Chef Foundation

Archive for March, 2010

Chinese take out boxes make the perfect wedding favor box. If you want to use these boxes as wedding gifts for your guest but don’t want to go the usual route of filling them with mints, take a look at these great how to ideas:

1) How about a candy buffet? Place the boxes at the beginning of a fun candy filled table and let your guests pick and choose among various candies to fill their boxes. Some great buffet line candies are M&M’s, Hershey’s Kisses, jelly beans, Skittles, and more. If you’re having your wedding near a holiday, choose candy for the season. For example, around Halloween, how about candy corn? At Christmas, consider candy canes. If you visit a bulk candy shop, you can easily stay within your budget by selecting the more inexpensive candy.

2) Potpourri. What a wonderful filling for favor boxes! Potpourri can also be tied to the season of the year. Select a scent that matches the month of the wedding. For spring, choose lavender or a mix of wildflowers. For fall, warm cinnamon or pine scents are perfect.

3) Wildflower Seeds. Visit a nursery near you and purchase wildflower seeds in bulk. Pour seeds into a plastic bag and insert into the take out box. Not only will your favor be economical and eco-friendly, but your guests will enjoy a beautiful wildflower garden in their own yard and remember your wedding every time they glance at it!

Putting together a Super Bowl Party can either be the toil of the year or a lot of fun! We have taken four of our friends & neighbors “fan tested” Snack & Appetizer Recipes and assembled them here. See how easy it is to put out a healthy, delicious spread for the big game using just a few ingredients! We often have our party goers each bring or prepare on dish at the party. Putting together these appetizers can be done during the pre-game and ready for serving by game time or half time.

Basic Ingredients:

Hot Smoked Salmon or Gourmet Smoked Salmon Can Fillets

Frozen Crab Meat

Whole Cooked Dungeness Crab

Cream Cheese

Garlic Herb Cheese

Cottage Cheese (Small Curd)

Chives

Green Onions

Red, Green & Yellow Peppers

Garlic

Artichoke Hearts

Carr’s Crackers or Triscuits

Baguette

Large Flour Tortillas

Toothpicks

Recipe #1: SMOKED SALMON PINWHEELS

Ingredients:

8oz Hot Smoked Salmon or Smoked Canned Salmon

1 5 OZ. Package Garlic Herb Cheese Spread

1 8 OZ. Cream Cheese – Softened

1/4 Cup Chopped Red Onion

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

8 8″ Tortillas (Flour or Flavored; Sun-Dried Tomato, Spinach etc.).

Directions:

Blend both cheeses until creamy. Stir in red onions & lemon juice.

Remove skin and dice smoked salmon into pieces or chop in a food processor and add to cheese mixture.

Spread and divide filling to cover each tortilla and then roll up them up jelly roll style.

Place the seam down on a tray and secure roll with a toothpick.

Refrigerate till well chilled, trim ends, then cut each roll into pinwheels about 3/8″ thick.

Stick a toothpick in each pinwheel.

Serve on platter cut side up.

Recipe #2: Crab Quesadillas

Ingredients:

16 OZ. Wild Ocean Seafoods Crab Meat

1 1/2 Cups Shredded Cheddar or Colby Jack Cheese

1/4 Cup Mayonnaise

1/3 Cup Sour Cream

2 Tbsp Green Onions Chopped

2 Tbsp Chopped Canned Jalape

Most people who crochet have made doilies, motifs, edgings or insertions at some time. If you can make these, you can easily convert them into beautiful clothes for a Barbie doll. The wonderful thing about crochet is that you can easily change the size by using smaller thread or a smaller hook. If you have a pattern that you love but find the motif is too large, you can make it smaller, and vice versa. These are ideas I used many times over the years to make doll clothes.

Remember, there are so many varieties of thread; white, ecru, pastels, bright colours, metallic.

Beading adds a wonderful look to Barbie’s clothes. Ribbon is run through small holes and either tied or you can place a small piece of velcro on each end.

Any motif can be filled in or very lacy; simply place the lacy motif over a piece of fabric lining and tack the corners.

Barbie’s dimensions are:

Bust: 6″

Waist: 3 3/4″

Hips: 5″

To make a cape:

Crochet any square motif.

You will want it an inch wider than Barbie’s shoulders.

The Two-Egg Cake is a treat from my childhood. It is simple and unassuming. It is delicious without being pretentious. This article contains a story, the recipe and what it’s memory symbolizes to me.

When I was a little girl, my family lived on a small farm South of Belen, New Mexico. There were a number of years during my childhood that money was scarce. My parents had to make do with what we had, which was milk, milk products and meat from the cattle, eggs from the chickens and produce from the garden. So, we always had food to eat, even though we never had “store-bought” delicacies on the table. One of the treats I most remember my mom making was the Two-Egg Cake. The ingredients included eggs, milk and butter, which we always had, and it could be whipped up and ready in just about 30 minutes.

One particular time I remember the cake had just come out of the oven and a bunch of teenagers showed up at the door and asked if we could give them something to eat. We had a picnic table and benches my dad had made outside in the yard. My mom asked them to sit down at the table and took the cake and a gallon of milk and offered it to them. The kids devoured every morsel of cake and drop of milk, thanked my mom and continued down the road.

We never had a lot of anything, but my parents were always gracious and shared.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened 1 1/2 cups sugar 2 1/4 cups sifted flour 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 2 eggs, unbeaten 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

Cream together the shortening and sugar. Add the flour, baking powder and salt. Add 3/4 of the milk and beat thoroughly. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Add the remaining milk and the vanilla. Bake at 375 degrees for 25-30 minutes.

What I learned:

Take stock of what you have on hand. All of us were born with unique talents, skills and abilities. Make a decision to use what you have. Don’t waste what you’ve been given. There’s a use and a purpose for every gift. Create something beautiful. No one will ever “come together” just like you again. You are unique, just as your gifts are unique. Only you can express your life as it was meant to be expressed. Give thanks. When we stop and think about it, we always have something for which to be thankful. A grateful heart is a joyful heart. Share what you have with others. No matter how simple your gifts may be, they can enhance your life and the lives of others. Whatever you give will be returned to you and multiplied.

SUMMARY

No matter what business you are in, you likely have data stored on one or several optical discs. Perhaps you have large files, music, documents, video content, medical images, records or backup data that you have saved and need to distribute. You’ve already made the wise decision to record this data on a CD, DVD or Blu-ray Disc™, thereby ensuring it will last a long time as well as be easily distributed and stored. You’ve also guaranteed that your data can be read by any computer anywhere in the world. Now you have one more decision to make: how to create a clear and informative label for the disc.

The disc itself has a large surface area to work with, so it makes sense to utilize this exterior. That way, you and the recipient will know the contents of the disc just by looking at it. There are two common means to this end. First, you could use a Sharpie or other soft tipped, permanent marker to write the contents directly on the disc’s surface. Permanent markers work quickly and easily, but they stop short of what most professionals expect in business-to-business information transfer.

You could also use one of the many inkjet printers that have the ability to print on specially-coated discs. These printers are inexpensive but have two drawbacks, the first of which is the cost of ink. Most manufacturers sell their printers at a low cost and look to ongoing ink sales for profit. The second disadvantage to inkjet printers is the lack of permanence. Most inks are water-based, and if they get damp or wet, you have a messy problem on your hands.

As a professional, it does not make sense to record and distribute large amounts of data on a disc if the label does not live up to the value of the content. Fortunately there is a third option—one that won’t fade, smudge or sell you short. Thermal disc printing is the ideal solution for every disc that needs a clear, reliable and professional label.

This white paper explains the technology and benefits of thermal disc printing.

INTRODUCTION

Thermal disc printing provides an ideal solution to your disc printing needs. In this paper, we’ll answer the two basic questions behind this type of printing:

- What is thermal disc printing? First, we’ll address the two basic technologies behind the solution: direct thermal printing and thermal retransfer printing. - What are the benefits? After discussing the two technologies, we’ll explain how one thermal printing technology is superior to the other.

 

What is thermal disc printing?

There are two different types of thermal printing: direct thermal printing and thermal retransfer printing. Each processes uses heat and pressure to transfer ink from a ribbon to the surface of the disc. Although theprocesses vary slightly, the results differ significantly.

Direct Thermal Printing

As its name suggests, direct thermal printing transfers ink from an ink ribbon directly to the disc. Through a mix of heat and pressure, the print head transfers wax-based ink from a thermal ink ribbon to the top surface of a disc. The disc itself may or may not be treated with a special top-coating that is optimized for thermal printing. Although both treated and non-treated discs are acceptable, you will, of course achieve superior durability results with a coated disc. In either case, the printed disc can withstand modest handling and can endure a moderate amount of water and sunlight. However, if the printed disc is going to be handled a lot, you will eventually see the effects of abrasion over time. Therefore, direct thermal printing is often used for restore discs, backup software copies, monthly phone and payroll logs, bank statements and whenever one-time use of a disc is the norm.

We do not often see printers that make use of ribbon cartridges nowadays. Most printers utilized in homes and offices are often inkjets and deskjets that employ liquid ink cartridges rather than printer ribbons. Printer ribbons are certainly reminiscent of the time when dot matrix printers were still in vogue. They also remind us of the time when computers were not yet available for mass usage and that people had to rely on typewriters with their smudgy ribbon cartridges.

Nonetheless, there are still some computer users out there who still own and operate dot matrix printers, which run using printer ribbons. In many ways, dot matrix printers are much more economical in printing out draft documents or documents where print quality is not an issue rather than deskjet printers or inkjet printers. Printer ribbons are pretty cheap for most part.

Ever wondered how dot matrix printers work? Dot matrix printers got their name from the tiny dots that make up their printed output. These dots are created by the pins on the printer head, which strike the paper through a strip of ink-soaked cloth.