The Sweet Life

Maybe it's the weather-days upon days of rain and grey skies. Maybe it's just that I've run out of steam between working early mornings and appointments and such. Whatever it is, I've been tired lately and a bit uninspired. Between work and many doctor appointments (I think it's just because my birthday is coming up soon) I've been tired enough to take naps. But by my side there has been a certain someone helping me through. Though we don't get to spend a lot of time together with my working mornings and him working nights, out of town friends visiting, birthday celebrations, well-you get the idea-we do what we can. I remembered him mentioning that he loves scones, and since I've become a bit of an expert making them every Sunday for brunch at work, I decided to do a little something special for him. It took a few days for the menu to come together, but I think it's simple enough that I won't spend the entire morning in the kitchen, but eno...

I'm feeling a bit under the weather with an upset tummy (can't stand it because it gets in the way of my eating), so this will be a brief post. This past Sunday two friends celebrated their birthdays with a crawfish boil. I'm not into the little guys, but I went for the shrimp gumbo and the hurricanes. And since it is an unspoken rule that I bring dessert I took cupcakes instead of a birthday cake. I've had a few ideas (and cravings) in the back of my mind for a while now. Over a year ago, my friend and at the time co-worker Miranda loaned me The Cornbread Book where I found a learned about popcorn flour. I copied a few recipes using popcorn flour and filed that information for a later date. While thinking about different flavor combinations and ideas for cupcakes, this idea about popcorn kept coming back to me. I shopped for supplies online even before the final product was conceptualized. I went to the King Arthur Flour site and ordered assorted swirl colored ...

My mother tells me that at a very young age, my diet was quite healthy. I ate wheat germ, "organic" produce, and did not touch a grain of sugar. Even my baby food was made by hand! Then I began spending summers with my grandmother who introduced me to cane sugar. She baked my birthday cakes (as did my mom) and cookies. I spent summers eating pints of Bluebell Pecan Pralines & Cream ice cream while watching Sanford and Son late nights. I'd return home at the end of those summers a little chubbier and asking for those things my grandmother supplied me I'm sure. Somewhere along the way I met the Keebler Elves and fell in love with their Pecan Sandies. I can still remember how they felt on my tongue; dry to the touch, they crumbled between my teeth, crunchy and crumbly. Making sure I trapped each crumb between my lips (and those that escaped, into the palm of my hand where they were quickly transported to my mouth), I tasted the butter and nuts as I inhaled. ...

Happy New Year!! Someone recently asked me, working hard, or hardly working? A little bit of both actually! For a while we were very short staffed at my "new" job, which meant putting in long hours and long weeks, but we pulled through. Needless to say, that meant "hardly working" at home in my kitchen and on my blog. But I've put in my hours and am learning a lot, and I hope to bring more of that here in 2009. In my seven months at this hotel, I've gone from learning the banquets menu, to establishing breakfast standards, to running breakfast, training others (thank goodness we got two new people in October), to running brunch. Now I'm learning another facet of the pastry business as well as honing other skills. I made it through another year and am looking forward to the next. I really wanted to post something today, though it will be a brief one. As you can see, there are a few changes to the layout. Though I have neglected to post anything, I...

I spied this on the board in one of the kitchens at work: "Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning a lion wakes up. It knows it must outrun the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death. It doesn't matter whether you are a lion or a gazelle: when the sun comes up, you'd better be running." --Anonymous Returning to our pastry kitchen, I told my co-worker about the quote. Minutes later I asked her, "Are you wearing your running choux?" She was piping eclairs.

I baked cupcakes to "celebrate" the occasion. Nothing too inspired, just chocolate cupcakes filled with a coconut caramel and topped with whipped milk chocolate ganache and salted toasted coconut.

I've finished my job at NoMI in Chicago, IL. It was a little less than 2 years. I've learned a lot and come a long way from my first week there. I started my new job today and the place is quite big; I need to leave a trail of bread crumbs just to keep from getting lost! I am excited for NoMI though, because they have a great new pastry chef, Andres Lara and I saw some great things from him my last few weeks there. As a matter of fact, the above picture is his Caramel Garden.