The More Yah Eat, The More Yah Toot!

Before I start this post, I will make a statement.
I am NOT, nor do I confess to BE, nor think I am, a fitness/health/nutrition "Guru".  I am, however, educated on the effects of various nutrients on the the body.  Despite what you may think, in addition to teaching us (chefs) 1,000 ways to ADD to the obesity epidemic in the United States, we learn a few on how to encourage healthy eating.  IE. an entire semester dedicated to nutrition.  So take my words as you will...

Fiber is an AWESOME nutrient that can support you in weight loss, satiety (fullness), heart health, and aids in digestion.

In the US our supermarkets are loaded up with goodies that contain this stuff called "isolated fiber".  You'll see signs that say things like;
‘1/3 of Your Daily Needs For Fiber!’
‘An Excellent Source of Fiber!’
‘Now With Twice As Much Fiber!’

What that means is that the fiber food manufacturers add fiber to foods that wouldn't naturally have it in order to make us think they're healthy.  The problem is that this manufactured fiber doesn't have the same benefits that natural fiber does.  Example- FIBER ONE BARS. yuck.

I effing hate these things.

The "fiber" in these babies comes from sugarcane fiber and this stuff called "polydextrose".

Eating large doses of this stuff can cause serious gastronomical issues.

 The USDA ruled that any food that contains more than 15 grams of polydextrose must have a warning label stating“sensitive individuals may experience a laxative effect from excessive consumption of this product.”

I don't really like eating foods with warning lables often.

The sources of fiber that actually do the positive things I mentioned earlier on come from natural sources.  That means vegetables, fruit, and whole grains.  Fiber rich foods make awesome snacks because they hold you over until its time for your next meal.  The more skin, seeds, and stems you eat with your fruits and veggies hte more fiber you get.

I know, you probablly just thought, "ew, im not eating a stem of anything."

Well, celery and asparagus are nothing BUT stem.  And most people eat the stem of things like broccoli and cauliflower.  Things like blackberries, kiwi, and cucumber have seeds that are not harmful to eat.  Green leafy veggies are LOADED with fiber.  Beans are another great source.  Black beans have 15 grams of fiber in one cup!  I don't like them often, they leave a stench in my home. (If yah know what i'm sayin')

Have a sweet tooth?  When fruits are dried the natural sugars are intensified becuase of the absence of liquid.  They make an awesome snack.

Oatmeal is an awesome way to start your day off.  The fiber digests slowly and keeps you full until meal time.  Add some fruit to it and your working double time!

This is an awesome salad I love making.  The cucumber, yogurt, and cayanne pepper combine so nicely, its really exciting!

Cucumber Cilantro Salad

4 cucumbers, diced

2 tomatos, diced

1/2 a red onion, diced

1 cup plain Greek Yogurt

1 TBSP lemon juice

2 TBSP fresh chopped cilantro

1/4 tsp cayanne (I add more because I like the spice)

Salt and Pepper to taste. 

     1)  Mix together yogurt, lemon juice, cayanne, and cilantro, like a dressing.

     2)  Add the cucumber, tomato, and onion, stirring well to incorporate.

     3)  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

The Greek yogurt is a good source of protien, so it helps keep you full along with the fiber in cucumber and tomato.

I like to let it marinate in the refridge before I eat it, so everything can mingle. :)

Buen Apetito!

-Diva-Chef

Fill it up, Butter-Cup!

Yesterday's cake was uhhhmazing.  Yea, I broke my diet and a small sliver of sweetness.  Well worth it.
Time to talk about filling and decorating technique.  My favorite.  It's your time to shine as an artist and have a little fun.

I made my own icing, its "simple buttercream" that I learned in culinary school.  An Italian buttercream is my favorite, but it involves tempering sugar and whipping egg whites... things that I was not in the mood to do.

Simple Buttercream

1 bag (2 pounds) powdered sugar
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup milk
1 tsp extract

Stage One

-Blend your sugar and shortening until it has a "mealy" texture.

I like using my hands for this, helps me make sure the shortening is fully incorporated.

The shortening has a tendancy to stick to the inside of the measuring cup,

Easy way to avoid this, spray the inside of the cup with a little cooking spray before you measure.

Stage Two

-Mix the tsp of extract in to your milk

-Add 1/4 cup at a time to the sugar-shortening mixture until your reach your desired consistency.

This is after 1/2 a cup of milk.

It's getting there, but a little too thick to do anything with.

This is the texture I went for, not too thick, not too thin.

I find this to be the most forgiving when it comes to piping.

So, now that thats doneeee... TIME TO PLAY! Lo0o0ove decorating.  Its relaxing.  Obsessing over how it looks actually makes it look worse.  Diva-Chef rule of the day- When cake decorating, take your time and enjoy yourself!  Throw your ipod in and chill out.  I decorate to DMB, because i'm cool like that. :) 

Savory Chefs pick on Pastry Chefs because of how "easy" they have it.  Sweating away on the hot line while getting screamed at is just a touch more stressful chilling out in the bake shop.  Go figure.

Remember those 2 pretty cakes we made yesterday?  One is the top layer, one is the bottom.

You may have gotten a little bit of a dome top on your cake, use a bread knife and just cut it flat.

Fill your piping bag with your yummy buttercream and make a "dam" around the outside of the cake.

This is what your damn dam should look like.

The purpose of this is to prevent your filling from bleeding out.

Your damn dam makes a nice vessel for the the filling

I made strawberry filling, cause its my fav.

Chopped strawberries in simple syrup thickened with cornstartch.

Take the other cake and top her off like a sandwhich.  Make the edges line up the best you can.  Otherwise, the cake will look lop sided.

Now you can apply your "crumb coat" of icing.  The thing about the crumb coat  is that it can look relatively sloppy and its doesnt matter, because you're just going to cover it up.

There she be.

I opted to make a "Rose Cake" after seeing a sweet picture on pinterest.  The original coloring was colored with an edible misting spray, but I didn't have any so i just used good old food gel.  The original was also done with a 1M decorating tip, and I couldn't find mine so I used a slightly smaller version of this tip from my Wilton Master Set.  This made my roses a little less full looking, but they were still nice.

To make your rose, start in the center, then slowly move your tip in a circle around the center point.

Easy as pie!

Mmmmm...pie....

Maybe tomorrow? :)

Buen Apetito!

-Diva-Chef

Bake a cake. :)

It twas a rainy day here in the STL...

What ever is one to do?

BAKE A CAKE, DUHH!

Baking a cake from scratch is just as simple as doing it from the box, it just takes a little longer.  In my opinion, wayyyy worth the time!

Diva-Chef White Cake

-Stage 1

     2 each 9 inch round cake pans

     2 parchment circle

     2 TBSP Flour

     Pam, for spraying

            1) Spray the inside of the pans with pam

            2) Fit the parchment circles to the bottom

            3) Spray the top of the circles and sprinkle with flour

Believe it or not, having this done first is really important! 

As soon as your done mixing your batter the baking powder is in action doing what it does.

YOU GOTTA GET THAT BABY IN THE OVEN!

-Stage 2

     12 TBSP Butter, softened

     1.5 cups Sugar

               1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees

               2) Cream together butter and sugar

I usually pull my butter out and cut it in to cubes and let it sit for about 10 minutes before I blend it, the smaller size of the cubes and the softness of the butter make it easier.

To me, HOMEMADE means HANDMADE.  I alternate between using a whire wisk and a warm wooden spoon but if your more comfortable just pull out an electric mixer.

-Stage 3

     2 cups of all-purpose flour

     2 tsp baking powder

     1/4 tsp salt

          1)Sift together, set aside.

Some chefs say don't worry about sifting your flour, I like to for 2 reasons. 

#1- It removes the lumps and particulates from the flour. 

#2-  It aerates the flour which actually helps make the finished product more light and airy.  I like fluffy cake with volume, so I sift.  Your call.



-Stage 4

     6 large egg whites

     3/4 cup milk

     2 tsp extract

          1) Guess what?  Wisk it together and set aside.

Its really important that you let these ingridients come to room temperature before moving on to the next stage.  If the side of the bowl is cool to the touch, your not ready.

I like to use almond extract in my cakes, the aroma and flavor are amazing to me.

You can play around with extracts to give it the flavor you want.

Another great one is strawberry extract, but be aware it will change the color of the cake to pink.

Use fresh eggs, its makes a diffrence in flavor.

If your eggs are fresh, the white should serperate from the yolk in two flips from shell to shell.

Stage 5

     1) Alternate adding the ingridients from stages 3 and 4 to the butter and sugar you creamed in stage 2.

     2) Mix until smooth and pour half the batter in to each of your prepped baking pan.

Get those puppies in the oven. :)

Middle rack is the best place.

Bake for 20-25 minutes.

(Mine took 22)

Finished cakes will be golden around the edges and spring back when touched.

Let them cool for 5 minutes in the pan then turn them out to finish on a rack.

Little trick-

Make a simple syrup of 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup sugar.

Pour it over the warm cake.

This keeps it moist for DAYS!

Tomorrow- Decorating and filling!  Buen Appetito!

-Diva-Chef

Affective Garnish

Hey!
Just got done with a banquet, a small retirement party for an employee of a local buisness.  They got the same old same...
Green Beans With Bacon and Onion
Chicken Breast
Herb Roasted Potatoes
Blah, Blah, Blah..

These are things i've made so many times that, although AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS, a touch on the over done side.

Well any who, I got to thinking, "What can I do to jazz this up?"  To make people think, "WOW, this was not just a Saint Louis Banquet.  THIS IS SPECIAL! "  Hey, a girl can dream...

My thoughts wandered to garnish.  A garnish is something that you add to your food at the end of cooking that adds to the decore and in some cases, enhances the overall flavor of the food.  People eat with the eyes first.  If it look like garbage it will not please the guest as much as it could have if it looked like a work of art.
Here's an example...

Stew "A"

Stew "B"

Okay, which would you rather eat?  I bet 9/10 would chose stew "B".  Why?  Well, not only because there seems to be some sort of a strange, burnt member in Stew "A", but because Stew "B" looks amazing. 

Taking the time to garnish your meals doesn't only make it more appealing to the guest, it reflects your beliefs as a cook.  Your guests will think, "She must really care about her work."  The chef that garnishes is the chef that cares.  Period.  Rule number one of the Diva Chef, No food goes out with out a garnish.

The more creative the garnigh, the more impressive.  You use imagination!  There are no rules.

America's favorite garnish, chopped parsley

-Diva Chef

First Post

Hey Hey Heyyy!

Super excited to become a blogger.  I love sharing my recipes and passion for food and health with everyone and what better place to do it than on the World Wide Web.  Just to give you a peek at some of my versatility, here are some cute pics from my portfolio.

Love cooking Italian.  Classic "Osso Bucco", (Italian for bone with a hole), is a veal shank with gremolata in the bone.  So tasty.  This one I served with a balsamic grilled egg plant and creamy risotto.

Chilled Shrimp Bisque garnished with whole chive.  A lot of people don't understand the diffrence between a bisque and a soup.  Wanna knoww?  Bisque implies that the actual shell of the crustacean was included in the puree of the soup.  In this case, I used shrimp.

Fruit and Veg carvings.  Those bastard at Edible Arrangements are making a fortune off of something as simple as using cookie cutters on pineapple to make a cute flower.  Believe me people, if you have any eye for arragement, you can do this!

Dutch Chocolate Cake with Espresso Butter Cream and Ganash Oreo Topping.  I don't think I need to talk much more about that!

Looking os forward to sharing my recipes and thoughts with you all!  Buen Apetito!

-Diva Chef