Bread!

Last night ... yesterday ... whatever ... was my first night of work.  I have my two weeks notice to the bakery.  It was obvious that I would never be allowed to work as a cake decorator.  That's fine because I was told that wasn't exactly a situation that I would want to be in.  I have to admit just watching them allowed me to learn so much.  I know more about cake decorating than I what I learned in school, my internship, and on my own.  And for that I am appreciative.

I am also appreciative that I don't have to work with such freaking annoying customers.  For know anyway.  When you are in the service industry annoying customers are not too far behind.

As for this job it's tough working the overnight shift.  After I'm done I'm wired. I feel a little wonky because I practically slept the day away. I have a long night ahead of me since we are gearing up for the weekend.

I am working in a fairly new department and it will interesting to see the potential in myself.

Well I Got The Job

As my friend Lilla said to me:  "No one was surprised except you."

She was right.  I was surprised.  First of all Philadelphia is a small town.  In the culinary community everyone know everyone even by degrees of separation.  When a cook mentioned they knew the chef and owner of The-Restaurant-That-Shall-Never-Be-Named a chill when down my spine and I returned home sure that I was out of the running.

Well I got the call the same day asking if I could come in and fill out some paperwork.  It's official!  I am a baker for another restaurant downtown.  I know I said I never will return to a restaurant.  I also said that about editorial.  The only thing I miss about working in a office is the money.  Thirty dollars an hour!!!

I like making bread.  Staring at automotive copy ... not much fun or creativity involved in that.

Back to the Start

Through a friend I found a job lead where I can do bread for a restaurant.  The interview was with a chef and it was a fast one where he asked if I can come in for a trial tomorrow evening.  It's going to be a shift where I will be working and everyone else will be sleeping.

I haven't worked in a restaurant since that fiasco last year.  I still hurt from that.  I also carry the fear and intimidation that I'm not as good as I thought I was.

Well we shall see.

Nuts to Doughnuts

The questions I hear at the bakery all the time are: "Do you make diabetic cakes?" and "Do you have gluten free pastries?" The closest items I have found so far are located in New Jersey. Since I'm tired of doing other people's bidding I decided to put my hand in the game. I visited Bob's Red Mill and bought some gluten free flours.

My first attempt is Gluten Free Doughnuts. The texture is "different." What I mean in the doughnuts are gluten free ... doughnuts made without wheat-based flour. It's like making ice cream using using goat's milk rather than cow. It's different. My sister and I agree that the taste is good. The donuts are firm, but not tough.

Although it is usually not condone in baking I want to try something different to perhaps make the dough just a little bit softer. I think cutting the flours that I'm using with a bit of potato flour and replace the water with milk.

Playing and experimenting with recipes is like solving a puzzle or mystery. Except when the puzzle and mystery is solved the result is a work of art.

I'm All Over The Place

With my background of editorial, my love of writing, and my passion for pastries I am attempting to accumulate all my desires into one. Easier said than done. I do believe, however, that it can be done.

So L. and I are working on a Valentine's Day podcast. I know we are cutting it close. Originally I was going to do bread pudding, but that wasn't very romantic and in my opinion it was too sweet. I have to revisit that recipe. I have another dessert which is a mocha panna cotta. Okay I know I clown on panna cotta as a cop out dessert because it's so easy, but it a chocolate romantic dessert that's easy enough to get some poor guy lucky.

MeTube

I met L. when I had to take a broadcast class at Temple University. I credit L. for the reason I not only passed the class, but also received an "A". L. majored in television broadcast and worked all across the country. We kept in sporadic contact, but two or three years ago L. moved back to the East Coast and presented an interesting idea.

Long story short (too late): We are going to develop cooking videos to present on YouTube. It's a good way to me to promote my business and for L. to develop into break into producing on the East Coast.

I see myself as the Whoopi Goldberg of the pastry world.

More Reboots

Along with rebooting my blog and career I have decided my love life needed a reboot. I started Match.com. I wanted to go in with the mind frame of meeting people and the first guy I meet may not be Mr. Right. I don't see myself as the marrying type with the big cathedral wedding. If I do marry it would more likely be in Las Vegas with an Elvis impersonator officiating.

So the only guy I am emailing back and forth (I'll call him Karate Kid ... he's into the martial arts) seems okay. Physically he not a Kitchen Kitten type of guy. I'm sure my four blog readers will know what I mean. For anyone else who just happens on this blog and I managed to hold your attention to this point I will explain. I love dark hair and eyes, olive complexion men. I don't mean "Jersey Shore." Please.

Also I will think it would be incredibly stupid of me to dismiss someone just because he doesn't fit into a cookie cutter image of what I think it's attractive. ALTHOUGH it has been done to me plenty of times.

In baking news I have another order from a friend who works with me at the bakery. Also I'm toying with several recipes and need to start writing an article. Oh the best news is the Atlantic Baking Expo is coming to Atlantic City. I don't think my boss will invite me, so I am going solo.

At work ... okay I'm happy to be working considering we are in a recession, but I am not doing what I thought I would be doing once I graduated from school ... still ... it beats eating ice cream and watching Golden Girl repeats. Okay, at work an order of two dozen mini cannoli was never pushed through. Realizing that all the decorators have left I stepped up to the plate and made the cannoli. By the way it felt like it took me forever to find the mini shells. One would like the mini shells would be with the large shells.

Well anyway I'm sure no one will acknowledge that I did that. The reason I'm salty is that I asked the boss if I can work with the cake decorators on my day off for free. You heard me:

FREE!

She said "no." Who the hell says no to free labor? America was built on free labor. At least in this instance I volunteered my services.