to try something I thought would be fairly simple, and I had all the ingredients already.  Chocolate Brioche, I’ve never made regular brioche so I was kind of ‘baking blind’ if you will (for those of you who bake a lot, that was really funny.)  Overall it turned out alright-it was edible, but when you see a loaf of dark chocolate bread the last thing your mind thinks is “this won’t be sweet.”  It’s bread see, not cake, so I got mixed reactions from the taste testers.

I opted for something much tastier the other day.  Double chocolate cookies, which if you really count could be Triple, or even Quadruple if you add in 2 kinds of chocolate chips.  Needless to say they’re pretty fantastic (the child of a friend said “the best double chocolate cookie ever”) I don’t take things like that very lightly.  It is really the goal of everything I make, to make it the best ever, to get the consumers eyes to roll back, and their head drop to the side and a smile come across their face.  There is nothing better than the sound of silence while someone truly savours what is being eaten……well maybe a growled “mmmm!” to go along at the end.

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Thanksgiving

Posted on November 18, 2010 by chefgullywhumper

It’s a really big deal in my family, we do not mess around, and it is my Father’s favorite holiday, because turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy is his favorite meal ever.  When I was little it was the day we got to “pretend to be adults” because my mother would serve it on her fancy china, and I would get to set the table with cloth napkins, goblets, and all the other service-ware that was kept year round in the hall china cabinet collecting dust.

Now though, it’s about the food.  It’s about being old enough and having the professional skills to be able to drink 3 “Marti” Bloody Mary’s and not cut my finger off.  More importantly though it is a time to get together with my family and close friends and just appreciate what we have in our lives-to actually give Thanks.

It begins right after Halloween, my mother and I email each other a menu/shopping list to edit and decide what to change from the year before.  Then that gets sent to the other members to see what input they’d like to give.  The Saturday before hand is when it gets exciting.  My father and I (and for the second year in a row, my sister) go grocery shopping.  It usually goes like this.

  • 10am, meet at my parents house to take inventory of staples to see if we need to add or cross off anything
  • 10:30am head to the gianormous liquor store to load up on libations
  • 11am-11:15am cross the street to Costco for certain items on the list, and any thing else my parents need
  • 12:30pm or later (’cause the store is PACKED!) take groceries home, and head off to lunch somewhere
  • 1:45pm go to King Soopers for the rest of the ingredients, head home to organize.

Of course at this point we’ve forgotten at least one thing, it’s a big list and sometimes things get over looked.  Then the Wednesday before I journey up to the house to do prep work.  Make the Turkey brine, peel potatoes, make pie fillings, cut up crudite, peel my Father’s pearl onions so they are ready to be creamed the next day, finally- set Turkey into pickle bucket and pour over the brine.  Ol’ Tom gets a lid put on him and set out back on my parents porch overnight to keep cold.

Thursday rolls around and I wake up and head back up to my parents house for the big day.  It’s a lot of work, but we enjoy it and at the end of the night we’re usually playing Texas Hold’em around the table, eating pumpkin pie, listening to my parents telling stories of their childhood and reminiscing about our own youths as well.

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