My life is measured in minutes: 8, sometimes 2, 1, and 5. On the line at the restaurant, we fire (bake) a chocolate spice cake for 8 minutes, which goes on our Chocolate Share Plate dessert. If a souffle trio is also ordered, then we set another timer for 2 minutes, after which we fire the chocolate souffle for 1 minute, then put the tangerine and chestnut rum souffles in the same oven for 5 minutes. In the meantime, we assemble the rest of the desserts, or arrange the items on the plate and call off minutes to each other so that we can get everything out at the same time. Those minutes add up to hours, and days. I'm extremely tired. I've got a pain in my left calf (it's ok, if it was my arm, I'd think heart attack!), I'm exhausted, my body hurts all over in general. I haven't gone home on time in about a week, and went in early a couple of days last week so that I could get a head start on production. I keep telling myself all I have to do is make it to Tuesday. And when things are crazy at work, I think, "I have to come back 2 more days?!?!?!"

Meanwhile, I'm not eating, cooking or baking anything worth posting about. I plan to bake some cookies and brownies for a bake sale for a cat shelter I used to volunteer for by Thursday. I also plan to make candies for Christmas; I got some cute little boxes for them in the email the other day. I've so many plans, all I need is the energy and time to carry them out.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

L2O Pain au Lait Rolls

Image
Last year for my birthday, I had the pleasure of dining at L2O, a fine dining restaurant that tastefully uses "molecular gastronomy" here in Chicago. I'd done a stage there, unfortunately it did not work out, but I am still quite impressed with Laurent Gras' food philosophy, how well run and organized the kitchen was, as well as the vibe between the cooks. Anyway, months later I had the pleasure of receiving the recipe for their pain au lait rolls via email from Time Out Chicago . These rolls were so good that I chose them more often than the others that were offered in selection from their bread basket. I'd filed the recipe away, and recently had the pleasure of making some for a dinner party. Initially the recipe was converted from weight in ounces to volume, so when I made it, not only did I double-check the accuracy (I found discrepancies) I converted it to a more accurate gram measure. So, pulling out my measuring cups, I converted it correctly to grams...
Read more

Key Lime Pie

Image
I will admit that I don't like a lot of citrus desserts.  I like my lemons sour-I eat them with salt-and I'm not too keen on key lime pies, though my mother loves them.  Making lemon curd is torture to me.  To stand over the pot, stirring the mix of yolks, lemon juice and sugar while smelling the proteins in the yolks coagulate is not a thing of pleasure.  I honestly think it stinks myself, but to each his/her own.  This doesn't mean I don't make the things I don't like very well.  In the world of pastry, you have to cook for your guests and customers, even if that means making something you don't eat. When changing jobs, going into a new kitchen and executing the previous chef's menu, you're torn between keeping their style, and asserting your own (these events are often booked months in advance, and some have tastings where the expectations are established).  So when I read Deconstructed Key Lime Pie on the menu, like a flip book, the ideas flicker...
Read more

Taste of Chicago

Image
Bear with me. I took photos when I went yesterday, but since those photos include my friend's daughter, I won't post them here. Instead, I'll feature the biggest reason I returned to the Taste this year: the Original Rainbow Cone. I introduced myself to this addicting delight last year. The only day I had off to go to the Taste was on the last Saturday of the event (I believe) and it was the worst day to go. Everyone and their aunt-uncle-cousin-grandma-greatgrandpa-was there. I had to fight to get to the food, fight my way out to Buckingham Fountain to enjoy the view of the lake and to eat my food without an elbow in my face, then fight my way back into the crowd to start all over again. I don't know how I ended up in the monster of a line for the ORC, but I did know that it had to be worth it, seeing as how I practically had to fight to keep my place in line. When I finally got to the counter, I took my cone back out to free space and began to enjoy the best ...
Read more