I thought it would be fun to put RG into a cooking rut situation in this cartoon but I need your help coming up with a funny caption for it. If you have ever felt like you were cooking the same 6 or 7 meals week after week, month after month, now’s your opportunity to comment in the form of a cartoon caption. Just post your response below.

What is RG thinking?

Go to the bottom of this blog and post your reply in the “Leave a reply”. Add as many captions as you like but keep them clean and be respectful of your fellow visitors. Any caption that I feel is inappropriate will be deleted.

This is not a contest but….

This is not a contest but I will pick my favorite caption and the author will receive a free copy of a new ecookbook I’m working on with Chef David Nelson and soon to be released. The eCookbook is all about cooking potatoes and will feature over 100 incredible potato recipes and the secrets to preparing them.

I will also make the cartoon available on various items like tee shirts and cooking aprons at Café Press. This means all entries become the property of The Reluctant Gourmet™. Please read Small Print below.

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We spent this weekend in State College, PA celebrating my sister-in-law’s birthday with family members coming in from as far north as Maine and even as far away as Ireland. Saturday night’s meal was a Maine seafood feast with all the ingredients brought down by Katy and her boyfriend Billy.

We enjoyed lobster, Louisiana shrimp, seafood casserole, cole slaw and this delicious Melt-In-Your Mouth Blueberry Cake. The recipe was found in the cookbook, Cooking Down East and originally came from a Maine church cookbook.

Thank you Katy and Billy for a great meal and Happy Birthday Judy.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Blueberry Cake

Ingredients

2 eggs separated
1 cup sugar
¼ cup shortening
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 ½ cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup milk
1 ½ cups fresh blueberries

How to Make Homemade Blueberry Cake

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Add about ¼ cup of the sugar to keep them stiff.
Cream shortening (cream as a verb means to beat an ingredient or a couple of ingredients together until soft and smooth) and add the salt and vanilla. Add the remaining sugar slowly.

Add the sifted dry ingredients alternatively with the milk. Fold in the beaten egg whites and then the blueberries. The recipe says to use some of the flour “called for in recipe and gently shake berries in “ so they won’t settle. I’m not sure what this means but I’m guessing by coating the blueberries with some flour they won’t sink to the bottom.

Add the mixture to a greased 8 x 8 inch baking pan. Sprinkle top of batter lightly with granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 50 to 60 minutes.

This recipe serves eight and is absolutely delicious. We served it with ice cream for dessert but my wife had a piece the next morning for breakfast (without the ice cream) and it was fantastic.

Yum is collection of over 100 great recipes from chefs, restaurateurs, cookbook writers and culinary marketers sharing some of their favorite recipes. This collaboration was put together by Microplane, the manufacturer of some of my favorite culinary tools that you may be familiar with and who are donating 100% of its profits from the sale of the book to the National Kidney Foundation (www.kidney.org).

Yum is available at Amazon.com

Some of the writers may be familiar to you including Rick Bayless, Sara Moulton, Susanna Foo, Gael Greene and Charlie Trotter and then there are some like the author of this recipe who may be new to you.

I was fortunate to receive this cookbook from Kimberly Goldstein who works for the publisher Cumberland House located in Nashville, Tennessee and specializes in, among other things, cookbooks. Thank you Kim for sending Yum to me and I can’t wait to try these great looking recipes and sharing some with my readers.

Spicy Corn Chowder
By Jeffrey Spear & Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 large onion, grated coarsely
1 tablespoon All-Purpose flour
4 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
2 – 3 large red potatoes, peeled & cut into ½ inch dice
4 cups corn (fresh or frozen)
1 ½ cups whole milk
Salt & pepper to taste
Tabasco, to taste
2 tablespoons finely chopped chives

How to Make Spice Corn Chowder

In a large pot, heat oil and melt butter. Add the onion and sauté until soft, not brown. Add flour and stir for 1-2 minutes until smooth. Add the stock gradually, being sure to stir constantly to incorporate the flour. Add the potatoes and corn. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Remove from heat.

Transfer half of the soup to a separate bowl. Ladle this soup, a little at a time, into a blender. Puree until creamy smooth. You can return the soup puree from the blender back into the pot as you go. When done, add milk, salt, pepper and Tabasco to taste. Adjust the spiciness of the soup with the Tabasco. Return to heat, bring to a desired temperature and serve. Garnish with chives.

Jeffrey notes: you can also use an immersion blender right in the pot, taking care not to puree all of the solids. The soup won’t be quite as smooth and creamy but much faster to make. Less dishes to wash as well.

Again, if you like what you read and are thinking of going to baking and pastry school, be sure to check out my culinary arts school resource center. And be sure to read my interview with Chef Jenni here.

1:40pm:

Rum caramel. Get the sugar going. Go see Larry at the bar and hit him up for Myer’s Dark Rum—just 2-3 ounces. Keep an eye on that sugar. “Order in ugly ends X3.” “3 ugly ends, heard. One more order of ends all day, chef!” “Heard!” Throw those 18 ends in the oven. Check your sugar. Still okay.

Order in: pig tails! Pig tails, heard. Drop the pig tails. Set up your plate. Check the ends. Check the sugar. Ends go to the window. Check the pig tails. Check the sugar. It’s getting close. Turn it down and rescue the pig tails from the fryer. Powdered sugar, and off it goes. Check the sugar. It’s starting to turn. Let it go. Let it go. Let it go. Stir and let it go. When it starts to sting your eyes, it’s just about there. Let it go. There!

Off with the heat and in goes the cream. Jump back—it splatters and spits and steams like Vesuvius! Add some salt. Stir and stir. Once it has calmed down a bit, add the rum and stand back again. Let it cook for a minute and let cool. Go pour layer 3 on that semifreddo so it will be freddo by service! Label and refrigerate that caramel. Order in: ugly ends! Ugly ends, heard; 86 ugly ends. 86 ends, heard!

2:05pm:

Timer goes off for financiers. Take them out. Mignardise time. What’ll we make today? How about mango pate de fruits? Get out your puree, pectin, sugar, citric acid and corn syrup. Here we go. Where’s that candy thermometer? Oh, the bar needs sour mix? Lucia, could you make the sour mix? Where was I? Get that silpat ready for the pate de fruits. It takes forever to get to 107 degrees C! “Order in: chocolate caramel ice cream!” “Ice cream, heard.” Turn down the induction burner. 3 scoops in a cold bowl. Croquant as a garnish. To the window. Back to the pate de fruits. Turn up the heat. Stir and stir. Done! Pour and let set.

2:40pm:

Set up the biscuits for Lucia to bake for dinner service. 4 trays of 48. Work in the walk-in where it’s cold. Put the panned biscuits back on the speed rack, and back out into the hot kitchen.

3:00pm:

How are we looking? Ice cream base? I’m on it. 48 yolks. 1 gallon of milk, plus a bunch of cream for good measure. Sugar, salt and vanilla. Heat. Temper into yolks. Cook to 160 degrees. Strain and flavor. Portion, label and freeze.

3:30pm:

Line individual tart pans for Alsace tarts for garde manger. Freeze so they can be baked off. How many today? 16! 16, heard. Thank goodness I froze some brisee on Saturday. I’ll have to make some more tomorrow. Put it on the list.

3:45pm:

How’s it all looking for dinner service? You’ve got 16 orders of pretzels all day, 48 orders of biscuits. Brulees are done. Financiers are done. We’re good on cinnamon rolls, triple chocolate and chocolate peanut butter terrine. Don’t cut that triple chocolate until service time since I just did the last layer at around 2:00. Pig tails are fine. You’ve got what you need for sundaes if anyone wants one and you’re fine for root beer floats. Do you need me to do anything else to make your service life easier? You’re good; okay.

4:00pm:

Check off what we need for The List for tomorrow.

All right, then. I am out. Have a lovely evening, all!

The photos were taken by Jenni at the restaurant.

12:00pm:“Order in: ugly ends and ugly ends again. That’s two all day.” “2 ugly ends, heard.” Throw 12 in the oven and get out your cinnamon roll dough. It’s been in the fridge all night, and it’s ready to go. Wash your hands. Mix up your cinnamon sugar and butter, divide your dough in half.

“Order in: ugly ends!” Ugly ends, heard.” Send the 2 ends to the window. Drop 1 more order. “Order in: pig tails!” “Pig tails, heard.” Drop 4 pig tails in the fryer and set up your plate. Get your chocolate sauce and a glass with a liner for the tails. Ends are hot? To the window.

Back to the rolls. Wash your hands. Roll the dough and spread the cinnamon sugar. Roll up; cut in 12. Repeat. Check pig tails. Ready? Yes. Good. Toss in cinnamon sugar, put in the lined glass. Hit it with some powdered sugar and send it to the window. Back to the cinnamon rolls. Where was I? Oh, yeah—repeat. One more cylinder of cinnamon dough cut into 12 more pieces. Cover and let proof.

12:30pm:

Pig tails. Okay—pate a choux. Wash your hands. Put your water, butter, sugar and salt on to boil. Have flour and eggs ready. Is your mixer set up? Where’s the beater? The dishwasher has put it somewhere….creative. Search and search. Finally! It’s with the bread?! Well, that makes a lot of sense.

Alright, back to it. Don’t let the water boil over! That induction burner is powerful! “Order in ugly ends and a pig tail!” “Ugly ends and pig tails, heard.” In go the biscuits; in go the pig tails. Set up the chocolate sauce and glass. Ends are hot—to the window.

Back to pig tails. Add the flour, cook then put it all in the mixer. Add eggs one at a time until it looks…just….right. Check the pig tails in the fryer. Done! Plate; hit with powdered sugar.

To the window. Back to the…”Order in: soft pretzel and an orange-mint sorbet!” “Soft pretzel and orange mint, heard.” Hey, Lucia—if you get the sorbet, I’ll get the pretzel. Cinnamon rolls are proofed; get those in the oven. Pretzels in the oven. Quenelle of mustard; ramekin of fondue.

Back to the pig tails. Load the pate a choux in a piping bag. Snip off the end and pipe pig tails (2 curlicues, please) onto parchment-lined sheets. Get the pretzels out of the oven and off to the window. Back to the pig tails. Keep piping. It all goes in the freezer. While I’m here, let me pour layer 2 on the semifreddo. Turn the cinnamon rolls.

1:10pm:

Financier time! Do we have any ground almonds? Let’s do that, now. Again, thank goodness for the Robot Coupe. Get those cinnamon rolls out of the oven. Do we have browned butter? Yes—we did 4 pounds a few days ago. Melt the butter, mix the batter.

“Order in: ugly ends!” “Ugly ends, heard.” In they go. Cut the pineapple and toss in rum caramel. Do we have enough of that? Running low, I’ll make more in a minute. Ends are hot—in a basket and to the window.

Okay, caramel and pineapple in individual baking dishes, top with financier batter. Bake off low fan 325 degrees 16 min. + 16 min. In they go. Label and put away your batter. Glaze cinnamon rolls before they cool off too much.