Help The Gothic Gourmet and donate for fresh products!

Dear readers, I have some wonderful items up for grabs for mere donations.

Remember when I told you that I was pressure canning items? Well, I have up for grabs (pictures enclosed) Spiced Blueberry Jam (made with fresh ground nutmeg and a few secret ingredients).

Strawberry preserves. (Can someone say YUM?) Perfect on hot rolls, toast, pancakes, and just about everything. PB&J sandwiches are also a favorite here at the Gothic Gourmet's household. Almost out of stock. Donate now to grab your own jar.

1/2 pint is up for a $7.00 donation. ` pint is up for a 9.00 donation. (I have dogs to feed) sigh. But seriously, it's good stuff and you will want more. :D

Also up for grabs are My most famous wonderful dilly hot pickles! I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I simply loved to get a pickle out the big jar at the market that My Grandfather took Me to. In fact, I can never pass up a Kosher dill pickle, a pickle hot, mild, sour or whatever! I have to have one. ;)

I have quarts of Kosher Dills/HOT or Mild up for donations of 9.00 USD. Yes, sounds expensive but they are WORTH the money. FRESH local quality ingredients were used and rest assured that anything that you 'donate' for has been perfectly pressurized under USDA guidelines with a NEW pressure caner. I don't necessarily 'trust' water baths for jams etc. so I pressurize everything to be on the safe side. I wouldn't have you eat anything I wouldn't eat Myself.

Also up for donations are (only have a couple left) Ham And Bean Soup 1 Quart. Lovingly made all day long with smoked bacon, smoked ham, soaked beans, fresh broth, etc. etc. I can't let you know everything I put in there or it wouldn't be a secret anymore. :D

I have 3 Quarts left and they are up for a donation of 9.00 a Quart. Fine fine ingredients went into this batch including fresh herbs, fresh ground spices and special salts and fresh ground pepper. OUT OF STOCK.

Also up for donation is My fresh local pitted cherries. I pitted them Myself and yes, I do wear gloves and everything is perfectly sanitary and sterilized. (I have to add that because I always wonder where things come from and who makes them and how sterile are people?) I have OCD so I really go over and over what I do and make sure it's right.

One Quart of cherries are for an 8.00 donation. Think of the perfect pies you can make! I will even include My famous cherry pie recipe to go along with each Quart.

Another item up for donation is My peachy keen peaches in heavy syrup. I did of course, blanch and shock the peaches, peel them pit them, cut them and lovingly can them in Quart Ball jars. I purchased the peaches locally and made sure they were of excellent quality. I ate a bunch Myself. Yum! Perfect for peach pie, peach cobbler or simply to eat fresh out of the jar. A $9.00 donation is asked for these fine fine peaches. I will also of course, include My famous peach Pie recipe with each Quart and a recipe for the peach cobbler My hubby begs for. :D

Now for you hotties, I have up for donation My special super secret cha cha cha salsa. This salsa has just a hint of heat but certainly not enough to burn your tongue. I do however, have My super Cha Cha Cha green tomato and Tomatillo salsa. This batch packs some neat heat. It's nice and slowly builds up to a nice heat. I put fresh local habanero and Jalapeno, peppers into this batch along with some fresh hand ground spices, fresh shucked sweet corn, specialty salt, and excellent local made vinegar. (Not your typical cider vinegar either. This one is super secret and super delicious! This vinegar aged in barrels was also put into My 'milder' salsa. 1/2 pint is up for a donation of 6.00 one pint is up for a donation of 9.00 and I have ONE quart left of My zesty cha cha cha salsa (milder) up for a donation of 14.00.

These salsa's are wonderful with lime corn chips, regular corn chips, topped on eggs, on burritos, or any application that you want a little 'zing a ling'. Get your cha cha cha salsa while the getting is good. Almost gone.

Also up for grabs are My homemade bath salt scrubs. Ladies and men folk alike are sure to enjoy this luxury salt scrub. Made with fresh key limes, key lime zest, dead sea salt, and the finest of oils (imported from abroad) you are sure to have the finest of bath experiences. No parabens, no artificial ingredients,and NOT tested on animals. What more could you ask for? Oh, OK how about each jar is handmade (not in a large batch but each jar you get is made personally for YOU). :-)

Hand zested key limes, hand squeezed key lime juice and extracted imported fine oils and salts. Nothing is better and I stand behind this product. I make it when ordered. I use it Myself and I must confess, dying or not, I have beautiful skin.

8 OZ. for a donation of 15.00
16 OZ. for a donation of 20.00
20 OZ. for a donation of 28.00

Worth it's weight! Your skin will be silky smooth and oh so soft.


Thank you thank you thank you and enjoy! Each item is homemade under strict sterile guidelines and sure to please the picky.

Well dear readers, it is so very early in the morning and I need sleep. Until We meet again (in virtual ink that is), keep living, laughing, loving and of course cooking!

As always,
The Gothic Gourmet.

Tarte Tatin!

As I type this, 'Secrets Of A Restaurant Chef' plays in the background. Ann is making braised chicken with mushrooms, bacon and pureed almonds, and chocolate-covered profiteroles. I have no idea what profiteroles are but I am soon to be informed.

Speaking of cooking, it isn't too hot today so I feel that I can at the very least use the top range and boil some Perogies and then pan fry them with butter. A dollop of sour cream (okay a LOT of sour cream as I am a sour cream junkie) and a few fresh cut chives and we are in business. I have these apples that My husband bought from one of My favorite local farmers (his name is Phil) but I digress. Back to the apples I have. I need to use them and I just got this most wonderful awesome Tarte Tatin pan. The neat factor is that it is a dish and a serving dish as well. Basically once you flip your Tatin you have a cover for it. I got it on sale at Williams-Sonoma. for a real steal. No, of course dear readers I did not 'steal it' per say, but I got it at an incredible price. They even put the quite hefty pan in a nice 'green safe' bag. I can reuse it every time I go back to Williams-Sonoma. :-)

I also got a super sized bottle of 'FINE FINE FINE' vanilla. I ask you this dear reader, can anyone have enough vanilla? I don't think so. I have vanilla beans, vanilla paste, different varieties of vanilla from different regions/Countries. Different strengths, etc. etc. etc. I LOVE vanilla. Whenever I make something that calls for Vanilla beans I get all excited because I like to scrape them out. Amazing how many seeds are in each pod eh? I then use the bean itself for vanilla sugar. Simply add your used beans to your jar of sugar and voila 'vanilla sugar'!

If I had the money I would have purchased a few more items that I truly need for My baking. The vanilla (actually might not seem like a big cost to most people) but for Me? It was expensive and I had to save up for it. I actually went there for that and that alone and ended up getting the Tarte Tatin pan because it was like only a few dollars. Still, even those few dollars could have been spent on something else but it was fun to purchase and I feel normal when I get to go shopping even if it's only for something small.

Funny how when you become poor/broke you appreciate everything. You simply don't think about things like..oh say 'I am going to go buy a hot dog and some french fries' and not bat an eyelash. Now? Now I can't simply go 'buy a hot dog and fries' without seriously thinking about it and how much I really 'want it'. There is a difference between 'wants' and 'needs'.

You all know who you are if you are in My position. Anyway, back to the topic at hand. (Wait, I have to take the water out of the stand up air conditioner I have here in My apartment as our windows won't allow Us to put in a window unit. Sigh. I have the empty out the water quite often) and hobbling over to the restroom isn't much fun either. I know, quit whining Gothic Gourmet! OK, I will.

Alright, that is done and I'm back. I'm sure you were all just waiting on bated breath to hear from Me again. Too see My incredible virtual ink right? I'll suppress My laughter for now and simply smirk.

I'm doing it again, going off the beaten path and rambling about things that I did not intend to talk about while totally forgetting about the real topic. Sigh. I do that a lot don't I? Forgive Me please. Please?

Do you have any neat Tatin recipe's? Please share them if you do! :-)
I'll let you know how this Tarte Tatin ceramic piece works out. It looks lovely. It is red which is My main color in the kitchen (that and stainless steel). Anyway, apple Tatin tomorrow or tonight depending on how I feel and I hope you enjoy the photos. Until I virtual ink again in to this big black hole, keep living, loving laughing and most of all cooking while doing all of those things. :-)

As always,
The Gothic Gourmet.

A confession..

Hello dear readers (reader) nobody? I really need some help here. I have been looking around on the web at other folks blogs and see how well put together they are and then I look at Mine. Yikes!

As I type this, Iron Chef America blast in the background. Its battle banana tonight which is very interesting and fun on account that I enjoy bananas so very much. Potassium My friends which, unfortunately I lack a great deal of naturally. Back to My original point, My blog. Well, I have been searching on the internet looking for ways to beef it up and make it look nicer. Hey, I might not have too very much to say right now that interest anyone of importance but I could at the very least 'make the blog look interesting enough to read'. Any feedback and help in that area would be greatly appreciated.

I actually have so much to share with you all. Things that you would actually find very interesting but for now I have to keep mum about it for fear of rocking the proverbial 'danger boat'. You just wait though. You'll write your friends about it. (Okay, maybe not) but I'll write My friends about it when I make some that is. :-) Hey now, just kidding for those of you who really are My friends. (I can count them on one hand) but you know who you all are.

Again, any help in web layout/design would be great. My Father is a computer programmer but the last thing he wants to do when he gets off work is 'work some more'. Can you blame him? I can't wait to try some of My homemade pickles. I made mostly canned Kosher Dills with a bit of them mighty spicy the others with more of an old world traditional style. I added some lemon slices/wedges into a couple of the jars as well to see how that would work out. Maybe the extra acidity will add a more sour flavor or maybe I'll end up with a lemony pickle which would suit Me just fine. I may have made mention before that I adore lemons and limes above all other food items in the world. I love the sour, I love the acid, I love the smell. The zest is the best! Cleaning with citrus is nice too and I even decorate My windows with lined up lemons for a bright fun, cheery look.

Anyway, back Iron Chef America's battle banana. Bobby Flay, once again is being challenged. I note quite often that he seems to be the most challenged of Iron Chefs. What a difficult job that must be to hold. My husband nearly peed himself because he saw one of the challengers Chef's slice plantains with a mandolin and her fingers were really really close to that blade. I wince when I see things like that too. I mean, hey even the most seasoned of Chefs make culinary cuts so deep that it sends them to the hospital. I recall the episode of 'Chefography' which featured Iron Chef Bobby Flay in Japan. Oh My what a mess that was. Poor Mr. Flay just wasn't having a good go at it as he nearly cut his finger or or thumb (think it was his thumb) off with a food processing blade. To add insult to injury, he got electrocuted as there was water on the floor and next thing you know, ZAP! The final salt in the wound was when he stood up on the table (onto a cutting board I believe) and held his hands up high. A moment of triumph, or was it? For Me it was, I was impressed that he kept going even after all the injuries and lack of home support in another Country. He was really beaten down by Iron Chef Japan's Masaharu Morimoto who scolded him for standing on something used for cooking (a cutting board) as The Japanese see food utensils/etc. as sacred. Mr. Flay of course, was unaware of this as was I. I mean how would you know that unless you were told prior to coming to the Country?

In any event, Flay lost but was invited back for another battle in which he won! He moved the cutting board and stood back up on the counter victorious! To this day, Flay and Morimoto are very good friends and frequent each others restaurants. You really should catch that episode of 'Chefography' if you can as it was so interesting. In any event I'm off to go look for other ideas on the web to beef up My site (even if it is just Me reading it) any job you do should be a job well done (no, I take that back) an EXCELLENT and EXCEPTIONAL job.

If you see any interesting changes it is only because I found some help from one of you or from another random faceless stranger on the www.

Until then, keep living, laughing, loving, and most of all, cooking!
As always, The Gothic Gourmet.

Operation Meltdown Is Under Way...

Have you ever misread your own directions/instructions that you have handwritten? This could be a recipe you have used plenty of times (or maybe not) that has always worked out beautifully and bingo, you take a wrong turn and end up with either 1 of three things. 1) You end up with a pleasant mistake. These are called happy mistakes because your recipe has been improved or changed in a way that changed the whole molecular structure of the dish into something amazing, a discovery even. Case in point, I read once about a lady that baked the most wonderful cranberry muffins. She had made them a million times over and next thing you know, she took a wrong turn and forgot to put the sugar in her mix/batter first and ended up throwing it in at the last minute to try and salvage the batter. What happened next was pretty neat. She ended up with a yummier muffin that was moist on the inside and a little bit crisp (caramelized) on the outside. A textural change that worked out for the better and now she makes them the new way all the time.

2) You end up with something salvageable and close to your original recipe (enough that your family knows what it is and what you were trying to accomplish). Something edible but not quite up to your standards. This is called a salvageable mistake. Something you will not toss into the bin.

3) You end up with a total utter flop that you wouldn't even attempt to salvage and toss it into the bin, and afterward slowly slide your body down the side of the kitchen wall until you are sitting on the floor with your hands on your head and tears in your eyes. Every Chef/cook has done it (I think) well, I hope because I would feel pretty stupid if only a few people made culinary mistakes and that I would have to include Myself in that list of 'only a few people'.
However, I really don't think that is the case. Everyone has had some kind of flub up. The thing to remember is to pick yourself back up and try again. It is painful when it was a recipe that took all day to make or when you saved up all your pennies to purchase expensive ingredients to use in the flub up. Yep, that sure does hurt. Sometimes though, even if your mistake took you all day to make you might end up at the very least not too far in the gutter if say, you were making something like I made yesterday. Bread. Flour isn't too very expensive and yeast won't break your bank either. A bit of sugar, salt, butter and milk won't necessarily bankrupt you but still, wasted money is wasted money and nobody likes that. NOBODY. That is unless you are Mr. Rockefeller and have so much money that you light your cigars with hundred dollar bills that is.

Sigh, if only. Nope, just a poor dying servant slave to food and the pure joy of cooking/creating and painting/decorating plates. Sauces, this is something I really want to specialize in and I need to start experimenting. There is nothing like a lovely sauce to go over/on a dish or to simply garnish/decorate a lovely plate of food. Quite elegant indeed. You sort of feel like Picasso with a paint brush in hand and the pallet being that of your plate. In any event, there I go again, going off the beaten path and totally talking about something completely different than what I set out to do in the first place.

I just know this blog is nothing but a giant black hole in the Universe. Nobody reads it (maybe My Dad does) I hope he does as I have showed it to him before. Nobody comments on it. Maybe I can just treat this like My daily diary and include other things about My not so interesting life along with My recipes and food pictorials? That way, when I do expire, My husband and or any friends I may have had will have something to read and remember Me by.

Back to My flop/bread mistake of yesterday. Dang nab it! It took Me so long to go through the making of the yeast roll process and I flubbed it up with ONE yes (that is all it takes is one) mistake. I also noticed that a tool I use for kneading My dough has mysteriously gone missing in action. It was a red sturdy plastic scraper (like the paint scraper tools/metal scraper tools) that you could buy at a hardware store, only this one was made specifically for the kitchen to be used in a variety of applications (including that of kneading dough). Gone. Maybe someone could donate one to Me (hint hint) and send it over through the mail if they have a spare one that they aren't using. Okay, enough shameful begging for now right? Right.

Okay, I promise this time that I am going to tell you about My bread debacle of yesterday. I added DOUBLE the amount of melted butter that I needed for the recipe. Of course, I found this out after I had already mixed all the wet ingredients together and more than half of the flour. This means: I needed more milk, another egg perhaps, more salt, more sugar, more more more of everything as the extra butter totally screwed Me up big time. The dough did rise and I did have a good amount of dough (more dough than normal) so I could at least make the rolls larger. I figured if I did that, I could compensate for them not being as 'heavy' as they should have been. Heavy isn't even the right word. SOLID and firm would be more adequate words to describe how the dough should have been. Nope, when I started kneading it again and pinching off the pieces to make the rolls I knew something was wrong. I punched down the dough as normal but noticed that it wasn't as silky and heavy as that of My previous roll dough. I tried My best to make nice spheres and even knead each one of those to make it silky smooth and perfectly round but it had these little pot marks on them. I stuffed each muffin tin with a large amount of dough and let them rise for the second time. Again, they looked almost perfect. Almost as they should have been but they just weren't 'as solid' as they should have been. When lifting up the muffin pans they weren't as heavy or hard to lift as before. You get the gist of it.

Well, I baked them and the aroma was lovely just as you would expect from a perfect yeast roll. I peeked inside the oven and they were browning nicely, just as you would expect them to. Some were so large that the dough was hanging over parts of the muffin pans. After taking them out of the oven and putting them onto a cooling rack and took one out of the tin and onto a plate to cool more quickly so I could give it a taste. I immediately noticed the pot marks on the tops of the rolls (not smooth and perfect as they should have looked). I also immediately noticed that these rolls were light and sort of 'fluffy'. They weren't the solid stick to your ribs type rolls as I had made before. :-(

Still, they tasted just fine and We took them to a dinner party that friends of ours were throwing to serve along with the dinner they made and everyone loved them. They were actually thrilled that I brought them because they had forgotten to buy bread to serve along with the meal and now that problem was solved. My friend Julies son seemed to like them and wanted to put a piece of cheese inside one (Velveeta cheese) as I recall. Sounded good to Me too. I love hot cheese sandwiches or any type of cheese filled bread/dough. There used to be this lovely little place down the road from where We live called 'The Kolache Factory' that had tons of lovely filled breads. My Father and I simply loved that place and would frequent it quite often and bring home boxes of their wonderful Kolache's (or would that be Kolachies)? In any event, as it were, I would love to make some of those sometime soon. It is so hot as of late though that heating up the oven (even the new energy efficient oven I purchased) can be brutal so I don't do it very often at all. The range is fine and doesn't make the house heat up like that of the lower level part of the oven. You can put any type of filling from savory to sweet inside Kolaches. It was a nice chewy yeast dough like the one I use for My rolls. I especially liked the broccoli cheese and rice filled ones along with the spicy Jalapeno sausage filled Kolaches. Ham and cheese filled Kolaches were always a big winner with Me as well. I tried a few sweet ones a few times in the AM but this was because they were on special or something and not because I went there for anything sweet in nature. NOW, the breakfast Kolaches were super awesome. Egg and cheese filled, omelet filled with green peppers. YUM. I also liked the steak and cheese filled ones and of course, the Barbecue filled Kolaches.

I am hungry again. Back to the rolls. For some reason I cannot keep My mind on one topic at a time today. We ate them and they were good but they weren't 'excellent'. Time to get back on the horse again I suppose.

Until then, keep living, laughing, loving and most of all, cooking!
As always, The Gothic Gourmet.

A few photos of past projects...

Okay, so here We have a few past food projects. Lemon Meringue pie, Shepherds Pie, homemade Sushi (I actually have a couple better pictures of that and will include them later.
Next We have homemade chocolate cake with homemade chocolate butter cream frosting, Beef Wellington, plated Beef Wellington, wrapped homemade Fleur de sel caramels, and part of the caramel making process along with homemade bread.

I am getting hungry and want to make some lemon pie (which is My husbands favorite pie in the whole wide world) BUT he also loves My yeast rolls and actually, We ate every single one of them. Pair that with some homemade spiced blueberry jam (thank you Mr. Alton Brown from The Food Network) and boy howdy that's 'Good Eats'.
Looks like I'm going to be busy and I'm procrastinating right now so I had better move it on along. Until then, keep living, loving, laughing and of course, COOKING! :-)

As always,
The Gothic Gourmet.

Maybe man can live on bread alone? Well, throw in a bottle of water and he can.

I am in the mood for more 'Lamberts' now 'Eve's' rolls. It sure takes a long time to make them though but it's so worth the effort. I suppose if I get My rear end upstairs after this blog entry that I may have enough time to get them done before the hubby gets home from work, and really, what makes a home smell better than the aroma of freshly baked bread? Nothing that I can think of aside from a nice scented candle or some homemade cookies baking.

Speaking of, I better get up there and make sure I have My recipe written down which also reminds Me to keep writing My cookbook. I have a groovy cookbook upstairs that you make your own entries in. I suppose I could make a virtual cookbook as well but then I run the risk of some glitch happening and losing all My valuable entries. Well, I guess I could put the recipes on the computer and then back them up on disk so I will have a copy in case something happens to the written cookbook I'm working on.

Well dear readers (you are out there aren't you?) It's time to make bread/rolls. Yes yes, I'll bring a camera upstairs. (Maybe).

Until then, take care, keep cooking, living, laughing and loving.
As always, The Gothic Gourmet.

Hmm. The Julie/Julia project.

The Julie/Julia Project

What can I say? I saw the movie and fell in love...only because I too have been a fan of Julia Child for years. Just yesterday I watched her show (hosted by Polaroid) on making 'French bread'. I had to laugh in spite of Myself because she had so many flub ups and they were all captured on film. Priceless! So funny too that 'Polaroid' was helping to host the show. STRIKE A POSE!

If you are familiar with the French bread making episode, you will recall that Julia had a paint scraper in which she was kneading her dough with. One lump of dough was totally overworked, the other was perfect. As it were, she took her paint scraper and was kneading her dough when she all of the sudden uhhh, I don't know what she did but the paint scraper went flying across her kitchen and the look on her face was PRICELESS! She laughed and said basically that 'this is not what you do'.

Anyway, I thought wow, I am a day late and a dollar short...sure I have no project such as 'Julie' had. No time line (aside that I don't know how much time I have left) but one thing I noted in the film about Julia Child was that... I watched her making hats at the like and the look on her face was something I saw in My own mirror. Discontent. Well, I don't even know if I can truly say that. I am looking for the words but coming up short.

Lets see. I worked for Dior. I truly did enjoy that job and I was wonderful at it but all though I did exceptionally well and won many awards and kudos..I had that same look that Julia (well not the real Julia) had on her face in the film.

Next I became a Flight Attendant and I truly can't complain too much about that job because even with it's horrible time lines/ lack of sleep, jet lag, etc. etc. etc. (Not knowing what nuts you were going to end up on an aircraft with for 4 or more days TRAPPED LIKE A RAT IN A CAGE..it was still groovy cool most times. Sure the flight bags were heavy to tote around, the people were arrogant and mean in First Class many times but still there were great people, great times and great places that I had the grand opportunity to visit. I have been EVERYWHERE on this planet (well almost) and for that I am thankful. I had to give up a lot for it, but in the end I still smile when I think about the places I have ventured into.

Heck, I could write a whole blog about the places I have been, people I have met, people on the planes and crazy things that have happened in the air. Mechanical failures, near misses. Near death.

FUN! (Not really) but interesting at least.

I finally (like Julia) found My 'thang' in cooking. I truly did find the joy of cooking. It is still a joy each and every day that I am spared a second longer on this planet. A true joy indeed.

I have asked My husband to buy Me 'The Joy Of Cooking' cookbook as I must readily admit, I have not read to this very day.

I hope I have enough time left to get through it. Anyway, I basically wanted to check in with this big black hole of nothing..this great void.. this meaningless virtual ink..that nobody is reading. It's OK though because, this blog helps Me even if it isn't doing what I initially intended it to. (Help others). Maybe..just maybe someone will happen upon it and like it. Maybe..just maybe I will find something worth a damn to talk about that interest other people. I am My own biggest fan and that is okay too I suppose but still, We all want to leave some sort of mark before We kick the bucket don't We? I do.

In any event, I'll hopefully see you all soon (whoever you are or whoever you aren't.) Perhaps a fig newton of My imagination. However, imagination is important in our survival don't you think? Without it, dreams cannot be created much less achieved.

I miss My dad. I wish We were still close and yes, I know this has nothing to do with cooking or this silly old blog. If anyone has any ideas on how to get closer to him again I am at least open to advice.

Until then, keep living, laughing and loving, and most importantly creating and cooking!
As always,
The Gothic Gourmet.