The Lamb Experiment

One of the highlights of my Mom's baking career was her Easter lamb .It was a super moist, super dense cake covered in icing and coconut. She made several - for my cousins, neighbors, friends. Everyone enjoyed theirs, going wild for the jellybeans that wreathed it or the buttery icing layer/
Now it's my turn.

This is the lamb - Lambie

It's a metal tin from Wilton and it's close to forty years old. The company still makes them and they $16.97 on Amazon, a good price for something that will last decades.With the lamb came the instructions for baking and icing it>There was also an extra - my Mom's version of the cake recipe written in her enviable neat and concise handwriting. She always used Dream Whip which was responsible for the cake's moistness. I recently bought a package.

It can be used on its' own as a whipped topping along with dense, rich cakes. Dream Whip  can also be  used as an icing, mixed with cold milk and any pudding mix. I may go this route because the Wilton icing has both butter and vegetable shortening. I did order a complete set of Wilton  icing nozzles and icing bags from Amazon. I may try half buttercream and half Dream Whip icings when I bake this for my friends' Greek Orthodox Easter.

Then there's the cake mix.My Mom always swore by Pillsbury but as we all know I'm more a Duncan Hines kind of baker. I bought their French vanilla flavor.

I'd recommend a plain flavor without any additions like their butter flavor which needs a stick or two of butter. I may make the next cakes (remember the first one is the tester cake) in chocolate.I saw one on the internet with an uniced face and it looked pretty much like a real lamb.

This is going to be a daunting experiment to say the least. I look forward to baking the challenge. It is a complicated bake and finishing but I am up to it. Let's hope the creative acorn doesn't fall far from the creative tree.

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Your Elegant Hosting Guide

Spring ushers in a season of entertaining with lovely meals served on elegant china at exquisite tables. Yet it can be hard to not only plan a meal but set the right mood. Thankfully there is new book that gives not only serving suggestions but also what kind of tableware to use as well.

Kristal Damron, a caterer, wrote this picture filled guide Entertaining And Celebrating: An Elegant Feast For Every Season (published by Reward Your Appetite Catering 2019).It gives  hosts and more expressly, caterers  ideas about how to serve a simple ,classy feast for any celebration. It is a glossy coffee table book, with elegantly taken pictures. Every celebration is covered, from showers to Christmas dinner and the book is divided into the four seasons. One page shows how the table should be set  while the other has the ala carte menu. The meals are divided into four courses starting with an amuse bouches - appetizers and ending with desserts The dishes given are all season appropriate. A Mother's Day brunch offers zucchini gazpacho and red grouper Poele while the Christmas Day dinner has such suggestions as roasted Cornish hens with mushrooms duxelles stuffing, and baked eggplant with marinara sauce.

This book may not be for the home chef looking for recipes.  This is  one strictly  for caterers, especially those just starting  out in the industry. There are so many ideas for what to serve and jumping off points for the more creative. One of the best pluses is the wine and tableware guides located in the appendix. The tableware is all Lenox and her choices are stunning.Some are delicate, some look utilitarian yet fresh. The same goes for the glass and tableware. To be honest this section is a good guide for those just starting their household. Chef Damron's choices work well together, and can definitely serve as inspiration for householders wanting to pair the appropriate glassware and plates together. Another source of inspiration are the centerpieces. These are lovely seasonal arrangements that complement the tables and can be used for any family dinner or celebration.

Entertaining And Celebrating:An Elegant Feast For Every Season is a must have for every caterer.It offers a plethora of recipe ideas as well as suggestions for wine and tableware. Buy it today, not just for these but also for the beautiful photographs of elegantly set tables.

New Irish Cuisine

Tomorrow is Saint Patrick's Day and Irish-Americans will be overdoing the whole corned beef and cabbage thing.However these really aren't indicative of Celtic cooking. Real Emerald  Isle cooking can  be a mix of hearty and delicate, of land and sea, of old traditions and new methods.

The early Irish relied on a variety of grains and it's still evident in some of their foods today.Oat wheat and barley have been grown since Gaelic Ireland ,around the early 1000's. Oat cakes and oat breads were baked then and ancient households had such new fangled equipment as a kneading trough(?) a kneading slab along with a griddle and griddle turner.Twenty-first century bakers , throughout the island make oatmeal bread, a hearty, nubby loaf that makes for excellent toast and sandwiches.Of course there is Irish soda bread, which would have been for the very wealthy centuries ago. This is made with white flour and baking soda, the last used for leavening. It's one of Irish American bakers go to recipes and it's been amped up with raisins and sometimes currants or orange zest. Porridge is one of the most ancient of all Gaelic recipes and it is still being cooked today. Then, as it is now, drizzles of honey or melted butter is added for some oomph. Some even add a drop of whiskey or chocolate for fun.

Pork is another staple of the Irish diet. The use of it goes back to Neolithic times when it , beef and venison were eaten regularly. Modern descendants still enjoy it in the form of trotters, pigs feet or a dish called coddle.This is a soup laden with bacon, sausage , potatoes and onions, perfect for a cold St. Paddy's Day. Ireland has always been associated with the potato, yet it was the English who introduced the South American tuber to the country around the late 1600's. It was a good source of vitamins, especially Vitamin C and was widely cultivated up until the Great Famine of 1848, It was the potato that caused the migration too, along with introducing Gaelic food to America. A true dish that is made on both sides of the Atlantic is boxtie. This Irish potato pancake is flavored with onion and nutmeg.Unlike German  potato pancakes and latkes , they're fried in butter until they're crisp and golden.It can be served as a side or main dish but always plain without the usual accompanying sour cream or applesauce.

Modern Irish cuisine takes ancient ingredients and turns them into delicious , hearty dishes.It is not just corned beef and cabbage. It's grains and pork, potatoes and oatmeal, refashioned into easy to make recipes.It is Ireland, then and now.

A Trio Of Goodness

Homemade treats are always welcomed, especially snack cakes. They're a great fix at work or after school, along with being a picker upper on weekends. The problem is that manufactured ones are loaded with all sort's of preservatives and have a plastic-y taste. The solution is three recipes for delicious cakes that can be easily made in a home kitchen.

Melissa Clark gives us these in her A Good Appetite column in yesterday's New York Times Food section. They're easy bakes, with all the ingredients that are probably on the pantry shelf already.
The flavors are on everyone's cake wish list.There's chocolate with a tangerine glaze (!), lemon with a coconut one , a banana one dripping with a salted caramel topping.The first two are made with a neutral oil such as canola or grapeseed while the banana cake has melted butter. The flour used for all three is all purpose  - nothing fancy. The chocolate one has both Dutch processed cocoa and chopped dark chocolate.For a really intense flavor buy the 70 to 80 percent bars as opposed to the chips. The recipe has a hit of hot coffee for a mocha vibe. Sour cream is added for a dense, moist crumb.The icing is a zippy tangerine- lemon fusion that compliments the chocolate.Ms. Clark recommends that if it's too sweet add a extra drop or two of lemon juice.

Lemons are the backbone of the second cake. Three of them give it a burst of tartness thanks to their juice and zests being used. Ms. Clark also adds coconut milk and shredded coconut. Two large eggs and again, sour cream give the cake body and a moist crumb.The glaze is a mirror of it as it , too, as it uses coconut and finely grated zest.The only difference is that it has melted coconut oil which makes for a smoother glaze. The last is a yummy mix of bananas and caramel. The snacking cake has two to three ripe bananas mixed with sour cream and brown sugar. Half a cup of melted butter is added to kind of give it a Bananas Foster flavor.The crumb will be incredibly moist , the perfect texture for a snack cake.It's then topped with a buttery homemade caramel glaze. Half a stick of more (!) butter is mixed with brown sugar and heavy cream.These are cooked in a large saucepan for a minute, cooled and then blended with confectioner's sugar. To cut the uber sweetness flaky sea salt is sprinkled over the icing. It's a nice pop of savory to counterbalance all that sweet.

Happiness is a snack cake that's delicious and filling. The three recipes fit that bill.They are full of homemade goodness and flavor from the kitchen.

Plus Size Restaurants The Plus Side

Our society is supposed to be all inclusive. No matter who you are,or  what you look like should not matter. Yet it does  in of all places restaurants. Eateries are  surprisingly not up on accommodating  overweight and obese people. Yet they should. We all enjoy a meal out with family and friends. Where we eat shouldn't put a damper on that.

Regular contributor,Kim Severson, wrote this eye opening and thoughtful piece for today's New York Times Food section. She interviewed both customers and managers in exploring this. Eating out for any overweight person can be nerve wracking,There  so many problems that they could encounter. Smaller places like fast food joints and storefront restaurants have very little elbow room to begin with, cramping even those with small frames. The seats are tiny, almost belonging in a nursery school.Bar stools are another problem. They , too, are tiny - not to mention too high for an overweight  person to sit on. Many leave with bruises and marks on their arms and legs due to poor seating. Then there's the fear of breaking flimsy seats. It doesn't help that most restaurant managers don't want to deal with a weight challenged customer , fearing that singling them out may cause unease and embarrassment. if there is a seat for them, the table is usually out in the eatery's hinterlands, far away from the main crowd, and sometimes hidden away.

Luckily all this is changing. One there are apps dedicated to plus size dining such as AllGo by Rebecca Alexander that is sort of like Yelp for the overweight.It also works with corporations and conglomerates to create accommodating offices,  restrooms. theaters and most importantly restaurants that are all inclusive. The last is important because quite a few places have no clue as how to handle  plus sizes. They are loath to do it for two reasons, one, there is no strategy for dealing with them and two, they don't want their dishes linked to obesity. some places like Waffle House, the 2100 unit restaurant chain in Georgia offers booths and fixed counter seating.It also provides larger customers with freestanding chairs at tables and counters.Many other chains have followed suit, adding movable furniture , wider booths and chairs. The last meets industry standards for people who weight as much as 400 pounds. Some of the changes happened thanks to The Americans With Disabilities Act to satisfy their requirements. A few restaurants probably just wanted to expand on the inclusiveness. Golden Corral Buffets has expanded their space which means more space between tables and chairs. Taco Bell has stopped bolting down their chairs allowing for more room and movement. White Castle did the same after almost being sued by a lawyer who had trouble with their chairs.

Restaurants should be all inclusive. It will take time but eventually all people will feel welcomed in a favorite eatery. There should be no prejudice against what a person look like.

Taco Bell Revisited

It seems that one of America's top fast food chains is undergoing a change -literally. Taco Bell is redefining itself, with both its' overall look and food. It's appealing to the Twitter generation but what about everyone else? Will it lose it long time fans? Time will tell.

Taco Bell started out in - where else - southern California in 1948 by Glenn Bell. It was originally
a hamburger stand, much in the same vein as McDonald's and White Castle. The inspiration came from across the street , at Mitla Cafe, a Mexican restaurant known for its' hard shelled tacos. Mr. Bell saw how popular this was. he cleverly  ate there often enough that he became a regular. The proprietors let him watch them assemble tacos and cook other quick Mexican dishes. By late 1951 the prototype opened. He named it Taco-Tia. Four years later it was renamed El-Taco and was a fixture in SoCal towns. By 1962 the first Taco Bell had made its' debut in Downey California. The company grew rapidly and the first eastern eatery was opened in Springfield ,Ohio in 1970. Pepsico bought it from Mr. Bell in the late Seventies and then it went to Yumi Foods, the international conglomerate that owns Pizza Hut and Long John Silver's. For many, it was their first taste of Mexican food. a huge change of pace from the usual, burgers, fries and malteds. It was also cozy, Most Taco Bells were housed in cute So Cal mini haciendas, where there were booths with padded seating  and bright pastels like pink and purple abounded. The vibe was welcoming, like being in someone's house.

That all changed. The hacienda in my area was razed to the ground. Gone was that soft almost Play-Doh molded building and in its' place something colorless and industrial.It kind of looks like a Brooklyn hipster designed the new architecture. The outside has a boxy wood and steel front which works in urban areas - not in suburbia. The inside is just as bleak looking with uncomfortable wooden seats and metal tables. The only highlight is the charging tables where people can plug in their laptops and tablets, working as they eat. Even the outdoor dining area has industrial and far from cushy chairs and tables.Maybe Taco Bell is trying to be Chipotle's little sibling . Chipotle has relatively the same decor - factory inspired and somewhat bleak. Have the staff and recipes changed? Not really. My Taco Bell 's servers have  the same flabbergasted attitude as before.I ordered a chicken hard taco and wound up with a chicken burrito. It was still tasty  - and filling. They have spicy fries with a cheese sauce which was pretty good, with meaty fries and a satiny nacho sauce . There were not too  many fries,  perfect with a huge burrito. I would like to try their "rattlesnake" fries, , fries with cheese and steak bits and of course, their Dorito Cool Ranch taco, with the taco dusted with Doritos' seasoning. I know I'll be slurping on one of their freezes, a kind of Icee with either orange or Mountain Dew flavorings. Even the breakfast items seem inviting. with their mix of grilled breakfast burritos and Cinnabon balls of dough with an icing filling.

Taco Bell is still the same food but with a new look. Ignore the industrial vibe and concentrate on the food. It's still as flavorful as before.

Making That Bread

With St Patrick's Day coming this Saturday , many home bakers , novice and experienced are planning on making Irish soda bread .It's one of the easiest breads to create. Then, surprisingly most breads are. They're an easy and fun bake.

Maybe Irish soda bread should be considered the gateway recipe for new bread makers.It is one of the easiest outside the packaged loaf mixes from Pillsbury and Krusteaz.Like cake, it  requires sugar, margarine,  and flour along with one egg. Irish soda bread does require just a teaspoon of the baking soda that gives it its' name along with buttermilk . Raisins are optional, but they do give it an added sweetness. There is some kneading but the best part is that it doesn't have to be proofed like yeasty bread dough. The baking soda acts as the yeast, allowing the loaf to rise.Irish soda bread is also considered a quick bread which is much easier to make., Banana bread and date-nut bread, two kitchen classics are other examples of quick no yeast breads.They both have dense heavy crumbs with very little air holes.Neophyte bakers may feel a bit anxious about making even this kind of loaf. Don't despair, There are some good mixes out there with Pillsbury leading the pack. Their mix can be made into loaves or muffins and come in a variety of flavors. Try the lemon poppy seed or cinnamon swirl.Krusteaz is another company that has some tasty and simple bread and cornbread  mixes, that include cinnamon swirl and fire roasted corn bread.

Once you've mastered quick breads you can now try your hand at yeast breads. What is the best yeast to use?You can't go wrong with Flesichmann's. One of  the bonuses of using it is that the website has a how too, along with info on what it is and what it does.Another good yeast for bread and rolls is King Arthur's. The company even sells sourdough starter. King Arthur 's also sells a variety of flours too, from wheat to gluten free to nut and coconut flours. Now comes the bread recipes.Start with one that has very few ingredients. The basic load recipe is one that requires active dry yeast, flour , and salt.The only liquid used is water which, along with the other dry ingredients .it makes for a nice light loaf.For the more adventurous there is Italian and French loaves that require their own pans. These sort of resemble corrugated roofing allowing the baker to make three loaves at a time.Some recipes call for the addition of olive oil or honey. When  you've mastered the craft think sausage or cheese breads.These are fun to make and the highlight of any dinner or picnic.

Bread is not that hard a recipe. Start with an easy one like Irish soda bread and work your way to the more challenging recipes. Once you start it'll be hard to quit.