Taters and Cream fast food at home

One of my favourite Fast Foods is Lick's Taters n Cream which I have been known to drive all the way down to the Beaches to satisfy a craving of it.   One day recently I thought I don't have to drive to Lick's to get it I can make it at home myself.  In an attempt to try and make more things at home and to save money and travel time and expenses I whipped up a batch of my own Taters and Cream.

Instead of cutting the potatoes into french fry strips I cut them into equal sized cubes making it easy to cook in a skillet.   I fried the potatoes in a skillet using the bacon fat that was left after cooking the bacon.  You add tons of extra flavour into the potato cubes that way and it fries up really crispy.   Cook the potatoes until golden brown and crispy on the outside and still a bit soft on the inside.  Make sure you don't cook it on high heat but more towards medium so that they get a chance to cook inside.

Drain the potatoes on paper towel when cooked and then place the potatoes on a plate or I like to put it in a bowl so that it can mound on top.

Add the Shredded cheese while the potatoes are still hot so that the cheese can melt a bit.

Then add the Sour Cream, Bacon and Sliced Green Onions.   I skipped adding the salt since I cooked the potatoes in Bacon Fat and there is plenty of salt in the cheese and bacon.

Add Pepper to taste and if you like it spicy you could even add chili flakes or Siracha or hot pepper sauce if you like.

That's it...   No waiting in lines,  no driving, parking, gas expenses food packaging waste.     All you need are a few good ingredients and about a half an hour of your time.   It's just as good as the take out version if not better because you know it's fresh and you know exactly how it's been made.

It may not be low cal but it is the kind of thing that hits that comfort food zone and really satisfies you.   Making it at home you will know that you are using fresh oil, you can use organic products if you like as well and you can control exactly how much and what you add to it.

You can also experiment with the stuff you put on top.  You could add things like diced tomatoes or cilantro or parsley... go nuts if you like.. break all the rules...   

Just enjoy the Fast Food at Home and feel like you can make it yourself.

Conquering Bread Baking

Bread and Water are the one things that are Universal all over the World.  Everyone eats some version of Bread and needs water to survive at minimum.   So why did most of the people in the World stop making it at home and relying on Commercial Bakeries?  My mother never knew how to make Bread but she did know how to bake a cake which is just a sweet bread without yeast basically.

I have been cooking since I was about 12 but I never learned how to bake bread and on my few attempts I produced results but never felt like I mastered it.   Baking is an art and also Science.  You have to get all the elements right to produce a decent loaf of bread.

I attempted 2 recipes a couple of weeks ago and one was a total failure but I managed to rescue it somehow and the other was ok.   After that attempt I went to see Chef Michael Smith at George Brown College and he talked about Baking Bread and said that there was a no knead method that seems to becoming a trend and that he makes this recipe a few times a week and says he doesn't buy commercial bread anymore.  These photos are of my attempt a few weeks ago.  Once recipe said to mix the yeast and water seperatley but I didn't like this method and had to fix it.

The reason I have been interested in baking bread at home is because one day I thought about what it took to have bread stay soft and mould free for weeks and one day I read the ingredients and realized that there were only a small amount of actual real natural ingredients but when you make bread at home all you do is add Flour, salt, yeast and water.   That's all you really need but you can always add different flours and other ingredients for flavour.

Baking bread at home isn't a quick thing unless you use a bread machine but in my attempt to make Chef Smith's no knead recipe I found that you can make a decent loaf of bread with a few ingredients and some time.

Here's the recipe I used:

3 cups of All purpose Flour
1/4 tsp Active Yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 5/8 cup of Warm Water.

Directions:

Whisk the Flour, Yeast and salt together in a large bowl until everything is distributed through the flour.
Add the warm water and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

That was it for the recipe that I had but I found that it was very sticky so I added more flour until it came together a bit better.   I would recommend experimenting with the flour amount.

Also I would recommend adding a bit of olive oil and then covering with plastic wrap to prevent a crust forming and then adding a tea towel over it.   Or I think you could just add a damp tea towel to keep it from drying out on top.   It didn't recommend that but when I did it a crust formed on top and this is important on the first rise because when you get to the second rise the crust gets mixed into the middle.

I mixed the mixture on saturday morning and then early on sunday morning I punched it down and let it rise another couple of hours.   I added a bit more flour and then formed it into a ball and placed it on a baking sheet and let it rise again before baking it to make sure it rose as much as possible to get a light bread.   I would also recommend adding an egg wash and you can also add something like sesame seeds on top for some extra flavour.

You basically need about 12-18 hours of first rise and then 2-3 for the second rise.

I baked it at 425 degrees for about 25 minutes I think.   It recommended 45 minutes but I found it cooked way faster than that.   Always watch you first batch and don't rely on the recommended times because every oven works a bit differently.  Cook it until it's golden brown and there is a hard crust and it's hallow inside when tapped.    Let it rest a bit before cutting it.

I wasn't sure it was going to work.  I didn't know if it was going to be uncooked inside but it totally worked.

My conclusion:  You Can Bake Bread at Home and save money and skip the preservatives.   Just plan your bread in advance and have a bit of patience.

There is nothing better than the smell of fresh baked bread in the house and the taste of bread right out of the oven still warm with butter slathered on top.

No More Twinkies, Ho Ho's or Cookies

Nabisco Oreo's

I find it incredibly sad that companies like Hostess and Nabisco are closing after so many years producing things like Twinkies, HoHo's, Cookies and other treats.   So many kids grew up being all happy when they would get one of these treats.   People have counted on these jobs to feed their families literally for many years and now they have no where to go.   I doubt that the obesity problem will go away with these plants being closed as people will just find other things to eat that isn't good for them.   I would have like to see these plants modify their productions to produce healthier products that still satisfy people's sweet tooth.   A lot of these companies and products were part of the North American culture.  Are we going to lose our North American identity as we ship everything manufactured overseas?    I probably won't miss never having twinkies as they were never part of my diet but I still feel sad about the loss of so many jobs that were career jobs for so many people.

Things will always change but I would hope that the demise of these manufacturing plants doesn't just go away and nothing is put in their places.  I hope that something new and better arises from all of these losses that have occurred over the past few years and we move into growing better manufacturing jobs and opportunities.
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HOSTESS BRANDS TO WIND DOWN COMPANY AFTER BCTGM UNION STRIKE CRIPPLES OPERATIONS

Friday, November 16, 2012 at 7:00AM

Irving, TX – November 16, 2012 – Hostess Brands Inc. today announced that it is winding down operations and has filed a motion with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court seeking permission to close its business and sell its assets, including its iconic brands and facilities. Bakery operations have been suspended at all plants. Delivery of products will continue and Hostess Brands retail stores will remain open for several days in order to sell already-baked products.

The Board of Directors authorized the wind down of Hostess Brands to preserve and maximize the value of the estate after one of the Company’s largest unions, the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union (BCTGM), initiated a nationwide strike that crippled the Company’s ability to produce and deliver products at multiple facilities.

On Nov. 12, Hostess Brands permanently closed three plants as a result of the work stoppage. On Nov. 14, the Company announced it would be forced to liquidate if sufficient employees did not return to work to restore normal operations by 5 p.m., EST p.m., Nov. 15. The Company determined on the night of Nov. 15 that an insufficient number of employees had returned to work to enable the restoration of normal operations.

The BCTGM in September rejected a last, best and final offer from Hostess Brands designed to lower costs so that the Company could attract new financing and emerge from Chapter 11. Hostess Brands then received Court authority on Oct. 3 to unilaterally impose changes to the BCTGM’s collective bargaining agreements.

Hostess Brands is unprofitable under its current cost structure, much of which is determined by union wages and pension costs. The offer to the BCTGM included wage, benefit and work rule concessions but also gave Hostess Brands’ 12 unions a 25 percent ownership stake in the company, representation on its Board of Directors and $100 million in reorganized Hostess Brands’ debt.

“We deeply regret the necessity of today’s decision, but we do not have the financial resources to weather an extended nationwide strike,” said Gregory F. Rayburn, chief executive officer. “Hostess Brands will move promptly to lay off most of its 18,500-member workforce and focus on selling its assets to the highest bidders.”

In addition to dozens of baking and distribution facilities around the country, Hostess Brands will sell its popular brands, including Hostess®, Drakes® and Dolly Madison®, which make iconic cake products such as Twinkies®, CupCakes, Ding Dongs®, Ho Ho’s®, Sno Balls® and Donettes®. Bread brands to be sold include Wonder®, Nature’s Pride ®, Merita®, Home Pride®, Butternut®, and Beefsteak®, among others.

The wind down means the closure of 33 bakeries, 565 distribution centers, approximately 5,500 delivery routes and 570 bakery outlet stores throughout the United States.

The Company said its debtor-in-possession lenders have agreed to allow the Company to continue to have access to the $75 million financing facility put in place at the start of the bankruptcy cases to fund the sale and wind down process, subject to U.S. Bankruptcy Court approval.

The Company’s motion asks the Court for authority to continue to pay employees whose services are required during the wind-down period.

For employees whose jobs will be eliminated, additional information can be found athostessbrands.info . The website also contains information for customers and vendors. Most employees who lose their jobs should be eligible for government-provided unemployment benefits.

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Mondelez to close Toronto bakery next year, 550 jobs hit

Thu Nov 1, 2012 4:54pm EDT

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TORONTO (Reuters) - Mondelez International Inc's Canadian division said on Thursday it plans to shut down a Toronto bakery in the third quarter of 2013.

The facility, which has produced cookies and crackers since 1948, employs about 550 people. The company said some production will shift to facilities in Toronto and Montreal.

Mondelez is the snack business that remained after then-Kraft Foods Inc spun its North American grocery business off into Kraft Foods Group Inc in October.

Mondelez, which sells Trident gum, Oreo cookies and Cadbury chocolates, derives 44 percent of its revenue from developing countries, including Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Mondelez shares closed 0.9 percent higher at $26.80 on Thursday on the Nasdaq.

(Reporting by Allison Martell; Editing by Peter Galloway)