Leslie Bartosh, CEC, AAC, FMP

 Whatever Wednesday saw these tacos show up.   Mesquite charcoal grilled, pulled chicken thigh, glazed with O’Food Spicy Korean BBQ Sauce with spicy slaw (dressing: mayonnaise seasoned with O’Food gochujang), with house canned pickled onions and cilantro on corn tortilla, Japanese style quick pickled cucumber. I will take these any day! #LifeLongLearning #LifeLongTeaching #FamilyFood #Tacos As always your comments and questions are welcome. Until next time, Bon Appetit Y'all Leslie Bartosh

These demi baguettes were made using a variation of my regular formula.   My normal recipe uses AP flour.   I typically use King Arthur flours for all my baked items.   This one used their bread flour.   Everything else was the same.    I like this bread better than my normal demi baguette.   The dough felt better and the caramelization (Maillard effect) of the dough is outstanding.   Overall, I think this is a better product.   I need to repeat this to see if the results are replicable.   To think, this came out the need to utilize some surplus bread flour.   My normal recipe is a loose adaptation of a “Four Hour Baguette” recipe by Daniel Leader.   This bread is a standard in my kitchen.   I may have a new standard!   #LifeLongLearning #LifeLongTeaching #FamilyFood #Bread #StaffOfLife As always your comments or questions are welcome. Until next time, Bon Appetit Y'all Leslie Bartosh

  Recently a recipe for Basque Style Cheesecake - Tarta de Queso came through my email.   The recipe was from the King Arthur flour company.   I have read a little bit about the dessert, but never seen it.   So, this meant it had to show up on our New Year’s Eve menu.   I am glad it did!   It is rich, custardy, and real delight to eat. This was obviously my first time to bake this dessert.   Our oven runs a little hot.   When I next make this dessert, I will lower the temperature by 20 degrees.   Even though the top looks really dark and perhaps burned.   It does not taste bad.   Still, I think it will at least look better if it is not quite so dark on top.   Some subsequent reading has given me some suggestions on ways to improve the cake.   I am already looking forward to making it.   It is super easy.   This recipe is five ingredients!   #LifeLongLearning #LifeLongTeaching #FamilyFood   As always your questions or comments are welcome Until next time, Bon Appetit Y'all L

  The year ending photo was not an easy one for me to pick.   I felt there were many nice dishes/photographs from the last part of this year. I chose this photo of steel head trout on a bed of orzo with a puttanesca style sauce to end the year.   I liked the quality and lighting of the photo.   I recently had a Chef make some constructive criticisms regarding my photos and how they were composed.   This photo is one of the more recent photos to utilize some of the techniques that were suggested.  I think the food looked very nice against the plate. From a food perspective; the fish was nicely seasoned and saut é ed.   It was not overdone and draped nicely on the bed of orzo.   The puttanesca style sauce is nice to look at with the various textures.   The brininess of the sauce was countered by the orzo and fish nicely. Overall, I like the dish and the photo.   I hope you do too.   As always, your comments are welcome. Until next time, Bon Appetit Y’all Leslie Bartosh