My kitchens been a rockin'!

Even when I just don't feel like cooking... I bake or cook something anyways! 

I've been in test kitchen mode lately though, and when that happens, I can't sleep! I toss and turn and dream up silly recipes that may never come to light... but I have to try to figure out how to make them work anyways. The other night I was coming up with a biscotti recipe that so easily could have been a contender in a certain baking challenge I'm working on WINNING! However, after a whole nights missed sleep, I find out a similar recipe exists and has been entered... pointless loss of sleep.

Then magically standing in the kitchen, staring at a slew of ingredients across my counter.... WHAM... it hits me. And in a matter of seconds I throw together something deviously interesting, I bake it, I taste it, and I know its a winner on my first go.

I taste tested so much, I went to bed with a belly ache and a smile.

However, I conquered the recipe... and I could finally sleep!

Adventure in SOUR DOUGH Land

Well this was a fun conquest for me anyways.... Does anyone love sour dough as much as I do? Come on, its an AMAZING flavor! Reminds me a good beer.

Anyways, I've never been able to master it. I did finally figure out how to make my own 'starter' though, so I've given it a whirl, and I loved the results.

The Starter:

2 cups warm water
1 package dry active yeast
1 tbsp sugar
(let sit for 10 minutes)
mix in 2 cups of whole wheat flour (or rye or whole grain)
Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to sit in a warm dark spot for 2-4 days before use.
Always reserve 1 cup of starter to 'feed' for another batch of bread later.

(Store your 1 cup starter in the fridge if you chose to wait to feed your starter another day. Feed consists of 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of warm water. Do this when your starter has come to room temp first.)

So I've found a good sourdough recipe I wanted to try, and let my dough have 3 rises before I baked. I used the steam method for a HARD crust too. I was very happy with the hardy, rustic, finished product.

So delicious... perfect when its a cold winter and you crave to have the oven on warming the house, and smells of bread filling your nose.

The need for spring is making me antsy!

These unbelievably cold days (for NC at least) have driving me crazy... I keep shifting in my seat, and mumbling under my breath how much I despise mother nature right now.

But this time seems as good as any to order my seed. Well, I can't afford to order seed this year... so I'm going to start TRADING!

If you have seeds you would like, or seeds enough to share... give me a holla'! I would love to get going to keep my mind off such terrible weather.

...and just to give me a shimmer of hope for spring, I will start planting my tomato seeds I have today. ONLY, because I have a mini-greenhouse to move them into when they are too big for the house. This is not me saying it is ok for everyone to start planting now. The general rule is 6-8 weeks before you move your plants out. So check your frost dates, determine if you have a greenhouse or cold frame that you can do it sooner and remember that some seeds only need 4 weeks... and some need 12. Check your seed package, or research the varieties you have online to find the germination time.

Until then, check back here for pictures of my tomatoes as they get started.

Been in the Kitchen Again!

Ut oh... bad things happen... oh no... wait... GOOD things happen when I'm planning in the kitchen.

Today I've perfected a recipe I'm planning on entering into a baking contest.

Stuffed French Toast with a twist (this version has fresh made cranberry sauce inside) - Can't share the recipe as its for a contest! :)

The Business Venure Update

I know I haven't posted much in awhile, and its been mainly business stuff... blah blah blah...right?! Well hopefully with it being about that time, I will have some great gardening stuff up again soon. So don't give up hope on me, seed starting will actually be starting this week, so bare with me!

With that said, I am making headway on the business. You've seen my fund raising stuff, we've had $15 donating so far, and that $15 feels like $1 Million! It gives me the warm fuzzies that people actually care about our product, and what we are trying to do for local farms in the community. Sustainable living and farming is hard work, there is no simple mass production options here. To see people understand that, and want that in their lives means a great deal to this country, and our survival!

The point being is this weekend we had a contractor come out to quote building the new kitchen so we can expand, offer more products and begin stocking local coffee houses and businesses as well as helping you. The actual building is going to cost $26000 and the appliances will be $6000 still. That covers everything we need! Honestly, $32k is great. We were looking at a store front, and with construction costs on 1700 square ft, it was going to be over $68k not including appliances.

Though we are taking out a loan to do a lot of the work, we're going to have a fund raising raffle benefit at some point. We would still love to raise the money for the appliances alone, and that will leave us in good standing. We want to be able to buy a CSA share in several of the farms we buy from each year. That will be a couple thousand up front this spring, but it will help keep everything coming in FRESH and affordable. I really don't want to change our prices, I think they are more then fair. :)

So if you want to donate, please do through our Etsy shop listings, or just buy our products! The money goes right back to what we do. You can email me if you would like to donate to the raffle. We'd love to have items available to give away.... art, treats, services, ect. We'd simple sell raffle tickets at $5 each and they would chose which item they were going for. The plan is to send a PDF file 'raffle ticket' with individual #s. Then on the day of draw we'd announce winning #s here, on facebook, and on etsy for each item.

I will for SURE be doing 2 items myself. I'm planning on a gift basket of jams... AND for the locals, their very own canning class w/ friends for up to 8 people in their home, all materials included! That's regularly a $200 value!

So think if you like to donate, or would like more information on when the raffle should be. I will list more information here as it gets closer. We'll hammer out the details in the next month or so. So watch out for a list of potential items you can chose from!

Wow... I've been interviewed for a new blog!

Come check out this fabulous blog called "The Etsy Times" Created by Ruth Jamieson. 

She's following and highlight the wonderful community on Etsy, and I am sure should would love to meet and highlight even more of the fabulous sellers on the Etsy community. So come follow and share!

http://theetsytimes.blogspot.com/

It's a New Year!

My first post of the new year, year of the rabbit, is to wish you all a great new chance to start fresh. May all your dreams prosper this year. Maybe this will truly be a turning point year.

With that said, I've been finishing up my business plan for Fogl's Kitchen because this is a year of growth. I want to make positive strides and changes in 2011. I want to be able to offer more local services, including catering, and I want to wholesale some of the local coffee shops and boutiques. So we are going to be raising money to build a new BIGGER kitchen!

We're going to try to raise $6000 this year for all new heavy duty appliances in the new location. So if you want to help, we greatly appreciate it!

So in 2011, if you donate $50 or over we'll be giving you a $20 gift certificate for our shop good on any products of your choice. If you can't donate that much, its ok... we still greatly appreciate it, and will happily send you a copy of one of our recipes to try from home.

We accept donations through paypal or Amazon payments to our email address: Rabyte79@yahoo.com

Please put Appliance Donation in the title, and include your email address so we can send you your gift certificate with your cert. #. When you are ready to cash in your gift certificate, please go through the regular Etsy check out>chose 'other' payment option>add your cert # to the message to seller and I will put your order through.

Certificates don't cover shipping, but you may GIFT them to anyone for any reason. You do not have to use them yourself and they are good for the whole year of 2011.

We will have our goal updates listed here and in our Etsy store!