Category: Food and Recipes

I’ve made time to cook even though we are so busy with the spätzle business; however, my writing time has dwindled. 

I’ve made some random yummy food over the last couple of weeks that I’d like to share with you. Maybe something will inspire someone since the most challenging part about cooking is figuring out what in the hell to make.

Instead of one big long post, I will do short ones. I know it’s not like me to do short and quick posts, but I will give it a shot anyway. 😂

Last week, I made sweet potatoes for dinner to go with chicken and had some leftovers. The sweet potatoes sat in the fridge over the weekend, but I was inspired to make something different with them today.

Yesterday, Marty smoked a brisket, but we didn’t eat it since our friend Martin, a chef, invited us for dinner. We always say yes to his dinners and eat what we had planned for the next day. Today was that day.

It’s a no-brainer that sweet potatoes and brisket go together, but I didn’t want to reserve the leftover candied sweet potatoes as is. I made sweet potato gnocchi sautéed in brown butter and fresh sage.

Gnocchi is easy to make and doesn’t require fancy skills or equipment. I make regular potato gnocchi often in the winter, but this was my first time using sweet potatoes. It was easier if that’s possible.

From start to finish, I made the gnocchi in under 30 minutes, then just sautéed them right before dinner, getting them slightly crispy. Yum!

I made coleslaw to go with the brisket for Marty and Sam, but I wanted creamed spinach since I had fresh baby spinach in the refrigerator. I made the creamed spinach healthier using my lactose-free milk instead of cream.

I used to follow a recipe for this dish, but the last time I made it, Marty didn’t like it. I probably used frozen spinach, which sometimes tastes bitter, so I don’t use it anymore.

I am a million times better cook than I was ten years ago and created my own creamed spinach recipe. It had lots of flavor and was creamy and delicious. It was a hit!

Marty has his smoked brisket down to a science now. It’s easy for him to get it done consistently now and not a crap-shoot on how it will turn out. That’s almost two years of practice. Barbequing meats is not grilling or cooking; it’s a beast all of its own.

Here is a basic recipe for sweet potato gnocchi. The gal Sarah who wrote the recipe, does an excellent job explaining how to make gnocchi; her recipe is easy to follow. Why reinvent the wheel?

I found this recipe for the creamed spinach that was pretty damn close to how I made mine. Here’s what I did differently. I melted 2 Tbsp butter instead of the olive oil and didn’t add more butter. 8 Tbsp is not necessary, definitely not on a Monday night. Lol.

I added 3 cloves of garlic to my recipe. I sautéed the onions and garlic in the butter. After they were soft, I sprinkled potato starch instead of regular flour to make them gluten-free.

I didn’t cook the spinach beforehand; I added it to the milk mixture and wilted it that way—a pro kitchen move since you don’t want more steps.

I added more spices than the recipe suggested; 1/2 tsp of paprika, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, and 1/4 old bay. I tasted and checked the salt and spices while they cooked and adjusted them as needed.

It’s fall cooking weather! Even though summer is my favorite season, I love fall and winter cooking, braising, and baking. I’ve been searching through new recipes I want to try this year and will share them with you after I make them.

We didn’t work in the production kitchen today; we had too many outdoor projects to be done before the leaves start dropping like sons-of-bitches.

We closed the pool, and I severely pruned my hydrangeas since they were out of control! I cut back the lilies and transplanted a couple of them to an area where they had more room to grow.

We decided not to go full fall foliage on the front porch this year, part of it is laziness, and the other part is the lack of time fussing over mums. I will decorate inside the house since that’s a one-and-done kind of deal.

I hope you had a non-sucky Monday and Mother Nature didn’t keep changing her mind every twenty minutes between sunshine and dark threatening skies and storms like it did here. Have a great night!

When I think of grilled cheese sandwiches, I think about grilled, golden brown white bread with ooey gooey American cheese melting out the sides. When you pull it apart, you get that gorgeous cheese pull; you have to eat it right away to get a proper cheese pull.

I tried making different grilled cheese sandwiches with cool names when I cooked at school, like a cowboy melt with ham and bbq sauce. It was a big hit. I wanted to introduce the students to something they already liked, but like Emeril says, “kicking it up a notch.”

I tried some delicious flavor combinations when I was on my fancy toast kick last winter. One of my favorites included a fig spread I purchased and began experimenting with.

A few weeks ago, I made a wagyu burger topped with homemade balsamic fig & pear compote. It was dope! It was perfectly balanced and delicious.

I found the leftover fig compote Sunday morning in the refrigerator. It was still good; I knew I needed to make something with it. I poked around the fridge and found the components of one of those fancy toasts we liked.

I sliced a loaf of sourdough bread (Schar gluten-free bread) and spread the balsamic fig & pear compote on one side of the slices. I added thinly sliced brie cheese and prosciutto. I buttered the outsides of the bread and threw it on the flat-top grill.

Marty was on the front porch drinking his Sunday morning coffee when I told him breakfast was ready. He smelled nothing cooking, so he had no idea what I had made.

The grilled brie, prosciutto, balsamic fig & pear compote sandwiches were warm, buttery, and golden brown. The cheese pull? It was sensational. Magnificent. It was delicious.

The grilled cheese sandwich hit all those flavor and texture components salty, sweet, creamy, soft on the inside, and crunchy on the outside.

After calling my fig & pear concoction a compote, I researched if that’s what it was called. I read an article on Masterclass on the differences between jams, marmalades, compotes, and chutney. 

Technically, I made a balsamic fig and pear chutney. Why a chutney? Because it contained vinegar. If I had added lemon juice, it would have been a compote. Good to know.

Jams and marmalades usually contain pectin or citric acid and can last longer in the refrigerator than compotes and chutneys. Interesting and informative, right?

Ok, let me try this again. I made a grilled sourdough, brie, prosciutto, and balsamic fig & pear chutney sandwich for my grown-up grilled cheese sandwich on Sunday morning.

It sounds fancy schmancy, and pretentious, but it was delicious and easy, especially if you buy fig jam, marmalade, spread, compote, or chutney.

I found a recipe close to what I did when I made my fig spread. However, I added chopped pears, kosher salt and chopped fresh rosemary to mine. Instead of olive oil, I browned my onions in a tablespoon of bacon fat which I always keep in the refrigerator.

Here is the link to the fig spread in case anyone has some ripe fresh figs. Figs have such a short season here in the Northeast; many recipes use dried figs if you can’t find fresh ones.

Grown-up grill cheese sandwiches are all fine and well, but right now, I want to have the kind I grew up eating and a cup of tomato soup. Yum!

Last week I wrote about our taxes and how we procrastined until we couldn’t procrastinate any longer. As scheduled, we started to enter our accounts receivable and payable for the spatzle business. We made a massive dent in the project and were pleased.

The next day we finished the data entry; Marty electronically sent our accountant everything she needed. There are still a few things pending, and other items will come up in the process, but for the most part, we are caught up. It’s not a done deal yet, but it will be when we sign everything, and I mail out the taxes on or before October 15.

A big chunk of stress has been lifted, and we can now focus on the business and fall projects that need to be done inside and outside the house.

Despite being busy, I made some pretty delicious food, even a pot of pasta fagioli for lunch on one of the damp, rainy days. It hit the spot.

Marty and I had dinner alone on Wednesday and Thursday; we know from my previous post I made butter cauliflower on Wednesday; I made grilled wagyu burgers topped with caramelized onions, homemade balsamic fig and pear compote, and bleu cheese. It was ridiculously delicious. Marty grilled the burgers because he is known as “burger boy.”

Why top a burger with balsamic fig, pear compote, and bleu cheese? Well, I had some fresh black mission figs in the fridge that needed to be eaten and a few pears that fell off the tree in the yard and were ripe.

Some people hate hot fruity things, but I love to make perfectly balanced foods. As in Thai cooking, I try to balance the sweet, salty, bitter, sour, or acidity and texture. The combination of sweet and salty is a big favorite of ours, so I design a lot of dishes with their flavor components.

It’s been a long week with a lot of running around and stress, but after tomorrow’s farmers market, it will be our day of rest on Sunday. Yay!

Happy Friday, tequila was my drink of choice tonight since the weather was hot again. Last Saturday, I traded a distillery vendor spätzle for their whiskey, which was beautiful tasting and perfect on one of those chilly evenings we had here in Vermont.

Have a great weekend, guys! Wow, two blog posts in one day from me, that’s rare. 😂

Sam came down the stairs and immediately asked what I was making. The smells drift up the stairs and into his room whenever I am cooking or baking. I guess it’s good that I can cook well because if I were a terrible cook or burned everything, that would suck for Sam.

I told him I was making my butter chicken but reimagined. “Oh no! What are you ruining it with? Please don’t tell me cauliflower!” So I didn’t tell him. Lol. “Why?” he asked. I said, “Because dad and I love cauliflower instead of chicken in different flavored “wings,” I thought I’d try it for butter chicken.”

Next, he spewed out a bunch of reasons why cauliflower shouldn’t be used to replace chicken, how terrible it is, and finished his rant with, “I’ll argue with you to the death on this one.” 😂

Now, remember, Sam is my good eater and isn’t picky; however, he can’t forget the night about five years ago when I “tricked” him with General Tso’s “chicken.” He was so upset and disappointed that it wasn’t chicken he didn’t eat dinner that night, not even the perfectly steamed jasmine rice. I still laugh when I think of him marching upstairs to his room.

Nevertheless, I continued making and writing my recipe, and I told him I already had something else for him and to fucking relax already.

I am a carnivore through and through. Marty and I followed a strict vegetarian diet for two years in our twenties. I was creative, and all the food was delicious, but after a while, I started craving meat. I didn’t know at the time, but he was too. Then, I confessed how much I missed eating different meats to him. “Halle-freaking-lujah!!” he cried.

We went to the Sirloin Saloon that night, and both ordered steak. As the server placed the steak in front of me, I drooled! I shit you not!

My hands started shaking when I picked up my steak knife and fork. I had to steady my hand as I brought the piece of steak to my mouth. It was one of the biggest realizations of my life; I was a meat eater.

To say we were both running in and out of the bathroom a lot while we reintroduced different meats and seafood back into our diets would be an understatement of serious magnitude. I know that is TMI (too much information), but since I am writing in my honest and authentic self, it’s purely factual.

Ok, enough reminiscing, time to talk about the delicious Indian Butter Cauliflower dish. It was as good, if not better, than my original recipe with chicken. I added a few more spices and replaced dairy with coconut oil and milk. So it’s vegan, not just vegetarian. I have a few vegan and vegetarian friends that will be very happy with this recipe. Arthur, I am talking about you and Kami. 😉

I started by cutting a whole cauliflower head into bite-size florets. I made a marinade for the cauliflower with canola oil, yogurt, Indian spices, and kosher salt. I used nonfat vanilla yogurt because it’s what I had on hand to mix in Klausie’s food, but any version of plain or, I guess, vanilla yogurt works.

I coated all the pieces well with the marinade and let them sit in the refrigerator for an hour, covered with plastic wrap. That gave me time to get out the other ingredients and throw basmati rice in my trusty rice cooker, it was belly dance night, so the rice cooked while I was shimmying away.

I started the recipe by browning the marinaded cauliflower in a saucepan with coconut oil. I let it cook until I got an excellent fond on the bottom of the pan. This is a crucial step in adding flavor to the dish.

I added diced onions and let them cook for a bit, then added minced garlic and ginger. Once the onions were golden brown, I added Indian spices and kosher salt, then let them cook for less than a minute.

I added tomato sauce and water and then scraped the fond from the bottom of the saucepan. Next, I added a little tomato paste and coconut milk on low heat and stirred it into the sauce. I threw in the browned cauliflower and covered the saucepan letting the sauce simmer for 20 minutes.

I checked for seasoning and if the cauliflower was tender. I added chopped fresh cilantro, also known as coriander. I know many people don’t like cilantro because it tastes like soap to them, but if that’s not the case, I strongly urge you to follow the recipe and use it.

I let the sauce cook for another 5 minutes uncovered on a very low simmer, not letting it boil. I took it off the heat and let it cool. I popped it into the refrigerator for several hours to “chill out.” Dumb pun, I know.

Marty reheated the sauce covered on low heat until hot. I served the Indian Butter Cauliflower over basmati rice, which was fantastic. The chicken wasn’t missed for a single second. It was perfect since it packed a ton of flavor but wasn’t a heavy dish to eat at 8:30 pm.

Surprisingly enough, I wrote down what I used to share the recipe if I was happy with the result. You don’t have to be vegan or vegetarian to enjoy this dish.

Would I make it with frozen cauliflower? Never. The texture would be mushy, and the marinade and browning would be a wet mess producing zero fond, an essential part of the recipe on the bottom of the saucepan.

Without further adieu, here is my new recipe. I hope you try it and love it as much as we did. If you are like Sam, you can replace the cauliflower with bite-size chicken pieces. 😂

Indian Butter Cauliflower

Ingredients

Cauliflower marinade:

1 large head of cauliflower cut into bite-size florets
1 Tbsp vegetable or canola oil
2 Tbsp yogurt
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp garam masala
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Curry sauce:

1 onion diced
3-4 cloves of garlic minced depending on their size
1 Tbsp fresh ginger minced
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 Tbsp garam masala
1 tsp chili powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, more or less depending on your spice level
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 15 oz can tomato sauce
1/2 15 oz can of water
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 15 oz can coconut milk
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 – 1/2 cup of fresh chopped cilantro
Steamed basmati or jasmine rice

Directions

Cut the cauliflower into bite-size pieces. Mix the spices and yogurt. Coat the cauliflower florets thoroughly. Place in the refrigerator to marinade for at least an hour.

While the cauliflower is marinating, chop the onions, and mince the garlic and ginger. Mix the spices and kosher salt and place in a small bowl.

In a saucepan with a lid, on medium heat, melt the 1 Tbsp coconut oil and brown the marinated cauliflower florets. When you have a nice fond on the bottom of the pan, remove the cauliflower and set it aside. The cauliflower will become tender by cooking in the sauce.

To the saucepan, melt 1 Tbsp coconut oil on medium-low heat and add the onions. Cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the minced garlic and ginger. Cook until the onions become golden brown, taking care not to burn the garlic and ginger in the process.

Add the spice mixture and kosher salt to the pan and sauté for 45 seconds, not letting the spices burn. Add the tomato sauce and water. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, scrape up the brown bits or fond from the bottom of the pan. Stir to combine.

Stir in 1 Tbsp tomato paste and coconut milk. Combine. Add the browned cauliflower florets to the sauce. Stir well to coat the cauliflower in the sauce. Reduce the heat to low and bring it to a simmer. Cover, and let cook for 20 minutes. Check for cauliflower doneness and seasoning. Add kosher salt and pepper to taste.

Add chopped cilantro and cook uncovered for another 5 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. Serve over rice.

When cooking ahead, let cool and place in refrigerator until ready to use up to 2-3 days. Reheat. Serve over rice.

Serves 4.

Yesterday, we celebrated my youngest son Sam’s 22nd birthday with a seafood boil, and it was a decadent feast! The cake? Forgetaboutit it was off the chain!

We tried a new family-owned and operated fish market in Halfmoon, NY called Harvest Moon Fish Market. They are open every day but Mondays and bring fresh fish from Boston daily. 

If you walked into this fish market blindfolded, you would never guess in a million years you were in a seafood shop plus, they have everything you need including sides and produce, for one-stop shopping.

We steamed our 4 2 1/2 lb lobsters, fresh corn, and baby potatoes in a flavorful court-bouillon. The four dozen little neck clams were steamed in white wine, garlic, and butter sauce. I made a batch of cheddar bay biscuits as requested by the birthday boy.

We finally had our lobster fix that our mouths had been watering for all summer. It was worth the wait, time, and effort than going out to eat. 

The chocolate peanut butter torte with ganache icing and peanuts was the best cake I have ever made and possibly had. Holy shit, it was so fudgy, thick, rich, and the perfect balance of sweet and salty. The peanuts completed the bite with a nice crunch and texture.

The guy who wrote the recipe may have left an instruction or two out of his recipe, but the dude’s recipe is easy and fucking delicious!!! Make it! Here is the link again. 

We had quite a bit of leftovers that were planned that way. I made Sam lazy man’s lobster for his actual birthday dinner tonight, which he will eat around 2 am in the ER during his overnight shift.

I also made a clam and corn chowder with the remaining leftovers. I’m good at making chowders and soups, so it was a snap to throw together. 

The clam and corn chowder is flavorful, sweet, and creamy, which will be Marty and my dinner tonight. I can’t wait! Lol! It’s really all about food with us! I am always thinking about food, what I am making, or looking for ideas to make. I think about food way ahead and plan my holiday menus the end of September. 😛

We took today off to catch up on projects and rest since it will be another busy week, and the holiday weekend is coming up. I just hope the day off doesn’t come back and bite us on the ass and set us back at the end of the week. 

Update ***It did bite us back; we were swamped with wholesale orders today and have a lot of spätzle to make. We are grateful for the orders and the beautiful day; we will get them all done!

Happy Monday to teachers and students who headed back for their first day of school; I am sure this morning was the most Monday-est of all Mondays for you. Good luck! As always, the next few days will be hotter than hell, just like they are at the beginning of every school year.

Marty and I, who were former school lunch directors, used to dread this time of year all summer. We are so relieved and happy we no longer have all that stress. Neither of us misses that part of the job whatsoever! I do miss the cooking and the kids, though.

Have a great night, guys! I’ll catch up with you again soon!

Whenever I read a new recipe before I try it, I read it twice; the first time, the way I would make it, and the second time, how a less experienced cook would. So many food bloggers create recipes and don’t think past their own abilities.

What I learned about cooking and baking with students who worked in my kitchen at school and our spätzle customers who don’t like to or know how to cook is you can’t assume anything.

Tomorrow is our youngest son Sam’s 22nd birthday which we are celebrating today since he is working in the ER tomorrow night. I asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday and he couldn’t decide and left it up to me. He did request a low-country seafood boil like we did last year for dinner.

I looked through dozens of birthday cake ideas that aren’t dry af gluten-free cake recipes. Sam loves chocolate and peanut butter, so I decided on a flourless chocolate & peanut butter torte with chocolate ganache. Yum! The recipe was listed as “Super Simple and Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake.”

The cake recipe was easy and required no mixers or fussy kitchen equipment. I followed the recipe exactly and was pleased with how well it came out.

It came out of the springform pan without any problems, and removing the parchment paper from the now top of the cake went smoothly, keeping the cake intact perfectly. Sometimes the paper sticks and ruins the edges of the cake.

After letting the cake cool completely and the ganache was made, the recipe says to frost the cake with the ganache on a wire rack. Here is what the recipe writer fails to mention, what side of the cake is the top and the bottom? How do you get the frosted cake from the wire rack onto a serving plate or stand without ruining it?

I know the answers to both of those questions, but thinking like a beginner cook/baker, I would be confused and honestly unsure what to do. It would help if you didn’t have to look at other recipes or a Youtube video to answer questions about the one you are using. Right?

I did go to other flourless chocolate cake recipes and found half of them told you exactly how to frost the cake with the ganache frosting and the other half assumed you knew how to.

Remember what I said never to ASSUME anything; it always makes an “ASS out of U and ME.” See what I did there? 🤓

Ignoring the recipe’s instructions about frosting on a wire rack, I inverted the cake onto a cake stand and then frosted the cake with the ganache frosting. I wasn’t thrilled with the piping of the warm peanut butter because when I was piping it onto the cake in lines, it globbed out and made me curse up a storm.

I remedied the problem when I dragged a skewer through the frosting but hated how the edges of the cake looked unfinished. I piped peanut butter around the edges and carefully sprinkled it with chopped peanuts. I was satisfied with how it looked and stuck it in the fridge until cake time.

The other recipe I used today for clarified butter failed to mention a method that makes clarifying butter so much easier. I was watching a cooking Youtube video, and they happened to be clarifying butter for chicken. In the video, the Korean food stall cook used a ladle and a sieve to remove the butterfat foam from the top of the butter.

Every time I attempted to clarify butter, I ended up frustrated because when I scooped off the butterfat scum from the top of the butter, I lost half of my clarified butter with the scum. I stopped trying and just served melted butter whenever I made shellfish.

I looked at recipes for clarified butter, and none of them tell you about the sieve trick making it so much easier. Is this another case of professional chefs keeping secrets from home cooks, so food looks better when you go out to eat? I think so.

My clarified butter was so easy to make! I always thought it was much more complicated since restaurants have one prep cook in charge of clarifying butter and nothing else. If they are lucky, they are also trusted with other small tasks like picking herbs off stems or just zesting lemons.

Most new chefs spend months doing just one task. It’s all part of life in a professional kitchen and paying your dues, especially if you become a chef by attending and receiving a degree saying so from a culinary school and not moving up the honest or hard way, as they would call it.

Yes, an executive chef would scream at me since there were still a few tiny bits of fat debris in my clarified butter, but for our seafood boil this evening, I think it will be fine, and we all will live.

I’m glad I tried clarifying butter using the Korean cook’s hack again. Now, I am sharing it with you. Clarified butter, also called ghee, is used in Indian cooking. Now I can finally prepare my Indian dishes the proper way! Thanks, Korean food stall guy!

Here is the link to the Super Simple and Easy Flourless Chocolate Cake I made today in case anyone wants to try making it.

Look for Sam’s birthday dinner post soon! Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, guys!

I’ve been working on making a perfect French omelet for years. It’s challenging and frustrating when it doesn’t come out correctly. I don’t get as angry as I did when I was younger and threw away eggs in a fit of rage. I am calmer now, and eggs are expensive af.

There are two kinds of people in the world, one who wants the food they have thought about for days, eat or make look and taste delicious. The other doesn’t give a shit what the food looks like as long as it tastes good to them. Right?

A French omelet is not only a complicated dish to master but is used by chefs in kitchens when interviewing a chef as a job candidate. Why an omelet? It shows how organized and how neat the chef works. It offers their knowledge, expertise, and efficiency. It’s a good indicator if they are a bullshit artist or not. 

If you are wondering if there is a difference between a French omelet and an American one, the answer is yes. We’ve all seen those infamous three egg omelets at diners across America overstuffed with the filling coming out the sides. The outside is the omelet is browned and dry looking. 

Now, if you like these types of omelets, I say good for you, and you should enjoy them as often as you would like. I had never liked omelets until I first had a French omelet, which was life-changing.

It was exactly like the soft and creamy French scrambled eggs I have mastered and love so much. The first time people eat my scrambled eggs, they love them too. Most people think they have cheese in them because they are so creamy. My culinary students at school loved when I made and taught them how to make these eggs.

Before I attempted making French omelets, Marty and I watched many Youtube videos on how to make them. I watched the French Chef episode when Julia Child makes her omelets effortlessly. Even though her recipe for French omelets in Mastering the Art of French Cooking is eight pages long, she can bang out an omelet in 14-20 seconds. “It’s all in the wrist,” she says. Bullshit!

French omelets are made quickly, not 14-20 seconds quickly, but faster than an American omelet. The well-beaten eggs are poured into a hot pan with butter and stirred vigorously with a fork until they begin to set. Next, you shake the pan using your wrist to keep the omelet moving.

As soon as it is almost set, you remove the pan from the heat and tip the pan while rolling the omelet onto itself; then, the plate is held close to the pan as the omelet slides onto the plate. Easy peasy. Not so much.

So my instructions are a mere two short paragraphs, but that’s how it is done in a nutshell, and believe me, it’s more complicated than it sounds. Marty, that son of a bitch nailed his omelet the first time he tried making one.

We are so competitive that he paraded around the kitchen with his perfect omelet while I was swearing up a storm and had to eat my less-than-perfect, far-from-perfect omelet. That bastard! Lol.

Since I have to eat in the morning now taking this new medication, I decided to make myself a French omelet with a bagel for breakfast the other morning. And…it came out how it is supposed to be! Yay! It was just a plain omelet without any filling but tasted so luxuriously delicious.

It was soft, velvety, and unctuous in my mouth. Marty pretended not to notice my omelet as he ate his bagel at the other end of the kitchen island. He saw it but had no comments to make.

Marty’s big thing to say these days is to ask me while I am blabbing about something random, “and this concerns me, how?” He knows it makes me crazy, so I blurt it out before he can, and we both laugh.

Not everyone gives two shits about an omelet, but foodie people, aspiring cooks, and chefs are obsessed with making them properly. The next time I am going to add a small amount of freshly snipped chives to my omelet and then perhaps move on to a small sprinkling of Swiss cheese. It’s not about the fillings like in an American omelet; it’s about the simple perfection in which it’s made and the soft creamy texture.

If you have never had a French omelet, I urge you to seek a restaurant or a place that makes them. You may never go back to an American omelet again. Better yet, you could always try making one yourself. Here is a link to making a French omelet.

What is an influencer?

Noun A person or thing that influences another.

A person with the ability to influence potential buyers of a product or service by promoting or recommending the items on social media. Influencers can add serious credibility to a brand.

Whenever I open Amazon, I am shown the top trending picks by their influencers. The products I usually see are home and cooking items, and now and again, some fashion items. I found that Amazon had an influencer job application on its website yesterday. Who knew?

Who are these social media influencers? How do you become one? How do you get paid? Is this a career? All very good questions with some simple answers.

Influencers are people who have built a reputation on social media using their knowledge and expertise on a specific topic. Influencers make daily posts on social media about that topic and generate large followings of people who pay attention to what they have to say.

Brands love influencers because they create trends and encourage their followers to buy their products.

There are different types of influencers, and they are ranked by the number of followers they have.

~ Mega-influencers have more than 1 million followers. Celebrities such as Gordon Ramsey, Justin Bieber, Dwayne Johnson, and Christiano Ronaldo are Mega-influencers.

~ Macro-influencers are people with between 40,000 and 1 million followers. They are usually experts in their field or B-grade celebrities who haven’t made it big yet.

~Micro-influencers are regular everyday people who have become known for their knowledge about a special topic. They have between 1,000 and 40,000 followers.

~ Nano-influencers are new to the game. These people have a small number of followers in a highly specialized field. Think of being a big fish in a small pond. This type of influencer is not useful to most brands.

The bigger the influencer with the most followers attracts bigger brands and makes bigger commissions. Celebrities can make up to 1 million dollars for a single social media post! Shit!

So why in the hell am I talking about influencers anyway? The other day Marty and I were on the road after production making deliveries and needed to stop for lunch. I always check my phone for gluten-free choices, and this time something new popped up, a place called Viva Empanadas.

Before ordering any food, we spoke with a woman who was the business owner. The empanada place was in a food gallery set up like a food court with different vendors and community seating inside and outside.

Let me tell you; this young woman had me at hello. We started to ask about gluten-free and if those empanadas were fried with the wheat ones when she got a huge smile on her face and began telling us all about her business.

The food was not only safe to eat, but killer! It was delicious and made with so much love you could taste it. Marty said it was his best bite of food out so far this year. We spoke with the owner Veronica at length and told her about a Facebook group called Gluten-free Albany.

It’s a group page for people to share places, products, and food establishments that are either gluten-free safe or warn everyone to watch out for cross-contamination or a poorly trained staff.

Veronica is new to the area; she recently moved to the Albany area from Brooklyn, NY, because she couldn’t afford brick and mortar rent in NYC and outgrew her food truck. I promised her I would tell the group about her new business that opened only two months ago.

Later that night, this is what I wrote on the Gluten-free Albany page:

We had a great experience today at a new place called Viva Empanadas Latin Kitchen at Gallery 7 in Latham today. The owner Veronica is very passionate about her food and having something that everyone can eat, from gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan down to traditional varieties. 

Veronica and her staff are knowledgeable and are extremely careful about cross-contamination. They have a separate dedicated fryer for all gluten-free empanadas. We tried four different kinds of empanadas, and each one was more delicious than the next. Marty said it was his best bite eaten out this year which is a big compliment. 

I told Veronica we would tell you guys about her and her new business she opened only two months ago. The prices are good, which is something that is important to her. She is super friendly, proud, and passionate about her food and is a fantastically talented cook. Tell her the spätzle people sent you. Lol.

By the next morning, over 800 group members had read the post. By that afternoon, 1,100 saw it. While Marty and I were in production, he reminded me I forgot to tell everyone the important part of her business. The thing we loved most about it. So I wrote another post:

I was so excited to tell everyone about Viva empanadas that I forgot to mention the most impressive part of her business…the time, effort, and love that goes into each of her gluten-free empanada doughs. She told us her story of how she peels the cassava or yucca root and boils it until soft, then mashes it and works it into the dough. She does the same thing with the green plantains and corn. 

All of her doughs are naturally gluten-free the way they were meant to be made in Latin America. The meats are slowly braised and tender, flavorful and unctuous. All of this work is an incredible part of her whole business...

Since yesterday another 950 people saw my second post. There are only 2,000 members of the group, which meant more than half read my recommendation. I read comments on my two posts from members who either went there the next day and had a great experience or planned to go. Everyone was so excited and thanked me for telling them about this new find. This group really watches out for each other!

I got a personal message from Veronica thanking me and wanted to share with me how many new customers are coming in and saying they saw my post. Marty told me I was an influencer. How do you like that? A gluten-free food influencer. Huh.

I didn’t plan or even think I was influencing people or the brand Viva Empanadas. I wanted to help another new small business owner be successful. I also wanted the members of our group who are always looking for another safe place to eat and can trust to know about it. I achieved both!

I believe we need to support, lift up, and cheer on other amazing, hard-working small business owners. We have had many influencers post about our spätzle over the last five years; one post got as many as 10,000 likes. Social media is like a mighty freight train that can either make or break you.

If you are in Albany, gluten-free or not, I urge you to try Viva Empanadas located in the Gallery 7 Market in Latham, NY. You will not be disappointed or sick! Tell her the spätzle people sent you. 😂

I don’t know how this happened. Marty is from Germany, and I am a lover of all things from France, and yet, we never heard of flammkuchen until early last year. The direct translation is “flame cake” or “pie cooked in flames.”

We have a wholesale restaurant account in Greenwich, NY, not far over the New York border. The restaurant is called Elsasser’s Beim 111. A year and a half ago, the chef & owner, Chris, contacted us and wanted to use our spätzle on his Germanic food menu.

That’s another thing we never heard of either; Germanic food. Chris’ new restaurant serves flammkuchen, many kinds of brats, and different dinner specials weekly. We have made deliveries to his place but have never eaten there since we are there at weird times of the day.

Lately, I’ve been watching a cooking and travel series on BBC television with Chef Rick Stein. I like Chef Stein’s approach to food and travel; it’s different from others I’ve watched in the past. He uses literature, history, and art to describe or tell about an area and the food.

I am watching Rick Stein’s “Secret France” series, and of course, I love it. On this food adventure, he takes you to hidden food treasure stops, not tourist trap restaurants or even places in big cities in France. These gems are where the locals eat, and the chefs cook with their souls using whatever fruits, nuts, vegetables, meats, and dairy is right around them.

When Chef Stein was in the Alsace region of France, he made flammkuchen. He called it Tarte Flambée because he was in France. The Alsace region went back and forth between Germany and France and thus created Germanic cuisine. Huh, now I know.

Flammkuchen is a German/French pizza with a very thin crust and is topped with creme frâiche, thinly sliced onions, bacon, or lardons, which are thick chunks of bacon, sometimes with Swiss or Gruyere, grated nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

How could we not of heard of this type of pizza before? Flammkuchen was originally made by German farmers who made bread once a week. To test the temperature of their wood-fired oven, they would scrap aside the embers and throw in a thin piece of dough that should be cooked in a minute or two if the temperature is correct.

The farmers later began topping their “test” dough and had themselves a nice lunch or snack. The rest is flammkuchen history, you might say.

After watching Chef Stein make his tarte flambée or flammkuchen, I knew I needed to make it too. I found his recipe online, see the link above, and decided to make the one I just watched him make. Unlike pizza crust, it is an unleavened dough that doesn’t contain yeast. Of course, I made a gluten-free version.

You must use creme frâche for flammkuchen, which cannot be substituted with sour cream because it is too sour. Creme frâiche has a less sour and almost nutty taste. I decided to make my own since it seemed easy enough.

When I looked at creme frâiche recipes, I saw it takes a minimum of 24 hours to make. Besides time, the recipe only calls for two ingredients, heavy cream, and buttermilk or sour cream.

I used a glass measuring cup and added a cup of heavy cream with three tablespoons of sour cream. I covered it with a towel and let it sit for 24 hours at room temperature.

It was like a science experiment as I kept checking the consistency and smell. As I watched it thicken, I saw the chemical reaction of the butterfat and bacterial culture turn into creme frâiche. No thickening agents are permitted in creme frâiche; this is serious business in Europe, so I used the word permitted above.

The creme frâiche had a consistency of a firmer whipped cream with a slightly tangy and nutty flavor. It was nothing like whipped cream or sour cream; it had its own flavor. This was my first time trying it.

I used regular bacon since I had no lardons on hand, which I sautéed a bit before adding to the flammkuchen. I sliced onion on my mandolin so I could get paper-thin slices. I grated some Swiss cheese and grabbed my nutmeg rasp (grater) and whole nutmeg.

I made the dough and rolled it out on parchment paper. I slathered on the creme frâiche and then topped it with the sautéed bacon pieces, thinly sliced onions, a small amount of Swiss cheese, nutmeg, salt, and pepper.

It looked weird going into the oven but immediately started smelling delicious. When I pulled the flammkuchen out of the oven, I couldn’t wait to try some.

Ok, this surprised me; it was my best bite of 2022 so far this year! It was that good. It has a different texture than pizza, and the combination of ingredients was a home run! Marty and Sam loved it as much as I did. Holy shit, it was good!

The next day, I told Marty I couldn’t stop thinking about the flammkuchen. When Sam woke up, he said the same thing to me, “I don’t know why but I keep thinking about that flammkuchen.” He loves the same type of food as I do and is also a foodie, always thinking about food.

I just looked at the menu at our customer’s place, Elsassers Beim 111, and the menu looked delicious and reasonably priced. It is right on Main Street in Greenwich, NY. 111 Main Street, to be exact. His flammkuchen looks delicious! Now I know how you can have an entire restaurant concept centered around flammkuchen. Chris makes a traditional flammkuchen along with several different types of toppings.

Today, I made a second batch of creme frâiche. I used a creamer warmer that I got from a couple of friends of mine, MJ and Stephanie. They didn’t know what to do with it, but now I do! It’s my new handy-dandy creme frâiche maker, and I love the look and design of it.

Flammkuchen has been requested over the weekend; they don’t care when or with what; they just want it. I do too! Trust me; it’s that good! yum!