6 posts tagged “cooking”

There's a reason why the majority of my cakes have a drizzle frosting, or I tell you they're "icebox cakes".

*cough*

Frosting PWNS me every time I make it. It's never that lovely spreadable consistency that everyone else seems to be able to make. It's heavy and drizzley and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I've tried:

In about a month's time I will be covered in flour, sugar, frosting and turkey grease.

That's right, it's our annual Holiday Bake Sale. It's still San Diegans only, and you have to pick up but I promise you it's worth it. The menu hasn't changed -- I have re-tooled the red velvet cake, and if you thought it was good then it's even better now. I really hope that I don't forget to bring the camera for the 4th year in a row, I'd love to get some pictures to use on our Moo business cards!

Next year, as I work my way through Veganomicon and Super Natural Cooking, I hope to get more vegan and veggie options. It's hard though, we do have a Southern bent to our cooking!

Here's the menu:

*sigh*

Every year I ask myself "WHY GOD WHY DO I PUT MYSELF THROUGH THIS!?!"

The reason is simple: I'm crazy and a masochist. Those two things should never go together. Here's the menu for this year folks, and we're doing full dinners!

I still haven't finished The Amber Spyglass. Mostly because I don't want this incredible story to end, but partly because I have been distracted by some comix and a cookbook.

Daniel is pretty much at fault for sucking me back into comix; Runaways is the most entertaining one I've read in a long time. It's really engaging, even if you're not into comix and it's hilarious. I actually lol'ed and gol'ed and sol'ed at some of the parts of the story. Supposedly there's a Volume 3 that I'm trying to get my hands on, and the art is so amazing...it's lovely. I love it and I recommend you pick it up (or ask me nicely and I'll send you what I've got via torrent).

I picked these two up at the library because: 1. I was there and had nothing to do and 2. I'd been eyeing these at Border's and wanted to have a look before I dropped the cash. Growing up, I was the type of kid who would read anything even encyclopaedia's from cover to cover. Larousse is AMAZING. It's like an ultimate reference guide that also duals as a weapon if you put it in your purse. Now I just need $80 to blow and I'm all set. I wonder if Le Cordon Bleu gives one of these out as part of their textbooks?

I have Rose Levy Beranbaum's The Cake Bible and I really enjoyed it (especially the high ratio method of cake making section) so I was expecting to be thrilled by this one. And I was. I'm really trying to get into bread (even though I need to be focusing on pastries) but I can't help myself. I'm going to get some starters, er...started this week so I can start making my own breads and things with a deeper bread flavor- does that make sense? Also, I need to get super buff arms for swimsuit weather and if you've ever tried to make bread from scratch, you know what I mean!

Sarajevo's been my friend since I was 9. She's my oldest friend and it's a good thing we're into the same things, otherwise it would be a complete waste of time.

She's also into cooking, although she gets to do quite a bit more of it since she works at Lael's at the Hyatt downtown. Anyhow we've got some real catering (!) events coming up and we got on the subject of battle scars.

Yes, being in a busy, hot kitchen is something akin to being in battle. It's something that cannot be described; it's a beast of its own.

We got down to it and started comparing burns and cuts: Sarajevo's in the lead; she's already cut off (!) the tip of her finger and has quite a few crazy burn marks.

I need to catch up.

I made it!

The past week has been filled with baking, baking and more baking. It's such hard work, and I love it so much but I'm really, really glad it's over! I feel like someone has worked me over in a back alley. But it's the good kind of hurt, and I'm so happy that I've chosen this profession. It's like the mafia - once you're in, you can never get out. And you don't ever want to.

So the final total for the bake sale was over $900 -- with a good quarter of that coming from frying turkeys. People were still placing orders on the day of and when they were picking up orders! And yesterday -- after 48 hours with no sleep, I came home and finished up our dinner. We were supposed to go see yummy 007 last night after dinner, but by 6:30pm all of us were completely knocked out. All of us with full plates in hand.

This was also my first post Gastric Bypass holiday, and let me tell you--it was a little disappointing. Once again, I forgot how much I can actually eat and filled a plate high with food. =( I'll try to remember at Christmas -- which we want to go out of town for. Maybe to San Francisco? No cooking? Fabulous time!

In any case, I hope all of the Voxers had a very nice Thanksgiving. All of my UK friends: hopefully this time next year, I'll be bringing Thanksgiving to you!