Get Ready for Fall with Your 5 Senses

There are signs that Autumn is just about here. The kids are back in school, the days are shorter, and you can feel a little breeze in the air. It's a great time to start noticing the natural transformation and embracing your five senses to make your fall oasis. Here are five things that you can do to get all of your senses ready for fall.

1. Vision: Add the Fall Decor

Let the decorating begin with visuals around your kitchen and home! Start by changing your kitchen decor with Autumn colored napkins, leaf shaped napkin rings, earthy center piece, fall themed table runner, fall colored flowers with a neutral vase, a fun fall picture or a decorative calligraphy sign, and more. Decorating the room with warm colors will definitely get you into the season.

2. Taste: Baskets of Fruits and Veggies

Make sure to load up on the fall fruits and veggie favorites and have them out in either a basket or a bowl. You can get things like  apples, pears, mini pumpkins, berries and cherries,  corn, squash, eggplants, and more. These will provide natural colors into your kitchen, but make you want to have healthy snacks which will make your taste buds get into the season. I also challenge you to try new recipes for dinner with some of these fruits and vegetables.

3. Smell: Burn those Candles and Bake On

The temperature is about to get a little more chill at night. Get a little warmer by bringing out fun candles. Gravitate towards candles with warm colors like brown, gold, red, yellow, orange, and white which will fill the room with fall. Look for fragrances like pumpkin Chai,  cinnamon apple, frosted cranberry,  vanilla birch, and autumn leaves. Baking more will also bring yummy smells into your home. Try baking a pies, bread, corn bread, cinnamon rolls, and more.

4. Touch: Settle Ways to Feel Fall

This sense is one that we least think about and is more settle. Think about opening your window to feel the colder breeze go through your hair. You can place fall themed rugs on the floor to keep your toes warmer. This will keep the floors free from the crunchy leaves and dirt that comes from outside.  Bring out your favorite house slippers or fuzzy fall socks as another layer of warmth in your home. Or turn on the fireplace to feel the warmth of the log burning.

5. Hearing: Get the Family Together

Again, opening the window will provide you also with the touch of the wind, but also the sounds of fall. You will hear animals making noises and trees moving in the wind and is a natural way of bringing Autumn in from outside. But the big way to hear fall is to have dinner together at the table. Fall is all about bringing family and friends together; what better way to do that by having dinner together. The sound of the kids playing right before you sit down, the laughter of a joke, and the storytelling  throughout your meal.  Togetherness is the real spirit of Autumn!

When you do all of these things, you will definitely get into the spirit of the season. Take a few moments tonight and throughout fall to gather the family together and enjoy every aspect of fall.

A Great Cooking Option for the Holidays- Samsung Range Review

 It’s that time of year again where we all move our cooking back indoors and cooking for tons of people.  With the Holidays coming up, you might be considering a new oven for your kitchen.

 Today I would like to introduce to you the Samsung NX58H9500WS.

 Thinking out the cooktop this is a game changer for very big meals. This unit features a Hi-Performance 5-Burner Cook-top. This allows you to cook your food on top with flexibility with how fast you would like to cook things and the convenience of cooking over-sized pots and pans with the oval burner. With 18,000 BTUs you can get a rapid boil. This range also includes a cast-iron griddle, Wok Ring, and a 22k BTU Tri-Ring burner.   There are also grate indicator marks to help you place your pots and pans in the perfect spot to get the best cooking performance.

The oven provides more features that can help with cooking for the holidays. The True-Convection oven offers the most consistent oven temperatures throughout which helps make your food cook more evenly and makes every bite tastier. The internal meat probe helps ensure the proper internal temperature for your Holiday Roast or Turkey.  The oven is brightly lit with halogen lighting so it is always easy to monitor the status of your baked goods. The guiding light controls have a digital display that makes it easy to follow step-by-step instructions on how to cook certain foods and program your favorite recipes. The oven’s size is 5.8 cu ft which is large enough to handle that bigger turkey at the store or cook multiple big dishes at once. At the bottom, this range has a warming drawer. You can keep some foods in here until everything is ready to eat at dinner time.

Come see us today at one of our 17 locations, we can show you this convection range and many more like it to compliment your Holiday Cooking Season.

We hope to see you soon.

Chocolate Truffle Tarts

Every week I bring you a video recipe and this week I'm in the Jenn-Air kitchen at Contract Appliance to share my favorite dessert, Chocolate Truffle Tart. Don't be intimidated by fresh pie dough, watch my video for tips on how to make, roll and fill pie dough. With a little practice you might find that making pies and tarts to be your go-to dessert.

• 1 Cup heavy whipping cream
• 8 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
• 1 large egg yolk

Preheat an oven to 325 degrees and position an oven rack in the center.

To prepare tart shell: On a lightly floured work surface; roll out the dough until 1/8 inch thick. Using a large spatula, place into a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom, pressing slightly to cover the bottoms and sides. Trim the dough to be flush with the rim and chill for 10 minutes.

Cover shell with parchment paper, and fill with pie weights blind-bake in the oven until pale golden brown, about 15 minutes, and allow to cool.

To prepare tart filling: In a medium saucepan, combine the cream and milk and place on the stove over medium-high heat and bring to a low boil. Remove from the heat; add the chocolate and let stand until melted, about 5 minutes. Using a whisk, stir until smooth.

In a small bowl, whisk in the egg with the egg yolk and then whisk in 1/2 cup of the chocolate cream. Thoroughly whisk this custard mixture into the chocolate cream in the saucepan.

Transfer the filling into the prepared tart shell and bake until set around the rim but still slightly jiggles in the center, about 30 minutes.

PIE DOUGH
It’s as easy as 3 2 1

• 3 - Part Flour
• 2 - Part Butter
• 1 - Part Water

This technique is based on a ratio of twice as much flour as fat by weight. The fat is rubbed into flour to create a loose mixture that is then bound using a small amount of ice water, rolled out, then shaped and placed to create the top or bottom of a tart or pie. Using butter adds flavor while using lard ensures optimum texture.

Have a cooking or baking question? Leave it in the comments section and Chef Mark will get back to you!

Recipe- Blueberry-Lemon Tart

This heavenly dessert is like a fresh breath of springtime with every bite!

Prep time: 25 minutes

Inactive time: 1 hour

Cook time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 2 hours, 10 minutes

Ingredients:

Pastry:

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons sugar

Pinch kosher salt

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut in chunks

1 large egg, separated

2 tablespoons ice water, plus 1 teaspoon

Filling:

4 large eggs

1 ½ cups sugar

1 cup fresh lemon juice (about 5 lemons)

¼ cup heavy cream

1 lemon, zested

Pinch kosher salt

1 pint blueberries

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Pulse flour, sugar and salt together in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until dough resembles cornmeal. Add egg yolk and 2 tablespoons ice water and pulse again until dough pulls together. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and let rest in refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface into a 12-inch circle. Roll dough up onto rolling pin and lay inside a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press dough into edges of pan and fold excess dough inside to reinforce the rim. Cover tart pan with plastic wrap and put into the refrigerator for another 30 minutes.

Put tart pan on a baking sheet and prick bottom of dough with a fork. Cover shell with a piece of parchment paper and fill it with pie weights or dry beans. Bake for 25 minutes. Remove parchment and weights. Lightly beat egg white with 1 teaspoon water and brush it onto the bottom and sides of the tart shell; set aside to cool.

Whisk together eggs, sugar, lemon juice, cream, zest, and salt. Add blueberries to cooled tart shell and pour filling over blueberries. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. The curd should jiggle slightly when done. Cool to room temperature, remove from tart ring and serve.

Serves 6 to 8.