A Cocktail Party Response

Upon meeting new acquaintances and exchanging tidbits about our personal and professional lives, one question never fails to be posed with an enthusiastic tone:

"So, how did you decide you wanted to pursue baking as a career?"  Or, sometimes, "Wow, finance to baking is a big change!  How did you make that decision?"

I love when people show an interest in the path I have chosen and how I got there, especially since I so very much love what I do.

But every single time this question is asked of me, I freeze.

My mouth fills with sand.

And I eloquently begin my response with, "Uh....um...well..."

This is not how I want to make my impression upon people.  I want to adequately convey my passion and my pursuits of that passion.

I just never know where to begin.

I've tried something along the lines of, "Oh, well, I have loved baking my entire life and just decided I wanted to turn it into a career."

But this doesn't really convey everything that went into my decision and my path to changing careers.  And it sounds a bit flaky.

I have also tried something like, "Well, after graduation, I moved to Manhattan, realized I hated my job in finance and enrolled in pastry school!"

Also a bit flaky.

I've realized that I'm not being completely honest in my response.  Like most conversations upon meeting someone new, I'm sugar-coating my words in an effort to appear friendly and happy-go-lucky.

But that's not the reality of the decision.  It's not realistic to assume people make life-altering decisions without suffering a few gloomy days and bruises along the way.

The truth of the matter is that, while I have never regretted my decision, it was mighty difficult to reach.

It is true that I have always loved baking.  My family is filled with amazing cooks and bakers, so I feel that my passion came naturally and was constantly nurtured during my childhood.

It is also true that I moved to Manhattan, less than a week after graduation to pursue my career in finance; to pursue the lucrative life that I just knew awaited me.

And then, do you know what happened?  I hated it.  I hated my job, the city.  I hated being more than an afternoon drive away from my family.  I hated that Mike left me all alone on the weekends in this crowded, unfriendly place.  And I hated that we fought constantly.

I was depressed, lonely, miserable, confused.  I cried every night when I got home from work.  This sitting behind a computer all day and being a middle man - this couldn't be what awaited me in my adult years?  Could it?

This wallowing continued for about six weeks.  Then, I woke up one morning,  and decided enough was enough, "Get it together girl.  It's time to figure some things out."

In the quest of deciding what I would chose to pursue as a career, I looked at a lot of different parts of my life and asked myself a lot of questions. 

What do you read in your free time?  Cookbooks, food blogs, food magazines, restaurant reviews.

Where do you love to go on the weekends?  Bakeries, bistros, Sur la Table, Williams-Sonoma, Union Square Farmer's Market

When you wake up in the morning, what do you wish you could do all day?  Bake.

If money wasn't an issue, what do you wish your job could be?  Pastry chef.

When you're 90 and looking back on your life, what will be the one thing you wish you had tried?  Pursing a career in baking.

The answer was blindingly right in front of me.  Still, it took me another six months to research culinary schools, figure out how I would pay for culinary school, draft up multiple budgets to account for the big pay cut I would inevitably take, announce my decision to my family and wholeheartedly convince myself that I wasn't making a huge mistake.

And after making the decision to actually pursue this craziness, I was still facing a year of culinary school and an externship, all while keeping my full-time job in finance.

So, you can see how "Oh, well, I have loved baking my entire life and just decided I wanted to turn it into a career," and "Well, after graduation, I moved to Manhattan, realized I hated my job in finance and enrolled in pastry school!"don't adequately express my path to choosing a career in pasty.

But the entirety of the story is kind of lengthy and, honestly, a bit depressing.

So now, I just need to figure out how to craft a cocktail-party appropriate response that will not make me appear as either a flake or a self-absorbed wind bag.

Macaron Day NYC

Happy Weekend!  Happy Spring!  Happy Macaron Day!

That's right - macarons now receive their very own day of celebration, thanks to Francois Payard.  This is the first Macaron Day in New York City, which coincides with the 5th annual 'Jour du Macaron' in France.

If you live in NYC, you can make this sunny, 70 degree day even sweeter with a free macaron!

And, if you live outside the NYC area, why not whip up a batch of your own to celebrate?

Or, if you are like me, you can make a batch of strawberry jam macarons and then pick up a free macaron anyway!  Hey, it's been a long winter.

Almond Turtle Bark with Fleur de Sel

For the birthdays of family members and close friends, I love gifting sweet treats created specifically with the tastes of that person in mind.

In my dessert-obsessed world, I think a personalized dessert is a pretty cool gift.  And it's edible.  Big plus.

When my grandmother's birthday came around this month, I already knew what I wanted to make for her big day.

I was inspired by one of her letters to me earlier in the year, where she described how much she loved walking the streets of Bar Harbor in the summertime and indulging in a chunk of turtle candy.

Easy enough.

Or so I thought.

I lost count after the eighth trial, but I had the hardest time achieving the consistancy I desired in the caramel.

After work, every night last week, there were multiple attempts to perfect the caramel.  And there were multiple failures.

Too hard.  Too soft.  Too runny.  Too burnt.

Saturday morning arrived with torrential downpours and hurricane-force winds.  I was fresh out of pecans and, lacking a canoe, there was no way I could safely run to the grocery store.

But I remained calm.  Just because I didn't have one of the three main ingredients of turtle candy was no reason to panic.  Some of my favorite recipes come to me when I am forced to work with only the ingredients I have on hand.

Shortly thereafter, a tray of gooey, chewey caramel encased in almonds and decident semisweet chocolate was sitting on my counter.  A sprinkle of fleur de sel and an extra drizzle of chocolate topped it off.

When the chocolate set completely, I cut the candy into diamond shaped pieces and packaged them in a little tin with a twine bow.  And was sure to apologize profusely for the late arrival of the candy.

But hopefully it was worth it.

Irish Stout Gingerbread

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Bring on the corned beef dinner, green beer and green cupcakes!

Just one teeny, tiny problem.

Mike, the only Irish descendant in the relationship, has forbidden me from making a corned beef dinner.  We like our beer dye-free.  And, without even tasting one, I've had my fill of green cupcakes with white frosting.

Instead, while trying to plan the food portion of the holiday, I decided I wanted to serve a dessert with a bit of personality.  Perhaps with beer as my secret ingredient?

This is where my amazing, handsome, beer-brewing boyfriend comes in rather handy.  That's right - he brews beer in our tiny apartment.  Lots and lots of beer.

His "Breakfast Stout", a dry Irish stout, would be the perfect complement to a spicy, warm gingerbread.  I knew it.  Mike knew it.  And he handed over one of the last bottles with a sigh.

No pressure here.  I stole one of the last bottles of this brew for an experiential dessert.  This dessert will be served after a dinner of corned beef paninis, because I love corned beef.  And I don't think it's very Irish-like of Mike to forbid me to serve it.

But I do promise to leave the green dye out of the beer.  Just to be safe.

Happy Pi Day!

Today is March 14th. 3.14 = pi. And, in baking world, pi = pie!

For my pie, I was hoping to incorporate some of the plump blackberries which have recently graced the shelves at the corner grocery store.

But a monsoon hit Manhattan yesterday and I absolutely refused to go outside and risk being swept away by the rain and wind. This left me to the mercy of whatever I could scrounge from my pantry, the refrigerator and the freezer.

I created an apple-cranberry filling, sweetened by sugar, cinnamon and minced crystallized ginger. Instead of making a traditional 9" pie, half of which would have gone to waste, I created heart-shaped pocket pies.

I plan on serving these after dinner this evening with a scoop of homemade cinnamon ice cream.

Are you whipping up a pie to "celebrate" the day?  What filling did you choose?