Julie & Julia

What a sweet and charming movie. Julie and Julia chronicles the year Julie Powell spent making all 524 recipes in Julia Child's The Art of French Cooking cook book. It is a lovely story and made me think, how many other women out there find themselves in the same position? I know I have been there (several times) where you wake up and you can't do anything to motivate you to get up out of bed and get to work. Where work is the absolute last thing that you want to do and nothing about it is inspiring. It makes me think back to when I was a child and dreamed about growing up and the life that I would lead, somehow this is not what I dreamt about. I dreamt that I would change the world and make a difference that would impact millions of people. Yet today I find myself in a dark corner of my office building where I receive only 1-2 visitors per week (lonely co-workers hiding from their pathetic bosses or procrastinating on an uninspiring project). It is in this isolated corner office that over looks the parking lot next door that I find myself day in and day out dreaming about confectionery delights and different decorating techniques that I want to try and practice on my next creation. In my pursuit of being the best pastry chef that I can be, I wonder why I sometimes have no motivation to go and create joy in my life...What has the corporate world done to me? Today I find myself on the couch, typing away wanting to go try my hand at peanut butter cream frosting...mmmmmm but I am torn...do I create yummy or finish the pile of laundry that sits in front of me taunting my every move? Decisions. Today, laundry wins out before the sweets, but tomorrow who knows who will win the battle. In the words of Julia Child, "Bon Appetite!"

Sugar Obsession

So I have decided that I am going to make my secret desire public in the most public of public ways that we know in today's society. I am going to declare my inner most desire on the internet so it can live on in infamy forever...I want to make sweet music, not the sweet music that the 4 sopranos or Andrea Bocelli make, but the sweet music someone makes when they have tasted something so divine that they hmmmmrmmmm (sing) to themselves and then say, "Oh," upon finishing.

I want to make sweet music through non other than sweets!

I am a sugar addict, I have admitted it and I am proclaiming it here for the entire world to read delete. I love all things (for the most part) sweet. However, chocolate is by far my largest love. As a teenager, in the infinite wisdom that teenagers have, I proudly proclaimed, "that the way to my heart was through my stomach...with chocolate." And to this day it still rings true.

I recently decided (momentary lapse in judgement) that my sugar addiction was something bad, and something I needed to try REALLY, REALLY hard at stopping. I gave up all forms of sugar for an entire month. No moderation, cold turkey. My husband thought I was ludicrous and tried to preach the buddhist moderation philosophy. I countered him by comparing my addiction to alcoholism (shock and awe edited for brevity). Yes, I said it. "You wouldn't tell an alcoholic to have alcohol in moderation, why would you tell me to have sugar in moderation." I said it with the best of intentions, but alas I decided that sugar was too important to me.

I love it and I mean I love it (sugar, my husband too, but in a different way if you know what I mean) in the way that Lord Byron professes passion and love with a quill and an ink bottle. Sugar (chocolate) sings to me. It brings me great joy and I truely find inner peace with it in my life (I mean mouth), or more specifically when I am eating/making something with sugar!!!

I even love television shows about people who work with sugar and creat masterpieces of edible art. I have Ace of Cakes and Food Network Challenge on a constant DVR loop, if it was an old vhs it would have long ago "broke the tape" which plays out in my like a classic three stooges episode where they go to take the tape out of the vcr and they hand the tape off and just keep pulling an endless amount of "the ribbon" from the depths of the vcr.

2 years ago I took a Wilton Cake Decorating class at a local Michaels and I found my true inner calling. I have been decorating cakes for friends and family every now and then, but I truly enjoy it. I feel great pride and joy when someone raves about something I have made and when they too make music in their mouths.

This blog is going to be dedicated to my pursuit of becoming the best pastry chef that I can be, whether that is just for my friends and family or whether I become a professional has yet to be determined, but I am secretly hoping for the latter. Wish me luck!