Fri 18 Dec 2009

The Local Food Movement is HERE TO STAY

Posted by lynsie under Local Food
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At Perfect Flavor, we’re huge proponents of the Local Food Movement.  In fact, we were long before it became popular.

After all, we did base an entire business around supporting local farmers and educating our community about the necessity to buy healthful, local products from real live farmers!  At Perfect Flavor, we focused on making gourmet ice cream out of real milk that we picked up raw from a local dairy farm in Waynesboro, VA, pasteurized ourselves, and made into ice cream (in the process cracking 330 eggs per batch and mixing in a healthy amount of organic sugar to complement our incredibly tasting cream and milk).

A year after launching our ice cream line, we began experimenting with soft cheeses like ricotta, creme fraiche, mascarpone, mozzarella and yogurt, and in March of 2009 began selling our cheeses all over central VA.  Since March, we have succeeded in marketing and selling our products throughout Virginia, and have been achieving our biggest goals of all: educating the public about the importance of local food and local dairy and also raising awareness of how healthy REAL food can be.

This week, Perfect Flavor closes down production to make way for the newest member of the Steele clan, our baby due in May.  While I am sad to put production on hold, I am ecstatic to throw myself full time into writing as much as possible to all of my faithful fans and supporters in the hopes that through this series of blogs I can reach even more consumers curious as to how they can make the move toward a healthier and happier lifestyle.

In the “Local Food” section I will highlight farms that I visit, offer interviews with the farmers themselves, post suggestions as to where to find local food in your area, and also broadly keep all of my readers updated on local food current events, conferences, etc.

Please prompt me with your questions and comments!  I will do my best to bring any topic forward for discussion.

Here’s to healthy eating!

 

Fri 18 Dec 2009

For any present or future moms and dads

Posted by lynsie under Parenting, Uncategorized
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What’s this page about?

Greetings! For those of you who do not know me, I’d love to introduce myself.

I am Lynsie Steele, age 27, and am the wife of Colin Steele (the love of my life) and the honored stepmom of Nick Steele, age 14, and Kate Steele, age 10-almost-11. I am also (she says with a grin) expecting my first baby due in May. I am currently 4.5 months pregnant and am loving every precious minute.

Perfect Flavor was started by my husband and I long before we married, and Nick and Kate have been a part of our company from day 1. This has always been a family endeavor full of learning curves, many surprises, and even more rewards. For the past 4 years we have been building our business into a solid local food entity that greatly supports local dairy products in a way that not many business do. We make gourmet ice cream and artisanal soft cheeses, like fresh mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone and yogurt. At least we did up until this week.

Now, since we’ve got a baby on the way, I am taking a break from the food operation side of things and focusing more on spreading the good word about local food, sustainability, making healthy foods at home and raising my kids in a way that is natural, respectful and right.

You will find in “Parenting” many of my own experiences and how I’ve dealt with anything from a kid who’s had a bad day to teaching a little someone how to make bread on their own to what’s going on in the world of natural parenting.

I am by no means an expert parent, but who is? I simply hope to share the experiences I have of being a stepmom, being pregnant, and eventually raising this bio-baby of mine in this big, huge, wonderful mix of love and family.

I invite you to enjoy the ride of this modern-day parent!

 

Fri 18 Dec 2009

For the more adventurous cook…

Posted by lynsie under Cooking
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What’s this page about?

Different from my “Recipes” tab, “Cooking” will go much more in depth to answer all aspects of more involved techniques required for perfecting that cherished bread recipe, that fluffy yellow cake gem, or the science behind making homemade cheeses.

In other words, come here if you’ve had a good amount of experience with cooking and baking and are now curious to know and understand what ingredients do what things, or, for example, why it might not be smart to make candy on a rainy day.

Below is a simple cookie recipe for beginners with a syrup recipe that’s got a lot more science behind it than meets the eye.

Post your questions or what you’d like to see me cover.  I’d love to help broaden all of our culinary backgrounds!

Stay tuned…

 

Fri 18 Dec 2009

Hurray for Snow & Christmas Cookies!

Posted by lynsie under Cooking, Local Food, Parenting, Recipes
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This morning I donned both my bathrobe AND my pastry chef’s hat as I awoke to a very snowy looking sky to make and bake some of my favorite Christmas cookies for my stepdaughter, Kate, and her class of 4th and 5th graders at Free Union Country School in Free Union, Virginia.  Needless to say, cookies are always a home-run when it comes to kids, however, my special recipe for Apple Cider Thumbprint Cookies is not your average treat.  Not only did the kids gobble up the Thumbprints, but the wonderful teachers did, too!  I like using leftover apple cider especially because often I tend to get overexcited about the Fall and buy way more apple cider than I need.  Once the cider loses its appeal, it tends to sit in my fridge for quite awhile.  Making it into syrup both extends its shelf life AND takes up less room in the fridge.  I’d love to share my recipe with you…

Apple Cider Thumbprint Cookies (for the Holidays and beyond!)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour (local flour from Ashland Milling Company in Richmond preferred)

1 teaspoon salt (anything but kosher or large crystal sea salt)

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

1 cup organic cane sugar

1 large egg (from a local farm or your backyard)

1 teaspoon organic pure vanilla extract

For filling: 4 cups local Apple Cider, boiled down in a stainless steel saucepan until reduced to half a cup.  (Keep a glass pyrex measuring cup handy to pour hot syrup into to test when you’re getting close to reducing your cider down to half a cup.)  To spice things up, you can throw in some freshly grated nutmeg and a cinnamon stick to your cider before boiling down.  Also, this syrup can be made well in advance, and keeps in the fridge for at least 3 months!   (We like to use the extra as a topping for ice cream or in steamed milk, mulled wine or a hot toddy.)

***This is essentially a shortbread dough and has a very rich, soft & crumbly texture.  Perfect!

1. Beat butter and sugar for about 4 minutes or until fluffy and delicious smelling!

2. Add your egg and vanilla extract and mix to incorporate.

3. Measure flour and salt into a small bowl, whisk gently to combine, and using your half cup measure, slowly add your flour mixture to your butter mixture, a half cup at a time until all is incorporated.

4. Let your dough mix until thoroughly combined, meaning that all of your flour is absorbed into your butter mixture.

5. Spoon out your dough onto a large piece of plastic wrap, carefully wrap up to seal, flatten into a disc, and refrigerate for up to 1 hour OR overnight.  (I make this dough and the syrup the night before I bake the cookies).  While your dough is chilling, if you have not already done so, boil your cider into a syrup.  This should take about an hour, but depending on how much you use, could take more or less time.

6. Once your dough has chilled, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Remove dough from the fridge and using a small cookie scoop or a small spoon, remove a bit of dough about the size of a quarter.  Roll into a ball and place on a parchment or silpat-lined baking sheet.  Continue until you’ve got 15 dough balls on one baking sheet.  Incidentally, this recipe will make well over 30 balls depending on how big you make them.

7. With the flat bottom of a water glass, gently smoosh down each ball to flatten slightly.  For example, you might go from 1 inch in diameter to 1 1/4 inches in diameter.

8. With the handle end of a large wooden spoon, flour the tip and gently press into the center of each cookie, being careful not to push straight through to the other side.  If you do do this by accident, just re-roll and flatten your dough.

9. Finally, gently spoon into the center of each cookie your cider syrup, filling up each hole just shy of the top, as when the syrup cooks in the oven, it often expands and overflows, which is still just as delicious but a little sticky=)

10. Bake for 10 minutes in your oven on the top rack.  Syrup will be hot once baking is done and will still spill out of cookies, so keep baking sheet level while removing cookies to cool.  Allow cookies to cool completely.  At this time your syrup should be nice and gelled and your cookies ready for serving.
I hope your family enjoys this recipe as much as mine does.  A good cookie recipe is one that, once baked, does not take long to disappear from the plate!

 

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