I made it through Mother's Day

and perfected the use of agar for a chocolate panna cotta.

One of the major challenges I face it to make desserts that are animal product free that taste good. Okay, not just good. Good. Capital GEE is a must here. It's not as complex as gluten free, or wheat free and should be easy. Until you start to really read recipes are realize how many use gelatin.

Does anyone not know what gelatin is? How do you make molded desserts without it? Like, oh say, the above panna cotta.

The ingredient to use is Agar. A seaweed derivative that gels things up just fine.
But but but it's a pain to work with if you don't know what you're doing. And I haven't. I've been experimenting.
I borrowed some inspiration from Clotilde, spent some time studying Rilettes in Art Culinaire and bought some agar from a local Korean market.
Once I got the agar in powder form from a local health food store, heated it before adding and let it sit for about 90 minutes after infusing the chocolate base with fresh lavender -- well, let's just say it all went amazingly well.
Though the brioche bread pudding with housemade marmalade sauce was definitely the winner of the day.
And, phew. It's over.

Finally Better

With Mom's Day looming down my neck (please don't groan TOO loudly at the mixed metaphors) I am up and making desserts and pastries for brunch.

Today was pecan tartlets, tomorrow beignets. More when I can muster energy to both work and play.

I am so sick

Fever over 100. The restaurants is making desserts daily and I just can't get out of bed long enough to stand, let alone do brulees. Life hurts today...

Good desserts!

We went to Bix for the notsoyoungone's birthday. nsyo used to want whole cracked crab every year, but has grown out of that a tad and now wants other things (Yay!)
So I pick each year and off we go to a new adventure. Bix was chosen as fancy enough for her to dress up for with a menu that we could all eat from (one mod adventurous omni, one ovolactoveg, one nottoospicyplease) and I can say the drinks are what you gotta go for.
The appetizers are yummy, the first courses fun -- the tartare a must do if you haven't before, and the main courses and sides are just not worth it. Stick with more apps and move on to dessert....

You see, I now developing a bit of a rep for going to restaurants and ordering all the desserts (or at least MOST of the desserts) on the menu. Not to eat every drop, but to be able to see, experience and TASTE all of them.
And Bix had an impressively fun selection with just the names! (and I get the impression the menu doesn't change often): Warm Chocolate Brioche Bread Pudding, Organic Strawberry Napoleon with Bellwether Farms Ricotta and Toasted Filo Layers, Bananas Foster with Dark Rum and Vanilla Ice Cream, Little Ice Cream Sandwiches, and House Spun Lemon Ice Cream with Wild Huckleberries. Okay, so we skipped to Sorbet of the day... and they were all at least okay. The Pudding was the least fav, Handsome went for the Napoleon and Ice Cream Sandwiches, the NYSA went for the bananas so shucks, I was left with the lemon ice cream. Tangy, bright, fresh, and creamy. Everything lemon ice cream should be. I think there are some extras in the walkin I could play with...

Gotta love the inspiration wherever it comes from!

Taking oneself seriously...

does not require one to be overly serious.

Food is my primary profession now -- it is how I express my joy to the rest of the world. Cooking my food is my art, if I let myself be that bold. And it's how I get food on the table as well. So it's all about the food.

So to go along with this committment, I need an outlet to play and this be it for now. Perhaps public sometime, now it's just ruminations for the audience of one. A place to talk about what I do, where I do it, who I encounter and how it affects me.

The first subject matter is presentation.
Very recently, a certain small glass case was purchased to show off my daily wares at the front of the house. It's basically a petite cake plate on a stem that will definitely show off a housemade sweet.No pressure there.

First off, it is supposed to house a dessert that changes everyday. Houserules -- no daily dessert for more than three days in a row, at least 14 different desserts each month.
Secondly, it's GOTTA look fresh or no one will buy it.
Thirdly, it's all in the details. And honestly, I get that this is going to keep me in a place of making sure I'm happy with the dessert. Cuz if I'm not it ain't gonna be comfy having it on display.
What do I do if I wanna do a trifle in a stemmed glass? Are people gonna get used to seeing the dessert and miss it if it disappears? Or not order it ahead of time..

Because, you see, underneath all of this is insecurity. I don't always (usually) think my stuff is good enough. I get raves from suburban customers and most people at least enjoy them... but, you know they never look... perfect.

For me, less than classically trained, working in a small, small kitchen with less than ideal temperature conditions, less than commercial equipment, and a lot of trial and error, picture perfect is almost impossible.

Honestly, whimsically, it would be interesting to see what Torres or Faulkner could get out of my kitchen and equipment. Might prove to me whether or not I need to get an internship as my next gig... But somewhere in here, I think it has to do with my
faith in me.

So, we'll see what comes out of this experiement I'm calling Life.
I hope y'all enjoy the adventure as much as me.

I ran away from home today...

and wrote a nice long post about it that got deleted and has been recreated without the panache of the first post.
Sigh.
I don't suppose it was truly running away as I took nsyo with me.
We went to see the river otters at the aquarium. There's something about they way they fluidly move through the water, the way they cuddle and play, the way they rip flesh off of fish with those pointy, little teeth. It's all just damned amazing.
So we had to go check it out.
And then I *had* to drag the nyso off with me to Carmel for food.
First thing I noticed was that there is now a chain restaurant on Ocean Ave. Oh my. And a chain beauty store. This is a bit different than letting Saks in... Right?
And then, to drive by and realize that the restaurant I loved was gone. Sad but true and turns out its been gone awhile. New place called La Bicyclette that is owned by the same people that have Corkscrew in the Valley and Casanova. Interestingly enough, they owned that cafe in the 70s -- but that's another story.
This one is about where we went instead. Cantinetta Luca is a bit closer to Ocean Ave and seemed new.
Turns out it was quite a bit newer than we thought and sister restaurant to L'auberge Carmel.
We sat at the chef's counter and had a fun night. A bit of prosecco, a bit of dolcetto, a bit of food and cheese. A very well put together tiramisu (in a cup, all equal layers each 1/2 inch thick. Hmmmm....) and then a lazy tired drive bay to the Bay.
All in all, I'd go there again. But since it took me three years this time....

So, we chose