Food Expo, Day 2

Wow, day 2 of the food expo and we are charged up.
We had signed up for 3 workshops but only two were offered after all; e-mail 101 and advanced e-mail. I wasn’t sure how e-mail would be involved with business but decided that these were necessary workshops.
The speaker owns a business that organizes e-mail clubs for large businesses. You may ask what an e-mail club is. This is a “club” or group that one may sign up for and receive special coupons or information on new products via e-mail. I get e-mails for specials from Rubio’s and Dave’s BBQ.
The 101 class was to introduce us to the basics and Dale and I were amazed at the possibilities for Nate and me. Here we learned how to start an e-mail club and the basics on how to run it. In the advanced class we learned more details on what we need with the startup and what the site should look like.
Between classes we ran into the speaker in the hall and started talking. I told him how we could apply his ideas to the cookies and almonds. He immediately took an interest in our business and gave more tips. He gave me his card and said to call with any questions. I in turn told him I’d send some cookies.

1st Day of the Food Expo

Today was the 1st day of the Western Food Expo. OMG!!!
I left Bakersfield at 7am, picked up Dale and headed down to San Diego. After a stop to drop stuff off for Nate at the farmers market we got on our way.
I was not entirely happy to be driving the Mazda with no AC in 100+ but lack of $$ this week made this a necessity. As it turned out we could not have made a better choice. The parking structure was very tight and we were able to park close to where we wanted to be with the Mazda. The truck would have been impossible.
As for the food expo: there are 100’s of exhibitors there. For those of you who have never been to an expo the point is for exhibitors to sell their wares. They exhibit all or many of the items they sell but only one of each item. Buyers come and place orders for the items. At this expo many exhibitors are selling food products, hence the food expo, so they give samples of the foods they produce.
When Dale and I walked into the expo we came into the Mexican Food area. We didn’t really know what to expect but found people picking up food at nearly every booth. We got immediately into a line and picked up food then went on to have every type of Mexican food that is made.
After walking to the end of the expo we started back the other way sampling every flavor of smoothie, beers, wines, martinis, yogurts, beef from Canada and Montana, BBQ and an incredible salmon salad.
I’m stuffed. Like Julia Child said, “I’m growing right before your eyes”.
For 5 hours we sampled food but did manage to find some containers for the cookies. We have a ton of samples being shipped to our house in all shapes and sizes.
Tomorrow we will attend our workshops after 2 hours of eating. The expo opens at 11 and our workshops start at 1. We wouldn’t want to attend a workshop with our stomach growing now would we?

The Difference A Day Makes

Amazing the difference a day makes.
I was going along minding my business, trying to get things in order for tomorrow. We will leave in the morning for San Diego to attend the Food Expo.
The phone rang and it was a lady who had bought some of the cookies from the Carpinteria’s Farmers Market. As she spoke I remembered that she had been visiting Carpinteria but from Lancaster. I’d told her that I could deliver cookies when I visited my mom.
The lady, and I didn’t get her name, asked if I’d be in Lancaster so that I could bring her some of the cookies. She said that the chewy cookies were “heavenly” and that I was an “angel” for developing a wonderful cookie that she could eat without fear of getting sick. She ordered 16 cookies.
Wow!

Fighting Discouragement and being Overwhelmed

I'm fighting discouragement and being overwhelmed.
I’ve need to get the cookies approved by the USDA I think, but can’t find info on where the application is, or if in fact that is the place I need to go. Then I need money for all this stuff and today we have not a cent to our names. UGH.
Then after getting all of the permits and ok’s I have to go to stores and get them to carry and then sell these cookies. And while the cookies sell at the farmer’s markets, that doesn’t mean that they will sell in stores.
I also write this blog as I can but no one reads it. I know that I write for myself but it was just discouraging.
Now kicking myself in the butt: Dale and I will go to a food expo in San Diego Sunday and Monday. We have 3 workshops scheduled, two of which are about setting up and running an e-mail business. I’m anxious to learn about packaging for the cookies, the icing and the petits fours cutter that I’m taking out of mothballs next week. Also we will look at marketing possibilities. I’ll write about our adventures.

Rolling out the Cookie Bars

We did go to Nate’s on Monday evening arriving in Santa Barbara at about 7pm. We’d gone by Nate’s house to pick up the key to the kitchen, bags of sugar and some other items.
Once we were at the kitchen we got busy, Dale helping where ever and me mixing up a batch of bars. They baked for 40 minutes but I think that the heat was too low so they didn’t bake well. I did put the dough into 2 smaller pans but put one in a little longer than the other.
I mixed a batch of crunchy cookies both plain and chocolate chip then did what I said I’d do, put 15 cookies onto a tray, and then lined them up in a row. They measured 15” long and each cookie should be cut ¾ of an inch long. I wrapped each log in a plastic film wrap and labeled it then put them into the freezer.
Nate did take one log out and bake it. The cookies seemed to come out fine. I’d forgotten to flatten them a little so they came out high but he reported that they tasted good.
As we were leaving on Tuesday morning one of the kitchen owners came in to bake for her sister-in-law’s café. She tasted our bars and decided that her sister-in-law should carry them in her café. We will see if this happens.

Changing the process

We are off to Santa Barbara this afternoon to bake.

Nate and I decided that we will roll out the bars this week at the farmers markets. I’ll bake one batch but this time in two smaller pans. Now that I’ve worked with the ovens at the kitchen I’m more comfortable in baking a new product in them.

We will also bake only ½ of the cookie dough and freeze the remainder in rolls, and then Nate can cut the cookies off and bake them throughout the week. Cookies will be fresher at the markets. I’ll fill a pan with the cookies as I usually do then take the cookies off and measure the length of one cookie. After putting the cookies back together and into a roll I’ll measure it then we can use that for a base of what we need to make. I’ll wrap the rolls in plastic wrap, put them into the freezer and Nate will take them out, partially thaw them then bake them as needed.

Siemens Family Reunion Day 2

This is the end of the 2^nd day of the Siemens Reunion. Carolyn, Dale’s sister hosted this year and held it at her house. She had prepared sole food for the family; veranika and German sausage for Friday night, Jiaozi for lunch and pie and homemade ice cream for dinner.

Veranika is a dish that Dale’s mom use to make which consists of a ½ circle dumpling filled with hoop cheese, similar to cottage cheese. The dumpling is fried and then boiled I believe. Then gravy is made using more cheese and maybe sour cream and served over the veranikas.

In China the jiaozi is a Chinese dumpling. In this case the recipe comes from an old family friend who lived in China as a child. The recipe consists of a serving of cold cooked potatoes, bean sprouts and rice noodles is put in the bottom of the dish; then a layer of salad consisting of chopped celery, bok choy and some small chopped meat; then a layer of the jiaozis which are meat balls in a wonton wrapper boiled in water.

Carolyn’s specialty is pies and she made plenty; peach, pecan, custard and some others which I didn’t look closely at. Pie with homemade ice cream was a great ending to the reunion.

First of of the Siemens Reunion

This evening was the 1st day of the Siemens Reunion but I won't blog about the food because I was starving after dinner. I had 1/2 of a Veranika with some gravy and two very small peices of German sausage. I always loved this food after being introduced to it but now it just makes me sick.

Fortunately I'd brought some brie and rice crackers and lots of wine. We are having our own party in our RV.

I'd brought some of the bars I'd made on Thurs, along with the cookies and after a day the bars are actually quite good. I did cut off the overcooked edges but the center is not so soggy. I'm not sure that they will sell but I'll make more and we will see how they do at the farmer's market.

Experiementing with the bars

And I thought that the Santa Barbara Kitchen was small, YIKES I went to the kitchen and worked this morning in Bakersfield. I’d visited the kitchen after meeting Carol and thought that I could perhaps work from there but can only work in the kitchen from 6-8am and 3-5 pm.

I went this morning; I didn’t remember that I was to call Carol before going. OPPS, but the woman working early made room for me. The kitchen is an L-shape with the stove visible from the dining room. A workroom is off the front about 6’ wide and 15’ long. There is a sink on the right and 2 small narrow tables to work on.

I’d originally thought that I could bake the cookies at the kitchen but since I was gone over the weekend and Nate needed them on Tuesday it made sense to bake at Nate’s. I’d have to deliver them anyway and could only bake a few at a time here so it was easier to bake them all at once and have them there at the same time.

I’d taken all of my ingredients today, arriving at about 6:25a.m. I wanted to bake some bars that I’d tried 1^st. There is no Hobart but fortunately everything fit inside the kitchen aid mixer. I took up both tables with my ingredients so that the regular help had to work on other projects.

I mixed my bars and tried to spread them in the pan. I’d lined the pan with 6-12x12 sheets but put the batter all on one end so when I tried to spread the batter the sheets moved. Fortunately the sheets did not separate allowing the batter to run onto the baking sheet.

I had enough batter to fill one whole sheet and put it into the oven for 40 min. It was done baking with 10 minutes to spare. Carol kept some of the bars to give out as samples and I took the rest.

After arriving home I found that the paper was sticking to the bottom so that will need to be rectified. The end was baked to a crisp but the middle too soft.

I’ll see how the bars are tomorrow and how the Siemens family likes them.

The Siemens Family Reunion

It has been just over two years since we hosted our turn in the Siemens Family Reunion. We had decided to host ours over a weekend as the last two were several days and they were simply too long for our liking.

Now it is Carolyn’s turn and she has scaled hers way back. It is only a weekend but will take place at her house with the focus on food. We will have Veranika/Sausage tomorrow night and Jiaozi (like pot stickers) on Sat. Unfortunately I can’t eat much of either as Veranika has wheat and the sausage grease gets to me. Then the Jiaozi has wheat so I’ll skip most of that as well.

Given the relationships between the siblings and Dale and I, we are always a little on edge for these things. But we will take this one moment at a time. And as a good friend told me this is a good time to write as family times are full of great fodder.

Apparently the rest of the family will go to the coast for several days but as we learned of these plans too little too late we will skip that part. Going for the weekend will be enough for us and we should have fun.

We will take our RV and stay in it. I’ll have my laptop and will be writing lots of notes.

Recycling the leftovers

We had a bunch of leftover cookies last week. Seems that Nate sent too many cookies to Ojai and not enough to Goleta where they sold out in an hour.
I brought some of the crunchy plain cookies home in order to make a pie crust. I’d made a pie crust from almonds last Christmas so that my mom and I could eat some along with the rest of the family and it turned out really good. But that one was with almonds and this would be using the cookies.
My sister-in-law, Jan agreed to make the cheesecake and crust as I was busy packaging smoked almonds for Nate. She crushed the cookies then made a crust adding some sugar and melted butter then baked it empty for about 10 minutes.
The results were: too much oil came out from the crust and it was really soft. The crust did taste good but oil was in the pan under the crust. I think that I’ll try it again but not add any butter or maybe ¼ of what a recipe would call for.
Otherwise the cheesecake was really good!

Julie & Julia & Chris

Dale had bought me the set of “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” probably in the mid to late ’70’s. What I have is a two volume set in a case.

I just referred to Volume 1 last week, lifting it gently from its case as the spine is breaking off. I found some notes that I’d written in the book on a food stained page. I remembered modifying that recipe to use in the crockpot.

Jan and I were talking about food something or another and at the same time decided that it would be fun to go see the new movie Julie & Julia. We had put a cheesecake in the oven, mostly to test using the leftover crunchy cookies as a crust, so then couldn’t leave until the last second possible. But we took the cake out of the oven a few minutes early and ran out the door.

The theater was packed and the only seats for us were in the front so we sat about 4 rows back. I usually don’t like to sit that close but this time we were so close to the food in the movie that we felt like we could reach out and take a taste.

Watching the movie was amazing; I’ve prepared many recipes from the 2 books, modifying some to fit the ingredients I had or the method of cooking. I also am writing a cooking blog and can identify with that.

The shock in the movie was when Julia Child received a copy of the book from the publisher. The book was so nice and so new! I thought of my poor old, faded, food stained, tattered book and knew that it had been so nice and new so long ago.

The food looked so good that we could taste it, especially those recipes I’d made before. I simply wanted to go home and thumb thru my books and then cook.