Testing, testing, 123

Recipe testing was in full swing today.  I made carrot cake late last week, and today I grilled it, made brown butter bourbon ice cream and brown butter bourbon caramel to go along with it, and brought it to the Barn for everyone to taste.  Too much fat in the ice cream was the consensus, which is easy to remedy, but everything else was yummy.

  Then, it was on to banana pudding with peanut butter cookies, classic Southern with an Elvis twist.  The picture would have been much better shot eye-level with the glass, because I lined banana slices up against the side, but I'd say it doesn't look bad as it is.  It tasted amazing!

  I started the almond torte that will be topped with Lavender-Sheep's Cheese Cheesecake, but ran out of time.  It's not just the baking and cooking that takes time.  It probably takes me longer to type the recipes and then answer the cookbook writer's questions about each one than the actual production.  It's fun, though, and a nice break.
  Melanie's working on lemon marmalade and mushroom ketchup this week while I test recipes.  The hotel is pretty empty, as it is every January, so guests are not knocking on the windows the way they do other months.  We've settled in to a nice, slow rhythm, which will be shot all to bits next week when the 3000 pounds of peanuts arrive.  Woo-hoo!  2800 more jars of peanut butter!

  The warps and skeins of weft are all wound, washed and dried for tomorrow's Tuesday Weaver/Clinch Valley Guild meeting!  I had to shut them up in the loominaria to keep small paws out of them, and they are ready to go, unmolested.  I'll be baking some bread for the potluck, and am excited to see everyone.  I wonder what colors I'll use?