Thursday, March 25, 2010

Survey Says...

When I was younger, I loved Family Feud. Not sure what it was about the show that grabbed my attention, but it did. Maybe it's because I'm nosy and want to know what others think about things. It was a pulse on some unknown group of people polled on random topics. I no longer care for the show and am pretty sure it's because I was grossed out when I watched reruns of the original host groping all the females.

Before I jump into the latest creation in the Commanding Journey, I want to let you know I missed chatting with you the past couple weeks. I kept expecting to get fan mail begging for the next post, but suprisingly you devoted Berry Patch followers are of a patient nature. Many things have been going on with the Berry's, and I just needed some time to retreat. You know, the days you come home from work, take off your workie works, put on the jammy jams, and don't think about anything. On top of that, the time change always gets me in Spring.

Now on with the real topic, I won't keep you waiting any longer.

It was time for a dessert. I truly enjoy preparing sweet delights and was craving it, thus I landed on French Bread Pudding with Clear Rum Sauce. I've enjoyed many-a-bread pudding desserts but never attempted to make it. The recipe looked simple enough and I had most of the ingredients in the cabinet.

Essentially bread pudding is pieces of bread soaked in custard and then baked in a water bath (place pan with food inside a larger pan of water). That's it. When I've eaten it in the past, the bread was cubed, but this recipe called for sliced. I will cube next time. I must call for a moment of silence in honor of how delicious the custard was. I helped myself to a little, and it was divine. If it weren't so rich, I could eat it like a bowl of chilled soup.
Sliced French bread soaking in custard.
















Soaking on the other side...Just look at that frothy custard.
















The most difficult part of the recipe was the Clear Rum Sauce. The ingredients are rum (light or dark - I used dark), sugar, water, cinnamon, butter, and cornstarch. I took the description literally as the sauce would be clear. I tend to take things too literally. The directions say to stir sauce until clear and it will be thin. Thanks Ella & Dick for no timeframe on how long it will take to become clear. Twenty minutes into stirring the sauce, it hit me...How did I expect the sauce to be crystal clear with the color of the ingredients? I came to the conclusion that clear sauce must mean all solid particles/lumps are gone. If nothing else, that's the definition in Berry's Dictionary, First Edition.

No amount of stirring could turn this clear.
















It was 9:00pm on Monday night and time to taste. The bread pudding was yummy, rich, mushy, and sweet. I enjoyed it but not as much as some other bread puddings I've had. Maybe that's because it was the first time I had eaten traditional bread pudding. I enjoy the ones enhanced with chocolate, blueberries, or anything really. I took out one bite for Brad because he rather eat Hamburger Helper than something mushy with sauce. So, how would I share the bread pudding and find out if it was really good or not?

It does look delicious in this picture.
















Survey says....
Ah-ha. I decided to take it to work and let the lovely and talented ladies in the Event & Patient Liaison Department (EPLD) decide. I packed everything up and took it to work the next day. In an effort to get honest feedback, I drafted an anonymous survey. After getting everything set up in the EPLD Bistro (FYI - I cleared everything in advance with Bistro manager, Lesssslie.) and waited for the ladies to arrive.

This has Christie Berry written all over it.
















I started to get a little nervous. What if everyone was really quiet and didn't say much? That would mean they thought it was grodie...Would I get defensive or my feelings be hurt? What if people that I was a nerd?...To late for that and I am pretty much at peace with who I really am.

So, everyone arrives and checks it out. It was funny because most everyone knew immediately this was the workings of Truly Yours.

Now for the results.....Drum Roll Please......(Picture Sparky's wife in Christmas Vacation just before he connects the chords for the first time)......























































As you can see from these semi-scientific survey results, it was a hit! Unless everyone thought differently and just didn't have the heart to tell me. Just like my mom didn't when I asked her if I was chubby as a child or could sing special music at church on Sunday. Gah.

I will leave you with this -
I find it interesting that after knowing my co-workers enjoyed the dessert, I remember it tasting better than I did before knowing. Hmm.

Tata for now.

4 comments:

NIck and Abbie Speyrer said...

Love the pie/bar charts! Looks yummy and I have been on the edge of my seat waiting for your next post. Just didn't want to pressure you. Wish I could've tasted it.

The Olives said...

OMG! That looks so good. Matt and I were just drooling over the picture. You know, Matt and I have been doing P90x and haven't had any "bad" foods in FOREVER! We are living through ya'll! Wish I could have had a bite! Miss you! I am going to call you this weekend, so we can catch up!

Anonymous said...

As you could hear from my har-dee-har-ing over the cube wall, I love thissss possst. And the bread pudding was delicious. Please test more recipes on us.

Beth said...

Christie, I am happy to participate in any and all of your future surveys. I thoroughly enjoyed your bread pudding. I think I may have tested it three times that day. It was absolutely delicious. I love all things Christie Berry!

Ponte Vecchio

Ponte Vecchio
Brad and me in Florence, Italy