Changing gears from pursuing a life in Musical Theatre to going back to school for Pastry Arts. Expect many references to all things nerdy, the stress of changing careers, balancing a day job and night classes, and rediscovering a passion for sweets and baking. Alons-y!
Check out hellomintplus's Doctor Who Lavender Sea Salt Chocolate Recipe. The linked playlist also has all of the other Geek & Sundry geeky food and drink recipes so have fun and share pictures if you try any recipes yourself!
A few weeks ago, the owner of Oceana visited our kitchen with gifts; Fresh Lavender from the garden at our sister restaurant, Moderne Barn. And tons of it. We graciously accepted and started hanging lavender all over the kitchen to dry out. Then tried to figure out what the hell we were going to do with all of this lavender.
I hadn't realized before how tasty lavender is in everything. I had always worried it would just make everything taste like soap and perfume. So far, I've been a big fan of lavender sugar sprinkled on lemon bars. It also mixes well with earl grey ganache.
But none of that compares to ice cream and blackberries.
This flavor is incredible and one of my new instant favorites. In fact, I'm enjoying a big bowl right now as I type up this post. As soon as Chef Grapes spun the ice cream at Oceana, everyone was sneaking bites out of the freezer. So, inspired by my Chef, I worked on a version I could make at home without fancy-shmancy ingredients like atomized glucose!
A couple quick notes about this ice cream to keep in mind. First off, make sure you get culinary lavender. What you would buy from a gardening or a craft store will get you a mouth full of pesticides. You can easily get culinary lavender online at Amazon,Ā Spice House, Wiliams Sonoma, or check your local health food store!
The other thing to keep in mind are the blackberry seeds. Once you puree the blackberries, you'll have the option to strain them to remove the seeds. While some seeds give the ice cream a fantastic texture, you might not be too keen on getting a bunch of seeds in every bite. But, if you strain all of the puree you will also remove all of the tasty lemon zest as well. I recommend straining just half of your puree, so you'll get the texture, the zest, and all of the deliciousness. For best results, use a mesh strainer. If you have a bowl scraper, it's very handy to mash the puree through. If not, the bottom of a measuring cup works just as well!
And lastly: vanilla bean paste is incredible. I use it in pretty much everything now because it made vanilla extract seem so boring. Using it in your vanilla frosting recipe will somehow make it taste like the creamiest vanilla ice cream ever. It's pure magic. You can get a bottle from any of the places I listed above that sell lavender. Trust me, you'll be doing yourself a favor! However, if you don't have any vanilla bean paste on hand, you can always substitute 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or scrape a vanilla bean into your blackberry and sugar mixture.Ā
Ā Blackberry Lavender Ice Cream
1 lb fresh or frozen blackberries
1 1/4 cups (250 g) cane sugar, divided
3/4 cup (90 g) skim milk powder
1 1/2 cups milk
2 cups Heavy Cream
zest of 1 Meyer lemon
1 t vanilla paste
(substitution: 1 vanilla bean scraped or 1 t vanilla extract)
2 T (3 g) lavender
In large bowl, sprinkle 1/2 cup (100 g) of sugar, zest of a Meyer lemon, and vanilla paste over the blackberries.Ā Mix well, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 6-8 hours, or overnight.
Combine milk, milk powder, and the rest of the sugar and whisk well. Make sure all of the milk powder is completely mixed and there are no lumps. Stir in heavy cream.
Heat the milk and cream mixture to a boil, then turn off heat. Add lavender, cover and let steep for 20 minutes.
Strain out lavender and cool completely. To cool the lavender infused cream quickly, set up an ice bath
While the mixture is cooling, puree blackberries in a blender. If you're planning on straining any of the puree, do so now.
Mix your puree with the cooled down liquid in a blender or whisking in a large bowl until completely combined.
Churn ice cream according to your ice cream maker's instructions. You can eat it right away for a more soft serveĀ consistency, orĀ freeze overnight for a more solid ice cream.
Fun fact about me: I am obsessed with podcasts. I started listening back in 2008 when Rooster Teeth (known for the web series Red vs Blue) decided to start a podcast. I'd been part of the RT community since the show started and I had always loved listening to the DVD commentaries, so to suddenly have a new version of a commentary every week was pretty much the greatest thing ever. A couple years later, I discovered Doug Loves Movies. Then Nerdist. Then Comedy Death Ray (now Comedy Bang Bang).Ā I was OBSESSED. I still am obsessed. And now there are a ton of food related podcasts I can listen to.
Then two of my best friends from Rhode Island started their own podcast. I immediately started to drop hints and shamelessly begged to come on for an episode. Ben's response was pretty much "shut up, of course. You love podcasts more than life." So back in February while I was in the middle of my externship, I took a couple days off from my day job, headed to RI, and recorded this awesome podcast.Ā This went up back in April and since I was losing my mind working 70 hours a week, I forgot to spread the link around!
We talked about everything from living in New York, going to school, the decision to go back to school, lots of musical theatre, and my time filming a reality show. It was so great to joke around and use this as an excuse to catch up and talk in depth about a ton of things we wouldn't chat about. (Hilarious moment in the podcast thanks to hindsight: I talk at one point about how I'd like to balance Oceana with a part time job at a bakery. Oh what a naive fool I was!)
Dave and Ben are fantastic and I highly recommend listening to some of their other episodes! They are on a hiatus at the moment, but they are fantastic hosts. Here's the link to my episode, or you can head straight to iTunes and download it. Other great episodes: Susan Ryan, Bryan Keilty, Thor Jensen, and Curt Dumas.
Oh my poor blog. You have been so forgotten. I truly thought I would have time to write more once I finished school and started my externship. But that actually meant 60+ hours a week between my day job and Oceana.
And then in March I was offered a position as a pastry cook at Oceana full time. This was exactly what I wanted. So I quit my office job I worked at for 5 years and started my new career as a pastry cook. Oh and the day after I was offered a job, the executive pastry chef left the restaurant. So suddenly, it was back to 60-70 hours a week. Any time not at the restaurant was spent laying on my couch not doing much of anything.
But I've always learned best through 'trail by fire'. I was stressed and exhausted and never thought my feet could hurt so badly, but I was learning so much and actually cooking and baking. Since then, a new pastry chef, Chef Colleen Grapes, has started and we finally have a full team again. This means all of our schedules evened out to something more manageable and I actually have time to cook at home! I've become especially obsessed with my ice cream maker recently...
Chef Grapes is absolutely incredible. Creative and her dishes are beyond delicious. She is also a huge advocate of testing out new things and asking the pastry cooks to bring up any ideas we think would be good.
I cannot describe how wonderful it is to work in such a nurturing and creative environment. I constantly want to experiment and come up with new recipes. Yesterday was my day off and it was mostly spent shopping for ingredients and then making bread and ice cream. I think I have forgotten the definition of the word day off..
But this means more recipes coming soon to this blog! For real this time. I hope I don't disappear for another 4 months...
Cookies made for my dear friends birthday. First picture is the outline for the cookies (which was finished at 4 am last night...), the other pictures are the finished cookies!
This week has been a ridiculous whirlwind of awesome things. Today is my first real day to breathe since I finished my training at ICE on Wednesday, and started my externship at Oceana on Thursday.
I can't believe I'm actually done with school. Our final project was a wedding cake that we put the final touches on Tuesday.
We had a reception on Wednesday where our friends and family could see our cakes, and we would receive our fancy new Chef hats and a new book.Ā ICE also gave out a few awards and I was incredibly honored to receive the Top Toque Award for exemplary skills.
I'm already missing my fellow students and Chefs at ICE, but I'm incredibly excited to have started my externship. I'll be working there Thursday-Saturdays, totaling in 20 hours a week. Thursdays and Fridays will be interesting, as I'll be working 9-5:30 at my day job and then running over to Oceana for 6-11pm. Saturdays will be my 10 hour shift. This week has been utterly exhausting, but I've already learned so much. And today is time for rest.
By now, the show āSecret Weddingā has aired and I wanted to post pictures of the cupcakes I made for Sara and Vinceās wedding. Unfortunately, I realized after the wedding was over that I took zero pictures of anything. The duties of being a bridesmaid entail running around and making sure the bride is happy, no time for pictures!
Luckily, my friend Melvin (who has a MUCH nicer camera than I do) managed to take a ton of pictures for me. A million thanks to Melvin, I owe you one!
Pictured above are the cupcakes I made for Sara and Vince. All the cupcakes are either vanilla or chocolate with different frosting variations. There was chocolate ganache, vanilla bean, peanut butter frosting with peanut butter balls, and coffee frosting with mini buttermilk-vanilla bean donuts. Iād be more than happy to post any recipes if anyone is interested!
The bride and groom seemed very happy with the selection (the coffee and peanut butter variations were a surprise to Sara!) and they seemed to go over pretty well with all of the guests! Plus, Melvin caught a fantastic picture of Sara and Vince after feeding each other the chocolate cupcakes.
Its been a few months now since the wedding, but I am still so happy for them and their incredible ceremony! As you could see from the show, it was a ridiculous and beautiful day, and I spent half of it weeping happy tears. I was so honored to be such a huge part of their big day and so relieved it all went off without a hitch.
Congrats Sara and Vince! Being such a big part of your special day was incredible, even if I did lie to the bride for a couple monthsā¦
I am a huge fan of How I Met Your Mother. Stay with me, this has a point. There's a great episode in season 6 called 'False Positive' that has this incredibly true quote:
"When your friends have great news you're happy for them, for like a millisecond and then you start thinking about yourself."
All of this was basically a way to say this: my realizationĀ about myself wasn't enough to do anything about it. No, all it really did was bring up a shitstorm of insecurity and panic. The fear of being a quitter was crippling. So it was all shoved down and ignored.
Until two of my friends had big news, and my reaction was pretty much exactly like Robin:
About two years ago, my friend Sara was just starting to plan her wedding and I was baking everything and anything I could. She asked if I could make the cupcakes for the reception. I was touched and said of course! She cut right to the chase and suggested I go back to school for pastry arts. She could see how happy it made me and she was sure I'd rock it. I thought about it. Then doubt and vampires showed up and I talked myself out of it.
Cut to a year later. Lora just found out she was pregnant and we were all thrilled. And as I sat on her couch and she talked about her plans for her family and future, I was thinking of myself and my future.
I had already realized that theatre wasn't for me. I also knew that I did not want to sit behind a desk all day, explaining how the internet works to customers. So this was when I started researching. And visiting schools. And before I knew it, it was all actually happening.
So thank you Sara, Lora, Melvin and my godson Kalel. Your happy future made me freak out and figure my shit out.
On my first day of classes at ICE, I shared that I was previously an actress and mentioned how incredibly frustrating auditioning was. Chef Jeff smiled at me, amused and a little cryptic, and said āwell I hate to break it to you, but there is a lot of āauditioningā in this business.ā Shortly after, I realized how important networking was and heard about trailing for the first time.
The best way to describe trailing is a hands-on interview. Basically, you bring your gear and uniform and work a shift with the chef to see if you are a good fit for the restaurant/bakery. It did remind me of auditions quite a bit, but there is one big difference: I loved trailing.
I know that many friends of mine are incredible at auditioning and love the rush. I always felt like I didnāt have the time to show the best side of myself and that nerves always got the best of me. Donāt think Iām completely hating on auditioning, it just wasnāt for me.
Imagine that when you auditioned for a musical, instead of walking in and singing 16 bars of a song you worked with the director for a few hours. They got a chance to see how you pick up direction and how you are to work with, you get to see how they treat their actors and if this is someone you could learn from. This was what was exciting about trailing to me.
It could be that youāre just there to observe for a couple hours. You could end up staying for nearly 10 hours. You could just stand and peel boxes of apples or separating eggs.
I trailed at three restaurants and had incredibly different experiences at each one. But those are stories saved for another post. I have a lot of thoughts about trailing and volunteering, so keep an eye out for part two: advice and my experiences. There was extreme nerves, adrenaline, minor screw ups and even a little bit of bloodshed.
TV personality Cat Deeley surprises a frugal bride with her dream wedding -- but she thinks she's on TV to show off her budget bride tips!
Over the summer, I lied to one of my best friends for a few months and helped make her dream wedding happen. I also made some cupcakes for Sara and Vince's wedding! Tune in on December 27th at 10pm to see what happens. I am so incredibly excited and nervous for this to finally air.
(Side note, Cat Deeley is my hero and is probably the nicest person in the world. That is all)
Backstory Dump: Hindsight, musical theatre, and slaying vampires
Iām sure many of my friends and family members are looking at my blog and all the pictures Iām posting and thinking āhow did this happen?!ā Iāve had this post sitting in my draft section for months now. This is tough to admit and explain, and Iāve probably rewritten this post about a million times. But itās time to put it out to the world.
Many people know me as that theatre obsessed nerd who could talk about Sweeney Todd for hours on end. I still love theatre. So much. I still go to shows, get goosebumps and weep over how inspiring and beautiful it is to an embarrassing extent. Give me time and Iāll still monologue about how brilliant Sondheim is and the importance he gives every note, even the rests (case in point, listen to the cut version of āThe Glamorous Lifeā from A Little Night Music. Specifically, the final verse and the rest right before the last ālifeā. GENIUS.)
There are a few things that lead to this change. Specifically, 2 people and the beauty of hindsight. This may be long, so letās break it up and bit and tackle hindsight first.
Iāve taken a long hard look at my time at the American Musical and Dramatic Academy (AMDA). Emphasis on long. It look me a while to deal with a whole bunch of feels and insecurities. I credit a lot of these feelings and spelunking into the past to the [title of show] gang and watching their show āNow. Here. This.ā grow. I was very lucky and was able to see every version of this show possible, from the first workshop in CT to their off-Broadway run. Each iteration was emotional and inspirational. If you need a good cry or inspirational kick in the ass, listen to āThe Golden Palaceā. This quote really sums up the show:
There was this monk, Thomas Merton, who said that if you can get to the intersection of Now: this moment in time; Here: exactly where you are; This: exact what youāre doing - if you can get to the intersection of those three things, then thereās nothing to fear and you can really appreciate your life. But we all suck at this.
- Susan Blackwell, Now. Here. This
This message struck me in a very particular way: figure your shit out.
The Now and Here for me was working customer service at an office and never auditioning. Watching friends perform and get cast in other shows. My Now Here This was not pleasant and I wasnāt sure how I got to this point.
So I looked back and realized something. I was passionate about theatre, I love it more than words can describe. I did not have the same level of passion for performing that I did for observing and analyzing. This was so hard for me to admit, its still tough to type out now. But as I watched the montage of my AMDA life in my mind, I saw a big constant: I never wanted to jump up and do it. I never volunteered first for anything. When I was called on, this monstrous feeling of dread came over me and felt like it would consume me. I never auditioned. When I sang or performed, it was great. But I just did not have the drive to make it happen.
Flash forward to my time at ICE, which is about to come to an end in a few short weeks. I am volunteering for outside events, jumping to claim the more complex recipes, doing everything I can to just do more. I work five days a week from 9-5:30, then rush to class from 6-10pm 3 nights a week, and even though Iām exhausted, I keep signing up for demos and extra classes. Most days, I feel like I live at ICE.
I am happier than Iāve been in a long time and feeling fulfilled. School is about to end and real life is about to happen, which is terrifying and awesome. I feel like Iām getting to that intersection. Though my the theatre vampires are dust, I have new different vampires to slay. The messages from [title of show] and Now. Here. This. are still important and help me in different ways. This is now. I am here. Letās do this.
Thanksgiving has come and gone in a blur. I had an incredible Thanksgiving hosted by my younger sister. This was her first time hosting, so my mom and I said we'd handle all of the desserts. There were 4 different pies, apple cider cookies, and pumpkin cake. We were in full production mode and before I knew it, I was in a post-turkey and way too much wine coma and realized I didn't take any pictures of any of the desserts we made. In fact, I didn't even try any of them. Oops? I was told afterwards that everyone really liked them. I managed to steal a slice of the banana cream pie I made for the first time ever and I know now I need to make it every day. That pie was incredible.
But now Thanksgiving is over and it's time to get in the holiday spirit. Today, me, my boyfriend and our roomie got our Christmas tree and decided to make a night of it. We've been watching our favorite Christmas movies like Muppet Christmas Carol, Die Hard and the 'It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia' Christmas Special. Our roomie Fonzi made mulled wine, my boyfriend Alex made spiced cider and I decided to make cupcakes combining my two favorite things: gingerbread and eggnog.
I never used to like either gingerbread or eggnog. But somewhere over the past few years, I became obsessed with both. So when I found a recipe that combined them? Hells yes.
Gingerbread Cupcakes
(adapted from Sugar Duchess)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 cup molasses
1 t salt
2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1 1/2 t ground ginger
1/2 t ground cloves
1 cup of very hot water
Eggnog Frosting
1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 t vanilla extract
2 T dark rum
1 lb (4 cups) confectioners sugar
1 t fresh grated nutmeg, plus more for garnish
pinch of salt
4 T eggnog
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a cupcake pan with paper liners.
In mixer bowl cream sugar and butter together with paddle attachment.
Once light and fluffy, add egg and molasses and beat well. Be sure to scrape down the sides regularly so everything incorporates completely.
Combine all dry ingredients and add to egg mixture slowly. Mix until just combined.
Scrape down sides of the bowl and add hot water and beat on low speed until smooth.
Scoop into cupcake pan and fill each section 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool completely before frosting.
For the frosting, cream shortening and butter together until smooth, light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and dark rum, beat until combined.
Add sugar slowly, one cup at a time, and beat well on medium speed. Scrape down the sides of the bowl often.
Add salt and nutmeg, frosting will seem pretty dry
Add eggnog and beat on medium to high speed until light and fluffy
At this point, taste it and see if you'd like more rum or eggnog.
Frost the cupcakes and grate a little nutmeg over the cupcakes as a garnish.
I also broke in my new TARDIS mold! Now time to eat all of the cupcakes. Oh and share them with my roomies I guess...
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