411 on Hors d' Oeuvres

This blog is going to talk about “Hors d’ Oeuvres” (Orr-durves). Some people might think that these little 2 bite concoctions are for the fancy type and are super time consuming to make but that’s not the case at all!! You can make an array of hors d’oeuvres right at home. Hors d’oeuvres are a great way to utilize leftovers or things in your kitchen that are about to go bad. But before we go into that, let’s talk about what makes up an hors d’oeuvre.

Base: This is the most bottom part of an hors d’oeuvre. This can include anything from a slice of cheese, a cracker, bread, a cucumber or even a piece of fruit. This is the first layer to an hors d’oeuvre.

Spread: A spread can include things such as mayonnaise, butter or jam. It’s a flavor agent as well as a protector of the base. The spread is put on the base so the base won’t become soggy from the topping on the hors d’oeuvre. This is the second layer to an hors d'oeuvre. 

Binder: A binder would be used if some kind of food in the hors d’oeuvres needs structure. An example would be gelatin: gelatin can be added to a mousse of some kind so that it can maintain its volume. Not only is this great for presentation, but it is also great for its texture. It’d be a shame to pick up a salmon mousse barquette and you see a tiny pool of pink goo in a soggy piece of crust.

Aerator: Beaten egg whites or heavy whipping cream are perfect examples of an aerator. These items also give volume to mousses or other food items to make for a great presentation and texture. If they are over beaten they can appear grainy. The binder/aerator would make up the middle part of the hors d'oeuvre. 

Optional: Garnish: Sometimes an hors d’oeuvre can have a garnish such as caviar or fresh chopped parsley, but it really just depends on what’s being served. This would be the last part of the hors d'oeuvre. 

So like I was saying earlier, hors d’oeuvres are a great way to incorporate leftovers or things that are about to go bad in your pantry! If you have some bread about to go stale, you can take a cookie cutter cut out a fun shape, toast it lightly, rub on some raw garlic, add a small slice of tomato and some cheese and basil if you have it, and BAM! You have an amazing Italian style crostini hors d’oevre. A small splash of an aged balsamic vinegar would add a nice touch to it too! 

You could also thaw out some frozen shrimp, saute them with a little butter, salt, pepper and garlic and top with creme fraiche and cilantro. Serve on a butter cracker and you have heaven on a cracker!! Seriously, hors d'oeuvres are so simple and quick to make.

They are meant to be small because they are usually served before an appetizer or as an appetizer. You could host a party with just hors d'oeuvres if you wanted, just make sure you have a wide variety.  Here are some examples of what you could make: 

               This one is a spin on like a cooled seafood salad: Cucumber slice as the base, citrus mayo and cocktail style shrimp.  

Prosciutto and Melon on toasted bread

Gravlax, Dill Sour Cream and Hot Pepper flakes on a Cracker

Buckwheat Pancakes (Blini) with Creme Fraiche and Caviar

Toasted Bread Stars, Caramelized Shallots and Parsley Creme Fraiche

Rectangle cut white bread, tuna salad, two types of caviar and parsley garnish. ( I only used caviar in a few of these because I had them at my disposal in culinary school. You could easily use diced red and yellow bell peppers.)

Get creative with a display. We were given cool shaped Mirrors! 

I really hope you enjoyed this and you can become creative in making all kinds of hors d'oeuvres!

 Oh and if you are thinking that you are never going to be able to spell hors d'oeuvres, this is the way I learned. The first half is pretty simple Hors and then a single "d" with an apostrophe. But for the "o" part, just think of that song from the Wizard of Oz. The men who were guarding the witches castle near the gate that sung, "Ohhhhh weee ohhh...we ohhhhh ho." Well put in a letter for the sounds. O-E-U-VR-ES. You can't fail!! LOL! Enjoy and thanks for reading!! 

Pate A Choux aka Eclair Paste

 Pate A Choux    A.K.A Éclair Paste Yield: 3 lb. 2 oz

(Patt-A-Shoo)

Ingredients

Milk**                                      4 fl. oz.

Water                                       4 fl. oz.

Salt                                           1 ½ tsp.

Unsalted butter                         7 oz.

Bread Flour                             10 oz.

Eggs                                        10 ct.

Directions

1.) Preheat the oven to 350°F.

2.) Dice the butter into small cubes.

3.) Sift the bread flour to remove any lumps.

4.) Place the milk, water, salt and butter in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and make sure the butter is fully melted.

5.) Remove the mixture immediately and add all of the flour. Vigorously mix the dough by hand with a wooden spoon until all flour is incorporated.

6.) Replace the mixture to the stove over medium heat and continue to mix until the dough comes away from the sides. The dough should look relatively dry and should begin to leave a thin film on the saucepan. (It will look kinda lumpy)

7.) Transfer the dough to a standing mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat for a few seconds on medium speed, then begin to add in the eggs.

8.) Add in the eggs one at a time until the dough mixture is shiny but firm. It may not be necessary to add in all of the eggs. The dough should pull away from the side of the bowl in thick threads; it will not clear the bowl.

9.) Put a workable amount of dough into a pastry bag with a piping tip, or snip a small hole in a plastic bag.

10.) Pipe into the shape you want onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake immediately.

11.) Bake for around 35 minutes, cool completely and fill them as desired. Éclair Paste becomes really hollow when it bakes and can be filled with different things like whipped cream, pastry cream, chocolate mousse what ever you like! You can pipe these out into crème puff shapes and fill them with a flavored cream. You can also fill them with a savory filling such as a gravlax mousse or caviar.

** Cook’s Note: If you would like a crisper dough, replace the milk with an equal amount of water. 

Here are some pictures of what you can do with Éclair Paste

Eclairs filled with pastry cream and plain puffs

Puffs and Eclairs filled with pastry cream and covered with ganache.

                          Piped on melted white chocolate

 Designs made by dragging a bamboo skewer across the white chocolate lines in different directions. 

These are so easy and fun to make. Great for parties, center pieces and as house warming gifts. You can even take the little puffs and fasten them onto a large styrofoam cone with royal icing to make an edible centerpiece!! 

Enjoy this recipe! Thank you!

Super Easy Pasta Recipe

I can't stress enough when I say that there is beauty in simplicity. This can be applied so well with food. My example for you is one of my favorite ways to eat pasta. 


You will need:
-Angel Hair Pasta           - Salt/Pepper
- Lemon Juice                 - Raw Garlic
- Butter                           


-When I cook pasta like this, I add hot water to a pot so it doesn't take as long to boil. (All of the ingredient amounts are subjective to your taste)
- Cook the pasta as instructed on the box, or until al dente.****
- Place some butter in a serving bowl, along with a spritz of lemon and garlic (freshly grated or jarred kind is up to you). 
- Drain off the pasta and add as much as you like to the serving bowl. Toss in the butter, lemon juice and garlic. 
- Season with salt and pepper to taste. (Lemon juice is great in pasta because it gives the taste buds the illusion of salt, so watch how much salt you add!!)
-Optional, zest the lemon for extra added flavor. 


There is no need to overwhelm your pasta in a heavy cream or tomato sauce. 


***Cooks note: Al Dente is a point where pasta is cooked and still has a little bite to it. Most certainly not soggy!
Enjoy my recipe!!

It's Music to My Ears

I have a somewhat weird way of thinking, and it can really differ from others when it comes to food. I feel that when I see a plate of food, it really speaks to you. Not necessarily in words but in a musical sense. A plate of food can look really sensual and so appetizing, to me I think of a smooth romantic number. Or when you see a plate full of colorful food items, it makes me think of a song you would hear at Cirque de Soleil. A casual dinner of craw fish and dirty rice just screams creole music right?


But when you find that one meal, and I mean the "one", your eyes roll back into your head, goosebumps take over your skin, your mouth begins to salivate and you almost want to make sweet sweet love to your plate. How could something take such a hold on you? It's just a plate of food! But no, it's not.... it's an edible piece of art that is about to grace your palette in a way you have never experienced. When I find a meal like that, this is the song that I think of. "Digging My Potato" - by The Seatbelts. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1_H3Kw21lJk The song, like your meal, starts out slow. You really savor the beginning of your meal, the steam rises slowly from your food and you take a big whiff that rushes to the back of your skull. You get into a good rhythm of eating your meal, then as the song moves on it gets quicker and quicker and your food is becoming less and less on your plate. Your table gets quiet but all you can hear is the deafening sound of you chewing your meal. Suddenly you are overwhelmed with the sensation of your food sliding down your throat. Take a swig of that wine, cut some more of your steak, shovel that potato, break some more of that bread, the slamming of silverware on your plate, throw down that napkin and then........BAM! You're plate is empty. 


You're heart beat begins to slow down and you are awoken as if you were in a pleasureful food coma, but you remember everything. You remember that you are in a restaurant and not at home and then you take your leave. 

What's The Rush??

All my life I have noticed that here in America, just about every meal is rushed. If you are meeting friends for dinner you can pretty much guess that dinner will only last about an hour or an hour and 15 minutes, even when it's busy. So you took time to get pretty to go out and then you only spend that little time sitting down and relaxing, so what else are you supposed to do with your evening? Here's another thought, if you are a student, breakfast may or may not fit into your morning routine. High school for me started at 7:15 am. and I barely made it on time to catch my bus let alone put a piece of toast in my mouth.


 Our country has become one fast paced  place to live. Restaurants are turning tables so quick that customers are left not remembering what they ate or how much they spent!! A server is given like 6 tables at a time and really wants those tips so they will rush you right out of your table with mediocre service. I think servers could still get a good amount in one night if they provided excellent service at a restaurant that allowed the guest to stay longer for dinner. Make the tip percentage a minimum of 18% and most people will tip 20% when they receive great service anyway, I know I do. 


Our country is slow on a lot of things, but we certainly aren't slow when it comes to food. I think our country needs a serious renovation when it comes to taking time to eat. People at home aren't even connecting with their food. A lot of families are eating dinner in front of the television. Not only are you eating blindly, but you are distracted by the t.v. and not really enjoying your food. It's like taking time to eat is becoming an inconvenience to those families.


 Try something for me, try to recall the meals you eat in a week. Don't cheat and write them down, think back and see how much of your meals you can actually remember even if it were fast food. I think you will be surprised at how little you remember. It's not your fault, it's our country's fault. 


There are a few great restaurants that will actually encourage you to stay and relax at your table you just have to find them. There are a few where I live one of which I worked at. The restaurant is called Bistro Aix, it offers a private dining room, a regular dining room, and they also have a large room that can be split in half to make 2 private dining rooms. Often times they are used for business dinners but anyway, they would emphasize fresh local, organic ingredients, and a slower pace of eating. Also the servers are intensely trained on the menu, wine selections, desserts, and oh yeah, the menu changes weekly, sometimes daily. 


If I could have it my way, our country should have a few hours in the day where places shut down for a few hours and we emphasize more on meal time. It is a totally normal thing in Europe to take around 3-4 hours to eat dinner. If you are at a table for long enough, it becomes your table for the evening. Also, restaurants stay open a little longer, like until 12pm or 1 am everyday, but it's those few hours that they close that give the workers a time to relax and prepare for the evening.


 I want people to really savor what they are eating. Enjoy the freshness of a fish fillet or feel the crunch of your vegetables, really appreciate what you are eating. We are so quick to wolf down food and hardly chew anything, it's no wonder people get really gassy or have huge nasty bowel movements LOL. 


Find a great restaurant where you live, spend a few hours with your lover or a small group of friends, and really savor what you all are eating. So do a little homework and find a great restaurant, ask around and see what people say is good and take a breather. You deserve it!!

A Rainbow of Produce?!? Where??

HAHA I don't have a cool picture of a rainbow of produce, but you could make it happen in your kitchen. I am talking about variety here people!! It is so important that you add colorful foods into your diet and those colors speak to you in different ways. This blog will tell you what certain colored foods hold and what produce fall under certain colors. Also, I won't throw anything in there that you can't pronounce. :P


Okay our first color up is.... (drum roll please)...... RED!!
Fruits and vegetables that are red contain nutrients that help reduce the risk of prostate cancer, lower blood pressure, reduce tumor growth, lower LDL cholesterol (the bad kind, there is a good kind also lol), and support joint tissue in people who have arthritis. So some of the fruits and vegetables that qualify for the red category are: tomatoes, strawberries, beets, red bell peppers, grapefruit, red onions, red apples, raspberries, rhubarb, radishes and much more. 


Next color up is..... YELLOW/ORANGE produce!! These produce share a few of the same benefits as red produce but they also promote collagen formation and healthy joints, fight harmful free radicals, they are full of vitamin C, and encourages alkaline balance (keeping our body at a happy pH). Some produce that falls into this category are: apricots, carrots, lemons, mangoes, oranges, yellow peppers, summer squash, pumpkin, peaches, pineapples, and sweet corn. 


Third color up is......GREEN produce!! I think we can all think of a few different types of green produce, but what about their benefits. So, eating green produce can reduce cancer risks, normalize digestion time (salad before the entree of a dinner), support retinal health and vision and boost your immune system activity. Some of the produce in this category include: limes, honey dew melon, artichokes, spinach, romaine lettuce, cucumbers, sugar snap peas, celery, avocados, and green onions. 


Fourth color up is....... BLUE/PURPLE produce!! Now there are fewer of these types of foods but hold some of the best benefits of all of the colors. Some of their many benefits are: they fight inflammation, improve calcium and other mineral absorption, act as anticarcinogens in your digestive tract, limit the activity of cancer cells and boost your immune system. Some of the produce in this category include blackberries, blueberries, grapes, plums, purple cabbage, eggplant, purple Belgian endive, purple potatoes and black currants. 


Last but certainly not least is....WHITE produce!! lol there aren't very many of these produce either but they too have wonderful benefits. Some of which include: Reduce the risk of colon, breast and prostate cancer, balance hormonal levels, activate natural killer B and T cells (fight off infections and bad things in your body) and reduce the risk of hormone-related cancers. Some of these food include bananas, brown pears, potatoes, cauliflower, garlic, mushrooms, parsnips, onions, white peaches and white nectarines. 


All of this produce talk is making me soo hungry LOL seeing as how peach season is almost here. They get as big as soft balls where I live! lol I thank my mother for introducing me to a lot of great foods. She taught me their benefits as I ate them and now I am a healthy young woman. A variety of foods are so important not only for children but for adults as well, it is never too late to start eating healthy. Learn when these fruits and vegetables are in season and you will save a ton. If you want to eat seasonal foods year round, you can always preserve them or freeze them. If you don't have any at all, frozen produce is a great way to go also. If you can, buy from local farmers and help support your  community too. You can buy produce from local farmers stands or fresh markets for real cheap also. Make it a fun day for you and your kids, have them pick out what they want to eat!! Enjoy!


All of this info is from http://www.disabled-world.com/artman/publish/fruits-vegetables.shtml

Cooking Methods

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people mixing up cooking terms. An example would be “This is a deep fried item” when it was really pan fried. So this blog will clear up any confusion so you the reader will know which terms to use at what time. Each cooking method is different and used for different foods and if used incorrectly, it can ruin a meal. So I will list a cooking method and explain it briefly:

-          Broiling: This method uses a heat source that is above the food. In a restaurant you can find a piece of equipment called a “Salamander” that does just that. You can have a flame or an electric heating element and this is used to brown foods, great for melting cheese on soups.

-          Grilling: This one is pretty obvious. A heat source is underneath the food and can be done by gas, charcoal, wood or briquettes (They are like charcoal but made from a special material, you can use these over and over again). The food that is cooked on a grill should have distinct cross hatch marks.

-          Roasting/Baking: These two methods are the same! Baking is more often used when making sweets or sweet items and roasting is for more savory items. They are most often times interchangeable but I feel that baking is used for sweets and roasted for savory. Be careful when roasting because there is “Carry Over Cooking (see Chef’s note at the bottom)” that you need to account for in cooking time. Food can be cooked in an oven with heating elements or use hot air in a form of convection.

-          Sauteing: This method is used for quick cooking items or slightly cooking an item, say to warm it through. A small amount of fat is used to protect the surface of the pan and then it is warmed to the desired temperature. The food is placed in the hot pan and cooked to desired doneness.  

-          Pan Frying: Very similar to sautéing but more fat is used and the cooking time is a bit longer. This technique is often used to brown items such as pork chops and latkes. Drain the excess fat from the food with a few paper towels.

-          Deep Frying: This technique is done in a large amount of fat whether it’s peanut oil or lard (yummy) where a food is completely submerged in fat. This technique can be done in a standing deep fryer, built in deep fryer fry or as restaurants call them friolaters. Great for doing a turkey for thanksgiving!!

-          Poaching: This can be a tricky cooking method because the cooking liquid is not boiling or simmering. It’s a very low bubble, the temperature is between 160-180 degrees F. This is can be done in a few different pans including a stock pot. A stock pot and is great for making poached chicken, fish and eggs. If you want a really luxurious meal, poach something in olive oil.

-          Boiling: This cooking method involves submerging a food in a hot boiling liquid such as water or broth. I really hate boiling vegetables so I only blanch the veggies for a few minutes, shock them in ice cold water and then sauté them to retain their nutrients and color. This cooking method is essential for cooking pasta. If anyone says they can’t cook, just teach them how to boil water and you will see a little light bulb go off over their head lol.

-          Steaming: This is a method where a boiling liquid is placed below some kind of perforated pan with a food inside. Great cooking method for vegetables, and who says the liquid had to be water? Stock is fantastic for steaming vegetables, gives them a deeper flavor.

-          Simmering: Similar to boiling but at a slower rate. Bring the cooking liquid to a boil then reduce to a medium or medium high temperature to maintain it’s slower bubble. Great for less tender cuts of meat and this temperature is ideal for making soups.

-          Braising: Braising is a cooking method that combines pan searing and cooking a food in a liquid. The food is cooked at a lower heat so the meat doesn’t become tough. The food item is covered with liquid 1/3 way up and often times the cooking liquid is served as a sauce.

-          Stewing: This cooking method is used for tougher cuts of meat and also uses pan searing. After pan searing an item it is placed in a cooking liquid. The cooking liquid covers the food item completely and is cooked low and slow. Low temperature for a long time. This cooking method can done on the stove and then put in the oven or done just on the stove.   

I hope this clears up any confusion people might have about different cooking methods. It would be very embarrassing for you to tell someone that a food was cooked one way when it was really done in another way. Feel free to ask me any questions!!

---Chef’s note: Carry over cooking occurs when a food item is pulled from the oven and it continues to cook from residual heat. This occurs most often in thick cuts of meat being roasted, so just when your roast reaches a certain minimal internal temperature, it might be too late for it. Pull the meat just before it reaches that core temperature and let it cook just a bit more on your counter, it will stay a lot juicier that way. 

We Call That Ice Cream....

OK! So I don't know if this is a northern thing or what, but lately I have been hearing a lot of "Hey! Let's go get some frozen yogurt at (Where ever they want to go)." I'm thinking, don't they mean ice cream? Because to me yogurt is something that is served cold but not frozen, eating it frozen tastes funny. (lol if u can name a place that serves yogurt let me know, like Activia or Yoplait LOL)

 Also, yogurt has a bacteria culture in it, which is where it gets its tangy flavor from, and ice cream doesn't. Ice cream is way sweeter and is meant to be frozen. Ice cream has actual milk and heavy cream in it not yogurt. I have eaten actual frozen yogurt, and it just wasn't the same, not nearly as smooth. I think that if I owned an ice cream store and I heard people calling ice cream frozen yogurt enough, I would crack on someone someday and be like, " If you want frozen yogurt, go to your super market and buy some yogurt and freeze it yourself cause I only sell ICE CREAM here!!"

LOL Am I right? 

You Want Me To Eat WHAT??

Something that really ticks me off is when people say that they think something looks gross to eat, and they haven’t even tasted it!! That to me says that they are very ignorant and have no sense of adventure or willingness to try anything new. I just have to ask, well how is it that you came to like things you enjoy now? Oh yeah, you had to EAT THEM! I think the subject matter I would really like to present is, how Americans are afraid of their food when it comes to them in a more… whole state. That by which I mean, a fish with the head and tail still attached, or a whole roasted pig. All over the world, fresh seafood is coveted and the heads, tails, eyeballs are all attached. The cheek meat in fish is a delicacy and so are the eyes of the fish. Don’t diss something until you have tried it.

          I noticed that here in America, is it very rare to find a restaurant that will serve a whole fish. People don’t want to know that a fish fillet came from an actual fish. They don’t want to look into the eyes of their dinner, which to me is just pathetic because wouldn’t you want to know that your fish wasn’t flash frozen, or precooked and reheated? It’s reality people, this shit is real. There are people out there who make a living butchering animals and they can tell you how they would prefer to eat their meats and fishes. Often times, when a restaurant receives a whole fish, or whole pig, the restaurant pays a lot less for those products because they aren’t cut or portioned out. The more broken down an animal is, the more is costs the restaurant to purchase, which in turn, makes the meal more expensive. If a restaurant butchers in house you will pay a little bit to cover the wages of the butcher, but you can rest assure, someone with great skill has cut your meat perfectly for you.

 In Hawaii they roast pigs whole on a spit, or underground and proudly display it for large groups of people to eat. Everyone from tiny kids to the elderly would be in attendance and marvel at the wonderful roast pig! The keep the head and feet on and you wouldn’t believe the flavor those animals take on when you leave them whole! It’s insane what a lot of people are missing out on. I feel like a lot of seafood places here in the U.S are really skimping on their customers because they don’t serve them whole. The little pieces of meat that just don’t make it to the plate are being wasted and could fill up the customer that much more! I dare anyone who is afraid of food like that, to travel to another country and see how fast it takes you to get your ass whooped. People take pride in preparing their food all over the world and take great offense if you refuse food just because it has a head on it. Hell that wonderful place that you call France, serves fish whole. In any fine dining restaurant to a mom and pop place, they serve fish a certain way and I feel that it’s the best way to serve it. You can get your fish cooked, broken down into fillets and served tableside if you want…and let me tell you that it is worth giving it a try. If none of this changes your mind, watch Bizarre Foods with Andrew Zimmern and see if my blog isn’t a little less scary to handle.

There's Nothing Vanilla About Vanilla

Sometimes I feel like vanilla is a very underappreciated ingredient so this blog I feel will help give vanilla a little moral boost! Next to saffron, vanilla is one of the most expensive flavoring that you can purchase. Why you may ask? Well, the bees that once pollinated the vanilla flowers are now extinct and people now pollinate them by hand. I will give a brief explanation as to how they are harvested just to give you an idea as to why they are so expensive.

 When it comes time to harvest the bean pods, they are pretty difficult to prepare. First you have to kill off the tissue inside the bean pod, this can be done by letting the pods dry out in the sun, freezing them, blanching them in hot water, or scratching the pods. Next the pods must go through a sweating process where they are placed under blankets and placed in the sun in a high humidity environment. This sweating process helps the bean pods become flexible and helps turn their pods that familiar brown color. This process also allows the vanilla flavor in the pod really begin to develop and concentrate. Next the pods are dried because they have to be shipped all over the world so any excess moisture has to come out. Next the beans are conditioned by being placed in boxes for a few months and this is where the bulk of their flavor develops. From there they are sorted by grade, things like bean length, aroma and color determine their grade.

There are only a few countries in the world who’s conditions allow for proper vanilla bean growth. There’s the “Bourbon Vanilla” aka Bourbon-Madagascar Vanilla from none other that Madagascar, Mexican Vanilla, Tahitian Vanilla from the Philippines, and West Indian Vanilla that grows in Central and South America. Out of all of these countries Madagascar is the largest producer and most popular.

When it comes to using vanilla you really want to use the real thing. When you buy real vanilla extract you will find 2-3 main ingredients: Vanilla, some kind of alcohol and maybe a preservative. Real vanilla is made by soaking vanilla beans in alcohol like vodka or bourbon. This process is called steeping and home made vanilla extract is fantastic for gift giving. You can read online how to make it and how much of each ingredient you need. Making your own vanilla extract is not only cheaper but it gives you a better sense of what exactly is going into your food. If there is one thing that I can give anyone who wants to use vanilla it’s this!! Measure and use vanilla as close to the time you need it in the recipe because it will evaporate. You don’t want to pre-measure vanilla to far ahead of when you really need it because it will evaporate just sitting out and can ruin a recipe. Another tip I can give is, when you use vanilla in a recipe get the most out of that bean pod. Steep the pod in milk if milk is being used, scrape the vanilla bean seeds out for the best flavor and use home made vanilla extract.

I hope this blog helps out anyone who is a little unfamiliar with this ingredient. It is very expensive to harvest but it totally worth the price. A lot of times you can buy the bean in bulk for a great price and they will keep for a long long time in your kitchen. Oh, did I forget to mention that the people pollinate these pods by HAND? That’s insane right? I hear that the men who harvest them, sleep in the trees with guns to prevent anyone from steeling them because they are so precious. Kinda makes you reevaluate that shriveled brown pod huh?