Starving Art

"I'm so hungry and the only thing in this purse is paper stuffing!"

Poor thing. She looks like she's starving (or suffering from cramps).

Sorry I've been MIA. I've been exhausted and ill (I can't bring myself to say "under the weather" we're all under it). I've been to the doc and she ran tests. I know what it is, and I am ashamed to say that I'm not taking such good care of myself, but I'm trying. It's not easy to eat right when you have no appetite. So, I've been relying on the odd strong craving for something to get myself to eat. It's almost like I've got a picky toddler to feed! As fleeting as these cravings are, after only a couple of bites, I'm turned off by what I wanted only moments before. Even when it comes to tasting stuff at work, I can't possibly imagine putting stuff I once ate pretty frequently in my mouth. But how can you create desserts without testing them on your palate? I truly am a starving artist! LOL.

Other than coming up with stuff at work, I've not been baking much. I do have three kinds of cookie dough in the freezer though: chocolate cookies that are crunchy on the outside and soft and chewy inside, peanut butter, and oatmeal with dried tart cherries. Perhaps one of these mornings I'll get up early and bake some to take in to work.

Pastry Chuckle

What kind of ape makes floating islands?




A Meringue-atan!

Black & Tan/C'est La Vie!

Here's a twist: I'm eating a grilled cheese, nice and tan on one side, and erm, nicely blackened on the other (I'm a little out of practice, ok) and drinking my orange juice from a Guinness glass. It's the new classic!

Not much exciting going on at the moment. Still trying to get through the process of uploading my photos from Paris, working, and trying to work on a few things around the house and at the restaurant. My culinary projects include (but are not limited to): cashew custard, a wine pate de fruit, and new tuiles for the sorbets. I've worked out my blood orange friands (last night, finally!). Yesterday I made a batch of Jasmine Tea Caramels at home. All I need to do is cut, wrap, and give them away (of course I'll keep some here for myself).

Went to dinner Monday night at Sixteen at the Trump Tower with a couple of friends. I didn't take any pictures, but I broke down during dessert and snapped pics with my Nokia. I'll try to get those up by Friday. I'm having to create deadlines for myself, and it's all difficult. I mean, if I don't meet the deadline, what am I going to do?

(The photo was taken in Paris outside the Grand Palais. I wonder if it was any good?)

New Addition to the Family

Let me preface this by stating that I am such a nerd. I am. I admit it, with a bit of pride. I mean, who buys a kitchen scale and sends her friend a text message about her purchase with the name and model number? Who dreams about getting her box from UPS the night before only to find that it's filled with a Christmas present, not the scale she ordered and feels disappointed? Me. And I feel no shame. None at all. Now that I've gotten that off my chest, I'll tell you all about it.

Today I welcomed home my newest culinary purchase. I'd been meaning to replace my old Salter Electronic Aquatronic scale, purchased in Houston, TX before I moved to Chicago and started culinary school. As a starter scale, it was great, helping me to mise out recipes using pounds and ounces, liquid and dry. Even in school it came in handy, weighing things out for class since we didn't have a lot of scales, and it was digital. But now that I'm in the "industry" and most of the recipes we work with are in grams/kilograms, well, I realized that my trusty Salter didn't quite cut it. See, it measured grams in increments of 5-yes, 5 grams-at a time, which isn't as accurate as it could be. And the fact that it was battery operated started to be more of an inconvenience than an asset because it would shut off if left alone for more than a few seconds, making it frustrating to measure out ingredients. So, after months of online shopping-a tip from a co-worker turned me on to a site called my weigh-I finally found one I fell in love with and bought as a Christmas gift to myself a few days ago. I could hardly wait to get it from UPS and then out of the box. I found it even more difficult leaving it on my kitchen counter while I went to work. And all day, mising out ingredients, I thought about my prize waiting at home for me. It was a toss up between the KD-7000 Professional and the *new* Uber Deluxe 6000. They both had pretty much the same features, with the exception of the KD-7000 having pounds:ounces (both weigh in pounds, ounces, kilograms, grams), but I would have had to purchase an AC adaptor. So, I opted for the pretty, shiny, uber cool scale. I told my friend that I would end up weighing everything in my house, just to use it, but so far, I've just turned it on, played with the lights, and turned it off. Hey, I had to make sure the thing worked, right? This Uber Deluxe 6000 is some smooth baby. The power button is on the back, and on the front, there are two lights; one on the left and one on the right. Hold your finger over the left light and it tares out the weight of the container, hold it for more than three seconds, and it shuts off. The right light controls the modes. It's simple, clean design, no cracks for flour, sugar, and spices to fall into, just wipe and put away.

I'm looking forward to using my new scale next week when I make my Christmas candies and cookies for friends and co-workers. Tonight, though, I'll just leave it out on the counter (just in case I wanna peek at it when I get up at night to get a glass of water) and find a new home in my cabinets tomorrow.

French Laundry, the Cookbook, Not Restaurant

What does a poor, currently broke (too much dining out I think) pastry cook buy with the last of her cash? The French Laundry Cookbook by Thomas Keller, that's what. I've been eyeing this tome ever since I discovered it years ago. At $50.00, it's not something I would just waltz right in and buy, but I had a coupon from Borders for 40% off in my email and since there's a store a block away from work, I bought it. It didn't help that my co-worker told me that she was going to go buy a book she wanted, which is how the seed was planted. So, I printed out my coupon at work and ran over on my break. I was originally looking for Essence: Recipes from Le Champignon Sauvage by David Everitt-matthias, but they still don't have it in. The French Laundry . . . I would look through the book whenever I went to the bookstore and daydream of food. And now that I have it, I don't know, the anticipation is gone. It sits on my kitchen cart, still in the shrink wrap. I keep thinking I really can't afford it and that I should take it back and wait for payday. But isn't that how the world of money works, when you're out of cash, you get a coupon that allows you to afford something you really want or need, but it expires before next payday?

Anyway, enough bellyaching. I had to roll out puff pastry dough today on the sheeter and let's just say I prefer to roll it out by hand. I understand that it's more efficient, but I get a better feel for the dough when my hands are in it. It looked not too good. I did a better job when I was at school.

77 Posts, last published on Sep 6, 2007

I was going to title this post, Japonais, but when I saw my stats for this blog, I changed my mind.

Sep 2, 2007. Where did the time go? In between the long days at work, and the agonizing sleepless nights (no, I don't have a sick kid at home, just Mr. Sandman's annoying cousin, Mr. Insomnia) I've lost all sense of time. Thanksgiving has passed and Christmas is just down the street.

I don't have to tell you that I haven't been cooking or baking much, just look at the dust on my blog and it'll tell you. I've just been busy, unimaginative, uninspired. But with everything I've tossed from the fridge and cabinets, I can say I've a very clean kitchen! But don't fret-I'm not starving. I'm well taken care of between the line crew and overnight cooks, so I haven't missed too many meals. It's just on those days when I'm off from work I get a little nervous about what and how to feed myself.

My eating habits are not what I am posting about today, no, I don't want to bore those of you who still read this thing. I'm posting and putting up pictures from my visit to Japonais last week. I went with my soon-go-be-ex boss (he's leaving, not me) exactly a week ago. I'd been wanting to eat there for a long time now, but just never got a chance to go. And when I say chance, I mean, money, and friends to go who had money and were into that sort of thing. But C is leaving soon and wants to do his "restaurant tours" before he leaves, and that was how I got a chance to go.

The restaurant itself is huge! The dining area is spacious, with high ceilings. It's all concrete with wood accents, and a "wall of water" right when you walk in. There's the sushi kitchen, and another kitchen the hot entrees come from, and the menu is divided accordingly. I also hear that downstairs there is another bar (the restrooms are downstairs. I guess you may as well have a beverage while you wait in line ladies.). Everything is large, yet subtle, from the grand mirror mounted behind me above our table, to the muted and elegant colors and textures of the textiles that graced other walls. The seating was interesting, the chairs and cushioned ottomans and tables were at such heights that it felt like you were seated at a traditional Japanese dining table. It was a nice effect, without having to sit with my legs tucked beneath me. The only thing that seemed out of place was the uniforms for the waitstaff-their jackets were a cross between a chef's coat and a lab coat (if you've been to McCormick & Schmick's, you know what I'm talking about).

C and I had three appetizers, a bottle of wine, an entree each, and they sent us dessert, which was nice, but I did want to try out a couple of things. I'd looked at their menu online, and though the dessert descriptions didn't seem outstanding, there were a couple I wanted to taste. Anyway, as usual, I took photos of each dish, with only one coming out blurry. The rest of the photos are up on Flickr, but I'm including the menu descriptions here.

Appetizers
Albacore tuna pan seared with a small salad (this was the special, and I didn't write down the description)
Tuna Flatbread ahi tuna, mochi cheese with olive anchovy sauce on fresh made aha and wakame crust
Crab Cakes pan seared lump crab cakes with soy mustard sauce

Entrees
Samurai Cut Tuna Steak ohba yuzu marinated aji tuna grilled over roasted scallion potato puree and pickled celery salad
"Le Quack Japonais" maple leaf smoked duckw with joisin sauce, mango chutney and mushu wraps

Dessert
Coffee & Doughnuts green tea semi-freddo with warm chocolate and chestnut filled beignets

The End of Summer

Summer, where have you gone? In between sleepless nights and long workdays, I have lost a large chunk of my year. It started out promising with the first day of the Farmers Market, and ended up here. Me, sitting in front of my computer scratching my head wondering what, exactly, have I done?

I've been to the Market outside my window twice. Yes, twice. Though many a Saturday morning I have found myself (as on many other mornings) awake twisted in my sheets, hearing the first trucks pull in and start setting up. And when the sun starts to make an appearance, I fall asleep, only to wake a few hours later just in time to shower and head off to work. I did manage to go to the Green Street Market. Once. And was too tired really to be impressed with anything. I actually bought something, not because I really wanted to cook and eat it, but because I felt I was supposed to. What little produce I did manage to buy died on my counter or in my fridge. I am ashamed.

My birthday. Yes, who can forget last year's wonderful birthday cake, chocolate and hazelnut that I shot before sharing it with friends. This year I was in the emergency room the day before the event quite ill, but still in the game. I didn't get to celebrate the way I wanted to, let alone bake myself a spectacular dessert. A friend at work baked me delicious cupcakes. I did, however, manage to find a great peanut butter brownie recipe which I baked before summer for a friend's birthday. They were so good, I had to bake them twice again on request.

I also managed to go see my family at the end of the summer. Not a lot of photos were taken this year. I enjoyed other blogs and thought of some wonderful delights which I quickly jotted down and sketched out on many slips of paper and bar napkins, which I'm sure are accumulated in a box somewhere in the closet from one of my just-get-it-out-of-sight-and-deal-with-it-later cleaning schemes.

I need to be more organized, more proactive, more energetic. I need to face the new season with renewed vigor (renewed? since when, last year?) and start baking my apple bread and gingerbread, pies, wonderful, spicy rich treats. Maybe if I start taking vitamins tomorrow I'll be ready in a couple of weeks.