Time for a new post

OK - so I am not really great at keeping this up I will admit.  I'm busy you know. (just kidding)

So what can I tell you since the last post...

1.   I have finally been approved for the Gateway program at PARO and am now receiving E.I.  This is good and a bit scary because it really is happening.

2.   Our new logo is complete.

3.   We have a Facebook page

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Thunder-Bay-ON/MadeFRESH/127440370667353

4.   I currently have a survey our for my business plan.  The writing of which hurts my head.  I find it really hard to write about things I mostly have to guess at.  (it is on the Facebook page if you want to fill it out)

Today I am taking a break from the writing and doing some baking.  Today and tomorrow I am making egg bread to test out how hard it is to make our own bread for French Toast.

Wish me luck!!!

Updates, Unemployment, Unhealthy

I know it has been a while but I though I would send a quick update to tell you all what we are up to.


Like the title says I am now unemployed - Yeah!!!!  We applied for a Federal program called Self Employed Benefits back in October and still do not have the official word on if I have been accepted.  Because of the way the program runs I can't do a whole lot on the restaurant until I am accepted... so we wait.  What I can do is work on my Business Plan and continue to cook and bake and work on the menu.  So that is what I am doing.  


Unfortunately, again like the title says I have been unhealthy for the last 3 weeks.  I have had a pretty bad lung infection that has kept me down but now with the correct cocktail of drugs in my system I am ready to go,


What have been doing with myself you ask?  Well the program I am hoping to start soon is run through PARO.
The PARO Centre for Women's Enterprise has helped thousands of women across Northern Ontario to start, grow or build new business opportunities.  And at PARO they run weekly workshops which I have been attending.  It is great for networking opportunities as well as a way for me to learn new stuff.  Especially helpful have been workshops about Thunder Bay specific things like market research and using the Public Library.  Things I would not have considered as a transplant here.  Wednesday I am going to a Record Keeping workshop - should be interesting.


One other very exciting piece of news is that we have changed out name a bit.  We are now called...

madeFRESH

brunch - lunch - catering

We will be working with our very talented graphic designer Kerry Lee Bray to update the logo very soon.

Well that is all for now.  I will be back more regularly I promise.  This week I am making lemon and lime squares as well as brownies - I know you all want to see how they turn out.

Mmmmmmmm Soup

So as my last day of work approaches quickly we have started to stock up on homemade stock so soup production can begin in earnest once I am done with the 9-5.

This weekend we started with Chicken Stock.  You may think Chicken stock begins with chicken bones, but that is where you would be wrong.  For us it started with a new freezer.  We picked up our new stand up freezer Friday afternoon. CHECK!

The next step was stock pots.  The small one on the right was what we already had - a large 6L stock pot that most people would think was adequate for the job.  But if you know us you know that we don't do anything half way.  We decided that the big boy 32L pot was what we needed.  BIG Stock Pot. CHECK!

Now we look at ingredients.  Chicken stock is pretty basic - chicken bones (we use chicken backs and necks), water, mirepoix (fancy French word for cut up mixture of carrots, onions, and celery) spices, and seasoning.  That is it.  Ingredients - CHECK!

Simmer forever - or 4 hours.
Mmmmmmm - smells yummy in the house.  CHECK!

Strain, strain again with cheesecloth and rapid cool to avoid bacteria growth - portion and into the fridge overnight so the fat layer will harden for easy removal.  Now this sounds pretty straight forward... wish it were so.

Start by trying to strain 8lbs of chicken bones, 1 lb of vegetable matter and 5.75 litres of water - all boiling HOT, out of a 32L very hot, big, bulky, and heavy pot.  That was a feat in itself and we accomplished it with no major burns and only a few four letter words (no love was not one of them)  Once we got all the strained liquid into the small 6 L pot from the photo above we had to cool it quickly from it's very hot 175 degrees F temp to 40 degrees F.  Normally you would accomplish this in an ice bath - but 6 L of boiling liquid requires more ice that our freezer holds.  We were able to get the temp down to about 110 F and ran out of ice.  Ingenious as we are we took advantage of the disgustingly cold Thunder Bay night and stuck the stock pot in the snow on our deck.  5 min later we were out of the danger zone and the stock was cool enough to portion and put in the fridge.  Portion and refrigerate.  CHECK!

That is all for now - I need to get into the kitchen and skim off the fat layer.  Then the stock will go into the new freezer for a couple of weeks just waiting for soup production.

Waffles - need I say more?

 I think I might be biased but waffles are probably the best breakfast food ever invented.  They are my favorite for sure.

So we had a very yummy waffle testing Sunday last week.  Because I love these little round dougasims this was a pretty easy one to do.  I made 3 different types of batter - the classic, a buttermilk, and a a yeast batter.

The Yeast batter took the longest, it proofed overnight so I mixed it up before bed.  It was full of flavor, vanilla and cinnamon.  Then the next morning I prepped the wet and dry ingredients for the other 2 recipes.  So once our testers arrived all I had to do was mix the wet and dry and voila - waffle batter was ready to go.  The buttermilk batter was the easiest because I made it in the mix-master - it had the consistency of a pancake batter.  The classic recipe was the most annoying as I had to whip the egg whites separately and fold them gently into the rest of the batter to keep it light and fluffy. In theory this sound great but not ideal for a restaurant situation.  The yeast batter, while easy, presented it's own problems like 16 hours of prep time needed, not something you can mix up on the fly.

So I cooked the waffles - I made one of each and we all tested a piece dry without butter or syrup.  The verdict - the yeast batters tasted the best - lots of flavor, even plain.  The buttermilk was a good waffle, light and crispy.  And the classic recipe was kinda yucky - too much baking soda I think.

Then we had the buttermilk and the yeast waffles with butter and syrup. Mmmmmmmm.  YUM!  The yeast ones still won the taste test - but the buttermilk ones were a strong second.

The decision - we are going to use the buttermilk ones as our basic everyday waffle - and save the yeast ones for specials like Apple and spice waffles.  It all comes down to practicality.  The Buttermilk waffles can be whipped up as needed and they are really easy to make to boot.  Have I mentioned how much I love waffles.

FRENCH TOAST EXTRAVAGANGA

Today is french toast testing Sunday.  Last Sunday we tested 4 different batters and picked the signature Fresh toast batter.  Today it is the bread.  We have 4 choices today - and will be trying two more after thanksgiving when I bring back Brioche and Challa bread from Calgary to try.  Today it is:

• plain old white bread - thick cut of course
• french bread
• Donatto's raisin bread (mostly for fun)
• and an Italian round loaf called Casalingo

The results are in....
and it is not conclusive.

Robin liked the Safeway brand texas toast white bread - not my first choice. 

Of the 4 breads we tried the french loaf is probably the best option until we try the breads from Calgary.

On the plus side we tried a variation on the batter mix and realized that the original version is best - so that is solidly decided.

We are taking next week off for thanksgiving then it is waffle testing time.  YUM!

Fall update

Well things are gearing up now that fall is here and I get to quit my job in just 89 days from today, but who's counting. 

So we have been busy in the kitchen.  We have sucessfully tested and picked a holandaise sauce for our eggs benny.  That was a fun morning.  A couple of friends came over one Sunday morning and drank coffe while I made 5 different hollandaise sauces.  We blind tested them all and picked our top two - then had eggs bendict with the twosauces and finally decided on the winning sauce.  YUM!

A couple of weeks later we had another yummy testing Sunday Morning.  We stole, I mean borrowed an idea from Jen, and we made banana bread reng toast.  All I can say is OMG - was it ever good.  This is a keeper on the menu for sure.  Robin and let our imaginations go a bit and thought it would be really good with whip cream and banana fosters topping.

And finally we spent this past Sunday afternoon making home made wild blueberry jam.  Jam is actually not all that hard to make - just time consuming.  Hope it turns ourt yummy - it sure looks good.

What's on tap - we are going to do a french toast weekend and choose our batter and bread for the standard french toast, and we still need to sample some waffle recipies - then it is sausages and home fries.  Lots to do still.

Breakfast, if we can't do it for 6 we should rethink our plan.

This morning as my family sleeps off a few too many bottles of wine and glasses of beer Robin is working in the kitchen making cinnamon buns.  For those of you who have had these yummy nuggets of delicious you know how good they are.  We are having cinnamon buns, pancakes, bacon, eggs, and toast this morning for breakfast.  Hope everyone is hungry.

I should go get the bacon prepped -  will let you know how it went later.