Adventures in gluten free baking

So I recently tried to do some gluten free baking for my cousin Bryan and my aunt Heidi who have been diagnosed with Celiacs disease or whatever the fuck you call it. for the sake of conversations we will refer to them as Glutards. so I decided to bake these cookies with this bobs red mill gluten free AP flour. it smells a little funky and as I'm sifting it I noticed that it says,"for best results in baking add Xantham gum" in my head I'm just like what the fuck is Xantham gum, I do a quick bit of wiki research and figure out what it is, and then after a quick perusing in the pantry I find out that I have none. so Apparently it is used as a stabilizing agent in several products, especially those of the gluten free variety. I do some more research and figure out that you can substitute corn starch for it as a stabilizer, so that's what i did. I'm not entirely sure if that is a gluten free ingredient, but after much painstaking label reading i gave up and added it to the mixture i was sifting. I made these cookies based on the back of the heath bits bag and added semi sweet chocolate chips and some Reece's peanut butter chips. after sifting and creaming and beating and folding I had a pliable hopefully usable dough. I tasted the dough and thought,"well it tastes like its gluten free." it wasn't bad, just a little off tasting. so I baked off a sample cookie and after adding heat to the chemical equation I was left with a soft chewy cookie that actually tasted pretty good. I'm not sure if beating it a little more well help but with the exemption of gluten the cookie definitely doesn't hold together as well as I would have hoped, but hey it still tastes good and that's what counts right? so I'm going to bake the whole mess of these cookies and hopefully my relative Glutards will be satisfied. Stage mahizzal out.

some new edibles

the first image is of my latest culinary conquest which are some peanutbutter cookies with caramel centers that im turning into a cheesecake crust for my brothers for thanksgiving. They seem to have come out ok but I havnt eaten them.

The second image is of a cranberry lime hibiscus cheesecake that i made decorated with candied hibiscus flowers. people seemed to enjoy it, I thought it could have set a little more but i was in a crunch for time.

The third and final image is of an E.T. Bagel toasted with pimento cheese (recipe lovingly handed down from ms. Alexandra bent by way of her mother Esther Bent) and some deliciously cooked filet mignon sliced and placed on top. needless to say it was the most banging breakfast ive had in a long time. Im on a leave of absence from my job at LAB and im hoping i can get my job back when my leave is over, all seems good on that front but you never know. Hell maybe its time for me to try my hand at pizza tossing. either way I am excited about my culinary future and hope that whomever reads this will enjoy the images i have posted.

FALL!!!!

So my favorite season is here, not too hot, not too cold, just right. The clothes, the holidays, the flavors, OMG I love FALL!!!!!! Im working on some new dessert Ideas for the lab and I am very excited about them. this is really where I feel I will shine as fall flavors are my forte' if there was one to be had. New menu is coming out soon and one of my cheesecake ideas is on it which makes me feel great, My passion for food grows with each passing day and I am hopefull that, even after a couple of years, I will not be as bitter and angry as some of the people I have met in this industry. OMG honeycrisp apples are here!!!! they are amazing and it is one of my dreams to make a Hard apple cider incorporating them with a more sour/tart apple. hell they go great in everything and are only around until about thanksgiving. GAHHHH iM SO EXCITED!!!

fucktarded shit storm of a sunday.

so yesterday was nutso! I got called in to work early on a sunday, which is traditionally a very slow day where we dont even serve late night food we just clean the kitchen, ad it was fucking busy as shit. I was flabbergasted when I hit the door and saw the sheer number of people sitting down, and not only the number of people but the number of people with menus in their hands. As soon as I got back there it was business time, two cheese plates needed to be made right off the bat and none of the cheese had been cut for them and no date coins either. there where several things that where not prepped, or if they where they where minimally prepped and had run out by the time I got there. All of this craziness I soon found out was due to a show at the civic center, The pixies were playing. Great one of the hipsterest hip bands playing in The mecca for hipster douche bags that is Asheville, NC. so once the show started it slowed down and we were able to play a little bit of catch up, then coco(one of my managers) said she wanted to serve late night instead of doing the usual sunday cleaning of the kitchen, which I was totally down with because I actually do more work usually when I have to clean, but tonight was not a typical sunday night. The Pixies let out and the shit storm began again. I probably did more tickts on late night than some other regular nights, and I cook late night by myself. But luckily Nohe and Adam stayed and helped out for like an hour. at the tail end of the night The lead guitarist and drummer for the pixies came in and ordered one of everything, fuck you pixies! lol but its ok because I asked the wairess for their Autographs and they were apparently more than happy to oblige. hopefully more celeberties will come in to the lab in the future and I can build a small collection of Autographs. anyways it was crazy but overall good night. I.LOVE.COOKING. PERIOD.

Pizza!!!!

Pizza, in my opinion, is just one of those foods that everyone has a different idea about. My personal favorite style is NY style, A thin chewy/crunchy crust with big slices and lots of pepporoni. I am also a fan of other styles but I would have to say that that is my favorite. Since moving to Asheville I have been searching for a really good pizza place and If I had to rank them in a top three manner it would go as follows,
3. Standard Pizza Company- Theyre crust is very good and the atmosphere seems to be kind of like a modern artsy type. I liked the topping options and I also really liked the I (Heart) Gluten sticker on the tip jar. The day I went there it was slow but the staff was a little bit standoffish(big surprise for these fucking hipsters in Asheville) I enjoyed the pizza very much though
2./1. Circle in the square/Marcos family Pizzaria- Now the reason I put these two dueling for the top spot is because Marcos is actually my favorite because of the fresh tomato, mozzarella, and basil that they make every pizza with, but that being said the crust is sometimes just too salty, its not always that way but when it is it is! i have heard that their other locations crust is almost always on point, and truth be told I love marcos regardless. Now Circle in the square is what most locals will suggest and there is certainly reason for it. good good NY style pizza, (not really the freshest ingredients but it is still extremely good. I do find it to be a little greasy at times though. even with all that the atmosphere almost doubles its appeal for me, When I see a guy with a backwards jets hat, gold chain and a little bit of hairy chest stickin' out rollin the dough out, I know im in for something good. plus I love hearing them say my name with that new york accent, makes me feel like im visiting my moms side of the family up north and that is a comforting feeling for me. plus they have a deli with boars head meats and thats a plus in my book.
Honorable mention: Diggable pizza- they have a great french bread crust and I would love to explore it more, I ate a specialty jumbalayah pizza there the one time I ate there and while good i dont believe it was the best representation of what they are capable of doing, I would highly suggest visiting it in west asheville if you can brave the hipsters.

The Lab

I have been working at the Lexington Avenue Brewery(the LAB) in downtown Asheville since opening night, about 9 months ago. I have been through two menu changes and another is on the way. I really really like working there, because its a good learning experience for me. the menu is so varied, we do so many different dishes, for instance on this menu we have a Fried soft shell crab bahn mi (vietnamese sandwich) and a duck confit with a puff pastry wrapped earlington cheese, brandied figs and a cherry gastrique. both of those items are different from each other by a whole lot and I enjoy he variety in the menu because it allows me to learn alot of different types of foods. On top of that they allow me to do specials, both desert and regular food, which is really nice to be able to be creative because I love exploring food. I am currently working the fry station during the week, a little bit of prep and late night work, and working garmanger on the weekend. I am excited to be working here(although I would LOVE to be making more money) and I am very excited to finally be involved in the development of the new menu. I have only been working in a kitchen professionally for the last nine months, but it is my passion and I am happy to be in a career where i am excited to go to work everyday. we have mostly local products and I am especially happy about our latest undertakings. We have begun to compost our waste and we have our first black or red angus cow (i forget) that has been fed for the last seven months on our very own agrocycled beer grain from the brewing process, and it has been broken down locally for us at May's Meats in Taylorsville NC. Lots of exciting things going on at the lab and Im ready for it.

The begining

Well i Have finally decided to start a blog discussing my passion and personal experiences with food. I will use this space to post my opinons on Local restaraunts in Asheville NC and other places I eat, and also discuss my own recipe tinkering and food ideas. I hope that you, the reader, will enjoy my blog as I begin to build it.