Friday, December 4, 2009

M.I.A.


What happened to my blog?!
I know, I'm asking myself the same question. I'm bummed (and honestly a bit embarrassed) that it has been nearly 2 months since I have posted any new tidbits or treats on here.

I don't know what to say other than I feel as though my job is sucking the life out of me as of late. The last couple months have been a period of great transition, having lost my rockstar assistant, my chef, and my fellow sous-chef all within about a month and a half, life at TCR has not been the same. Training 3 new people, overseeing 2 stores, and heading into the busy season has left me with little time or energy for sharing my passion.

This isn't to say I've been living on canned soup and take out alone though. There have been quite a few interesting things in my kitchen over the last 2 months, though I've been lax about documenting them, and more often just not taking the time to sit down and write them up.


Thanksgiving brought an opportunity to try my hand at several new recipes, the stars of which I think were pumpkin spiced nuts and leek and gruyere bread pudding. Unfortunately I think these are among the recipes that didn't get photographed, and are now nothing but a fond memory and a few inches around the waist!



I will try my best to get my act together and put my heart and spirit back into writing this blog for those few of you who read, and hope in the meantime pictures of the thanksgiving feast in which I partook will suffice.

In hopes of redeeming myself I will also throw in the recipe for pumpkin pie spiced nuts, even though there are no pictures to be had. I trust you to use your imagination!

Pumpkin Pie Spiced Nuts

1 large egg white

2/3 cup sugar

Kosher salt

1 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I looked up a pie recipe, mixed together the spices and then used a tsp of that)

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

3 c assorted nuts

2-3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

Preheat oven to 275. Line large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk egg white with 1 Tbsp sugar in large bowl until frothy. In small bowl combine sugar, 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt, spices, and cayenne. Toss the nuts in the egg white mixture, then stir in the sugar-spice mixture and Worcestershire sauce.

Spoon nuts onto prepared pan in small clusters and bake until golden, 30-35 min. (I baked mine about 20 minutes longer to get the toastiness out of the nuts that I wanted. Take one out and let it cool after the allotted time and taste it, if it is still soft and lacks crunch and toasty flavor, throw the tray back in the oven for a bit. It would be hard to overcook them at this low temperature). Cool then break apart.

Yields about 5 cups of nut clusters.

If you're like me you'll have to hide them in a dark corner in your kitchen so you kind of forget they are there and don't eat them in one sitting!!