RWood

Made this for Savour School’s 20th birthday contest. They wanted you to choose anything from their classes that could be their birthday cake. This is a chocolate hazelnut cake, orange pastry cream, chocolate buttercream and caramel. All of my favorite flavors. The chocolate curls were a pain since it’s so hot and humid here today, but the chocolate finally set enough to work.

Using up some patty pan squash from the farmers market. Gemelli, caramelized squash, cherry tomatoes, lots of garlic and aleppo pepper, basil and parm.

Bucatini carbonara. My stepsister and I argue with her husband all the time about using peas. Not authentic! We don’t care! 😋

More like brunch, challah orange French toast, bacon, strawberries and a mimosa.

There was a little bit of that on one side. Not sure why one side, could be from the convection oven. But, I thought it was from a little bit of over creaming. My butter was really soft when I got around to making it, and I use a scraper paddle. While it needs to be very light and fluffy to help with the texture and lift, mine may have been beaten a little too long. I've not had that problem though with a loaf or pound cake before. Weird.

Pound cake. Tried a new recipe that starts in a cold oven. Came out very nice.

It’s really good, different. I haven’t made it in a long time. It’s actually a Tyler Florence recipe Spicy Slaw I came across several years ago.

Happy Birthday/Father’s Day for my dad. I finally did my first sous vide and made ribs. They came out great. Along with chicken souvlaki, chipotle apple slaw, grilled artichokes and Hasselback sweet potatoes. Chocolate PB cake for dessert.

Since my squash plant is only making male flowers, I’m gonna eat them 😋. And Trader Joe’s falafel, that improved greatly if they are deep fried. They were terrible following the package directions. Also made tzatziki with Fage 5%.

Cut cake ☺️

Cake will be cut later, can post then. My mom had a Dutch baby in Tahoe before with bacon that she used maple syrup with. I went more savory with this one, but it could still use syrup I think. She said next time maybe just bacon, then she could have maple syrup 😊

Mother’s Day Brunch Dutch Baby with arugula, bacon, roasted tomatoes and gruyere Breakfast potatoes 5” coconut cake Roederer Brut

Pizza again. Did a half and half. Pepperoni, olives and onion, and the other side oven roasted tomatoes, arugula-basil pesto, cheese and fresh arugula. Should have made that a whole. It was awesome.

Pickled onions, bread and butter squash pickles and arugula-basil pesto for the freezer. Along with more pickled asparagus since the previous got given out to my moms sisters.

No, that’s just a screen to keep it from sweating. The steel is a 5/8 inch plate that is shaped the same as the stone that was in the Ooni. It weighs a ton.

Got the Ooni back out. I purchased a steel plate on Etsy to replace the stone and tried it out finally. So much better than the stone. It seemed to heat up faster, and the crust was much better on the bottom. Pepperoni, mushroom, black olive and red onion.

Yes, mother in law. Thank you, we really like the house, and for the most part we are done with decorating except for the dining room. It’s giving us issues. The kitchen has room to move, but I’m always wanting bigger, more storage, ovens, counter space, when it comes to a kitchen ☺️.

When we were looking for a house, we had a lot of things we wanted in a kitchen, but we knew we wouldn’t find all of it. I love the look of our kitchen, but it’s smaller than I wanted. We got a baby Wolf, which I do like. I wanted at least a Mama Wolf, so it had another oven. Maybe down the line it might get changed. And it was funny, the guy we bought the house from was so sad he was losing his pot filler. I feel like the sink should have been on the other side. It feels backwards when I’m emptying the dishwasher. I do like having the warming drawer for dough rising. We have a MIL half kitchen that we just use as our beverage center. It worked well for our wine fridge, and to keep the espresso and coffee makers in one spot. And it’s nice having the extra refrigerator nearby. We use the MIL closet as our pantry.

Fettuccine with home made pesto and sautéed baby zucchini and asparagus bits (leftovers from trimming for the pickled asparagus).

I’m Kennesaw, outside Atlanta, there is a store called The Last Dig. They have big boxes of returns, I think mostly from Amazon. You go in, and dig. Most days everything is $4, sometimes $3. I’ve gotten things like kitchen scales, bathing suits, a stainless steel coffee mug and warmer, a Breville espresso knock box I had been wanting. Just never know what you will find. I’m always looking for cooking related stuff, so jars, storage containers, etc. I got 4 silpat mats for $4 this past weekend. I’m sure there are other stores like it, we just found it one day by accident.

The jars came from an Amazon returns kinda place (I think they are actually boba tea related). I liked them because they were tall. The pickling is brine is 1 cup vinegar, 1 cup water, 2 Tbs sugar, 1 Tbs salt. You’ll have to determine how much you need for the about of asparagus you have. Then pack asparagus in jars with sliced shallot, garlic clove and dill. I added a pinch of chili flakes and black peppercorns. Pour hot brine over and then refrigerate overnight. These are just refrigerator type, not processed.

Some quick pickled asparagus. My mom will wipe out a jar on her own. I prefer this kinda thing in a Bloody Mary. I don’t like celery.

Easter Bunny 🐰. Carrot cake with cream cheese filling.

Just self taught in cakes, that kind of stuff isn’t taught in pastry school. I usually buy a small model of whatever creature I’m trying to make. I have to have a 3D reference. So, my T Rex now has a bearded dragon buddy 😉. Anything else, I just wing it and hope 🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻.

Birthday cake for a friend’s daughter. She loves lizards. Marble cake with chocolate buttercream. Bearded dragon (sorta 🙃) is modeling chocolate.