Is there anything better than a fresh hot cup a' joe in the early morning, or a hot fragrant cup o' tea in the afternoon ( with shortbread and curd of course!)
I don't know if it's better, but a glass of wine or two at the end of a long day is, I think, one of the finer things in life. Ahh ! Snuggling into the corner of my sectional couch that is the chaise part, so I can kick off my sneakers put my feet up...sigh.. lean back and enjoy a glass of good, yet moderately priced wine..let's not go crazy here.
Usually this moment of peace is fleeting, my reverie broken by one of a million questions asked of a Mom in a day, and I hear, " Mom, what's for dinner?" or " Mom can I get a ride to..." the first of these two queries usually sends me into my grumpy place. Since I cook frequently and in large amounts for Mclaren's, it is not often that I look forward to cooking again at home. " I have no idea!", "I haven't thought about it." or my favorite, "I don't know, what are you making? " are my frequent quips in reply to the nagging question. The cooking for 45 minutes and consuming on the fly in 5 has grown old, as I have grown old.
But more and more I find that I really enjoy creating new products and combinations for McLaren's.
Last night I created my second series of wine jams, best served with cheese or used as a sauce base or a glaze for meats, poultry or fish -red vs white-. The aroma of the warm wine, paired with Raspberries and Marion berries was enticing. The process, different than cooking for a busy crowd, gives as much as it demands. Each wine, Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, etc seem to call for a different fruit, a pinch of spice, a dash of that and voila! Warm, robust, not too sweet (and definitely adult) flavors bloom, filling the hot kitchen with great plumes of fragrant steam.
Then, quickly! To the jars, to the jars!...... Don't boil off the alcohol, what ever you do..... racing like a crazed eccentric, with tongs and ladle in hand, sealing and twisting, sealing and twisting, until at last, they are subdued, submerged in their hot tub - forced to contain their flavor and fragrance...trapped away from the sunshine and sweet rain that began their journey so many months ago.
So what began in a vineyard, tended with care, bottled with pride, has now taken on one more transformation. Soon I hope, to be part and parcel of celebrations, meals and intimate moments, not soon forgotten.
I wonder what my next transformation will be? I hope not to grandmother, too soon, I still have some ripening to do!
Take the time to have a cup o' something with someone you care about this week!
Andrea
Mclaren's in the Kitchen, Blog
Friday, October 29, 2010
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Later....the next month...our first Harevst Festival!
I have finally come up for some air..... we have been so busy! We registered earlier this year to be a vendor at the Harvest Festivals in Del Mar, San Mateo and Pomona, so.. we decided that we better check one out, to see what it is like, you know, to set our production goals ect. So .. off we marched to the Ventura Harvest Festival.
(It was the weekend following The Sea Side Highland games in Ventura. The Sea Side Games are the last Big Scottish Games of the Season that we participate in, so we were pretty tired from the two weeks of prep and the weekend of selling.)
WOW it was packed... so in eager anticipation of great sales in Del Mar we scurried back to Santa Clarita to set up our production schedule for the week to come.
There are some weeks, mostly in between festivals now, that we can relax a bit. But the week before Del Mar was not one of those weeks. We work in a commercial kitchen at night, after both my husband and I have worked our day jobs. We try to work only three nights a week in the kitchen and then two nights packaging- to ward off complete exhaustion. Our kids help us with the baking and cooking when their homework load is not too heavy and we are grateful for their help.
Production dream- a cookie crank - a table top, hand operated, cookie depositer. One day we will no longer scoop Ginger Lassies by hand!
Well, off we went last weekend to the beautiful town of Del Mar, CA and experienced our first Harvest Festival. It was big. There were so many vendors and a lot of beautiful and unique hand made items from pottery, glass, clothing, decor, foods and more. We met a lot of great folks and sampled a lot of product, and had a great weekend of sales.
My life, in the past year has taken on an eerie similarity to the Middle Ages as described by Ken Follet in his fantastic novels Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. ( The first read before we launched Mclaren's and the second after Christmas last year) In his novels, the people of the villages and towns are dependent on the local markets and the commerce done there to support the entire town, from the nobels to the monks. If it rains, a bridge is washed out or a crop is destroyed, entire families were destroyed, or saddled with enormous set backs.
The past few years have been that way for so many people. The economic crash and the ensuing joblessness, forced us to look for an alternative source of income. Necessity being the mother invention, we took something that we already had, a really excellent Scottish Shortbread recipe, and turned it into a business, that in turn - is dependent on good weather (festivals & farmers markets)
the price of the goods we use, ( butter just had a giant price leap) and finding the customers to buy it.
When we are at the markets and festivals, I can hear the echos of the farmers and bakers that came before us selling their goods in the open air markets through out the centuries. It is like a four hour
de ja vu.
Thank God we have better sanitation and better health care....oh wait, that's right... we don't have insurance at the moment...let's pray the plague doesn't return........
Until next time, take the time to have a cup of tea with someone you love.
Andrea
for more information about Mclaren's visit our web site
www.mclarensshortbread.com
(It was the weekend following The Sea Side Highland games in Ventura. The Sea Side Games are the last Big Scottish Games of the Season that we participate in, so we were pretty tired from the two weeks of prep and the weekend of selling.)
WOW it was packed... so in eager anticipation of great sales in Del Mar we scurried back to Santa Clarita to set up our production schedule for the week to come.
There are some weeks, mostly in between festivals now, that we can relax a bit. But the week before Del Mar was not one of those weeks. We work in a commercial kitchen at night, after both my husband and I have worked our day jobs. We try to work only three nights a week in the kitchen and then two nights packaging- to ward off complete exhaustion. Our kids help us with the baking and cooking when their homework load is not too heavy and we are grateful for their help.
Production dream- a cookie crank - a table top, hand operated, cookie depositer. One day we will no longer scoop Ginger Lassies by hand!
Well, off we went last weekend to the beautiful town of Del Mar, CA and experienced our first Harvest Festival. It was big. There were so many vendors and a lot of beautiful and unique hand made items from pottery, glass, clothing, decor, foods and more. We met a lot of great folks and sampled a lot of product, and had a great weekend of sales.
My life, in the past year has taken on an eerie similarity to the Middle Ages as described by Ken Follet in his fantastic novels Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. ( The first read before we launched Mclaren's and the second after Christmas last year) In his novels, the people of the villages and towns are dependent on the local markets and the commerce done there to support the entire town, from the nobels to the monks. If it rains, a bridge is washed out or a crop is destroyed, entire families were destroyed, or saddled with enormous set backs.
The past few years have been that way for so many people. The economic crash and the ensuing joblessness, forced us to look for an alternative source of income. Necessity being the mother invention, we took something that we already had, a really excellent Scottish Shortbread recipe, and turned it into a business, that in turn - is dependent on good weather (festivals & farmers markets)
the price of the goods we use, ( butter just had a giant price leap) and finding the customers to buy it.
When we are at the markets and festivals, I can hear the echos of the farmers and bakers that came before us selling their goods in the open air markets through out the centuries. It is like a four hour
de ja vu.
Thank God we have better sanitation and better health care....oh wait, that's right... we don't have insurance at the moment...let's pray the plague doesn't return........
Until next time, take the time to have a cup of tea with someone you love.
Andrea
for more information about Mclaren's visit our web site
www.mclarensshortbread.com
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