Friday Link

On a busy Friday at work, a co-worker (named Michelle, so yes she is cool as hell) directed me to a link. My fascination and dedication to baking is common knowledge here, as it is most places. I clicked the link and was directed to an event planner's website.
I fell in love. It is beautifully crafted, put together, and thought out. Perhaps after years in a kitchen,(if I survive) I can retire to doing this.

The last day I made pancakes....EVER.

After a lovely Memorial Day weekend, filed with cupcakes, black bean burgers,blueberry shortcakes with Lemon and Thyme Biscuits, corn on the cob and anything else me and shmoops' mind could imagine, I decided to make pancakes for the family brunch. Before we all headed back to work and school and the "real" world.
one of the first cooking endeavors I ever embarked on was making pancakes. One Easter back on Ardsley street, when i was a wee sunny robot, I wanted to make chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Blissfully unaware I put the entire bag of chocolate chips in the batter. I love chocolate as much, if not more as the next guy, but it was basically fried chocolate with speckles of pancake batter. awesome.
I then got into my head that i was very good at making pancakes, and would invite Brandon over for Pink Pancakes with Whipped Cream instead of syrup. Ah, to be young and foolish.
In the years that followed, no one ever told me my pancakes were rubbish, and I even volunteered to feed the entire camp at Billstock(a tradition my father and his childhood friends will never ever break)
So, for some reason I thought pancakes were a staple of my culinary past, present and future. However, after last Monday, I will never make pancakes again. And this is how it went down.
First of all, a telltale sign that I am not pleased is this face:

And this is before it even got underway! Grumpy, sweaty, hungry, expletives racing out of my mouth faster than the horses in the Kentucky Derby.
I made the pancakes from a pre-made batter and buttermilk, not exactly a difficult process.

At first i made the batter too thick, the pancakes were consistently coming out burned on the outside and VERY uncooked in the middle. Out they went! Not even Molly wouldn't eat them, and she eats almost anything. (except for dog food)
So then I thinned out the batter, and it started going much smoother. Except for the fact that they took


for.




ever.

It was insane. my family was starving, I had plowed through about 7 cups of coffee; I honestly have no idea why they took so long, I blame most of it on my profound impatience. I covered them and they cooked much more evenly and swiftly, so that was nice.

But after 45 minutes(!!!)I only got about 15 "good" ones. And I didn't eat a single one...out of spite.
I don't know why this pissed me off so much, but I remember exclaiming, and meaning "I AM NEVER MAKING PANCAKES AGAIN!"

so there.

Metric loves LOST or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Song

When I was a child, like all children I wanted to be a million different things when I grew up. I wanted desperately to be an actress, to be Harriet the Spy, a singer, a garbage truck driver, a seal, a philosopher, a wall painter, a music video director, a dog walker...you get the point. (oddly enough, pastry chef, the one thing i am actually pursuing came later in life) Some of those carried over into my later years; I am a terrific eavesdropper (harriet), i majored in acting for exactly one semester, I did paint my walls once, and I interviewed to be a dog walker. others, such as the seal, garbage truck driver, well those never quite materialized. But today, I got to live out a favorite of mine. A music video director. because, you see, today is the today i completely understood a song, what the singer was talking about word for word, and I had the images to correspond with them. Today is the day I learned that one my favorite bands, Metric, loves my FAVORITE show, Lost.
I first heard this song last week, on my trip home from Boston. it was raining very hard and the Chinatown bus was going very fast. at first i just heard the melody, and i liked it....alot. so i played it again, and the second line "Tell the survivors help is on the way" immediately made me think of my favorite survivors from Flight 815. so i listened closely and realized, that every word had some semblance of being stranded on that island. If you click the picture above, (which I strongly recommend you do. if nothing, it will illustrate to you my urgency -in the scribbled handwriting- to make each connection.)
So, this morning i was on the subway and the song came on again. This time i could not let it go! Now, as a watchable music video, I have directed not. but I have picked some of my favorite images from Lost and lined them up with the lyrics I am almost certain Metric made for them. So, here are a few:
"Tell the survivors help is on the way"
-While on the Others compound, they see Flight 815 break into 2. This is intended to be quite ironic, since (spoiler alert!) the Others have no intention of actually helping the survivors...
"Got us a battle, leave it up to me"
-Ugh, this one kills me. all I can think of is Charlie in the looking glass, holding up his hand...water filling up...i don't remember much of that scene because I was too busy weeping uncontrollably.
"Find us a trap door, find us a plane
Tell the survivors help is on the way"
This one is the kicker. Before this lyric, it could have all been coincidence, but COME ON! Trap door= hatch door. Plane= Mr. Echo's drug plane. OBVI.
but for this part i would like to imagine that breathtaking image of Locke pounding on the hatch door, and then....like from Heaven underground, a light shines on him...and everyone on the island and in the audience feels hope. (or dread.)
"I was the one with the world at my feet
Got us a battle, leave it up to me"
For this part, all I can think of is Jack pre-Island. His crumbling marriage, his developing alcoholism, his forgetfulness to shave...
the battle he needs to fight is apparent, and he refuses help from anyone else to take the burden of the island off his shoulders. I have a hard time feeling sympathy though, cause he's such a goddamn baby.
the Chorus goes "What it is and where it stops nobody knows
You gave me a life I never chose
I wanna leave but the world won't let me go"
and it all comes together. what is the island? (miracles, monsters, polar bears?!) when is the island (time travel?), where the hell is the island? "Nobody Knows". Although science is choice and logic, destiny forgoes both of those, and that is what has been forced upon the survivors. and they can't get off!! THE ISLAND!! it keeps bringing them back even when they have finally reached home. The numbers are everywhere, following poor huge Hurley wherever he goes. everything seems to be connected to the island, it all comes back.
So, I know, it's not really a music video, but I'm not a music video director now am I? No, I'm not. I'm just a hopeless little baker who can't stop think about Lost. But I'm glad I'm not the only one...I'm on to you, Metric.

How to be a happy and healthy (aspiring) baker

oh how easy it is to have the "ho-hums". I'll never be successful, i'll never keep all my fingers, i'll never sleep again/have money to do anything/be skinny/see the Eifel tower/marry James Franco. See?! this is how these things spin out of control! So today, I was stewing in my worries and oh bothers, when i realized this was not going to get me anywhere. it's not gonna get me to the laundromat tonight, or to bed early, or to school, or into my whites. What i needed was a good kick in the ass, some perspective. I needed to do something i was really good at and that (for some reason unbeknown to be)makes me quite happy. I made a list!
How to be a happy and healthy (aspiring) baker:
1. Take you iron pills. basically, take care of yourself. if you know you need 8 hours of sleep to function, make sure your schedule is conducive to doing so. Take vitamins, drink tea instead of coffee for 2 days (it can be done!) drink water constantly and try to eat some fruit and veggies. Pizza with spinach works! it's not sausage! there are green things on top of my cheese and bread! Clearly, I don't have this whole "healthy lifestyle" down yet, but baby steps, my dears.
2.Sharpen your knives. you're less likely to lose a finger if your knives are sharp. do you need any more motivation than that?
3.Grab a beer after class/work and talk shop. it's important to vent. it's important to surround yourself with people who have similar interest and encourage you. It's important to buy your classmates drinks....they will remember it in the kitchen.
4. Don't talk shop all the time. it's also very important to clear your head. Shop can be talked about for hours, but it gets old. and your friends get sick of hearing about it. and yes, your co-workers and fellow kitchen mice are what gets you by on a working basis, but outside relationships are just as important. don't lose sight of the goal, but don't lose sight of your friends and those that have helped you get this far.
5. Read. Read. Read. this one time, i was sick, and i went home upstate so my mom could make me soup and i could be coddled. both very necessary. anyway, on the way home we stopped at the library, and here i picked up Jamie Oliver's "Jamie's Kitchen". I went home and ate the whole thing up (bah dum chiing). i was enthralled in the book, the stories each dish were telling, his passion for good food, the pictures. Just reading a cookbook, an article, a biography of a chef, helps immensely in the knowledge of food and preparation. and knowledge is power, kids.
6. Bake at home. the fact is, if you love something, you're going to want to do it all the time, so of course you'll be baking at home! I know, I know, new york kitchens are sad little things with weepy walls and bugs. this is true. but be creative! store cookie sheets under the bed, place cooling racks on the TV. you'll figure it out. but bake everywhere.
7. Count to 10 and keep working. this is what this little robot has to work on the most. i get so caught up on criticisms, or bumps in the road....i completely freeze. i can't think straight. and i normally end up crying. so! count to 10, take deep breaths, and i swear to god it works. Perspective comes creeping in, suddenly you understand how to handle the situation, or that the criticism is just going to make you stronger and wiser. Just chill out, little guy....
8.Taste what you make. "oh but i don't want to get fat! my drinking pants have become my everyday pants!" oh i know these cries all to well. there's quite a simple solution in fact. DON'T EAT THE WHOLE DAMN CAKE. ahem. sorry. taste what you make, chew slowly, think of improvements that can be made. then, if you're still hungry, have some more! go ahead! but if you keep eating because you think "well what if i never have another chocolate souffle in front of me again?" you're wrong. you will. and it will taste waaay better if you aren't wearing your drinking pants.
9. Find Inspiration. In everything. in what Paula Dean makes, at Buttercup Bakery, what your mom makes when you ask for you favorite food. In music, in movies. I find it everywhere; not necessarily "oh this song inspires me to bake x and perhaps drizzle it with y." But i do get inspired to just keep going. to learn as much as possible, and to have fun with it. because if you're not doing it because you love it, then why the hell are you here?
10.Just try really, really really, hard. cause that's all you can do. if you try your damndest and it doesn't work out....well then, you didn't try your damndest.

And with that I bid you good evening! Many apologies for the lack of updates, my computer will be fixed by..(hopefully sooner that this)..memorial day weekend!