6/25/10 Sweet and Spicy

Megan, and I were paired up for recipe testing day on Friday. Our first project was the Lemon square bars which included items such as whole milk, all-purpose flour, eggs, lemon, lemon juice, lemon zest, and confectioners' sugar. We started off making the crust which was then placed in the fridge. While it was cooling we mixed everything else to make the filling. We removed the crust and placed it in the oven, and let the filling cool down. We'd put the filling in soon.

Next we got our barbeque sauce going... For which I got all of the ingredients together; onion, garlic, vegetable oil, red wine vinegar, brown sugar, honey, beef stock, ketchup, dry mustard,  worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, and cayenne pepper. We cut the current recipe in half so it seemed our ratio might have been off a bit (a terror to come). Megan had the beef stock boiling as I sliced, and measured everything else out. We finally mixed the ingredients together and let it cook. When we tasted it, it was quite bitter, and left a weird after taste. Not the best recipe in my opinion.

We went back to finishing our lemon bars. I held the oven open as Megan poured the filling over the crust. Next was the Pasta Primavera which aside from the Linguine called for: olive oil, vegetable oil, snow peas, broccoli and cauliflower flowerettes, red and yellow pepper (we only had red), a baby carrot, shitake mushrooms, fresh basil leaves, fresh chervil, garlic and Parmesan cheese. Megan got the noodles cooking as I sliced the mushroom heads, cut the flowerettes from the broccoli and cauliflower, and readied everything else. We got everything sauteed, emptied the linguine into the pan after turning the heat off, and let vegetables and noodles mixed together. We added the sliced basil, and the parmesan cheese at the end.

Last came our vegetable stir fry which was supposed to have pork but we didn't have any. Megan mixed the orange juice, brown sugar, soy sauce, hoison sauce, and everything else that would be needed or the sweet and sour sauce as i cut the carrots, and broccoli. We cooked the carrots, and broccoli and finished it off with the sweet and sour sauce.

We tested everything partially in between and then at the end. We then cleaned dishes, mopped and swept the floors, and cleaned and sanitized the counters. The day was great.