I have done quite a bit of thinking and soul searching these past few days. Not just because of my failed puff pastry, which I will be posting a ctitique on in the near future, but on how I can deliver my best to you. My readers , the most important part of this blog. I am going to borrow a phrase from my favorite author, Stephen King, and call you my Constant Reader.

So please, Dear Constant Reader, please tell me how I can improve and give you what you need and expect from me. Comment, ask questions. Help me inprove.

So today I made puff pastry and as promised in the video here is the recipe for the batch of puff pastry I made. This is the smallest batch of puff pastry I have ever made. It also reminded me of some advice I got from one of my chef's in college. He told us that making puff pastry from scratch is better, but buying it will give you the best, most consistant product. And he was right. I tried mixing the butter by hand and had clumps, so when it came time to roll out my butter broke out thru the dough and got extreamly messy. I will deffinatly suggest buying the premade stuff. but if you want an adventure it is fun.

1 pound of butter (today I used 50% butter 50% butter flavored shortening)
1 pound of flour
1 cup of water
1 teaspoon of salt

Combine butter and 3/4 cups of flour mix into a paste.
Form into a square and refridgerate

Mix remaining flour, salt and water form into a smooth shiney ball

Roll out into a square and place the butter/ flour mixture and encase in dough.
Roll out and fold over into thirds, give it a quarter turn. Refridgerate for 20 minutes repeat 5 more times for a total of 6 turns.

Thats it. You're done. I will be posting the how to vid on youtube, and will post the link later
As promised here is the link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG-T8MQB_Ng&feature=youtu.be

Now that I think about it, it probably wasn't my best idea starting this blog just before I started a new diet. But like all things in life its more about intent then it is timeing.

The Diet is now over and I am going to commit to this.  This picture is me at work a few years ago. But you are looking at my face as I slice melon.


In terms of some of the more random questions people have asked me recently. i was asked how many cookbooks I own. And that answer is 110. the picture below is actually a picture of the bookshelf devoted entirely to cookbooks and books about food and/or chefs.



I know its a little much. But we all have a thing. This is one of mine.




I

I figured you all, my readers, might like to know a bit about me, which is only fair. My name is Doug. I am the oldest of 7 siblings. I grew up on the planet earth, in North America, in the USA in the Northeast reigon known as New England, in the state of Connecticut, right on the cost of The Long Island Sound in the city of New Haven, (as I wrote that I could just picture google earth zooming in) even though my family has roots in both Alabama on my mother's side. And North Carolina on my father's. My earliest memories involve food. Sitting in the kitchen while my grandmother cooked, with me smelling, tasteing, eating everything from her biscuts to pig's feet, collard greens and chitterlings. And some of the few memories I have of my father are me standing in a chair with a wooden spoon stirring tomato sauce for chicken fricassee.

In high school, I thought my first career would be on stage in theater and it was my first love. And I threw myself into it without thinking for 3 and a half years. And I loved every minute of it. I did everything for classic greek drama, to Shakespeare all they way up to fairly recent stuff, like a play by Christopher Durang, as well as a couple of musicals. But my lightbulb moment came when I started cooking stuff to school to share, and found more and more that I enjoyed being in the kitchen.

So it happend in 2000 when I graduated high school I went to culinary school. And I didn't go to the typical places. I went to this little tiny private college in New York's Adirondack par. The name of that school was Paul Smiths College. www.paulsmiths.edu I fell in love with the picturesque view over the lake. But it was there that my love of food became a passion for good food. From there it's graduation with a bachelors degree in culinary arts and service management to a blur of working all over New England.

Let's fast forward to a couple years of ago. I quit my job as a kitchen manager and stepped into a job as a cashier/ salad prep guy at a small kiosk in a hospital. So I have gotten bored and decided to share my experiences and love of food with all of you. And hopefully inspire you to love food. And love cooking good food as much as I do.

So the fisrt thing I wanted to bring up was the topic of bread, the staff of life. Recently I bought a breadstone. And have been trying to get back into the art of bread. So far my results have been average still working out some issued I have with shapeing but the taste of the bread itself is awsome. the picture on top is the bread after the first proofing. And on the bottom is the bread after it came out of the oven.

Come with me on the journey as a chef re-discovers his passion for food at home. I am here to help you discover your love of food and all things food related. Ask me questions and we will take this journey together.