Search the site...

Graf X Quest
  • HOME
    • Offerings & Pricing
    • The Design Process
    • Portfolio
  • ■ Global Market Place
  • ■ Free Content
  • ■ Vintage Free Images
  • Blog & Public Tutorials
    • Member Tutorials
    • Zenful Artistry
  • Simple License Overview
  • HOME
    • Offerings & Pricing
    • The Design Process
    • Portfolio
  • ■ Global Market Place
  • ■ Free Content
  • ■ Vintage Free Images
  • Blog & Public Tutorials
    • Member Tutorials
    • Zenful Artistry
  • Simple License Overview

Mashed Potato Revival

2/18/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
Whoever told you to throw away mashed potatoes because they aren't good the next day be sure to thank her and abruptly steal hers and take them home.

You see its no only easy to revive a mashed potato but quite possibly make it even better than it was the day before. you will see later why this became an inferior design and not launched on my blog page but it was only temporary and easily saved!

You see if next day mashed potatoes  were bad then why is Bob Evans selling them by the gross load? They sell for approximately 4-6 
$ per Lb. depending where you go.
So even though this is not a revival followed by music and a bountiful harvest, these potato's are a cause for celebration and merriment for your next dinner.

First off no microwaves...it dries them out too quickly and you cant fluff and stir as you go.  Get out a medium sauce pan and take your left over mashed potato's from the fridge and plop that cement ball into the pan. Next using a spoon or spatula...mine in the photo is a silicone spatula that I use for everything; and chop up the potatoes dispersing across the pan.
On medium to high heat start warming them and continue chopping them down as they heat.
At this point you will add a little salt by sprinkling it over the surface lightly.  The potato will have sucked up that salt flavor sitting in the fridge..but not completely so watch your amount. If you hear your potatoes starting to sizzle its time to add the next ingredients!

If you have the following on hand great! If not we will use substitutes.  Sour Cream or Plain Yogurt, Milk or Milk..sorry no water!  First the Sour Cream or Yogurt...
Picture
Picture
Most important of all be sure to have a back up crew to help with the clean up..
Picture
After blending in the sour cream I then make a hole in the center to add milk. You will add about 1/4 of a cup to 1/2. Start with the former. If they seem too dry later then add a little more.  You want your potatoes to look a little wet but not runny.  They will dry out again while cooking and some of your liquid will disappear but not a lot so err on the side of caution by adding too little over too much.
Picture
Now we have a waiting game for the potatoes to finish heating all the way through....I add a little ground pepper...
Picture
You of course do not have to add additives either. Its up to you to now prep them however you like.  Because as soon as they are warmed through, they are revived and delicious and maybe better than before and definitely ready to eat!  BONA POTATA!
Oooops...yeah here is where the "inferior design" came in.  I tipped the sour cream to spoon some into the pan and half the contents dumped in.  It should have been about 2 heaping tablespoons to about 1 pound of mashed potatoes.  Here in the photo on the left there is half a large container sitting there.  But to save this I can skim off the top and put it back into the container. Saved!
Picture
Now that the sour cream is safetly put away...from everyone, using your spoon/spatula start mixing the Sour Cream or Yogurt into the potatoes.
Picture
Slowly turn your potatoes and milk together until you have a creamy like consistency like below.  You will notice my potatoes look much lighter here now and that is because I was taking the previous photos in a dark kitchen...I snapped on the light at this point but chalk that up to another inferior design...when taking photos of food use a lot of light. CHECK!
Picture
HEY! Who threw all that cheese in there....I wouldn't do such a....ok yeah I did....and why not? Ever had a baked potato with sour cream and cheese and...?  Yep now you can add things that make them yummier....cheese, bacon bits. For those of you who didn't know that I hate bacon...sacrilegious I know but there it is;  you can use turkey bacon too which I do like.  However one of the things I do not care for is the bacon flavor in anything.  So even substituting turkey bacon would work for some of you but not for me.  So we have cheese and ground black pepper plus sour cream.  You can also add chives if you like or a dash of onion/ garlic powder to add flavor without the bits of onion/garlic.
Picture
Last Tip!
Your spoon or spatula should be able to stand up in your potatoes. If they don't you added too much milk.
Picture
0 Comments

The Continued Mutilation of Toffee; I present Coffee Toffee

9/29/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
So in the spirit of trying for perfection I decided to go back to the toffee board again.  This time I came prepared with the following thoughts;  the chocolate last time was a disaster and we found the toffee was just delicious when we scraped the chocolate off.  I decided this time I would just omit the chocolate... for now.  Not that I am tossing it to the wind completely mind you but just putting it on the side bar for this experiment. I thought I would try adding coffee this time around; I love coffee and toffee why not pair them.

Then for the future I can add the chocolate top with coffee toffee to get a rich mocha flavor (which is the pairing of coffee and chocolate) I thought it may just make it the ultimate treat.

Using the recipe in the last entry on 8/12/2014  I moved forward with my idea. I already had the perfect toffee now just add coffee right?  Hmmm so how to go about doing that.  If I add a liquid it may not solidify properly. Or I may have to add more sugar or or or.  What I went forward with a  rounded heaping tablespoon of instant coffee.  I used Nescafe and added to the sugar and butter at the beginning and just melted it in. 

Then several things happened. The toffee was way darker then it was before so my take a ways from the amber color changing at the right moment really didn't help this time.  I used the candy thermometer and cooked the candy to 300 degrees.  Not only was my candy darker caused by the coffee but it also seemed to foam up a bit more.  Because of that I assumed I needed to stir it more to keep it from riding up the side.  I really don't know why I thought that but it was a mistake.  I should have stuck with my original actions.  You see there is so much butter in the recipe there really is no risk for it sticking.  I should have known better but hey then I wouldn't be writing this.

Once the butter is melted and melded in there in no reason to stir it other then a few times during the boiling process till it hits 300 degrees.  I found the more you stir it, it seems to add additional air and this cools the candy down and causes it to crisp too soon in the pan.  So note to self
this was definitely an inferior design on my part.   Do not stir too often. 

Next thing I noted was it didn't have the creaminess that it had last time.  Can two tablespoons of coffee affect the consistency that much?  Apparently.  Unfortunately its too late for me but not for you!  You can see in the picture above that the candy actually was hardening right out of the pan and didn't seal around all of the nuts. 
There are creases you can see where I had to push the candy into place and air pockets around the pecans.   What to do... Hmm well here is what I would change to make this a non-inferior design. 

First off next time I would add less coffee.  The flavor of the
heaping tablespoon was way too over powering and the candy lost the creamy taste of the toffee.  Remember we want a delicate melding not a hostile take over.  So I probably would cut it down to a rounded teaspoon.  Next I would add the same amount of additional butter as coffee.  So if you add a rounded teaspoon, add two teaspoons more butter to compensate for the dry ingredient.   I truly believe that will make the difference.  Don't let the darker color scare you either just keep the mixture rolling on enough heat to keep it roiling. High to start then turn it down once it boils to keep it at a boiling point but not going crazy.  We want to keep the air out of it.   Remember this is a fun and easy experiment it takes less then 15 minutes to make this.

Not that the above wasn't tasty but it could be better. 
So back to the cutting board and please let me know if you try this I would love to hear and see your results.  You could be featured on our DIY.
Picture
0 Comments

The Toffee Massacre  

8/12/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
Yesterday we were experimenting making Toffee. If you didn't get a chance to see the blog about it you can see that here: http://www.grafxquest.com/blog/colonel-sprocket-in-the-kitchen

Over all I have to say considering it was the first time making it, it wasn't really a huge massacre but since this is about Inferior designs we have to pick on it now don't we?

Ok so here we go. The photo on the right is the final product.  The toffee though thick was perfect. The perfect consistency and actually the perfect thickness and texture.  I say the perfect thickness because I love Toffee and there is nothing better then MORE Toffee, then Toffee layered with Toffee. The consistency was buttery and crisp and breaks off easy and is not chewy or sticky and melted perfectly in the mouth. I have eaten many Toffees and since it is one of may favorites I would definitely say I would do this again.

Now here is what I would not do again. I could have gone the easy route and melted chocolate chips on the top for the chocolate layer. However I do not like the way melted chocolate chips taste melted down and used on deserts. They belong IN a cake, cookie, muffin etc...but
really should not  be used as a chocolate glaze on top of foods.  So I tired to create my own chocolate by making the recipe off the top of my head as opposed to looking it up. Why? Because I love to be inspired and create without help and learn from the mistakes and I like making a mess. So what I had mistakenly done was create fudge. 

As you can see the in the photo the Toffee has a layer of chocolate fudge on top. So not entirely a horrible disaster as it still tastes wonderful but its not the right chocolate or consistency that should be used on top of Toffee.
And  I was not striving for a fudge which by the way was a little on the dry side lol. So as not to waste it even knowing it was fudge, I put it on top of my Toffee anyway.  I probably shouldn't have done that now that I think about it because the Toffee was as I said perfect and could have stood alone.

So the inferior design here was definitely the chocolate on top and will have to be revamped.
But here is how I made the Toffee.

  • 1 Cup Salted Butter                                                                       
  • 1 Cup Packed brown Sugar (Light or dark)
  • 1/4 Tsp Salt
  • 1 Tsp Colonel Sprocket's Madagascar Perpetual Vanilla
  • 1 Cup chopped nuts
  • And...nothing else that's it really!
Really there's nothing else in it and not much to do with it. Take the ingredients above except for the vanilla and toss them into a sauce pan. Put it on high heat and with a silicon or wood spoon stir until it comes to a boil. Once it is at full boil you only need to stir is once every minute or so. Now you boil it for about 12 min., and until you see the color of it start to change to more of an amber color. It may look like its burning but its not. You want that color it means its close being complete. Or to make life easier using a candy thermometer take it up to 300 degrees F.  Then remove from the stove, add Colonel Sprocket's Madagascar Perpetual Vanilla, wisk in quickly and pour immediately into a buttered 9X9 inch pan that is lined with the nuts of your choice. I used pecans up above since my father in-law brings me truck loads of pecans from the farm and nothing is better then fresh pecans.

The Toffee will start hardening quickly so spread it to the edges fast. While its still hot you want to add your chocolate topping. Now here you are on your own since I messed this step up. You will need some type of chocolate to put on top and like I said some people just melt chocolate chips on top of the hot Toffee. You can sprinkle with more nuts if you like. Then put it into the fridge or the freezer to quicken the setting process.

One Hour later remove from freezer, hit yourself in the forehead with the corner of the pan and give yourself a lump.  Ooops did I forget to tell you there was another thing that went wrong? Yep part two of the massacre. Well this is inferior design and I am the worlds biggest klutz. Put two and two together and you get one sore forehead.  Have you ever seen those cartoons when the character is hit in the head with something and you see his head vibrate and hear a wah wah wah noise. Yep that was me. I was already sporting a Migraine and this was instant vibration right to that source. DOH!

Ok after popping yourself in the forehead flip the pan over and the Toffee pops right out with a shake. I did use a non stick pan too by the way. Now juts break the Toffee into pieces. I bust it up by hand. It was easy and didn't need a hammer just some gentle pressure. And walla Toffee...All in all about 15 minutes to make and an hour from freezer to table. Wonderful after dinner treat!

If you make this and upload a 5 step process on how you didnt do it like me
. I would love to see it and share it in our DIY section. 

Have a Toffee and Tonk's coffee filled day! Yea!





Picture
0 Comments

    Archives

    February 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014

    Categories

    All
    Banners
    Colonel Sprockets
    Food Tests
    Header

    RSS Feed

    Back to top
CONTACT US

Free Content

BECOME A PATRON MEMBER

Advertise on our site

FAQ

PRIVACY POLICY
Picture
                                                           ©1996-2022 GrafXQuest LLC   All Rights Reserved.