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?

Smells Like September

There is something about September that makes me happy. I celebrated my 3rd wedding anniversary at the beginning of September, (can you say i-Pad? i-Love my husband); classes start again so work is busy and the campus has a pulse, the leaves change – fall is coming, you can wear corduroy pants again (just me?) and the wasteland that is summer television is coming to an end. Big Brother and Wipeout, I’m looking at you, Mad Men, you can stay. True Blood, I’m mad at you, but I love Eric, so you can stick around. For now.


Something else to look forward in September and the fall in general, is all the recipes that come out - pumpkins, apples, and comfort food take center stage. Thank goodness, because I think I’m officially over strawberries and cherries. My parents have a couple of apple trees in their yard and we got together to make apple crumble. We made 12 altogether, and it was pretty easy and quick, (except for 2 hours it took to peel 100s of apples) once you had all your ingredients assembled. An added bonus of course is the smell that fills your kitchen when baking them. I made the fatal mistake of baking one and not having vanilla ice cream on hand to eat it with. You can’t imagine the horror.

A sample of some of our apple crumbles. Sorry the picture is garbage, it's from my Blackberry - turn your head 90 degrees to the right to get the right perspective.

Happy Fall!

Keeping My Day Job

My parents have a restaurant – it has been an ‘establishment’ in the neighborhood it’s in for over thirty years. It started as a restaurant and lounge, and through various renovations and changes in smoking laws, has finally transformed to a full bar. There are pool tables, dart boards, gambling terminals, and big screen TVs. Imagine your local neighborhood pub, now replace their crappy food with the best pizza you’ve ever had, and that’s what our restaurant is like.

My sisters and I basically grew up in that restaurant where we would answer phones, wash dishes, do any kind of food prep, bus tables and when we got older, actually be responsible to ‘manage’ the restaurant when we either opened or closed on weekends, giving our parents some much needed time off.

What we have never done though, is actually wait tables. I don’t know for sure but I imagine my parents’ motivation from keeping us from being actual servers was threefold. The first reason was that school and university were always the number one priority, and if we worked at the restaurant, we’d need to work late nights and wouldn’t be able to manage both. The second, reason was that none of us could hold a tray to save our lives, and would in reality be horrible servers. And finally, the most important reason we were never waitresses: if we started waiting tables, we would likely never stop because we’d be millionaires, and would never get a ‘real’ job!

This is something I always believed to be true, and now I know for sure.

Oh my God! Never feel sorry for the waitress who’s fifty and still working at the diner – she’s loaded! I understand there is a tradeoff – crappy hours, hard job physically, no benefits, etc. BUT! The tips – oh, the glorious tips! I discovered the money train that is the service industry when our bar tender quit because they were making the jump from bar tender to project manager at an oil firm. Which I've learned is code for, 'I have a drug problem and need to leave the city'. Because we were short staffed, I stepped into the role of bartender. I had done it numerous times before assisting the main bartender, but I’d never actually worked a shift on my own. Now I love it – I work on the slow nights – Mondays and Wednesdays, and my parents were right, if I had been doing this from the time I was in university, I’d never get a real job - the money even on the slow nights I work, is amazing - and I'm just the bartender. We have a waitress who actually went to school to become a teacher, but she has since left her day job and waitresses pretty much full time – I understand her motivation. Before there was judgment, now I’m in awe.

I worked again last night and that’s when it happened. The underbelly of bartending reared its ugly head. Somebody ‘walked out’ on me. Nooooooo! A regular came in and had a ‘date’ (and I use the term loosely) with him. He was ordering drinks, appetizers, food, he was having a great time at the bar. Then his bill comes and his credit card DECLINED, debit card DECLINED. I was so annoyed. He assured me he would be back to pay for his outstanding bill ($50.00), and I know that he’s good for it – he’s there every day practically, but the devastation of having to cover that bill to my own restaurant, was a weird feeling I’ll admit. So yes, although the money is good, you have to actually ensure that people can afford to pay their bill at the end of the night, otherwise you as their server are on the hook for it. Which brings me to my next question: why would anyone want to be a waitress?

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PS - I made the creme brulee. Pictures and blog post to follow this week!

Crème Brulee Fail

I was prepped and ready to go - I was going to tackle my to do list! I had my recipe photocopied and taped to my kitchen cabinet, all my ingredients ready to go, time blocked off in the morning to tackle the dish, and the resolve of champion fighter with something to prove. All that was left was for me to get the kitchen torch and the ramekin dishes. I felt if I was going to make crème brulee, I was going to do it properly and with the right tools so the kitchen torch was non negotiable for me. With regards to the ramekins, my subsequent downfall, I legitimately didn’t have anything that could act as a substitute in my pantry for them, so they were absolutely required, otherwise I would have to bake the crème brulee in cereal bowls, which would really take away from the whole presentation piece.

So off I quickly went to Williams-Sonoma to pick up the final pieces of my crème brulee puzzle, the kitchen torch and ramekins. I appreciate and understand fully that Williams-Sonoma is overpriced. I accept that walking into the store, and I know that I’m overpaying, but because I like the idea of that store, I don’t mind.

My experience with Williams-Sonoma is this: walk in, get distracted by the cute displays, pretty looking samples and overly helpful salespeople. I buy something I didn’t even know I needed (newsflash, I didn’t need it) and walk out not actually realizing what I've done, like I'm in some sort of fugue state. However when I was at the till paying for four ramekins and a kitchen torch, and the grandma working the register said the total was $181.65, I quickly snapped out of the fugue state and had a rare moment of lucidity in that store. I had to quickly decide - my own Sophie's Choice if you will - ramekins or kitchen torch? How does a mother choose between her children? Although it was difficult, I went with the kitchen torch, rightfully assuming that it would be harder to find that at another store, and parted ways with the ramekins. I scoured the rest of the mall to find a suitable substitution for the ramekins, and nothing. Devastation set in as I realized I would have to put the crème brulee on hold as now I was out of time – I would have to be at work shortly, and my hunt for ramekins would lead me to another mall twenty minutes out of my way to the poor mans Williams Sonoma - Crate & Barrel - to see if they had something that would work. Thankfully, they did, and for far less than $22 each. I will attempt again this weekend, I promise.

Preparations

So in preparation for my to do list, which I've decided to take very seriously, and you know, actually finish, not only have I devoted some major time to mental preparation - psyching myself up to deal with yeast and other sorts of preferements for the croissants and danishes, I have also devoted some serious time at Williams Sonoma. I need a kitchen torch for creme brulee, an indoor grill/panini maker for the pizza (I'm not about to fire up the entire BBQ for one piece of dough - let's get real here people), and anything else I stumble upon and can justify to myself. Like I said, I'm taking the list very seriously. All of this because this weekend, I am going to tackle creme brulee. I have a recipe from a French cook book, so you know it's going to be legit - not some bastardized version of creme brulee - plus the ingredients are listed by weight so you know they mean business. Note to self, I need a digital kitchen scale. 

I will post again with details of how it all went down, and hopefully some pictures too. I have a big fancy camera that I should get some use out of, even if I can't figure out how to turn the flash off. Wish me luck!

To Do List

As you can see by the list below, I don’t have huge aspirations, most of the things I want “to do” are food related. I will explain: I love baking and the idea of cooking, but always stick to the basics. I want to explore the millions of cook books I have and actually do some real baking/cooking. Everything else is sort of a mish mash of things I keep meaning to do, but never get around to.

The hot yoga, I have actually already done, but I stopped going and I should go back. I actually enjoyed sweating my brains out while doing awkward stretches in a room full of people. Even though I live literally one hour away from the Rocky Mountains I have never engaged in any sort of mountain/outdoor activity – hiking, skiing, snowboarding, etc. I’m an asshole. This is what my typical mountain experience looks like:

1) Go to the expensive hotel in town and indulge in an overly priced brunch that has anything and everything you could ever imagine. Usually I just want the bacon.

2) Walk to Starbucks and get a blended drink of some sort.

3) Stop at the fudgery that has been there forever and stock up on chocolate turtles and chocolate bark.

4) Arrive home and fall into a food induced coma.

As you can see, none of those activities involve getting on a mountain, or even walking in a pathway by the river. I stay on the sidewalk and in my car. So, I feel now is the time to make a change. I know that I will never actually get on skis – I am certain I would be cold and uncomfortable the whole time -  so I’ve resigned myself to going for a hike in the mountains. It’s basically just walking with better scenery, so I don’t know why I’ve waited so long.

Also, I’ve lowered my to do list to 15 items from the original 30 I had planned, and am also bumping up the timeline of before the age of thirty down to before Christmas. If it seriously takes me two years to clean out my basement, A & E may do a special on me.

1. Croissants
2. Danish
3. Macarons
4. Crème Brulee
5. Donuts
6. Grilled Pizza
7. Fried Chicken
8. Soutzoukakia
9. Kotopitakia
10. Pasta
11. Eclairs
12. Hot Yoga
13. Photography classes
14. Clean out my basement
15. Go hiking

Deadline: December 24, 2010

Here We Go! Again.

Hi, it’s me again. Sorry for the huge delay in posts. To be honest, I totally gave up, but I’m back now. I’ve given myself a pep talk and I think I’ll stick around this time. For some extra insurance, I, I thought I should write a list of three reasons I should commit to this, and when the inevitable time comes that I am looking for a quick exit, hopefully something on this list will pull me back. Here we go!

1. I need something to do that is free. Somehow I have managed to pick hobbies/creative outlets that have a huge price point. Some examples include the following:


- Photography – I have about $2500 in camera equipment and still don’t fully understand what manual focus is, why everyone is so against the flash feature and what an F stop is. I saw some nice pictures, told my husband I think I’d be good at it, and dove right in. Not to mention the never ending downward spiral this has caused: Photoshop software so I can edit my pictures and of course 30 hours of Photoshop classes so I can learn how to use the Photoshop software. All of this so I could take a picture of my niece and nephew and edit it in Photoshop Elements, the subsequent software I bought because I felt that Photoshop was too professional for me, and I was just a regular person that didn’t need all the bells and whistles.

- Baking – I love to bake, in fact my sisters and I have started a pseudo baking business from our home. That being said, we just started it. Like 6 months ago. For the last five years I have been buying every type of cookie sheet and muffin tray on the market.Do you need a cake pan? I have 6”, 8”, 10”, 12”, or 14” inches.Round, square, oval (I really needed an oval cake pan set?), orheart shaped? What about a good solid cook book? You need to have a good cake recipe or else the heart shaped cake you were going tomake in the 12” heart pan will be all for nothing. Good thing I have over 200 books to select one basic chocolate cake recipe from.

2. I need to be held accountable. If I keep a blog, there will be a written record of what I say and what I plan to do. In that regard, all of those ridiculous hobbies and projects that I’ve started and never finished - maybe I can shame myself into completing them! I have seen a feature in other blogs where they have a to do list. I think that is a great idea. I love making lists. Grocery and otherwise, so I think I will compile a list of things I want to do before I’m 30 –that doesn’t give me much more time – less than 2 years and post them on the site. Then, I will have ‘put it out there’ and be forced to do it. I can’t wait for my productivity to increase tenfold. I can’t imagine how sitting in front of a computer will actually increase my productivity, but I suppose anything is possible. First thing on the list of course, will be to create the list. See how I did that there? Stay tuned!

3. I.CAN.DO.THIS. I am a professional blog reader. I have discovered gems, and found total duds too, but when I read a blog, I always wonder why don’t I do this? So now, I’m doing it. And maybe I’ll totally suck, which quite frankly, I don’t think I will, but also, I’m posting on the WORLD WIDE WEB, not a community bulletin so if I do suck, I don’t think anyone will notice in the small corner of the Internet that I’m in. But I won’t suck.