i LOVE catering.

i know it's not quite the way most do it, but i've only been in pittsburgh for less than 24 hours and i'm loving it.
grocery shopping this morning, cutting, prepping, and mis-en-placing all afternoon, and now just chilling until about 7ish to begin the actual cooking in order to report to set at 8:00 to set up and be ready for the hungry masses.
granted, all of this was done solo, and it may seem like a lonely job - but i'm having such a good time.
i love watching people whine about how far away dinner is when i'm smashing turkey hill ice cream (which costs an arm and a leg in pittsburgh) between freshly baked pumpkin cookies.

tonight's menu...

romaine, english cuke, and celery green salad
jonagold slices and navel orange wedges
zesty grilled cheese
spicy tomato basil soup (both thanks to our friend sandra... plus a few alixe adjustments)

for dessert, the aforementioned ice cream sandwiches.

it seems really simple, but sometimes you don't need massive mediterranean antipasto trays for ten people.
this is such a new experience for me - i mean, the broke part is still very normal
but it's fun to have to really plan ahead with no 'go backs' - once the door is closed, it's locked and i have to make due with the stores around me and what i have along.

i have a photojournal of this catering journey, which will eventually make it's way here, but i will need to get home before i can put those on here.

itunes radio choice for cooking: Planet Hits Radio, solely for the reason that Mika was the first song playing when I randomly chose it earlier.
fantastic.

a bientot for now, friends - i should begin assembling my fabulous sandwiches.

Normally I can't STAND her.

but I do have to admit that Sandra Lee is sort of awesome.
her cookbooks are really sweet, actually - even though they call themselves 'semi-homemade', i can't understand why you WOULDN'T take some of the 'shortcuts' she uses.
baking shortcuts are another story, but a lot of these easy quick fix meals are really well done - and half the time you're going to spend less money on her way (mind you - don't necessarily pay attention to the brands she recommends... if it's one thing i stand by, it's that most canned goods live up to each other).


in any case, i'm catering a set this week in Pittsburgh, and was in need of five days of food to feed from 15 - 35 people daily.
oh sannnnddraaaaa!
i immediately went to the 'family favorites' cookbook of hers, hoping there would be wrap ideas ad sandwiches that were fabulously easy and delicious.
the problem with going through one of these cookbooks isn't necessarily that i can't find anything to make - i just have to go through the ENTIRE book, because i am such a picture mosquito.
if i see the vibrant glossy pages of finished products, i'm hooked.
i don't do well with cookbooks that are solely text, even though most of my notebooks are just the words and the stains from when i have attempted the recipes.
i think my favorite is my snickers pie recipe, which i spilled an entire pint of heavy cream on, but i just stuck it in a page protector and rewrote the entire thing from memory in pen over the bleeding ink.

cookbooks are really neat things, if the compiler has done their job to test them.
thats what i LOVE about BH&G: Baking because they actually SAY in the first intro that each recipe has been tried and held true if the recipe is truly followed. they expect butter to be used where butter is required, no margarine, and that the ingredients are followed pretty faithfully. while i've gotten around that fact a few times, the truth is that you CAN make your own adjustments, but choose carefully.
there are a few ingredients that you really just can't substitute, also learning the hard way about THAT.


for instance - things that DO work...
egg substitute - i use the real thing. i know, its more cholesterol, usually, but you know what? a cup of eggs is a cup of eggs.
half and half - heavy cream and skim milk, or heavy cream and water. i know, it sounds elementary, but it does work. be careful if you're making custards though - that can get iffy.
white sugar - brown sugar (again, will depend on your final product, but i like the taste of brown sugar more anyway)

things that do NOT work.
anything less than heavy cream when making a decent ganache... that goes for chocolate too. you don't need $15/lb coating wafers or break up, but don't use the candy coaters from your local craft store if you want to make a beautiful alhambra. just don't do it. if you use dairy with a lot less milkfat than heavy cream in conjunction WITH the crappy chocolate, you will get dotty, liquidy grossness. aka NOT ganache, not even close.

current recipe obsession?
triple irish chocolate cake.
anything that involves pouring Guinness into the batter, Irish Mist into the ganache, and Bailey's into the buttercream gets an A+ on my list... i changed it around a bit, but Epicurious has a great recipe for it...
i did the ganache exactly, but halved the cake recipe - makes a BEAUTIFUL half of a 10" (yeah, figure that one out on your own... haha)
and my own buttercream, involving the aforementioned Bailey's.
mmmm, speaking of breakfast.

for the love of

SILPATS.

whenever i teach a class, whether it be at the library or the random impromptu lessons i have over the island for tess, i always stress how amazing these things are.

whether you are baking cookies, doing sugar work, or just need a nonstick surface to plop some things down when you don't need them yet - it's my only go-to.

imitators: BEWARE. you may be saving a bunch of moolah, but they just don't have the cool little ingredient that makes them nonstick the way they should. i don't know what the compound is, but it's a magical substance, that's for sure.

recently, i have seen an even bigger market of the fake ones - the all one color - there is something about the darker edge and the lighter honeycomb middle that just screams 'I WORK'...
while the silicone-ish spanse of the fakes are just muttering how they will make your cookies stick and your sugar pieces glob.

WS (that would be Williams Sonoma - I don't deem myself necessarily worthy enough to speak their name fully) now carries a few different sizes - definitely ask for help if you aren't sure which you need. there's a square sheet, which upon opening will cause the buyer to curse and think about the $6 in gas they've just wasted driving the entire way there and back with a piece of enhanced rubber that won't even fit a jelly roll pan.

cheat sheet >
half sheet - 16 1/4 " x 11 1/4 " **this is the one you need for a standard baking tray.. well. the kind i prefer using.**
cookie - 12 3/4" x 13 3/4" **DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE LABELING - this so called cookie size will not be the one you want**

so, in any case. if you have a budding chef or at least someone who uses their oven for things other than diGiorno or storage space....
BUY THEM ONE.
it's $24.95 from WS, usually about the same at BB&B or any of those fine establishments, and it's worth every penny. i have a rule about getting your money's worth - charge yourself a buck a day for a product. if you end up "charging" yourself more than you paid for it - you got your money's worth.
foods don't count - you either get what you pay for or you just reallly love it enough to pay for it.
plus, you should always treat your tastebuds to something wonderful.
words get boring.

"My bakery opens next month and I am about as far away from being ready as I can get" Pie

that would be graham cracker crust, and a lot of peaches, with raw sugar.

don't even bother baking it - we don't have time.

i love culinary movies. i love things that involve food - i love books and articles and even movies that somehow tie in the glory of the cooking world. 

No, i haven't seen No Reservations, but it looks cute. Mostly because of the fact that they're in a kitchen - Aaron Eckhart is one of my growing favorites, though. 

Moment of the day? The past two ish hours.

watching 

^^^^^THIS.

and may i just say, i have never been so happy to have heard spot on reviews. i heard nary a negative thing about it, and they came through.

it was smart.

it was sad.

by the way, me crying does not automatically constitute a movie as sad - i get choked up if a puppy is left alone.

but the entire movie - the entire thing, just exuded such a passion, such an amazing message of hope within a stupid situation. 

more than anything, i wish there was a cookbook - because I would love to try some of the recipes.

i love the happiness that comes from coming up with recipes - even the shots of the empty shells made me smile, and i know the feelings well. it made me just really - excited.

Adrienne Shelly did a fabulous job, and I'm sad we won't be able to experience more of her genius in years to come. Cheers to you, love. May you rest in a strawberry pie filled heaven. 

also exciting - the last three minutes of the academy awards, when i saw a sneak peek at Julie&Julia... a delicious book i just read by julie powell.

she sets out to make her way through all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking - it was great.

i never read nonfiction, but it of course drew me, if nothing else, from the miniegg whisk on the cover, and the fact that it was a bargain book from barnes and noble and i had a gift certificate burning a hole in my proverbial pocket.

however, those things aside, things DO happen for a reason. 

i was meant to read that book - it's subtitled something along the lines of how she risked her job, her husband, and her life's sanity to do this entire project in her tiny long island city apartment.

i really really enjoyed it- powell is a light but thorough writer with a flair for the funny - found myself laughing out loud a lot. plus, chris messina will make a fabulous eric. 

it made me feel good to know that MtAoFC doesn't just scare me. things of that nature - that... complicated... nature... i don't know.

i'm trained in classic French patisserie, but i would be just as happy creating the craziest cookies for the rest of my life.

or combinations of flavors that people aren't willing to try but then have to come to only me to find.

the dream will grow. 

also pretty much addicted to Good Grief, by Lolly Winston.

in the wake of losing my final pet, i picked it up thinking what better than to wallow in a sad, hopeless romantic novel.

instead i found a woman who gets over her grief by opening a bakery.

again, meant to happen.

amazing, actually - another book i sobbed through, but with happy hopeful tears, and the renewed energy to go make a Swiss meringue. 

and not to forget the mindy klasky "miniseries" of jane and her witchy ways... 

Sorcery and the Single Girl, Girl's Guide to Witchcraft, and Magic and the Modern Girl. 

all slightly cheesy titles, but jane's best friend owns.. you guessed it! a bakery.

a really cute bakery with a million great ideas and fun things that i would bet klasky came up with in perhaps an intention of writing a book about a baker.

alas - the end product has me waiting for melissa's appearances in every jane breakdown. mojitos and bunny bites, yes please. 

i always wonder if my creativity could ever really carry out the stories of these people. it's funny, i have yet to read or watch a movie (unless you count Moonstruck) where there is a male baker whose work i appreciate. wait, i take it back. Marilyn Hotchkiss Ballroom Dance and Charm School... incredible. John Goodman is a creepdawg extraordinaire, but Marisa Tomei has a great introduction to a butcher block. and in an entrancing, only-appreciated-fully-by-any-weary-baker sort of way.

i know that i have ideas brewing inside me. i know i have these things that could take off and make millions. but i also have the ultimate feeling that i have to breathe and start small. small, as in plans, not as in doing 3" cookies instead of plate sized. although my plate cookies are a best seller. i'm just not egocentric enough to push my product to the ends of the earth until i can stand behind it fully. i am proud of the things i can do, but i still want to be able to really love everything i can produce, and feel the resolution in trusting someone else to churn it out when i finally decide to sit down for a minute. if you haven't seen posessive, try finding a cake decorator that will not stand over your shoulder the first eighty times you do a shell border on one of their orders. 

i seem to be inexplicably drawn to these novels, and they each teach me more things. well, waitress was on my netflix queue, but even for more reasons than a pie being featured in the promo shots.

i love seeing baking and culinary fascination take over. 

i love having people ask me a million questions about baking 

(especially if it's something OTHER than - 'oh, do you watch Ace of Cakes? that show is awesome!)

because i love that i have chosen a path that means something to EVERYONE.

everyone loves to eat. if they don't, they're probably lying to themselves. 

everyone does enjoy sweet. if they don't, i'm sad for them. dessert has been some of the most pivotal moments in my life.

plus, you celebrate life with dessert. 

who ever heard of 1st birthday casserole?

75th wedding anniversary oil change?

negative.

not that these careers are not important, for they very well are.

but i am excited that i have chosen a path that usually ends in smiles.

relaxed, delighted, heavy lidded with satisfaction smiles.

which leads me to the title of this blog. the inspiration.

stranger than fiction. 

will ferrell is an irs auditor, who has never lived the way life should be.

maggie gyllenhaal is a kick ass baker.

cue indie music, some great lines, and mostly - another movie about baking that is smart and just so calmly worthy of my appreciation for the nod to people who do what they love to do, how they want to do it. that's my dream - to have my own aprons and have my employees wear what i want them to - but they like it to.

to accept a boxful of flours from someone who genuinely cares and understands that this is what my life is truly about. finding the fun in the science, finding the good eats among the pages about aspic and ribbons.

it's finding passion where passion lives. 

this is only the beginning, that i know.

but i must say - it's awfully fun so far.

and so it begins

ah, at last. the true geek in me has shone through, and may the patisserie-infused love of all rage on. it may take a moment to get the hang of this, and to begin publishing things the way i want to - but i plan on having a lot of fun here. cheers to all.