Vegetarian Delights

I go through phases where all I want to eat is vegetarian. Meat just isn't appealing and its all about the veg. I have been following a couple other blogs that have fueled my inspiration and set my mouth a' watering. The result was this beet, goat cheese, pine nut tart. Amazing!!

My Valentine's Day Gift

For Valentine's Day I got an espresso machine! Yep. That is one of the competition machines from this last weekend. I am so excited!

The grinder was a present to myself. I am really still learning to use it, but I love it as well!

This will still be the machine for competition next year. So I will be able to practice on the proper machine and take next year's competition by storm!! I am also contemplating going to Anaheim and competing in the Nationals in April. We will see.

By the way, I did not get in to the final round. I went overtime by 47 seconds, which is a point off per second. I wouldn't have made finals even if I had been on time, but I would have scored a personal best. I am happy and I came away with great advice and feedback. Watch out Mountain Region, Susan will be back!!

A bit of a hiatus

I won't be posting much in the next few weeks. I am busy getting ready for the Mountain Regional Barista Competition, which takes quite I bit of my creative juices and doesn't leave much for the kitchen. We have been eating a lot of burritos lately and they aren't all that exciting.

I will try to keep posts about the competition. This week we are finalizing signature drinks and espressos, as well as practicing the pouring of cappuccinos.

Next week I will probably open up to allowing spectators to come the the roasting facility to act as judges, or just to be spectators.

C is for Cookie

What can I say! I have been spoiled...I don't think I have ever made cookies without a mixer. So I was a little intimidated to make cookies in the Tiny Kitchen, since I don't have a mixer on hand. But things went smoothly and the cookies disappeared very quickly! I do need to find real cookie sheets that fit the toaster oven. I used a glass Pyrex pan, and it worked okay, but I could only bake 4 cookies at a time.

Its in the bag...

I went to the market to get another whole chicken to roas

t, mostly to get some pictures this time! And they were out!! I had to settle for thighs. I say "settle" though in reality the thigh is one of my favorite parts of a bird. I am a sucker for dark meat...what can I say.

Now...what to do with them? I was telling my mother-in-law, Joan, about my blog and my cooking endeavors and she told me one of hers. She had roasted chicken in a brown bag, simply putting a little butter under the skin, some salt and peppe

r and poof! The best chicken she had had in awhile! "I can do this too!" I thought. So I did...

I added some red potatoes, sweet onion, carrots and fresh herbs. I was also thinking gravy. A nice traditional roast. And boy did it turn out good!!

My gosh I'm cooking a lot of chicken lately!! I have got to do something else!

And then there was stock!

So I went a step further and made chicken stock from the bones. I made "dark" chicken stoack ala David Tanis in "A Platter of Figs." So easy that you wonder why you ever bought the stuff in a box!

Soup is on the menu for tonight! Chicken and Wild Rice.

Local Eating

Earlier this week I received an email from one of Loveland's local restaurants, McGraff's. They have been doing a rotating weekly special for about 6 months now, and the email was informing me what the specials would be for the month of January. Low and behold one of my favorites was slated to be this week's special: The Krautburger (aka Bierock; German hamburger and cabbage filled roll)

So yesterday we went for lunch.

I asked our waitperson how the feedback had been on the Krautburger, and she responded with great enthusiasm that feedback was quite positive. That sealed the deal, I had to have it!

On the plate was a GIANT krautburger, cut in half, with a side of hot German potato salad and a couple of sweet gherkins. It was wonderful!! I HAD to eat the whole thing, no way was this going to leftover heaven.

McGraff's has the krautburger through Sunday, January 10. If you are craving one, I would go get one!