The Best Tomatoes for Sauce: San Marzano Tomatoes

Ask any chef and they’ll tell you that San Marzanos are the best tomatoes for sauce.
The flesh of San Marzanos is thicker and meatier than other sauce tomatoes, they have fewer seeds, a bolder flavor, and they’re less acidic. The end result? These tomatoes just melt into sauces.
To prep San Marzanos for sauce, you first have to remove the skin. Fill a large pot with water and bring to a boil. Drop in a few San Marzanos (you may have to work in batches) and boil until they’re skins start to blister (about 1-3 minutes). Remove the tomatoes from the water using tongs, a slotted spoon, or a Chinese skimmer and immerse them in a bowl of ice water. Once the tomatoes are cool enough to handle, use your hands to peel off the skins.
Next, chop off the tops of the tomatoes and slice away any tough flesh, bruises, or rot spots. To remove the seeds, cut the tomato in half lengthwise and gently scrape out the seeds using a small spoon or your finger. At this point, the tomatoes are ready to be frozen or canned.
Removing the skins and seeds from San Marzanos makes for an extra velvety sauce. Try using San Marzanos in this simple Garlic Tomato Sauce for pasta or pizza. They’re also perfect in ratatouille.
Look for fresh San Marzano tomatoes at your local farmers market. You can also find canned San Marzanos in specialty stores or larger grocery chains.  http://eatdrinkbetter.com/2010/08/10/san-marzano-tomatoes-the-best-sauce-tomato/

Hand painted cakes

  

 

Artwork cakes

For those of you who are not familiar with what a “blogiday” is … join the club! I only recently heard of bloggers taking a “blogging holiday” (hence, blogiday), which is basically a holiday from blogging. Well, instead of leaving the blog stagnant for a week, I decided to post some oldies but goodies since many of you are new followers since the inception of Hill City Bride. I am taking the week of Thanksgiving off from blogging in order to spend some time with my family, and I hope that you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
As a sidebar, I also wanted to say that today is my “sweet 16″ … anniversary, that is! The time has flown by, but it has been wonderful. Happy Anniversary, sweetie. Of course for a “sweet 16″, I had to repost about something sweet … CAKE!!
Wedding cakes are a central focus for many wedding receptions, and it is something that the bride painstakingly chooses … the flavor, fillings, icing and style are all chosen to reflect the taste (no pun intended!) of the bride and groom and their wedding day.
Recently we attended an event where we saw something that was new … or at least new to us. Fondant cakes are all the rage with the ability to have the icing as smooth as canvas, and that is what some bakers are turning their fondant into … yes, canvas! We would like to introduce you to the painted fondant cake.
Brushstrokes on a smooth surface like fondant allow for more detailing than piping icing or using fondant pieces can. All cakes are works of art, yet a painted fondant dessert truly takes the cake as far as artwork goes! Enjoy the samples below, and maybe one of these types of designs is right for your wedding day.

This is the detailing of the cake that inspired this post, which was made by Center Stage Catering for a ladies luncheon to honor Bella Magazine. It truly was a work of art.

It would be lovely to have a wedding cake or bridal shower cake that would match the flowers that were in the wedding bouquets and centerpieces!

Nature inspired themes also lend themselves to hand painted cakes.

Peacock feathers are widely used in weddings today, and although real feathers may not be very appetizing for a cake, these hand painted ones fit the bill nicely.

This is one of our favorites due to the three dimensional detailing with the berries.

Inspiring, isn’t it? We can picture many things painted on a cake that would be meaningful to a bride and groom such as interests they have or memories they have shared together. This type of cake would even be fun for a groom’s cake … we can just picture a cake with fun fishing lures painted on for a groom who likes to fish. The possibilities are endless, and enjoy the ideas we have given you to start with.

For fine cakes in Lynchburg, trust La Bella Torta … a super talented cake company (which makes both delicious and beautiful cakes!). Also, remember to enter our giveaway!   http://www.hillcitybride.com/tag/hand-painted-cake/