Breakfast For Lunch

We served breakfast for lunch at the Wednesday Community Meal today.

On the menu was frittata that we made from scratch and filled with potato, spinach, peppers, onions, shallots and garlic. Alongside the frittata, we served breakfast sausage and oven roasted tomatoes. Guests also were offered soup, salad and apple crisp for dessert.

The weather in Portland has been very hot so the cool dining room was a comfortable place to be.  Many of the guests lingered longer today and asked for seconds which we were happy to oblige.  We always try our best to please our guests and fulfill their requests because it's the right thing to do. Plus, saying "yes" feels so much better than saying "no."

We served 290 meals today.

Rose Macarons

Getting the perfect amount of rose water in the buttercream filling of these Rose Macarons is the real challenge in making them. You want the rose flavor to be distinguishable but you also want it to be fresh and light and not taste like a mouthful of perfume. Done correctly, the flavor is wonderful.

It's also essential that you be sure to use culinary rose water which most commonly used in Persian and Middle Eastern sweets can be found in ethnic markets and some grocery stores. I've tried a few brands and my favorite is Cortas.

These pretty macarons are for my dear friend Iris' graduation celebration. I hope she likes them.

Here's the recipe:
Rose Macarons

180g ground almonds, sifted
270g powdered sugar, sifted
150g egg whites, aged 2 to 4 days in the fridge and then brought to room temperature
100g granulated sugar
Pink food coloring

Line four heavy baking sheets with good quality parchment paper and set aside. Also, set aside two pastry bags for the piping of the macarons.

Sift together your ground almonds with the powdered sugar and set aside.

Whisk the egg whites (at room temperature) to glossy firm peaks adding the granulated sugar gradually in four parts. Add the coloring which lightens after baking so tint them a bit darker than how you want them to turn out.

Incorporate the dry ingredients into the beaten egg whites using a large rubber scraper.  Mix well. 

Fold the mixture with the rubber scraper by pulling down the sides and flipping the mixture over. Do this until you have a smooth mixture that falls like a “ribbon” off the scraper.

Transfer the mixture into the two piping bags. Use rubber bands to close the piping bags. Clip the tip of the bags, one at a time, and pipe small quarter sized rounds, leaving 1-inch of space between each because they spread as they set.

Leave to set for about 30 minutes or until the top has formed a crust and is not sticky to the touch.

The piped macarons resting before baking.

While they are setting, preheat the oven to 325 degrees. A convection oven is preferable. Bake one sheet at a time in the center of the oven for 9 to 12 minutes or until the cookie is firm, matte and doesn't wobble when touched.

Leave on the baking tray until cool then lift them all off the parchment carefully. You may need to use a thin knife to help lift them off.

Sort into pairs and fill with Rose Buttercream.


Rose Buttercream
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
pinch of sea salt
1 1/2 to 2 1/2 teaspoons rose water

In a stand mixer combine the butter, sugar and sea salt. Whip until smooth and light, this takes about 5 minutes. Add the rose water, 1 1/2 teaspoons at first and then taste and add more if desired.

Fish Cookies

Out of all the cookies I've made, and I've made a lot, these fish cookies are probably the most time consuming. I made them by dropping thinned icing onto a still wet flooded cookie and maneuvering the icing with a scribe tool.

Each one is a little work of art and I think these would make a wonderful Father's Day gift. I definitely think Dads are worth the effort.

There are no specific rules to making these. It's is helpful to look at some fish pictures and sketch a plan but basically you just need to mix your colors and go for it. You need all of your colors ready to go before you start because this is wet on wet cookie decorating. Here's how:

I outlined and filled a cookie with white icing and then added grey icing in the basic shape of a fish. I used my scribe tool to move the icing to get an even better general shape.

I added a stripe of green on the top of the fish and again, used my scribe tool to blend it in.

I also added some pink, teal and orange to the base and once I got that blended, I added the black details by dipping my scribe tool into thinned black icing and using it like a pencil.

Here's another fish. I added the teal scale details with my scribe tool. It just takes some experimenting to figure out what works.

This guy is my favorite.

Fresh Blackberries

Volunteers Mary and Leah with the best blackberries.

Guests at today's Wednesday Community Meal were treated to the best blackberries I have ever tasted, and I mean it. They were biggest, sweetest and juiciest blackberries and amazingly they were free thanks to our wonderful volunteer gleaners Ed, Joe and Bill who found them for us at The Oregon Food Bank.

The blackberries were in perfect condition.

Usually the gleaned produce we receive is good but in all honesty needs to be eaten ASAP. I seriously don't know these blackberries ended up at the food bank because they weren't even close to going bad. They were in their prime and we had four flats of them!  We used them to garnish the salads and also served them as a dessert option along with homemade marble cake made by volunteer Cheryl. 

The beautiful salads we served today were made by volunteers John, Leah and Craig.

Our main entree today was pigs in a blanket made with all beef hotdogs and homemade crescent dough. We also served crispy tater tots which thrilled our guests. There were quite a few special requests for "another plate of tots," and we happily obliged. We had plenty of food and we weren't too busy with it being the first Wednesday of the month.

We served 215 meals today.

A pig in a blanket with tater tots and a tomato cucumber salad.

We were lucky to have the help of Isla Blue in the dining room. She worked with volunteer Mary Ann, serving the desserts.

Volunteer Linda who besides working in the kitchen, gleans for us each week from Good Samaritan Hospital and Phil's Uptown Meat Market, dished up every single bowl of the soup we served today.

Gilding Cookies

When it comes to cookie decorating, there are so many design possibilities that it's sometimes hard to know when to stop.

And that's how it was with my rose cookies — I liked them but I couldn't resist adding some extra oomph by gilding the borders with gold luster dust. Now, I can say they're done and I'm satisfied. Though I have to admit, I'm already dreaming about my next cookie project. It never ends!

In the meantime, here's how I gilded the borders of my rose cookies. It's simple to do as long as you are sure your royal icing is completely dry. I let mine dry for a full 24-hours just to be sure.

For this project you need edible gold luster dust which is available at cake decorating stores and online. You also need a few drops of vodka or lemon extract and a small, food only,  soft paint brush.

In a small bowl mix about 1/4 teaspoon of luster dust with just a few drops of vodka or lemon extract. You just want to add enough to make a spreadable paint.

Gently paint the gold around the border.

A before and after shot. I definitely like the gold border best. Let the cookies dry completely before packaging or serving.

Rose Cookies

No paint was used to create these rose cookies. They are all made with royal icing that I manipulated with a scribe tool.

The process isn't hard but it does take some time so these probably aren't the best cookies to make if you have to make a lot. But for a single batch, it's a fun afternoon art project. 

Here's how I made them:

These are the colors I used. Take your time choosing and mixing your colors. I mixed cream for the base coats and small amounts of light pink, red, blue/green and yellow, and an even smaller amount of brown.

Put all of the icings into pastry bags fitted with #2 tips except for the brown. Leave that on a plate or bowl covered with plastic wrap.

First outline and fill your cookie with the cream colored icing. Then add drops of light pink and top those with some squiggles of red. 

Use your scribe tool (you could also use a skewer or toothpick) and swirl the red into the pink to make it look like a rose.

Add drops of yellow and blue/green for leaves.

Draw through the dots with your scribe tool to lengthen them to a point to shape leaves.

Dip your scripe tool into the brown icing and use it like a pencil to highlight the leaves with veins and outlines. One dip in the brown icing is good for two or three swipes. You also need to periodically wipe your tool clean so the icing doesn't build up. It takes just a little for this effect. You can also highlight the roses.

Adding highlights to another cookie.

Getting ready to make a single rose.

Adding the red icing.

The finished rose.

After the cookies dry, you might want to add a border. For this pearl border I used piping consistency royal icing and a #3 tip.

A leaf tip also makes a nice border.

When you complete your border you might need to use your scribe tool to knock down the last point.

Framed works of art!

Stripe And Chevron Cookies

These stripe and chevron cookies look impressive but are so simple to make. The only real trick is to be sure that you have all your icing colors mixed and ready to go before you start decorating since these are made using the "wet on wet technique," meaning you add the base coat of icing and then immediately add other colors of icing on top of it.

This technique is great because you can get so many different looks depending on what colors you choose.

I obviously decided to go bright. Here's how I made them:

Mix your royal icing colors and thin them so that they are flood consistency. Put the icings into pastry bags fitted with #2 tips.

Flood a cookie and immediately add some stripes.

Add some more stripes.

And even more stripes. This cookie looks good as is, or you can create a chevron effect.

To create a chevron, draw through the stripes using a skewer or scribe tool, being sure to wipe the tool clean after each swipe.

Then draw through the stripes going in the opposite direction. That's all there is to it! Let the cookies dry completely before packaging and serving.