The Sweet Life

I have a confession to make.  I have a bookmark folder titled "Recipes to Try."  For those of you like-minded individuals, this may not seem all that odd.  I do a lot of research and find a lot of information on the internet and there are times when I come across a recipe that I want to revisit.  Well, I recently made some "power" bars from a recipe I marked maybe a year ago. It's not easy to eat healthy snacks when you work in a pastry shop.  When it's busy, you're lucky if you get to sit down and eat lunch, let alone eat the recommended snacks to keep your blood sugar level.  It's easier to just eat scraps of the cake you're cutting, or whatever someone else on the team is cutting.  Also being a woman who loves her sleep, I often skip breakfast, using those extra 20 minutes to keep my eyes closed and pretend I didn't hear the alarm!  I now have a couple of these guys stashed in my tool drawer at work for hunger emergencies. We're ad...

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...

This is not what I wanted.  When I set the full-sheet entremet tiramisu for the party, I'd planned on piping the remaining mascarpone mousse on top with a St. Honore tip to give give it texture and sprinkle the cocoa powder over it to create depth (I can see it clearly in my head).  Cut into rectangular bars, with a coffee fluid gel and cocoa nib tuiles, it would be really pretty for the lunch party.  But, when I went in to work, the mousse that I'd left in the cooler for piping wasn't set.  It wasn't liquid either, rather, it moved slowly from the center of the container to the side when tilted.  This meant that the set frame in the freezer would just ooze out into a gooey mess when thawed.  That's when the panic set in.  I needed 38 desserts in 3 hours and I had to start from scratch.  Luckily I had some sponge cake in the freezer, but I needed to make a mascarpone cream from scratch.  My mascarpone mousse recipe would have taken too long...

So, we had a dinner party today and on the menu they wanted chocolate mousse, caramel center, caramel glaze.  This is what I came up with.  65-72 domes later, plates laid out, 21 sauced and chocolate "soil" set, come to find out that it was cancelled.   No one told us.  Oh well, Chef de Cuisine got a dessert.  I just cleaned up, had lunch, then moved on to making tiramisu for tomorrow's lunch. Components are: Chocolate Mousse with Caramel Brulee and Praline Feuilletine Center, Caramel Glaze, Chocolate Sauce and Soil, Caramelized Rice Krispies

2010 was a year to remember.  Things I learned: I can stand up for myself.  I don't have to put up with being treated unfairly. Let go of something that isn't working.  Don't stay in a bad situation because you're afraid of change.  If the next opportunity doesn't work out, then at least you're no longer putting up with the stuff you did before.  Plus it makes the next transition easier. I can bake and store large wedding cakes at home.  I can stack one in my tiny fridge.  And no matter how perfect it looks, a very helpful boyfriend can and often will accidentally stick his finger into it helping you move it. My friend is very creative and talented.  If I got married soon, I'd definitely ask her to help with the decorations!  Her wedding decorations were gorgeous! I have a pretty good eye for photography. I have a great family.  They're funny and generous and I'd love to spend more time with them. There are pastry/cooking ...