Vacation Part 4: Key West

I can say one thing about Key West. It is hot! It was hot. I would tell Brian, "MY FACE IS MELTING!!!" On one of our excursions out into town we decided to take the trolley around the island. Have a look:

The trolley driver was nice and full of useful information. He provided us with extensive information about almost every inch of the island. They provided us with "air conditioning" which was a paper fan that did not help much.


The different tidbits of information we were given about the island was interesting such as the wild chickens running around the island are protected by law. They were brought to the island to cockfight, once it was outlawed the chickens were released and are now protected. There is a $500.00 fine for causing harm to any of the chickens.

My sister got us tickets to a few different attractions on the island. We all agreed that the Key West Butterfly & Nature Conservatory was our favorite. We got off of the trolley and walked to the conservatory, once inside it was such a beautiful, peaceful and surreal experience.

The staff really work to make the conservator a peaceful sanctuary. The foliage inside was just beautiful. I was in awe of all of the Bird of Paradise plants.


These butterfly benches were beautiful and the faux aged copper patina blended well with the plants.


There were so many kinds of butterflies fluttering around and some of theme were hard to take pictures of because they would not sit still.

I am glad these ones were cooperative.




This one is so beautiful!




The koi pond and fountain added to the peacefulness.



We could not visit Key West without stopping by the original Margaritaville. My favorite part of it was the air conditioning.


We walked around the boat dock for a while looking for manatees, but we did not see a single one! We saw barracudas jumping trying to escape sharks.


We also had tickets to an aquarium so we visited there too.

This is the touch pond. This pond is full of creatures for visitors to gently touch and feel. It turns out I was the only one brave enough to touch any of the creatures.


Okay, so the sea cucumber was a bit gross, but it makes for an interesting picture. I also had to pick up the huge hermit crab to take a picture of his face for my friend Steph. There was also a conch, which I saw Martha eat on her show once.


Here are some various fish.


Anemones..


Now in this tank visitors are not allowed to touch any of the animals. It is full of nurse sharks, stingrays and turtles.


Once outside we were able to see the sharks being fed. There was food available to feed some of the other fish which share the tanks with the sharks. It was a feeding frenzy. Oh yeah and I so wanted to put this staghorn fern in the trunk of our car and bring it home!


After disinfecting and sanitizing this conch shell my mom tried to make melodious music. She sounded like an injured dying porpoise.

Vacation Part 3: Off To Key West

Brian and I both were a bit terrified of driving across the bridges to get to Key West. We left Daytona Beach early in the morning and made it to Miami by lunch time.

Driving into Miami was beautiful. It would have been great to have more time to spend in Miami.


We stopped for lunch in Miami, afterwards were off to the Keys. When we actually started the long drive across the many bridges that connect the Keys we realized it was not bad at all.


Once we were all settled into our hotel rooms we found a beach to put our feet in. The water was sooooo warm and there was a big heron walking on the beach.


We woke up early on our first morning in Key West to watch the sunrise. The water was beautiful, but it was too cloudy to see the sunrise.


We returned to the beach we visited the night before and walked around for a while. The water was not as warm as it was the night before.


This was the highlight of my mom's vacation (mine was the air conditioning!) On the way back to the car a man asked us if we were interested in purchasing fresh coconuts. We bought two coconuts one to drink and one which was riper than the other to eat. I was expecting the inside to taste like fresh Pina Colada, have a look.

Here is the man retrieving two coconuts from the pile that he collected that morning.


The man used a knife to cut through the thick exterior of the coconut.


Okay, so I have to be honest. The inside coconut water did not taste anything like a fresh Pina Colada. It tasted like fermented coconut mixed with 5 week old stale warm beer.


The man had to relocate to the sidewalk to break open the coconut for us to be able to eat.


While waiting for the coconut to be opened I noticed this beautiful flower growing on the beach.


Finally inside the coconut.


We bought a coconut for my mom too. She posed for this picture, but after she tasted the awful coconut water inside she dumped it into the bushes!


Eating the fresh coconut was really good. I loved walking on beach early in the morning and the coconut man was also something I will always remember.

Vacation Part 2: Familiar Places

While we were in Daytona Beach, Florida on vacation we had to stop by Brian's dad Ronnie's hometown of Seville. Seville is a very tiny place and Brian jokes there are more people in the cemetery than there are living in the town. Brian's uncle was not home while we were in Seville so we stopped by the cemetery to pay respects to Brian's grandmother. Have a look:



Here is the main road running through the cemetery. It was a very hot and humid day so there were plenty of mosquitos out ready to gnaw on me.


Inside the cemetery there are old trees covered with spanish moss and air plants. Brian told me that his mom use to bring Spanish moss back from Florida for use in flower arrangements.


I love visiting places and looking at all of the plants and greenery. I am also excited to show plants to other people. My mom had never been to Seville before so I made sure to show her the epiphytic airplants growing on the bark of the old trees in the cemetery. I got excited when I saw these. Vendors at the flea markets in Florida sell airplants which have been placed inside of various vessels such as seashells and pots. I am not sure of the exact type of airplant the one below is, but I think it is called Tillandsia.


My mom picked plenty of these airplants to try and get them to successfully grow in a shell at home.


I am not sure why this always amazes me. Some of the tombstones in the cemetery are very old. At first glance this tree does not seem too out of the ordinary.


Upon closer inspection you will see a very old tombstone. The tree has grown around the tombstone and almost completely enveloped the stone with its trunk.


My mom wanted me to take a picture of this beautiful sweet pea.


We just could not go down to Seville Florida without stopping by a roadside vendor and getting some fresh, hot, boiled, cajun peanuts. If you have never had boiled peanuts before I highly recommend them. They are made by boiling RAW peanuts in a strongly flavored brine. I specified raw because Nicole and I tried to recreate boiled peanuts at home and tried to use roasted salted peanuts. After cooking them for four days in a crock pot we called Brian's mom and asked her what we were doing wrong. Brian's mom cracked up at us like we were fools (and I think she said we were fools) for waiting four days to figure out something was wrong and again for not using RAW peanuts.


We opted for cajun boiled peanuts which are salty and a bit spicy. I would compare a boiled peanut to the flavor and texture of a cooked bean. The vendors keep the peanuts in hot brine and scoop them out into plastic bags for customers to eat.


When we were walking back to the car I snatched the bag out of Brian's hand. A woman who had just purchased peanuts was pulling out of the lot rolled her window down and said while laughing, "I saw you snatch that right out of his hand!" We all laughed.


My mom never had boiled peanuts before, but she loved them! They were so good and brought back fond memories of our short time living in Florida.

Vacation Day 1: Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons

As a graduation gift to ourselves Brian and I decided to get out of Ohio. Brian dubbed our vacation as a "Tour De Florida." On the drive down to the Key West we decided to take a detour in Savannah, Georgia at Paula Deen's The Lady & Sons restaurant. It was quite an experience. Have a look:

We arrived in Savannah at 9AM after driving all night. The Lady & Sons opens for lunch at 11AM, but the hostess begins to take names at 9:30. We arrived at 9:00AM, to put our name on the list at 9:30AM, to have lunch at 11:00AM. THERE WAS A LINE WHEN WE GOT THERE!


We had a pretty good place in line. I felt bad for the people who were all the way down the block, it was a hot day. We finally were greeted by the hostess and were able to put our name on the list.


After we put our name on the list my mom shouted, "OMG THERE SHE IS!!!" It turned out that it was just a cut out of Paula standing in the Paula Deen store window. We went inside to look around and enjoy some of the air conditioning. Here are some pictures of Paula's beautiful storefront. Inside the store I fell in love with the variety of cute platters (I am a platter junky!)



The hostess instructed us to be across the street at 10:45 and wait for further instruction. Here is a picture of the 11:00 lunch group.


While waiting in this line we chatted with a woman who was very friendly and worked in an information kiosk across the street from The Lady & Sons. She told us that the crowd that day was nothing and the day before there was a large crowd and a belligerent woman. We were talking to her and laughing when she said, "OH HERE COMES JELLYROLL" we looked at her and must have had a "what the heck are you talking about" expression on our faces. She told us to look across the street towards the restaurant and we would see "Jellyroll" she then went on to tell us that "Jellyroll" was Paula's homegirl. When we finally saw Jellyroll she looked very intimidating and serious.


Her stern demeanor suddenly transformed into a welcoming smile.


It was Jellyroll's job to tell us how we would be seated and to welcome us to The Lady & Sons. Jellyroll instructed us to use the crosswalk and not get a ticket for jay walking. She then asked everyone, "ARE YOU READY TO EAT!!!!!"


After Jellyroll gave her instructions she rang her big bell and shouted "COME AND GET IT, COME AND GET IT!!!"


Inside the AIR CONDITIONED restaurant we were taken to the one of three floors which seated the hundreds of guests who travel to taste Paula's food. I am not a sweet tea drinker, but I just had to have a sweet tea while there. Ma said that she never had fried green tomatoes before so we ordered some as an appetizer. They had a wonderful consistency and flavor, but they were incredibly, super salty. We did not finish them because they were way too salty.


We all decided to have the buffet. I am glad I did because I am a vegetarian and I tried a bit (okay a lot) of everything. I had rice, greens, mac and cheese, black eyed peas, grits and creamed corn. There was a woman walking around handing out garlic cheddar biscuits and ho-cakes (which Brian described as a cross between corn bread and a pancake) they were served with syrup.


We were stuffed by the end of the meal and then the waiter came around with a tray of desserts for us to choose from. We had a choice of peach cobbler, banana pudding and gooey butter cakes. I chose the gooey butter cake IT WAS GOOD!


I think that the overall feeling of the restaurant was the food was alright. They love their salt down south and it is apparent. I am glad we went to eat at the restaurant because it was an unforgettable experience.

Around the house...

Today was my day off of work(s) so my mom and I decided to do a bit of shopping. We first went to lunch and then to White House Fruit Farm to pick up some fresh strawberries.

As you can see on the side of these boxes White House Fruit Farms provides a "pick your own" option for its patrons to pick their own strawberries, to that I say HECK NO! Who needs their back blowing to bits and burning up in the sun. NOT ME!


We purchased a total of 8 quarts of strawberries to make jam. A secret that I learned from Brian's mom Carol is to freeze berries until you are ready to use them. Of course I will be blogging about making jam, but that will not be until after we get back from vacation. The strawberries had to be cleaned hulled.

This is 4 quarts of the strawberries (half of them). This colander is huge you and this picture does not do show how large of a quantity of berries this is.


I love this picture.


Here are our washed and cleaned berries ready for the freezer.


At home, in the back yard my dill was ready to be picked. I am waiting to use this dill until I have enough cucumbers to make pickles.


Here is all of the dill I chopped down.


I don't know why I love this little pig, but he looks at home in a pot of lemon balm.


In the front yard there are plenty of blooming flowers.

lilies




Hydrangea


In my fern garden

Japanese Painted Fern


Cinnamon Fern


In the kitchen Brian has his vacation counter marked. On Thursday we are going to Savannah, Georgia to eat at Paula Deen's Lady and Sons restaurant and then to spend about 9 days of r & r on the beaches of Florida.


Our pups are not allowed in the kitchen so here they are looking sad while sniffing for dinner.

Cutest Cupcakes

Brian and I had over 60 people at our graduation party where we had a cupcake buffet. One of our friends Lisa ordered cupcakes for a bachelorette party. The party colors are hot pink and black so Lisa wanted cupcakes to match. It is so great having my mom here because she helps me a lot while making cakes and she is as eager to learn new things as I am. I have tasted store bought fondant before and to me it tastes like a combination of sugar and dust my mom and I made our own and it is quite delicious. Lisa wanted a combination of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes frosted with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. We finished the cupcakes tonight. I really hope they like them as much as I love them. I am so happy with how they came out. I hope they make the bachelorette party special! Have a look.

Here are the vanilla cupcakes with Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream. We piped just enough on to hold down the fondant caps that we were going to cut. Bailey's buttercream is so good!


Here is the pink and black homemade fondant we made. I cut a piece of pvc pipe to roll the fondant out (a little tip I saw on Food Network Challenge."



We used a patterned mat to press a design into the fondant.



We used a scalloped edge biscuit cutter to cut the fondant tops out for each cupcake.
I think they look so cute!


Here is a close up of one of the black scalloped disks for the top of a cupcake.


Lisa said she wanted diamond dust so we used pearl dust mixed with vodka to paint the tops of them. My mom and I both agreed the pearl dust made them look complete.






Lisa also wanted a small cake for the bride. We covered a chocolate cake with pink fondant and then used different round cutters to make circles and rings. The rings and circles were then painted with pearl dust.



Here are the cupcakes and cake boxed up. I hope Lisa, the bride and the party love them as much as I do!

"Sexy Desserts" & Six Cakes

UPDATE: Here is the video of the news segment featuring my desserts.


Source: http://www.wfmj.com/Global/category.asp?C=83318&nav=menu491_4

The restaurant that I work at is going to offer breakfast to its patrons so I was asked to make pastries such as muffins and danish to accompany the gourmet coffee. I did not get a chance to finish making these items on the day I was asked so I decided to go in on my day off and make some quick muffins. I worked at my other job at 6:00AM that day and figured it would take me about 2 hours to make the muffins.

When I arrived at work I was tired and one of the owners of the restaurant came to me and asked, "would you be able to put together three desserts to be on the news tomorrow?" My automatic response was, "yes..." in my head I was saying "OMG WHAT!!!!" He said that he wanted something summery, light and "sexy." I am not sure why, but I have been wanting to make napoleons for a while so that was one of the three. After that I remembered that Ina made meringue cups and strawberries are starting to peak so that also came to mind. He told me that he could use the triple chocolate mousse cake I made the other day so I actually only had to make two.

The meringues needed to bake for two hours and then rest in the oven for another 4. I knew that I had to get those in the oven before I started anything else.

After I had the meringues whipped, piped and in the oven I cut disks of puff pastry and started those baking in another oven. I found a recipe online for a lemon and strawberry napoleon so I used that as the foundation. While the puff pastry was baking I made lemon curd and put it in the cooler to chill. When the puff pastry was done I split each round into three layers. While plating this dessert I kept on hearing in my head, "It has to look sexy" the first attempt looked as Ina would say, "like a dog's breakfast" I asked one of the new chefs if she had any suggestions and she was such a wonderful help. She said she loved plating food and came up with the final plate design that I presented. After we had the lemon curd and raspberry sauce on the plate we both agreed that it needed some green. The only green herb that we had in the cooler was basil. Basil and lemon go together well so I garnished the plate with a chiffonade of basil. Have a look...

This is the plate design that the other chef came up with....


From here I began to build the napoleon...
A layer of puff pastry


After I put a spoonful of lemon curd on the pastry I topped that off with some freshly whipped cream which had finely chopped basil and more lemon curd folded into it then strawberries.


These layers were repeated and then topped with a final puffed disk dusted with powdered sugar. Here is the final dish. I garnished with some fresh basil from my own garden.


After the meringues were done I placed them on a blue plate dusted with powdered sugar. They were then filled with fresh whipped cream and a ladle full of cold cooked strawberries and blueberries.

Here is the meringue and cream ready for the berries...


I had to go into work this morning to plate all of these desserts up so they were ready for television. I did not want to add the berries to the meringue until the last minute because I did not want it to look like a mess. When the news people came into the kitchen they asked if the desserts were ready and I told them that the meringue just needed to be topped with the berries and then two mint leaves. They asked me if I wanted to do that on camera. My eyes got huge and I replied, "no thank you." HAHA they had the idea to have the anchor man do it on camera. It was all very surreal to watch this happen to something I made!

The meringue that they did for the news segment was actually taken to another room after they finished filming to be used in another segment so I do not actually have a picture of that one. Here is a picture of the test meringue which I assembled yesterday.


The third and final dessert they showed was one of the triple chocolate mousse cakes. Here it is plated....


Here they are discussing my desserts.


I still can not believe that any of this happened!!!! The news segements will be on tomorrow morning. If possible I will try and record video of it and maybe even post it!

In other cake news Rabbit Hole is opening at The Oakland Center for the Arts this weekend and they needed a few birthday cakes. My mom and I worked on these all day and we are quite happy with how they came out. Here is a cake collage!


It is true what the president of the board for The Oakland called me I am "the busiest bee!"

Work and then Work...

I have been busy getting use to my new job at Rosetta Stone Wine Bar & Cafe. I was getting real bad anxiety prior to going to work, but now I feel better. It has also been weird not having a regular schedule. Being a student at YSU I became accustom to a regular schedule and after graduation that regularity was just gone. It has taken some time to get back into some sort of groove/schedule.

I have been busily making cakes and sweet confections at each of my jobs, have a look:

At Sparkle I found beach themed cake picks. I made a cute beach cake.


At Rosetta Stone chocolate seems to be a favorite so I concocted various chocolate desserts.
Double chocolate trifles.


A chocolate sheet cake for 50 people. This cake was huge and weighed a lot!


I made a pineapple carrot cake last night. It looked so delicious that I came home and made one here too.


The cake must have been a hit because this was it today.


Today at Rosetta I made toasted coconut crème brûlée and triple chocolate mousse cake.


They looked very good and I was quite happy with how they came out!

Tara's Next Cake...

My friend Tara asked me if I would make her a mini wedding cake for her anniversary. She requested a Buttery Nipple flavored cake which is yellow butter cake, Bailey's Irish Cream buttercream and butterscotch filling. My mom helped me out a lot, the second I am done using a utensil it is washed and placed back in the drawer I got it from. While making the cake for Tara I was also baking 7 cakes for the Oakland Theater's opening of Rabbit Hole.

I think that Tara's cake came out looking good. I need to practice a lot more on my roses, but Brian said, "She'll love it!" I hope so...




And of course a gratuitous shot of Lucille!

Bear Claws & A Day's Work

Before I started my new job they mentioned making bear claws. I had never made bear claws before, I actually do not think I had tasted one before. I have no idea why that struck fear in me so bad, I woke up at 2:50 AM that night thinking about those bear claws. I did a bit of research and came up with a filling that was just delicious and as I have said before, life is just too short for me to make my own puff pastry. I used frozen puff pastry and filled them, have a look.

Here are the bear claws, they do not really look like the bear claws that I have seen at grocery stores, but they were sure delicious!


I made one like a danish and I was pretty happy with how they came out. Prior to baking, I brushed them with egg wash and sprinkled with almonds. After they came out of the oven I drizzled them with a glaze made of powdered sugar and water.



Today at work there were still some of my chocolate cakes left so there was really not much to make. I was told that they needed a small birthday cake. I made a white cake with strawberry and cream filling and vanilla buttercream. I topped it with a chocolate covered strawberry drizzled with white chocolate. I hope the birthday person likes it.


I also made a frozen Key Lime pie so they had something else to serve. It came out beautiful. I hope it tastes 1/2 as good as it looks.


I feel like I am getting a better grip on doing this job, but it is still going to take some getting used to.