Monday, August 17, 2015

And That Same Day

Dang - it was a kitchen EXTRAVAGANZA! 

The Farm/Sea to Table movement is alive and growing (literally) at Casa MacNaughton 

Blueberry Muffins


Ahi Poke - gotta love the raw fish

Home grown Roasted Peppers stuffed with goat cheese and topped with tomatoes .
Who says we don't farm in San Diego?


Grilled Yellow Tail Tuna with Ginger Lime Sauce. 
Growing our limes, tomatoes and peppers as well as hitting it big on the tuna boat pays off in kitchen creativity and culinary goodness.

It Is What It Is...
Namaste

If At First You Don't Succeed...

Add chocolate!

Caramels are a tricky thing, as is all candy making.

Ya gotta pay ATTENTION people!

So me  not paying ATTENTION  led to somewhat of a caramel fail. I had an order for 2 lbs of sea salt caramels (yay!!!) While looking away for a few seconds, the temperature climbed a measly 2 degrees and BAM! It hit the hard crack stage. (yes, I just wrote hard crack - haha- funny on numerous levels) Too brittle to cut for my melt-in-your mouth, don't stick to your teeth sea salt caramels. OH NO!!!

After a taste test to determine that they were not burned and careful consideration about what else to do, I decided to conquer my fear and... drum roll... temper chocolate.

I began my research in my usual way. Hey Siri! No really - Hey Google! I skimmed my way through a myriad of articles, recipes and blogs and found a bunch of sciencey type stuff on why chocolate tempers. AKA your candy doesn't melt and become weird and mushy at room temperature. You know, like the regular candy bars. Soooooo who cares, snooze fest, just tell me how to do it. I'll spare you the boring details, you can google it yourself if you really want to know.

Here we go! Watch and learn.Pictures included. 
Oh darn...Too Hard (yea, I just said that too)

That's why we have the NINJA!
Voila! Ice cream topping!

Oh. that's it, you say??? You said, "Chocolate?"
Feast Your Eyes on that $4.99 Big Boy
Temper it, Mix in the caramels. That doesn't look too pleasant but looks can be deceiving.

OH YEA!!! EPIC SUCCESS!!!!
And that's what you do when you don't pay ATTENTION! 
Conquer your fear peeps! Cover it in chocolate!

It is what is is...
Namaste
Even Big Kids Like to Lick the Bowl