Coming Soon, Home Meal Planning Service - Gathered Table

A New Home Meal Planning Service is coming soon called Gathered Table.  Geekwire covers the soft launch.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz backs Gatheredtable, a new way for families to plan menus for the week

by John Cook on 3/26/2014 at 5:51 pm | 0 Comments

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Former Starbucks exec Mary Egan is looking to change the way Americans plan family meals.

If you’re like me, family dinner time is usually a mad scramble to find something to eat, typically resulting in a trip to the local Thai restaurant, burger joint or pizza parlor. And I’m not alone. About 60 percent of families don’t know what they’ll put on the dinner table that night.

Former Starbucks executive Mary Egan feels your pain. And she’s here to help with a new startup called Gatheredtable — an online service that automatically generates a menu of weekly meals, tailored for your families’ preferences.

I can think of a lot of people who could use this type of service with these benefits.

I enjoy cooking and cooking faster is not an objective.  By 7a in the morning I have already figured out what I want to cook for dinner and whether the kids will be around for dinner. The only thing really stressful about cooking is when other people are in my kitchen.  As long as people stay out of my kitchen stress is low. :-) I spend so much of the day on the computer and creating software services, the last thing I want to do is spend more time on the computer to figure out a meal and a recipe.  I like cooking because it is time when I am not looking at a smartphone, tablet, or computer.  Just have a beer or glass of wine and my pizza oven.

Got a new Pizza Peel for my Woodstone Oven

On my way to Vancouver last week for the Wavefront Wireless Conference I was driving by myself and getting close to Bellingham.  Bellingham is where Woodstone Oven’s are made that are the same ovens you see in Whole Food, California Pizza Kitchen, many corporate cafeterias, Wolfgang Puck’s restaurants, and my kitchen.  I go to Serious Pie at least twice a month given a construction project I am working on is right next to it, and was able to have bfast with one of my Apple friends who was in town for vacation.

Below is one of two ovens at Serious Pie.  I usually try to talk to the cook’s to get a few tips on how they use their oven.  I am trying to bump the temperature of my over from 550 to 600 to get a better crust on the pizza.

Woodstone Oven has a training room right next to lobby.  And, I went in to check out the latest gear.  My oven is the same as the one on the left which is a 4’ chuckanut model.

One of the changes Woodstone made is to replace the stainless steel pizza peel (left) with an aluminum one (right).

What’s wrong with the stainless steel one?  Even when you put corn meal or semolina flour down, the pizza tends to stick too much.  And I would swap to a wood peel to make the pizza.  The aluminum one is a rough brushed finish that makes it much easier to slide the pizza.

I’ve only made one pizza with the new peel, and it is so much better than the stainless steel one.  Problem is aluminum will dent and bend much easier than the stainless steel.  

A Beer for your Buds to share, Redhook's Joint Effort

I've been filling up a growler more recently.  My favorite growlers are HydroFlask.

Hydro Flask Vacuum Insulated Steel Growler Review: Big. Cold. Beer.

You take beer seriously. You want it as pure as it was the day it left the brewery—untainted with light and heat. You want the best beer possible, and you want to take your time drinking it. Do you want a 64-ounce wide mouth vacuum insulated stainless steel growler?

And a nice looking one from Deschutes.

This growler holds 2 liters, which comes out to a little over 67 ounces. Most growlers are 64 ounces. It is a very high quality growler with a nice decorative handle.

I really like the porcelain lid, it seals down nice and tight. 

One of the new beers to share is Redhook's Joint Effort with Hilliard's Hemp Ale for your buds. Note: the marijuana theme- joint, hemp, buds.

REDHOOK BREWERY, HILLIARD’S BEER ANNOUNCE “JOINT EFFORT HEMP ALE”: A DUBIOUS COLLABORATION BETWEEN GOOD BUDS

Old School Meets New School in Ballard as Top Seattle Breweries Brew New Beer to Celebrate Legalization of Marijuana

SEATTLE – July 11, 2013 – Redhook Brewery, the Northwest’s original craft brew, announced today the release of “Joint Effort,” a new hemp beer brewed in collaboration with Seattle’s Hilliard’s Beer that celebrates the legalization of marijuana in Washington State.*

Oh. The beer will be only available in Washington State.

In keeping with Redhook’s reputation for creating imaginative tap handles, Joint Effort will be poured by a handle shaped like a bright yellow bong. Joint Effort will be available on draught only beginning July 15th and will launch in 22oz bottles under the Blueline Series in late October. The beer will be available in Washington State only. Locations can be found using Redhook’s “Beer Finder” at www.Redhook.com.

Dave's Roasted Chicken using a Dashboard Approach

I cook Roasted chicken at least once a week.  Sometimes twice a week.  Sometimes I roast an extra chicken for a sick friend when I am cooking one for us.

Here is what the finished Roast Chicken looks like.  Skin is crispy, crackling, and ready to eat off the carcass.  The meat is moist and buttery.  I've played around roasting chicken for the past 2 years.  And good advice to a cook is Patience, Practice, and Persistence are words to live by.  My guests, family, and I are so spoiled having chicken like this 

Some of guests ask what I put on the chicken.  Salt, Pepper, olive oil/vegetable oil, and a bit of butter under the skin.  I use brined chicken from Trader Joe's most of the time.

So how does the chicken come out so good?  I've cooked lots of chickens.  And having my woodstone oven allows me to cook differently than most.  The oven is  set to 550 and I start with salt and peppering the chicken on both sides and cook in 12" cast iron skillet.  But above I am showing the carcass on a Staub stand up rack.  I have tried to cook the chicken on Staub stand, but I couldn't get the chicken to cook evenly.  The high heat 550 and standing up the chicken for an hour would tend to burn the top. 

So, I start cooking the chicken in a cast iron skillet.

The oven can get pretty hot and here it is cranked up high during heat up.  The inside of the oven is 36" in diameter.

The below photo is shot at 1/2000 sec, f/4, 4000 ISO, 55mm

I turn the heat down when cooking.  Put the chicken in for 10 minutes.  Then flip it.

And 10 minutes later flip it again.

After 40 minutes of browning the skin in the cast iron is when I move the chicken to the chicken stand.  For 30 of the 40 minutes I have had the legs face the flame.  For the last 20 minutes standing up the neck is in the hottest part of the oven.  Depending on how the chicken is cooking I can adjust the flame to increase the browning of the skin.

Cook for another ten minutes, then rotate the bird 180 for another 10.  After 60 minutes I check for temperature.

And the chicken is done looking like the first picture I showed.

I use the juices from the chicken to roast vegetables.  our current favorite are brussel sprouts.  carrots are good slowly roasted.

My recipe is simple.  What I have learned is cooking with my woodstone oven allows to practice cooking in a way that supports presence.  I flip the chicken every 10 minutes.  Many times I am checking the chicken by looking and listening to the chicken cook.  The oven is at 4' so I can see and hear by just walking in front. of the oven.

I enjoy cooking because it is the time when I can totally focus like a meditation time on preparing food.  Heat, time, technique are the knobs I can turn to adjust the food.  My Dashboard is the physical sight, sound, and smell of the oven.  Most wouldn't think of their oven as a dashboard.  Oh the other knob I do turn is adjusting the heat which gives the right flame with the right heat.

Roasted King Salmon and Roasted Artichokes

Cooking is my Zen moments for the day.  Be focused, breath, relax, concentrate.  Be in the moment.

Today's meal is Roasted King Salmon.  One piece is just salt and pepper for the kids.  The other has a salmon rub I got from the last 7x24 Exchange conference.  Salmon Rub from a data center conference?  The Phoenix conference has a great reception and part of their food areas was a spice display where you can have spice mixes made - chicken, beef, or fish.

I use Lodge cast iron the most to cook.

Three minutes on one side, then about 10 minutes on the other in the oven.

Also tried to to Roast Artichokes.  Cut in half, olive oil, salt, garlic clove and lemon.  Put in the oven for 45 minutes.

Here are some of the zen concepts for cooking.

TRANSFORMATION

Cooking, like life, is about transformation. When we cook, we work directly with the elemental forces of fire and heat, water, metal, and clay. We put the lid on the pot and wait for the fire to transform the rice, or we mix the bread with yeast and put it in the oven to bake. There is something hidden, almost magical about it.

This kind of transformation involves a certain amount of faith. We work hard to prepare the food. We wash the rice, knead the bread, and break the eggs. We measure the ingredients carefully. We mix, stir, blend. But then we have to wait. We have to let fire and water transform the food we’ve prepared.

But we also have to keep an eye on things. We have to be aware of what is going on. For the Zen cook the old adage, “A watched pot never boils,” is only half-true. We leave the lid on the pot most of the time. But we also lift the lid every once in a while to taste the food.

The Zen cook follows the middle way. We have faith that the soup is coming along—but we still check now and then.

The accomplished Zen cook is something of an alchemist. He or she can transform poisons into virtues.

The Zen cook doesn’t do this by adding a secret ingredient, but by leaving something out. The Zen cook leaves out attachment to the self.

For example, anger is considered a poison when it’s self-motivated and self-centered. But take that attachment to the self out of anger and the same emotion becomes the fierce energy of determination, which is a very positive force. Take the self-centered aspect out of greed and it becomes the desire to help. Drop the self-orientation from ignorance, and it becomes a state of unknowing that allows new things to rise.