Patti called me the Cupcake Queen at work on Tuesday night. I had to laugh, because I've never honestly seen myself in that fashion, and further to this, it was one batch of cupcakes and it was two weeks ago.
Ok, let me backup. The beginning of August, I asked Patti, the boss lady at the coffee shop where I work, what the protocol for making food for the coffee shop was, and would it be possible to look into making something of my own, to sell. Patti was eager to let me try, stating that it wouldn't hurt, and it might turn out successful. I did my research, asked other employees their thoughts (and wishes) and finally concluded that I would make cupcakes. If you've ever had a Crave cupcake, or seen the line outside of a Crave bakery, you'll understand me when I say that Calgary, maybe even Alberta loves a good cupcake. This considered, I figured I'd start there.
I finally settled on a recipe for the cupcakes and tentatively agreed to try a particular buttercream icing recipe. Now, if you've ever researched buttercream icings, you'll know that there are about 4 different varieties, all with various amounts of butter, shortening, and even sometimes eggs. I have a cookbook, that I'm sure is being used as a textbook somewhere, that gives 4 different versions of buttercream, with varying descriptions and suggestions. Did you know that there is French buttercream, Italian buttercream, Swiss buttercream and American buttercream. French is the most delicate (no surprise there) and American is the easiest (again, not a big surprise). I had experimented with both the French and the American versions, only to read in the textbook that Swiss is the way to go. Well you should have told me that earlier.
I whipped up my buttercream, made it a beautiful blue and red hue, piped it onto my cupcakes, and drove'em to High River. My goal was to sell out, and peak people's interest. Well folkes, I guess I did more than that. I sold out and heard from three different people about how much people loved them. So, I taking another batch down tomorrow. I'm going to be daring and leave 15 this time instead of 12. Truly, it's all part of my master plan (insert evil laugh here!)
I will post the recipe for Swiss buttercream when I figure out cup measurements. Right now, it's all be weight, and despite the fact that its more accurate by weight, most people don't have a scale. A great investment, but not very common. So, when I can tell you how many eggs and how many cups (yes, I said cups) of sugar , I'll be sure to post it. Word to the wise, it's not a 5 minute procress, more like 35, but well worth the time.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
Warning: Working in a toxic environment is bad for your health
The phone visit with my "doctor" yesterday only proved to be somewhat depressing. My "doctor", aka my mother, told me that I needed to start recording everything that I ate in order to figure out why I was having such severe headaches, as food might be a trigger. This poses two problems: First, this means I have to write down everything I eat. Sometimes, I'd rather just eat something and forget I ate it. Writing it down means that I have to take account for what I ingest. Second, this means that I might be eating food(s) that cause me to lay on a couch, with my eyes closed, praying that the loud sounds coming from across the back alley go away. All in all, I don't feel this is a win/win situation for me or my love of food. My best bet is that it isn't butter. Chocolate is still out there as a possibility, but I'm leaning towards no. Thank God!
The dinner party on Saturday night was fantastic. Anna and myself had an awesome time creating lists about our goods, gathering our goods, creating action plans for our lists of goods and then executing everything to almost near perfection. There was one recipe that I'm still 50/50 on. I think that we made an oops somewhere, because heaven forbid, Julia Child make a mistake in the French cooking bible?! The menu consisted of Camembert crackers, potato cheese crackers, Beouf Bourguignon, and raspberry Bavarian cream, with a hint of some fantastic liqueur. Anna and myself convened at noon, went shopping, and started the dessert at 2, as per our intended plan. By the time everyone showed up at 7, everything was done, with only a couple minutes to sit down and feel proud of ourselves and our accomplishments. By the time we said our goodbyes, and divided up the remaining food, it was after 11. I think we did well by Julia, if I do say so myself.
And then the Sunday headache started... I have to admit that this isn't the first headache I've received on a Sunday afternoon - this one was just worse than some I've had and lasted well into Monday. My mom seems to think that it's stress induced, which it probably is.
Warning: Working in a toxic environment is bad for your health.
So, I stayed home yesterday and slept, watched some HBO television and baked/cooked. It was a sick/mental health day, and although I felt rather guilty until about 9 am, I quickly decided that it wasn't worth it to spend my whole day wondering what I was missing at work, and what people were thinking of me and and and...I also decided that I wasn't going to "should" all over myself - I should go to work, I should do laundry, I should vacuum...That type of thinking would have completely ruined my whole ME day. Needless to say, I had a wonderful day, and felt 38% better about coming to work today.
As an aside, the interview on Friday seemed to go alright, but I'm unsure about the whole thing. Better news still, I have another interview at another location on Thursday. I finally feel like the powers that be are starting to smile on me. That wasn't intended to rhythm, but hey, I kind of like it.
The dinner party on Saturday night was fantastic. Anna and myself had an awesome time creating lists about our goods, gathering our goods, creating action plans for our lists of goods and then executing everything to almost near perfection. There was one recipe that I'm still 50/50 on. I think that we made an oops somewhere, because heaven forbid, Julia Child make a mistake in the French cooking bible?! The menu consisted of Camembert crackers, potato cheese crackers, Beouf Bourguignon, and raspberry Bavarian cream, with a hint of some fantastic liqueur. Anna and myself convened at noon, went shopping, and started the dessert at 2, as per our intended plan. By the time everyone showed up at 7, everything was done, with only a couple minutes to sit down and feel proud of ourselves and our accomplishments. By the time we said our goodbyes, and divided up the remaining food, it was after 11. I think we did well by Julia, if I do say so myself.
And then the Sunday headache started... I have to admit that this isn't the first headache I've received on a Sunday afternoon - this one was just worse than some I've had and lasted well into Monday. My mom seems to think that it's stress induced, which it probably is.
Warning: Working in a toxic environment is bad for your health.
So, I stayed home yesterday and slept, watched some HBO television and baked/cooked. It was a sick/mental health day, and although I felt rather guilty until about 9 am, I quickly decided that it wasn't worth it to spend my whole day wondering what I was missing at work, and what people were thinking of me and and and...I also decided that I wasn't going to "should" all over myself - I should go to work, I should do laundry, I should vacuum...That type of thinking would have completely ruined my whole ME day. Needless to say, I had a wonderful day, and felt 38% better about coming to work today.
As an aside, the interview on Friday seemed to go alright, but I'm unsure about the whole thing. Better news still, I have another interview at another location on Thursday. I finally feel like the powers that be are starting to smile on me. That wasn't intended to rhythm, but hey, I kind of like it.
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Happy Birthday Julia
I don’t know if it’s because I talk about food all the time, or whether, I’m always reading something about food, but I’ve come to be known around the office as the go-to for food related conversations. Case and point, a co-worker of mine came into my “office” (I sit in a big open space) and went into elaborate details about his weekend of soup cooking. He got all excited and
the face that rarely smiles was elated at his accomplishment. I asked the appropriate questions like “what kind of soup?”, “What was cream or broth based?”, “What kind of vegetables did you put into it…” and was proudly told all. Quickly after that, I was approached by another woman in the office with her list of things to bake in the upcoming weekend, which lead to a monologue about her love of cooking and baking. Let me remind you, this was Monday morning at 11:30am.
The reason I mention of this is because when I walked past soup man’s office this morning, and said good morning, he replied, “Good morning Julia”. Now, I’ve been called a great many things in my day, and Julia is the one that rubs me the most. It takes an ounce of effort to say Julie and I feel like calling me Julia is the lazy man’s way of calling my name. It’s Julie people, not Julia. These thoughts must have reached my face and contorted it, because he quickly followed up with “you know, as in the famous chef”. AH!, If you want to call me Julia and refer it back to Julia Child, I’ll take it. But only if it refers to Julia Child.
It’s Julia Child’s birthday on Saturday. Although she died in 2004, I still feel like celebrating her birthday. I have to admit, I’ve got a little bit of Julia fever, as I have her cookbook, I’ve read her memoir and saw the movie about her last Friday.
To celebrate her cooking accomplishments and to toast the summer of 2009, I’m collaborating with a good friend to throw a dinner party. I can’t wait to laugh, drink wine, cook and consume it all in a ¼ of the time it took us a create it. And in that order. Still working on the menu - but I’m not concerned. I’ve got 2 days, 524 recipes to go through, and an Interview (YEAH!) to plan for.
Ok, maybe I’m slightly concerned.
the face that rarely smiles was elated at his accomplishment. I asked the appropriate questions like “what kind of soup?”, “What was cream or broth based?”, “What kind of vegetables did you put into it…” and was proudly told all. Quickly after that, I was approached by another woman in the office with her list of things to bake in the upcoming weekend, which lead to a monologue about her love of cooking and baking. Let me remind you, this was Monday morning at 11:30am.
The reason I mention of this is because when I walked past soup man’s office this morning, and said good morning, he replied, “Good morning Julia”. Now, I’ve been called a great many things in my day, and Julia is the one that rubs me the most. It takes an ounce of effort to say Julie and I feel like calling me Julia is the lazy man’s way of calling my name. It’s Julie people, not Julia. These thoughts must have reached my face and contorted it, because he quickly followed up with “you know, as in the famous chef”. AH!, If you want to call me Julia and refer it back to Julia Child, I’ll take it. But only if it refers to Julia Child.
It’s Julia Child’s birthday on Saturday. Although she died in 2004, I still feel like celebrating her birthday. I have to admit, I’ve got a little bit of Julia fever, as I have her cookbook, I’ve read her memoir and saw the movie about her last Friday.
To celebrate her cooking accomplishments and to toast the summer of 2009, I’m collaborating with a good friend to throw a dinner party. I can’t wait to laugh, drink wine, cook and consume it all in a ¼ of the time it took us a create it. And in that order. Still working on the menu - but I’m not concerned. I’ve got 2 days, 524 recipes to go through, and an Interview (YEAH!) to plan for.
Ok, maybe I’m slightly concerned.
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