Commercial Kitchen for rent in town?

I hope all of you had a delicious and wonderful thanksgiving! Mine was excellent as I spent most of the day arranging my house in new and interesting ways and cooking! I made a thanksgiving dinner for my mom, her friend Steve, and my sisters (although I wasn't anticipating them being there!). Starting at the store the night before, I decided that I didn't want an entirely traditional thanksgiving dinner because I'm not a huge fan of turkey. I figured, well, it's also the first night of Hanukkah, (Happy Hanukkah by the way!) why not give the thanksgiving meal a little middle-eastern flair? As an appetizer we had toasted pitas (Also we had Tomato Basil Brown Rice Triscuits handy) and hummus. To start the meal, we had individual bowls of tabbouleh salad which Sasha decorated beautifully (and uniquely!) with black olive halves and lemon pieces. At this point we opened the wine which Mom and Steve brought which was a Roscato. I know it's snubbed by winos but sweet wines are sooooooooo GOOD. The wine was very heavy while the tabbuleah was light and fluffy which I thought made a nice contrast. The main dish was a very straight-forward vegetable soup which I used to cook a turkey roast. Immediately before dinner I took out the roast and broke it into largish chunks which I returned to the soup. The vegetable soup was served with pieces of turkey in it. I tell you what, I REALLY love the way I make a turkey roast. It was a big hit among everyone else too. For desert, we had honey vanilla yogurt with peach butter, peaches, and almond pieces spread over the top. Ari decorated the main serving bowl, arranging the peach slices to look like a rose, which I thought was insanely cool. I'm seriously kicking myself for not taking pictures yesterday. Long and short of it, we barely made a dent in the soup. I gave some to Mom, then I gave some to my neighbors, then I invited Freda and her brothers over for a meal while I finished up dishes and made pecan/walnut sandies! We managed to finish the soup and tabbouleh both. We even lit a beeswax candle (used the empty wine bottle as a menorah) for Hanukkah. The sandies were just okay. They don't hold a candle (Hannukah candle or otherwise) to Caitlin's pecan sandies. Of course now my standards are super high too. Nice going Caitlin. ;-) 

Onwards and upwards. I always have a LOT of ideas. Most of you have heard of my 3-year, 3-business + 2 "plan" (all while going to culinary school). One of several of my issues however is that I'm somewhat easily distracted by other cool ideas which is probably why I have 5 business ideas up my sleeve in the first place. Since work is not mentally stimulating, I spend a lot of time thinking about what I need to start one or another business. Originally I was thinking to start a tutoring/lessons business starting in January. After my conversation over thanksgiving dinner though, I'm looking at perhaps starting my catering or juice bar business as well, perhaps starting at the 3 local farmer's markets next summer. Steve apparently used to have a smoothie business that he used to take to 6 different farmer's markets in Colorado. He and I talked about the needs for a food truck or catering business and all of the similarities to what I was looking at doing here. Steve has pointed me in an interesting thought direction. I concluded that for the small catering business would need at least these three things:

1) A safe food handling certification

2) Access to a commercial kitchen

3) A mobile kitchen/restaurant license

I've been looking around, and unfortunately, the closest commercial kitchen that I've found so far for rent is in Carmel, Indiana. Can you guess what I said to myself next? That's right, "what would it take to open a commercial kitchen that I could rent out to others?" To which my answer was "whoa there, hit the brakes and step back." There are lots of folks at the Farmer's Market that sell prepared food. There has to be a commercial kitchen somewhere. The "become a vendor" policy explicitly says that you cannot sell prepared food that was made at home. The question is still where is there a commercial kitchen? I'm not sure who to contact about this but finding out is my next step. 

http://www.lafayettefarmersmarket.com/becomeavendor.html

The catering business would be a small startup that I would only use occasionally until after school. Having access to a commercial kitchen would also allow me to start up my juice bar which I could do AT the Farmer's Market. This would also probably require that I get my hands on a commercial juicer. This one looked good, as did this one. Ari also offered to help if we do end up doing a juice thing at the farmer's market and it seems like it would work well. Please comment if you have any thoughts or ideas for me. In the mean time, I won't have too much time to go crazy until January. 

Fennel seed, rosemary, ham and white wine

I have discovered a new combination of flavors that I absolutely LOVE. Fennel seed, rosemary, ham and white wine. I've put this combination of flavors into two fairly different meals over the last several days. Even so, living alone unfortunately makes eating an entire ham somewhat difficult (not to mention my neighbors don't eat pork and theoretically my mom is Jewish). Fortuitously, one of my previous roommates, Chelsie, is giving her dissertation tomorrow so I offered to make sweet cornbread and give her the majority of the soup to serve to her committee and to the other students.

When I make cornbread I like to use the Krusteaz Natural Honey Cornbread and replace about half of the milk with International Delight creamer flavors. My favorite creamer to use for this is the Irish Cream but I had White Chocolate Macadamia Nut flavor in my fridge so that's what I used. While I got the soup exactly the way I wanted it, I didn't realize until after I had finished baking the cornbread to a beautiful, puffy, golden brown that I had forgotten to put in the 1/3 cup of oil called for in the box recipe. Somewhat apprehensive, I tried the finished cornbread hoping that I wouldn't have to make a trip to Walmart this late at night for more cornbread mix. It turned out just fine. It's not quite as moist as my cornbread usually turns out (although for this same reason, most people think the cornbread is a cake) which is good because it will go perfectly with the soup. My current working theory is that there was enough fat in the creamer and milk that the oil was unnecessary.

The first meal I made with the 4 flavors of the evening was a "topping" for pasta. I sauteed the ham with onions, fresh rosemary, and fennel seed. After the ham and onions were cooked, I added a can of garlic and basil diced tomatoes. I simmered until the water was gone (adding pepper and some Italian Seasoning in the mean time). Once the water water was gone and the tomatoes were just about to start frying, I added half a cup of white cooking wine and removed from heat. I put the topping over hot 3-cheese tortellini. Best served hot.

There was a lot of leftover ham so I ended up making the soup over the course of 2 days. That said, it wouldn't have taken that long if I had needed it quicker. Here is the recipe as best as I can recall it.

Ham (cubed)
Water
1 lb dry lentils
oil for sauteing
2 onions diced
8 carrots, peeled and chopped
8-12 small golden potatoes chopped into manageable sized pieces
fresh parsley
fresh rosemary
1/4 to 1/2 cup of rice vinegar (pre-seasoned with sugar and salt)
1 teaspoon fennel
pepper to taste
1/2 cup white wine

The first day I simmered the cubed ham in a large stock pot of water for 5-6 hours. I was busy organizing my new room situations so it was a nice Sunday with soup smelling up the house. I then removed the ham cubes but left the water in the stock pot. The ham was put away in the fridge for further use the next day. I added enough water to pot of (ham flavored) water to have enough to cook the lentils as per the package directions. I cooked the lentils (which expanded significantly) in the water for about 40 minutes. I put the lentils and remaining water into a sealed container and put in the fridge overnight.

The next day I sauteed the onions, carrots, and ham cubes until the onions were glassy. Then I transferred the mix to another large stock pot and filled it with water until the pot was about half full. I added the potatoes, rice wine vinegar, finely chopped parsley and rosemary, fennel, and pepper to taste. After the potatoes were mostly cooked (so that a fork breaks the potato but it's still a bit crumbly; in other words, NOT MUSH), I added the lentils and water from the previous day and the white wine. I approximated that I used a half cup, but it may have been more or less. No more heating necessary, serve hot!

The fresh herbs are from my container garden which loves its new place inside the house. I'm pretty proud that they are doing well and I use them all the time. In the same place I put a ginger root that started to grow and Sasha's avocado plant (affectionately named Guillermo PRIOR to her dating her current boyfriend). One of these evenings I need to take a picture of the new plant table to share with you.

Well, that's all for tonight. Let me know if you have questions!

Good morning!
Last night was pretty much the most tired that I've been in a long time. Luckily, we had just enough energy to make quiche! You suggested that I put it on my blog, so here are  pictures and the recipe!

1 tablespoon of oil

1 to 2 pounds mild or hot ground Italian sausage

1 onion

2 cups of cubed butternut squash

several handfuls of uncooked loose-leaf spinach

1 package of frozen broccoli florets

spices and herbs to taste

some water

1/4 cup white cooking wine

10 eggs

1/2-3/4 cups milk

2 deep dish pie crusts

To make: 

Using a large saucepan, begin by browning the Italian sausage and onions in the oil. 

When the sausage is cooked through, add the cubed butternut squash, the uncooked spinach and frozen broccoli. Also add enough water to cover the bottom of the pan with a half centimeter of water. 

Reduce heat to medium and using a spoon arrange the vegetables so that the butternut squash is sitting as close to the water as possible. 

Add spices and herbs to taste. We used garlic powder, pepper, Italian seasoning, and basil. Then cover and cook for about 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Check that there is still a small amount of water in the bottom of the pan when you stir. 

When the broccoli is heated through and the butternut squash is approximately al dente like a good pasta, add the white cooking wine. Increase heat slightly. Leave uncovered to allow the remaining water to almost completely boil away. When there is only a thin film of boiling water on the bottom of the pan, remove from heat completely. Do not allow the saucepan contents to burn! If it is close to burning add a small amount of water.

 Beat eggs and milk in a mixing bowl with a fork. 

Fill two deep-dish pie crusts 3/4 of the way full with the saucepan contents.

Fill the two deep dish pie crusts with the egg mixture covering the sausage, squash, broccoli and spinach attractively. 

Bake in the oven at 375 for 30-45 minutes or until a knife inserted into the pie comes out clean.

Introduction

Good morning Caitlin!
Well, since you're about to start out on your new journey in Arkansas, I am hoping this can be something of a "housewarming gift" when you arrive. I guess I'm envisioning that we could be blog buddies... maybe not quite as cool as the vlogbrothers on Youtube but along that same vein.

To start off with, I know you're a fan of Lindsey Sterling and Ari just posted a couple of really excellent videos on my facebook wall. While I enjoy Lindsey Sterling immensely, Pentatonix is one of my absolute favorite musical subscriptions on Youtube. Someone between them thought to get together and make a video. This was the result:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aE2GCa-_nyU

It's about time for me to get moving with my day, but I hope yours is pleasant and not too "radioactive."

Maya