How To Win Friends & Influence People....

Let me preface this blog

by telling all of you
that I have no idea
how to win friends...

nor how to influence people.

What I do know how to do
is make an insanely delicious Chocolate Espresso Mousse Pie.

I told myself that I would start taking more "stage" photos.
By "stage" - I mean photos of the various processes involved in Baking
vs. just simply taking a single shot of the finished product.

So... without further procrastination!
My photo journal of my very first attempt (& Success) at making Mousse...

Which is not to be confused with Moose.
Sadly.

I love to measure a recipe's level of difficulty by the number of bowls
I must use from start to finish.

About halfway through my recipe
I was already up to six bowls...

By the end
I had topped nine.

Nine Bowls of Tasty, Tasty Goodness.

Like a Double-Boiler full of melting Dark Chocolate.
Who doesn't like that?!

Then I broke out the White Chocolate

...And added a Butter Pecan Twist!

Of course, no pie is complete
Without whipped cream!


And who wants just ONE flavor of whipped cream?!
pff...
Not me....

Finally
After nine bowls...
it came time to cut the first slice
& taste test.

My Mom & I were pretty eager...

Tasty Trends & Who Moved My Marshmallow..?

I am terribly depressed.
Why?...

Because I just caught wind that Marshmallows are predicted to be the newest trend in 2012.

Now, normally, this bit of news
would not cause me to crawl into the fetal position
and weep bitter tears into my soggy bed of pillowy mallows.

But when have I ever followed the boundaries
of normal?

The most important part of staying alive and successful
within the food industry, is staying up with the trends.
You know you have it MADE in the shade
if you are one or two steps
AHEAD of the trends :)

I had plans for marshmallows.



Big big BIG plans.
And if I had a business license... or even had the means to get one...
I would be made in the shade right now.
I'd be so made, I'd be sipping pina coladas with lil umbrellas
and tipping my over-sized floppy sun hat at all you sun people.

But...

I do not have a license or a means.

So I am nowhere near
MADE.


So even though I have great ideas & big plans
I'm getting burned this year...
& not in a toasty, ooey, gooey S'more kinda style...

But there will be new trends
And old trends will come back around...

The Culinary Industry is always moving
& it's insanely important to move with it.

I am disappointed that I won't be able to
to have fun with this marshmallow trend
but something else fun will come along & I'll have more opportunities in the future.

Someone moved my cheese,
But I'll be damned if I just sit here sulking over lost cheese.

:)

Learning Curves... Or Rather... Gaining Curves!

Today, I want to talk about fat.
More specifically... I want to talk about Milk fat.
I discovered something new and brilliant in the year 2011
And I want to share this brilliance with all of you.

I discovered...




Lemme just give you the breakdown on this... it's glorious!

Low Fat Milk........ Contains a whopping 1% Fat
pfff.... how lame.

Whole Milk ................. 3.25%

Half and Half.......... 11-18%
now we're gettin' somewhere!

Whipping Cream........ 30%
Oh.Yes.

Heavy Whipping Cream......... 36%

And then...

Manufacturing Cream.......... 40% FAT.
Yes.Please!

But what does this mean for application
you may be pondering.
It means creamier, richer ice cream.
It means thicker, stiffer whipped cream
And it means... MORE flavor!

And the best part?????

It's CHEAPER than Heavy Whipping Cream!

It also lasts longer, because the water activity is lower ;)
Which means that, even though there aren't any preservatives,
there's hardly any water...
and good ol' H2O is what bacteria grows in.

You can buy it at Smart & Final and Costco.
Go.
Now.
Enjoy those extra love handles.

<3