Chocolate Puddin'

Chocolate Puddin'

Peanut Butter Mousse

House made Caramel Corn

Rustic Apple Pie A La Mode

Granny Smith Galette (apples, fennel, cheddar cheese and cornmeal galette dough)

Vanilla Bean Ice Cream

Golden Raisin Puree

Apple, Fennel, and Golden Raisin Compote (with Pernod)

Candied and Dried Fennel Chip

Fennel Top

Sweet Potato Tart Version 2

The current version of the sweet pot tart. Same components, just a few different aspects in terms of size and arrangement.

Scrumptious Summerville

On Sunday I packed up Chef P Diddy and 576 miniature key lime white chocolate cheesecakes (complete with graham cracker) and headed for Summerville. We were participating in a tour of homes that included a sort of movable feast. It was almost like trick or treating for adults. At each home, there were two or three different chefs offering various food stuffs. Proceeds from the function benefited Children in Crisis.

I was amazed and pleased to walk in with so many portions and then to walk out with nothing left.

Our station was in a newly renovated pool house that was nicer than pretty much any house I could even dream of living in. The place had a sauna. And everything matched. Oh, such lofty goals.

Sweet Potato Tart

-->Autumn Spiced Tart Shell

-->Sweet Potato Bread (think banana nut breads sans nuts and switching out the bananas with sweet pots)

-->Sweet Potato Creme Caramel

-->Maple Syrup Creme Fraiche

-->Dried Sweet Potato Lattice

-->House made Persimmon Preserves

-->Tahitian Vanilla Bean Infused Maple Syrup

My Dancing Cupcake Dream

Do demons visit you when you sleep or is it just me? Two nights ago, under the influence of one beer and one Reese's peanut butter cup, I had a strange dream. In this dream, I was pursued by dancing cupcakes. They were human-sized cupcakes that moved about on shapely, fishnet stocking encased legs of impossible length. They would chase me from one side of the kitchen to the other. Once cornered near the deck ovens, I watched in horror as the cupcakes began dancing a la The Rockettes. Then they began to cannibalize each other, though they possessed no mouths. Bright gobs of shortening-based icing flew in the air and spattered me. I attempted to crawl in the oven to end the torment. Thankfully, that's when someone knocked on my door, woke me up, and ended my misery.

But when I shut my eyes, I still see those cupcakes doing high kicks and drowning me in shortening and powdered sugar.

Another week passes and things are, of course, looking up.

What do you do when you the first and only thing on your To Do List is to start a to do list?

Mine would (or shall I say, will) be a mile long. From the basics like put a light bulb in the office lamp to the more complicated like getting started on an exciting wedding cake project made possible by my creation (and protracted rearing) of this blog, the list would extend over several sheets of letter paper. I guess that is why I have yet to type it up. Oh, that, and somewhere on page one would be the notation, "Buy printer cartridges (so that I can print up my To Do List)." Of course, that would be preceded by, "Go to Costco for new card photo." Thus, I could then purchase said cartridges and that new camera the blog and I have been hankering for. That camera would also be on the list.

Best get busy spending money I don't have.

But the week and my outlook on life are both looking up. After several days of floundering I now know what I have to do to get back on track. Expectations await me. I must fulfill them. Now to get off the lazy ass.

Thanks to those folks out there who have shown concern. Your well wishes, whether tacit or verbally expressed, bolstered me.

Now if one of you would just call and arrange for the cable guy to come by and meet him at my place, well, that would be one more think stricken from the To Do List That Waits To Be Written.

Do your job, dammit.

“But no sudden change of outward affairs can ever come without some upheaval in the mind. Thus has it followed that you, like others, have fallen somewhat away from your calm peace of mind. But it is time now for you to make trial of some gentle and pleasant draught, which by reaching your inmost parts shall prepare the way for yet stronger healing draughts.”
Boethius The Consolation of Philosophy

When I f*** up, I f*** it up right.

YDPC:

Reality check time, chef. You lost track of everything. Your drive, your goals, your daily dailies. Girl, you dropped the ball big time. Took on too much and gave too little to the areas that truly counted. Forgot your main priorities. Tried to have it all, but only lost a little, though you came stupidly close to losing much, much more. You know how easily all could be gone now. But the people that matter care and they give you a chance because they know that screwing up isn’t your normal mode of operation. Don’t take advantage of that.

Sincerely,
YDPC

Control Freak Out of Control

Still no internet connection at home. And the time to get that situation remedied seems nonexistent.

Yesterday was the roughest day at work I think I have had in ages. My personal life wormed its way into my work day. I do not like that. Not one bit. I am angry at myself for allowing that to happen. It’s a quiet anger that sits in my gut like a rock and/or feels like barbed wire tied around my head. It won’t stay quiet for long, though.

And, to top that off, my only scheduled cook called in sick. A 300 cover night. By myself. In a precarious emotional state. My first thought was to make a run for it. Get in the car and hightail it outta there. But sense prevailed (darn it) and I called former Cook B. And she came in to literally save the day, even though she got in a wreck on the way to my rescue. If she had not made it, I think I would have. . . God, I have no idea what I would have done. It would not have been pretty (not that the shift was anyway as it played out last night). I bet I thanked that girl 50 times last night. And I’m of half a mind to thank her 50 more.