Beta Testing Tea
My time management skills are even poorer than I anticipated, and my overcommittment levels are astounding, which meant bringing over an afternoon tea transformed into bringing over dinner.
It was tons of fun to do, though, and I have a better feel for how long everything takes and what it tastes like; it's probably the pomegranate caramel ice cream sauce that really put it over the top, but I really liked it, so I feel little shame. I was pretty worried after tasting it and it tasted "funny", though it looked wonderful: a rich red translucent thick sauce with a caramel texture, absolutely studded with ruby pomegranate seeds. A taste of the caramel was sort of dry-spicy, not like caramel or sweet at all like I expected.
On vanilla ice cream, though, mixed in, the stuff transforms into a fairly rich caramel sauce, with the flavor of pomegranates, and the crunch and zing of fresh pomegranate seeds. Two thumbs up in my pomegranate-adoring opinion. The downside is that it doesn't keep for long, so it can't be stored; I won't be attempting it at the tea party.
I was able to raid my garden for flower garnishes, which may not be possible in November, but it was nice to do it now.
Sandwiches included:
* Cucumber tea sandwiches with savory buttercream, garnished with minced mitsuba and nasturtiums
* Pepper-cress tea sandwiches with cream cheese, garnished with purple thyme flowers
* Smoked salmon tea sandwiches with creme fraiche, garnished with minced society garlic
* Smoked turkey tea sandwiches with goat cheese, garnished with thyme leaves
* Rose petal jam tea sandwiches with sweet buttercream, garnished with pineapple sage flowers (red!)
Notes on these: I went to a local bakery for bread, and discovered they didn't have any white bread! Nor would they cut it particularly thin. So I may just go to the grocery store for Alfaro's bread, since that went over well anyway. White bread is a must, and I didn't have it; I used sourdough for the smoked salmon and that wasn't a horrible combination, but tea sandwiches just need at least some white bread. I used white rice bread for the rose petal sandwiches and it was kind of "icky". I used rice bread for all of my sandwiches and had to resort to picking the fillings out of some of mine; I just don't like it very much. The Diestal Farms smoked turkey was good, but the sandwiches were a little bland, and could have used some slivered red onions as an improvement. My slicing work on the cucumber was not nearly thin enough, so the sandwiches were prone to falling apart.
I also made coconut, yam, and ginger, onigiri, or Japanese rice balls. These are pretty easy to make.
The methodology is pretty simple:
* Bake a yam in the oven (the deep orange-fleshed garnet variety) for 350 for one hour.
* When the yam is done, take coconut rice with sushi or some other short grain rice rather than long-grain, well-washed for extra stickiness. Follow the instructions for the short grain rice; I use more water and a slightly different heating profile for my sushi rice, and found that it hadn't absorbed everything after 20 minutes: I stirred all the thick coconut back in, and let it simmer another 5-6 minutes.
* Take the still-warm yam and scrape the insides into a bowl.
* Mince some beautiful pink pickled ginger up and mix it into the yam with a fork, until it's a pleasing color and taste. Remember that it can be "extra-zingy" because you're only putting a small amount in, but don't make it falling-over potent. You can flavor it with a little pepper (white preferred) if you wish. You won't need salt.
* Get a bowl of warm water, big enough to dip your hands into, and mix in at least a palmful of salt and a palmful of sugar into it.
* When the rice is just cool enough to handle, dip your hands into the water, grab a handful of rice, and press it between your cupped hands to form it into a ball. Peak your cupped-together hands to make it triangular and four-sided. The salty/sweet water on your hands will season the rice.
* Poke your finger into the rice ball almost all the way to the bottom, and poke the yam mixture into it with your finger. Pinch closed at the top.
* Squeeze the rice ball again. You want it compacted but not overly tight. Dip your hands in the water again if it starts to stick to them.
* Put the rice ball on a plate, and repeat.
These will keep for quite a while at room temperature, and days in the fridge. They're also good filled with other things, using no sugar in the rice water, and no coconut in the rice. I've successfully made them with long-grain rice, but it's more of a challenge. You can make them any size you want, but about enough for two or three bites is right for appetizers.
The rest of the menu was pretty simple: a cheese plate featuring a Dutch cheddar made like a gouda but with too much fat, so it came out more cheddary (nice stuff), Huntsman cheese with Stilton and Double Gloucester, a Brie, and a presentation goat cheese with flowers that no one really wanted so I took it home and consumed it today. This with apple slices and grapes.
I also had feijoa which weren't quite ripe enough even though I got them earlier at the Farmer's Market (do these ripen off the tree?) and a selection of figs, since the market had the black mission, the green (whatever) variety, and brown turkey figs; I took the feijoa home, too, but left the figs.
Also there was a pretty simple crudite tray I did when I got there, of sliced heirloom and dry-farmed tomatoes and red bell pepper, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil provided by my kind hosts, and Nicoise olives. I garnished and flavored this with some of the irrepressible African blue basil from my garden, which is *still* insisting on producing flower spikes. In fact, I had to dodge bees to get some.
The teas (tea party, remember?) were Peet's Pride of the Port, a nice vigorous blend, and Gunpowder Green; on introspection it might have been more clever to use the more delicate Darjeeling as a relief, or to have brought along a mellower green tea. Given that Chris* have a wonderful-looking yixing set, I left the Ti Kuan Yin oolong I'd brought over with them to use for nefarious purposes; they can also use it to season their pot.
And what did I eat? Everything I saw, with the exception of the wheat-based sandwiches, the tomatoes, and the peppers. I'd forgotten my peppermint oil pills, but that didn't slow me down a lot. I *did* suffer some indigestion, probably from the copious dairy, but didn't defocus. Very odd.
After all the eating, I looked at all of their wonderful costumes (I am very envious of their sewing skill; they make such marvelous clothing!), and we geeked a LOT about FLTD. Um, a LOT. At, uh, 3AM or so I apologetically called Brad, who was happy to hear I was alive, and drove home.
An oops this weekend was that I'd crossed dates on Moose's vet appointment, and thought it was today; in fact it was yesterday morning. Wah, but I'll make it right this week. We did have the obedience class, and we went there. He demonstrated absolutely no interest in recalling when let off lead with all the other wonderful exciting dogs in the wonderful exciting yard. Other than that he was pretty great, and we'll be strengthening the recall. For graduation we need to teach him a trick not covered in the class, so I've started him out on tail-chasing, since it's an easy behavior to elicit and it's pretty cute to see a dog that big do it. Well, I don't think he chases his tail so much as rotates for food, but it's the motion that counts....
After this I slept most of the day away, and when I woke up Moose was sleeping next to the bed, instead of hanging out with Brad. Well, I was certainly quieter! I had some strange dreams, probably about FLTD, but I was so tired I couldn't remember them.
Today I also ate on the "whatever I want" diet, which consisted of the pretty goat cheese lump (it had savory herbs inside, yum) with crispy rice crackers, and when I left yesterday I had thrown all the extra cucumbers and pepper cress into a bowl, and mixed them with a little rice vinegar and olive oil. I topped that with the smoked salmon and a bit of creme fraiche today, and consumed it. Yum. I also had some peppermint oil capsules, and have had some indigestion but not lots and lots, and have had good focus throughout.
I'm sort of tempted to just go no-gluten no-reflux and live with the indigestion, since it's not that inconvenient and mostly triggered by dairy, which I have good avoidance habits about. It WAS nice to pig out on it yesterday and today, but I can go back to my normal fairly dairy-free lifestyle and just use it for treats. The concept of using spices again is entirely tempting, and I can even chip away at things on the reflux diet list if I'm feeling bold, using elimination methods but just checking for reflex. It would make cooking *so* much easier, and I can always drop back to hardcore elimination if I'm having problems.
Hmm.
Well, I've walked Moose and updated, so I am going to head to bed so as to get back to a semi-normal sleep schedule. I start work again this Thursday! Christy loaned me a wonderful-looking book on appetizers, so I have a little light reading; I've been alternating between reading FLTD books and recipe books at night....
It was tons of fun to do, though, and I have a better feel for how long everything takes and what it tastes like; it's probably the pomegranate caramel ice cream sauce that really put it over the top, but I really liked it, so I feel little shame. I was pretty worried after tasting it and it tasted "funny", though it looked wonderful: a rich red translucent thick sauce with a caramel texture, absolutely studded with ruby pomegranate seeds. A taste of the caramel was sort of dry-spicy, not like caramel or sweet at all like I expected.
On vanilla ice cream, though, mixed in, the stuff transforms into a fairly rich caramel sauce, with the flavor of pomegranates, and the crunch and zing of fresh pomegranate seeds. Two thumbs up in my pomegranate-adoring opinion. The downside is that it doesn't keep for long, so it can't be stored; I won't be attempting it at the tea party.
I was able to raid my garden for flower garnishes, which may not be possible in November, but it was nice to do it now.
Sandwiches included:
* Cucumber tea sandwiches with savory buttercream, garnished with minced mitsuba and nasturtiums
* Pepper-cress tea sandwiches with cream cheese, garnished with purple thyme flowers
* Smoked salmon tea sandwiches with creme fraiche, garnished with minced society garlic
* Smoked turkey tea sandwiches with goat cheese, garnished with thyme leaves
* Rose petal jam tea sandwiches with sweet buttercream, garnished with pineapple sage flowers (red!)
Notes on these: I went to a local bakery for bread, and discovered they didn't have any white bread! Nor would they cut it particularly thin. So I may just go to the grocery store for Alfaro's bread, since that went over well anyway. White bread is a must, and I didn't have it; I used sourdough for the smoked salmon and that wasn't a horrible combination, but tea sandwiches just need at least some white bread. I used white rice bread for the rose petal sandwiches and it was kind of "icky". I used rice bread for all of my sandwiches and had to resort to picking the fillings out of some of mine; I just don't like it very much. The Diestal Farms smoked turkey was good, but the sandwiches were a little bland, and could have used some slivered red onions as an improvement. My slicing work on the cucumber was not nearly thin enough, so the sandwiches were prone to falling apart.
I also made coconut, yam, and ginger, onigiri, or Japanese rice balls. These are pretty easy to make.
The methodology is pretty simple:
* Bake a yam in the oven (the deep orange-fleshed garnet variety) for 350 for one hour.
* When the yam is done, take coconut rice with sushi or some other short grain rice rather than long-grain, well-washed for extra stickiness. Follow the instructions for the short grain rice; I use more water and a slightly different heating profile for my sushi rice, and found that it hadn't absorbed everything after 20 minutes: I stirred all the thick coconut back in, and let it simmer another 5-6 minutes.
* Take the still-warm yam and scrape the insides into a bowl.
* Mince some beautiful pink pickled ginger up and mix it into the yam with a fork, until it's a pleasing color and taste. Remember that it can be "extra-zingy" because you're only putting a small amount in, but don't make it falling-over potent. You can flavor it with a little pepper (white preferred) if you wish. You won't need salt.
* Get a bowl of warm water, big enough to dip your hands into, and mix in at least a palmful of salt and a palmful of sugar into it.
* When the rice is just cool enough to handle, dip your hands into the water, grab a handful of rice, and press it between your cupped hands to form it into a ball. Peak your cupped-together hands to make it triangular and four-sided. The salty/sweet water on your hands will season the rice.
* Poke your finger into the rice ball almost all the way to the bottom, and poke the yam mixture into it with your finger. Pinch closed at the top.
* Squeeze the rice ball again. You want it compacted but not overly tight. Dip your hands in the water again if it starts to stick to them.
* Put the rice ball on a plate, and repeat.
These will keep for quite a while at room temperature, and days in the fridge. They're also good filled with other things, using no sugar in the rice water, and no coconut in the rice. I've successfully made them with long-grain rice, but it's more of a challenge. You can make them any size you want, but about enough for two or three bites is right for appetizers.
The rest of the menu was pretty simple: a cheese plate featuring a Dutch cheddar made like a gouda but with too much fat, so it came out more cheddary (nice stuff), Huntsman cheese with Stilton and Double Gloucester, a Brie, and a presentation goat cheese with flowers that no one really wanted so I took it home and consumed it today. This with apple slices and grapes.
I also had feijoa which weren't quite ripe enough even though I got them earlier at the Farmer's Market (do these ripen off the tree?) and a selection of figs, since the market had the black mission, the green (whatever) variety, and brown turkey figs; I took the feijoa home, too, but left the figs.
Also there was a pretty simple crudite tray I did when I got there, of sliced heirloom and dry-farmed tomatoes and red bell pepper, with balsamic vinegar and olive oil provided by my kind hosts, and Nicoise olives. I garnished and flavored this with some of the irrepressible African blue basil from my garden, which is *still* insisting on producing flower spikes. In fact, I had to dodge bees to get some.
The teas (tea party, remember?) were Peet's Pride of the Port, a nice vigorous blend, and Gunpowder Green; on introspection it might have been more clever to use the more delicate Darjeeling as a relief, or to have brought along a mellower green tea. Given that Chris* have a wonderful-looking yixing set, I left the Ti Kuan Yin oolong I'd brought over with them to use for nefarious purposes; they can also use it to season their pot.
And what did I eat? Everything I saw, with the exception of the wheat-based sandwiches, the tomatoes, and the peppers. I'd forgotten my peppermint oil pills, but that didn't slow me down a lot. I *did* suffer some indigestion, probably from the copious dairy, but didn't defocus. Very odd.
After all the eating, I looked at all of their wonderful costumes (I am very envious of their sewing skill; they make such marvelous clothing!), and we geeked a LOT about FLTD. Um, a LOT. At, uh, 3AM or so I apologetically called Brad, who was happy to hear I was alive, and drove home.
An oops this weekend was that I'd crossed dates on Moose's vet appointment, and thought it was today; in fact it was yesterday morning. Wah, but I'll make it right this week. We did have the obedience class, and we went there. He demonstrated absolutely no interest in recalling when let off lead with all the other wonderful exciting dogs in the wonderful exciting yard. Other than that he was pretty great, and we'll be strengthening the recall. For graduation we need to teach him a trick not covered in the class, so I've started him out on tail-chasing, since it's an easy behavior to elicit and it's pretty cute to see a dog that big do it. Well, I don't think he chases his tail so much as rotates for food, but it's the motion that counts....
After this I slept most of the day away, and when I woke up Moose was sleeping next to the bed, instead of hanging out with Brad. Well, I was certainly quieter! I had some strange dreams, probably about FLTD, but I was so tired I couldn't remember them.
Today I also ate on the "whatever I want" diet, which consisted of the pretty goat cheese lump (it had savory herbs inside, yum) with crispy rice crackers, and when I left yesterday I had thrown all the extra cucumbers and pepper cress into a bowl, and mixed them with a little rice vinegar and olive oil. I topped that with the smoked salmon and a bit of creme fraiche today, and consumed it. Yum. I also had some peppermint oil capsules, and have had some indigestion but not lots and lots, and have had good focus throughout.
I'm sort of tempted to just go no-gluten no-reflux and live with the indigestion, since it's not that inconvenient and mostly triggered by dairy, which I have good avoidance habits about. It WAS nice to pig out on it yesterday and today, but I can go back to my normal fairly dairy-free lifestyle and just use it for treats. The concept of using spices again is entirely tempting, and I can even chip away at things on the reflux diet list if I'm feeling bold, using elimination methods but just checking for reflex. It would make cooking *so* much easier, and I can always drop back to hardcore elimination if I'm having problems.
Hmm.
Well, I've walked Moose and updated, so I am going to head to bed so as to get back to a semi-normal sleep schedule. I start work again this Thursday! Christy loaned me a wonderful-looking book on appetizers, so I have a little light reading; I've been alternating between reading FLTD books and recipe books at night....