Tuesday, July 30, 2002

Here's a Vanilla Mousse Cake I made yesterday.

Supreme de Vanille - vanilla mousse, biscuit, summer berries

Posted by Karen @ 11:23 AM PST [Link]

Monday, July 29, 2002

I can't say that I'm happy today because I'm not. I'm tired of worrying. There are so many things I want to do but am not doing. Sometimes I wish I had some good news to write about in this journal, make it a bit more exciting and inspiring, but so far, everything's going very slow.

There are days like today when I try my hardest to be positive, but I just have this feeling in my stomach and it won't go away. I'll be going home in two weeks. I'm not waiting for my immigration status to be processed since my lawyer said it would take 350 days. Do you believe that? A year for a B1 visa status. Ugh. I hate immigration. I hate lawyers.

Home will be good for me. I always said I wanted to spend more time at home, hang out with my barkada (group of close friends), reconnect with family... but I will miss people here too.

Posted by Karen @ 06:15 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, July 25, 2002

Today I got a lesson in canning. Our neighbor, the 91 year old lady with the big house and three gardens gave me an assignment -- strawberry jam.

Strawberry Jam -- strawberries, sugar, pectin, lemon juice

I went to pick up a big bag of freshly harvested strawberries this afternoon and set out to make jam for the first time. I had to look for all the canning supplies, went to Cost Plus, Williams-Sonoma, Crate & Barrel... none of them had any. I finally found them at Orchard's Supply. Garry and I just finished making them now, but I think I screwed it up by putting in too many strawberries. I think it will turn out runny because there's not enough pectin for all the berries. :( I'll find out tomorrow. If it doesn't gel up, I will call it Strawberry Conserve instead of jam. Will probably have to do it over because our neighbor wants jam. Oh well.

Posted by Karen @ 10:51 PM PST [Link]

Wednesday, July 24, 2002

Just wanted to publish a picture of my strawberry charlotte. I made this with the strawberries given to me last weekend. I served it with some strawberry coulis. Here's a plated version, and another one topped with whole strawberries.

Strawberry Charlotte -- biscuit with strawberry mousse and fresh strawberries

Posted by Karen @ 01:07 PM PST [Link]

Thursday, July 18, 2002

This turned out to be one very interesting night. I was a bit grouchy today because I woke up too early, and my mom and I had a little squabble this afternoon. We went to someone's house for dinner -- my mom's best friend met this person in the airplane. Since he was a total stranger, my mom asked me to accompany her to dinner. I was expecting a boring evening, but once I entered his home, I knew it was going to be different. It was the biggest and most beautiful home I've seen in my life. He had three kitchens, a European one, an Asian style one, and an outdoor one. Most of the furniture came from France. Every room was decorated perfectly, with fresh flowers from his garden, expensive rugs, antique sculptures, vases, and artwork that you would bid your whole life for at Sotheby's. I couldn't believe my eyes. He led us outside to his garden. It had rows of lemon trees, strawberry bushes, fig, peach, tangerine, pomegranate trees, a small aviary, several fish ponds... He had a zen garden, a big pool, guest houses...

We met his 91 year old mother, she looked 60... must be because of the good life. :) She was very warm and welcoming. She said I could go and pick lemons and strawberries whenever I needed them for my cakes. I actually brought home a few. I will try to make a cake for them.

People like them inspire me to work hard. I don't need that much money, but it's good to aim high. My mom and I felt like little kids in a big playground. Yup, I am definitely motivated today.

Posted by Karen @ 10:15 PM PST [Link]

Wednesday, July 17, 2002

I finally had a chance to use my joconde from the other day. My mom's going to a birthday party, so I decided to make a lemon mousse cake. The joconde is sliced and layered with some raspberry jam, forming the sides of the cake. It's my first time using this technique, so it's not as clean as I want it to be. Sometimes I want to make more cakes, but my mom, Garry, and Lina have been complaining that they're getting fat already. Heh.

Lemon Mousse Cake - two layers of biscuit filled with lemon mousse, surrounded by joconde-raspberry jam cake. It is garnished with candied lemons.

Posted by Karen @ 08:43 PM PST [Link]

Monday, July 15, 2002

It's quite a lazy monday for me. I hope I don't get into the habit of bumming around the house in my pajamas all day. I've been doing a lot of reading lately... mostly about sponge cakes. I made a raspberry trifle this weekend. Three layers of genoise (one type of French sponge cake) filled with lemon mascarpone mousse and four cups of raspberries -- I was pretty happy with it. Most of the cakes I've been making are charlottes, which use a different type of sponge cake called biscuit. I won't bore you with the details, but the differences lie in the texture of the crumb and the lightness of the cake. Today I made a joconde, another type of sponge cake made of ground almonds and spread onto a jelly roll pan. I will be storing this for future use...

Raspberry Trifle

I really love making french pastries -- I might just open a patisserie. I emailed this pastry chef I admire, asking her to be my mentor. She replied to me today, giving me a bit of advice, but I don't really know if she welcomed the idea of being a mentor. She's probably too busy, and I'm really nobody to her anyway. I just wish I knew someone personally.

I know I need more experience, but a large part of me doesn't want to waste time. I would have to spend years working in other patisseries, earning close to nothing... I don't know if I'm patient enough.

But then again, I don't want to open shop and then close after a year because of inexperience. Aah. Life gets too confusing sometimes.

Posted by Karen @ 03:26 PM PST [Link]

Monday, July 8, 2002

My mom is here! I spent July 4th weekend being a jeweller. We had a little booth at a doctor's convention;jewelry was part of the 'Non-Pharmaceutical Exhibit'. Sitting there, in front of a table full of jewelry, I was reminded of why I am not a jeweller. They are all sparkling, beautiful pieces of art; and yet, I don't care much for them. My mom can spend the whole day looking at these precious gems,but I can't go an hour without yawning, my stomach growling, thinking of its next meal. A customer comes: "Is this yellow sapphire or citrine?" I stumble around, looking for my mom... "Uuh...I think it's yellow sapphire". Well, turns out I was right, but I still felt like a fool. It wasn't good for my ego to be there. It seemed that the longer I sat there, the more hopeless I felt that I would ever be a good businesswoman.

I need some motivation. Someone feed me some, please. I went to Borders and spent an hour in the self-help section. Do I really need to be here? Ashamed as I was to be there, I really needed to read something that would make me feel good... something that would reassure me that what I'm doing is right. So I came out with 3 books, Success@Life, Quarter Life Crisis, and Good Girls Guide to Negotiating. I feel better already.

Posted by Karen @ 09:33 PM PST [Link]

Monday, July 1, 2002

Aah. Summer. I thought it wasn't going to come this year. San Francisco sorta plays tricks on you like that. The first day of summer came last week, and it was foggy and cold for days after. Usually, by this time, I'd be hoarding watermelons, cantaloupes, and honeydew melons, eating them at a rate of 4/week! This year though, my summer fruit fetish came somewhat late. I wonder if it has something to do with how I've been feeling this past month. Since I got laid off, I've been feeling a lot of pressure to put my restaurant plans on 'fast track'. My family has been quite worried about me, advising me not to jump into this too quickly. I understand their concerns, but it's difficult not to get discouraged.

It's very tempting to go back and work as a programmer again -- comfy, a regular paycheck, lots of smart people around you... I can be a great engineer, but I cannot be one of the best. My passion lies elsewhere, I know that for sure. That's why I need to do this, because I've always been taught to try.

Pushed away from my comfort zone, I haven't had time to savor what I enjoy most. Food. Cooking. Fruit hunting. Well, all that ended yesterday. At Sigona's, something brought me back to life... MELONS, 29 cents/lb!

Posted by Karen @ 03:22 PM PST [Link]