Saturday, October 9, 2010

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

In a never ending effort to get to that pesky list I threw out in the
universe, I was researching some recipes online one day when I came across
a local (to me blogger). She was discussing what she’d done on the weekend
and mentioned that a dessert bar she enjoyed was closing down permanently
at the end of August. Sidebar - as I write that, I realize how long I have been sitting on this 'story' for. I need to update this blog more consistently.
 
Being the diligent investigator that I am, I went to said dessert bars’
website and lo and behold, they were closing down after 4 years in
business. I’d gone once or twice before, and was less than thrilled about
it. I felt like it was trying too hard and took itself too seriously, all
the while trying to come off as an ‘indie’ restaurant. Give. Me. A. Break.
The rent they were likely paying for the location, did not scream ‘indie’,
but in fact, ‘numerous investors’ and ‘silent partners’ which I’m totally
okay with, of course, but please don’t misrepresent yourself. Whatever.

I was thrilled to discover that they were liquidating their assets and
selling all their kitchen equipment and supplies. So, I quickly ran down to
the restaurant at lunch and picked through the shattered dreams of a
disillusioned pastry chef. For the low price of $60 I walked away with  
5 commercial sized baking sheets. FYI – these don’t fit in my oven, because
I don’t have a COMMERCIAL oven. Sometimes I get caught up in the moment.
They fit in my moms oven though, so all is not lost. Plus, 3 cake pans – 2 standard and one "oversized" pan. Apparently the "oversized" pan (which the most expensive of the 3)  is custom made as it isn’t a standard size I call bullshit, but wasn’t about to nickel and dime someone whose dreams were crashing all around them.

I was disappointed that I didn’t find something better – I was hoping to
find pie pans or a pastry wheel – but this was still a pretty good score. I
decided that I would send my husband down to double check on his way to
work that night to see if there was anything else worth buying, or if they brought more stuff out. Well, it is a good thing I did, because he came home with this:




Yes, that is an 8 quart commercial mixer. In case you’re wondering it is
for professional/commercial use, it weighs approximately 70 pounds, and is
currently living in my garage because it doesn’t actually fit between my kitchen counters and cupboards. He bought it for $400 and after some online research , I discovered that they retail for approximately $1200. In other words, AMAZING!


I am so excited to actually use it though I haven’t had a chance to yet,
because I can’t lift it up the two flights of stairs to my kitchen by myself. I’m
thinking of converting a section of my garage into a kitchen/work area. A
renovation seems like a reasonable solution to buying a piece of kitchen
equipment I don’t actually need, that I bought to finish a task
(croissants) on an arbitrary list I made, for a blog that fewer than 10
people read. Am I right? Anyone? Bueller?

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