P I C N I C

I’m leaving early tomorrow morning for the holidays and I made two loaves for breakfast and snacks on the plane. What goes better with bread then ham? Not much. Felix has chosen to skip the bread though.

I’ve been drinking a little of the dark Columbian Popayan now and then, but this morning I pulled a few shots and it has certainly improved. The raw taste of carbon has dissipated and now it’s tasting quite harmonious, with cinnamon, raw sugar, and cloves, as best that I can describe. The beans have a light sweat of oil on their surface, this must be something that happens at a certain point during the roast. I remember getting bags of starbucks beans and they always had this greasy film. It got everywhere and was very sticky. But this relatively dark roast of Joel’s is only beginning to show a sweat.

I’m working on a little cookbook. I thought I could make it like a zine with a new issue every couple months or so. Today I cooked a few recipes that I’m going to put in it. Mashed potatoes and parsnips, a stewed cabbage dish with bacon and cardamon, a mushroom gravy for a rib roast of beef. I’m going to make little sketches and drawings as well.

This is one of the sandwiches I’m going to serve at the food cart. The jelly is made by using large amounts of pectin, there’s no gelatin in it.

A sandwich is a structural construction and a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, while sound from a culinary perspective, is a mess to eat. The jelly squirts out the sides, peanut butter gets all over your hands, the bread is often too soft. So I’m trying to address these constructional issues. The peanut butter is a slurry. I’ve taken regular, creamy, no-sugar added product and added peanut chunks at about a 50/50 mixture. This results in a thickened paste, much less likely to ooze.