My Apologies and Promises of Things to Come...

The title says it all. First of all I just need to apologize for my long absence with no contact or posts what-so-ever. I know I left some of you hanging and I don't feel good about that. I seem to have fallen out of my serious baking mode and have been waiting for the time when I could jump back into it again. I'd say I am back in, but not all the way...maybe just the tip of my pinky is back in baking mode, but it's something and I'm going to hang onto it and hope it spreads! I believe I'll be baking and posting once a month to start until the rest of me can get fully back into the swing of baking more often. Now this is not to say I haven't baked...I did bake around the holidays (most of the things I baked I had posted last year).

Secondly, I'm sure some of you might wonder what I have been up to the past few months if baking had taken a back seat. Well, I got bit by the knitting bug and was filling my days with some serious knitting for my Etsy store. I then received this beauty for Christmas and have been a fiber-loving-yarn-spinning-and-dyeing fool since it's arrival.


So, look for a new recipe post from me in the next few days! It will be so nice to be back in the swing of things again! I'm thinking perhaps apples....hmmmmm...

"Goin' to the Chapel...

and we're going to get married" I must apologize for lack of posts the past week, I did have plans for posts, but one thing or another came up, and I had to push those plans back. Now I'm pretty much out of time! There will not be much activity here for at least the next two weeks (heh, much, what am I saying? There will not be any activity). I must even keep this post short as there is much packing and last minute straightening to get to before we fly to my hometown tomorrow morning. And I will leave you at that, as I have been so struck dumb with bridal brain that I'm not quite sure which direction to go with this post next (I shall refrain from getting sappy on you all). With that, Take care everyone!

-extremely excited Barmy Baker signing off for now...

I Foresee No Candy Making for You Today (Rained Out!)

I was going to make some lovely candies today, but the weather is not cooperating with me. It's rainy and humid, which tends to make for soggier candies than I would like. Fingers crossed for dryer weather tomorrow! If not, I'll have to bake something that won't be too affected.

Hope everyone is having a lovely day! And I leave you with some pictures of a strange and creepy fortune teller:

She was in the gift shop of the Winchester Mystery House which we visited with G's parents when they were here. And a few photos I snapped of flowers in the gardens there:

And a not-so-great picture of the front of the mystery house:



More baking to come in the next day or so!

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Perhaps

Brioche. I've been banging a few things around in my head as to what I want to bake next. I feel as if I've been in a bit of a baking slump this past week. The muffins were the last thing I have baked, and that was about a week ago. This is not like me, well, that is to say this is not like me when I'm feeling all chipper and not mentally irregular. I'm guessing the doldrums have got me and I have yet to break free. I will fight them tonight and tomorrow. Fight them with the only weapons I possess! Ok, I admit, a mixer, some baking utensils and a big bunch of baking and cooking books aren't usually considered weapons but I will turn them into such. I have to. If I am unable to break free of the doldrums, they will drag me deeper down into their more powerful cousin, depression. So, I shall put on my armor (in my case, a few sheet pans) pick up my weapons (picture a whisk, a 10" chef's knife, measuring cups and my scale) and I will bake away the doldrums. I shall make some kick-ass baked product to share with others and feel powerful again! MMMmmmmmuuuuahahahahahahahahahhhaaaa! I shall triumph...and if I don't triumph, I will at least have some nice brioche and a few other baked goods to enjoy. :) Baking will commence tomorrow, really it will.

For now, I leave you with some pictures of one of my illnesses. My baking/cooking book case, a few different angles. I really do have a problem :) I will need to add a second case soon. Bear in mind, I left a box or two or three at home when I moved out here! Look for Brioche and a few other things in a day or two!

I haven't baked yet this weekend..

I promise I will tomorrow (edit...now I won't be baking until monday...but I think I know what I am going to bake, so be ready for it!). Mattress shopping and a migraine kind of sucked the life out of me (more the migraine, less the mattress shopping). In the mean-time-in-between-time (I just like to say that) I have taken a silly quiz. How Evil Am I? Not very, apparently.

You Are 28% Evil

A bit of evil lurks in your heart, but you hide it well. In some ways, you are the most dangerous kind of evil.

How Evil Are You?

I always said I used my powers of evil for good. It seems I have very weak powers of evil. Ah well. Back to baking tomorrow.....Really :).

Sick Day..or..a Bit More About Me

I'm a bit under the weather today, so I will not be baking. I feel I should post something, and my Mom has suggested I tell you a bit more about my background. I suppose I wasn't that thorough in the introduction that you can find at the bottom of this page...so I will try to give a short but sweet background of the eccentric baking chick and probably post a few pictures of stuff that I just really like.

What brought me to love baking? I suppose it's in my genes. No professional Bakers in my family except for me, but I think that just growing up with people who loved to cook and bake and did both well influenced me greatly. It also didn't hurt when I was given an Easy-Bake Oven at the age of, I think, 5 or 6. It didn't hurt at all, in fact. I'm not sure how many of the little packets of mix I went through but I'm sure it was a great many. From the Easy-Bake Oven I moved on to kitchen experiments. One crazy friend I had in grade school would help me with making candies. We made lollipops and pulled taffy. This was a great start. I moved on to popcorn balls. I would make lemon meringue pie with one of my friends. She would make the meringue, and I would make the filling, and we both would make the crust in turns. I think I may have had sleep issues...because when the rest of the house was sleeping, I was tinkering in the kitchen with different things. I also recall making white bread, having it turn out beautifully, only to have one sister (or was it both? fess up one of you!) eat the inside of the bread leaving a hollow crust. This horrified me as the crust was beautiful and I was so proud of my bread! I have gotten over that now :).

I went from the little baking projects to bigger ones. Making and decorating cakes for my friends in junior high and high school. I taught myself using Wilton cake tins and tips. I took a break from all this and went to college in pursuit of a degree in Art (which was another passion of mine). Things happened..as they sometimes do..and I ended up back home..without a degree and not much direction. Not sure what to do with myself I went back to work at the nursing home I had worked at as a teenager. A cook got fired, they offered me the job and offered to pay for culinary schooling. I jumped at the offer. Two years of culinary school later, I was cooking in a five diamond resort. Baking was still something I dreamed of doing, but I needed more experience if I was to work in the pastry department at the resort. In 1999,after another 2 years of working at the resort, I packed myself up and went from very small town Wisconsin to huge city San Francisco to attend the California Culinary Academy in hopes of a Baking and Pastry Certificate. It was awesome, I loved it. I felt in my element. About 6 months later I graduated, a Dean's list student, and was ready to go bake. And now for the really short summary...I baked for 2 years in the pastry department at the resort in Wisconsin. I moved on to a country club and multitasked there cooking and baking. Then I went on to just cook at a golf course in Wisconsin as it seemed there weren't many opportunities for bakers in the small town..at least nothing for a baker who wanted to advance. During all of this I fell in love, over a period of time, with a wonderful Englishman. Yes, it was an online courtship, but we had many visits to each other before G decided to move to Wisconsin and find himself a job. A few months later, G accepted a job here..in Silicon Valley, proposed marriage, I said yes, and then we loaded up the U-haul with our two kitties, and drove out here. I set up the apartment, G worked, and now I am seeking employment and have taken up writing here for my enjoyment and to showcase the food I bake and the photographs that I love taking of it. Now, I must apologize for the length here. It was definitely summarized..Much shorter with many dull things omitted! I hope you didn't fall asleep on me. Now it is time for me to go make some tea and curl up under a blanket and nurse myself back to some form of health. Have a wonderful day and thanks for reading!


P.S. I'm so happy that my Easy-Bake Oven still appears to work!

Bunnies! or...Straying from food just this once..

Yes yes, this is a blog about food, sweets, baking, yummy things, but I couldn't resist posting a picture of the awesome new slippers that just arrived in the mail! They are very cute, and extremely comfy! I found them at: www.runawayrabbit.com shipping was prompt and, as I already stated, these bunnies rock!

I will be posting my recipe for chocolate chip date cake tomorrow..so tune in. Back to pampering my tootsies.

Introduction, of sorts...

This being my first post, I figured I should introduce myself a bit. My name is Jen and I am a baker. I relocated to northern California with my fiance, I shall call him G for now, about five months ago. I started looking for work about a month ago, had a few bites, but they were not successful yet..so I suppose I am an out of work baker who is becoming increasingly restless.

That said, I do plan on using this blog as a way to record things I am baking and cooking..and perhaps a way to keep a bit of my sanity (oh wait, no sanity, I've gone barmy!) intact and a way to practice two things that I love: making food and photographing it.

Now I must go figure out how to post pictures....