If you build it, they will come. If you buy nice sheets for your bed, they will come. If you project your desires to the world (in my case, as the form of a perfect boyfriend), he will come. If you visualize your life as you want it, it will manifest itself. All bits of heavy, slightly too new-agey advice that I have sagely and seriously been offered this week. How about my own? Plan and bake the perfect muffin and the Farmer's Market managers will ask me to come. Done and done.
I know one thing, I am tired of trying my hand at internet dating. I am tired of 'meeting' socially awkward men online and then being disappointed in person. My biggest beefs with them are usually superficial too, so shame on me. The last guy I went out with on a first/last date? Super nice. Super effeminate. Super not attracted. I seriously have no one to blame but myself for my perpetual singledom. So I am owning that blame and will make a concerted effort to meet 'real' men (as opposed to the virtual ones). Then at least I know if they have a lisp or look 55 despite claiming to be 35 before we get past hello. I will manifest the introductions just as I will manifest my perfect muffins.
Morning Glory in Paradise Muffins
So tonight, I put on my 'wish necklace' ("Make a wish on this necklace and when it falls off your body in a state of worn and mildewed stinkiness it will come true"... ok, ok, so they necklace is actually beautiful and it's directions said nothing about the mildew & stinkiness...) and set about baking a perfect batch of islandified Morning Glory Muffins. Pineapple. Carrot. Raisins. Apple. Coconut. Macadamia Nuts. Cinnamon and Spice. What's amazing is that this muffin is dairy free and convincingly healthy. It's different enough to turn heads, but comforting enough to be a go-to morning muffin when you're looking for something to crunch on in between the sink-your-teeth-into-heaven deliciousness. Yup, they're that good.
Kabocha (local pumpkin) Cinnamon Rolls with lemony-cream cheese frosting.
Seven hours in the kitchen last night: Four kinds of cookies, two different varieties of muffins, two quick breads, one pound cake, one jar of lilikoi curd, one batch of scones and one pan of cinnamon rolls. One confirmed meltdown on cookies and one near meltdown from me due to monsoon-like rains assaulting and my little house's jalousie (read: non-sealing) windows and the humidity's affect on the goods. One refrigerator and freezer packed so tight that opening it is like opening a hive of angry bees - watch your toes cause something hard and frozen will likely be headed for them. Countless loads of dishes and remarkably only one broken water glass. And simply ridiculous amounts of butter, sugar and flour.
Muffins. It was all about the muffins.
Three hours in the living room this morning: Fifteen of my dearest friends, three french coffee presses filled many times over, twelve sheets filled with pen & paper bakery feedback, numerous casual suggestions, accolades and great conversation.
Well played.
The end result of the R&D breakfast (after a long, recuperating, sugar-coma induced nap)? I'm moving forward. I've got better direction. I'm whittling down bakery names. And I dearly, truly love my friends.
Tart & creamy Lilikoi Curd.
Muffins were the clear winner in the tastings. The lilikoi curd and the cream cheese frosting from the cinnamon rolls were standouts. Looking forward to refining recipies and sharing the results!
Cutting into a huge Pomelo, our island grapefruit.
So it turns out that not everything sour is unpleasant what you add sugar. I'm learning this both inside the kitchen and out. Lemons? Lemon Curd. Boy who dropped me like a hot tamale? Good riddance and good motivation to do better for myself. Grapefruit? Fresca Soda! (that's Grapefruit Soda, peeps....) Boy du jour who I am currently crushing on but who toes the other side of political lines? Making Out a bunch so you never have a chance to talk politics. Limes? Candied Lime Peel. See? Something sweet can come of anything sour!
So, with today's lesson on sweetening the sour in mind, I am currently standing in my kitchen wearing yoga pants (ha! maybe if I dress up and PRETEND I'm going to work out after baking it MIGHT happen. Not likely, but I digress...) getting ready to make some awesome candied citrus peel. I'm going to make the candy with lemon, lime and pomelo (island grapefruit). The lemon will be for topping lemon curd tarts, the grapefruit will be for something undetermined (I have a grapefruit in my kitchen so it's getting candied) and the lime is destined for some island-inspired Lime, Coconut, Mac Nut, White Chocolate Chip, Spiced Oatmeal Cookies. Shoots, Cuz! (translation: Wow. That's really something, friend!)
Back to the Citrus Peel. I'm gonna call on my nemesis/ mentor Martha freakin' Stewart again. That woman has way too many good recipes to ignore. Every time I use her recipes they turn out pretty fantastic, so that sweetens the sour of her too.
Peeling the pith from the limes.
Candied Citrus Peel
recipe modified from Martha Stewart
1/4 Pomelo Grapefruit
5 Limes
2 Lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
With a sharp paring knife, slice off ends of pomelo, limes, and lemons. Following curve of fruit, cut away outermost peel, leaving most of the white pith on fruit. Slice peel lengthwise into 1/4-inch-wide strips.
Making a mess with pith, juice & peels.
OK Martha- you make this sound easy. It's not. It took me almost 2 hours to do this to all the fruit because it didn't come off easily. Most of my strips are more like chunks... with holes in them.
In a medium pot of boiling water, cook peel until tender, about 10 minutes. With a slotted spoon, transfer peel to a wire rack set over a rimmed baking sheet; spread in a single layer to dry slightly, about 15 minutes.
Um, yeah... Martha, how do these sit on the wire rack without falling through? I set mine on paper towels on top of the rack. They didn't get very dry, but I am getting tired after being at this for over 2 hours now.
Drying rind and cocktail juice.
In a medium saucepan, bring 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water to a boil over high, stirring to dissolve sugar. Add peel and boil until it turns translucent and syrup thickens, 10-20 minutes.
It starts to look like you're cooking sardines with the bubbling little slices of peel. I cooked them until the sugar syrup had reduced to about 1/3-1/2 its volume.
With slotted spoon, transfer peel to wire rack, separating the pieces as needed.
Then pour the citrusy sugar syrup into a jar and put in the fridge for future use. Hello, cocktails!!
Let peel dry 1 hour. Toss with 1/2 cup sugar to coat.
In retrospect, the recipe might have meant "Make all this great candied rind from all these fruits... separately." Once I removed them from the sugar syrup they're all kind of the same color. I think I can pick out which fruit is which from the shape, and you can taste the difference. But it might be easier to do them separately in the future.
So yum. The sour becomes sweet. These buggas are good. I keep snacking on them...gotta save some for cookies. And yoga? Yeah right.
R&D. Research & Development. Things that go on in my life on a regular basis. But are we talking about my love life or my kitchen? Let's decide, shall we?
This week's Research:
Compiling of my favorite locally-inspired recipes
Cost computing of said recipes
Hopeful (honestly, really, amazingly so) time spent on the phone with the Hawaii State Department of Agriculture
Attending a "Backyard Beekeeping" seminar
Chatting up an old friend/ insurance agent to get a second insurance quote
Finding new kabocha (pumpkin)-inspired recipes to experiment with
And spending too many hours on Match.com pondering why no one new ever signs up and why a 26-year-old (who I had absolutely no business giving my # to, but did purely because a 26-year-old asked for it & it made me feel like I 'still got it') would think its OK to text me at 5:15am... and again at 7am...and again at 8. And when i finally respond at 8 that he'd woke me up, his response is a wink-y face thingy and 'just thinkin bout ya. forgive me?' Thinkin' about me? He's never even met me (let alone talked to me!) Augh. I am too old for this shit.
And then there's the Development:
As evidenced, absolutely no Development in the Love Life side of things
Invitations sent to an upcoming "Bakery R&D Taste Test Breakfast" - this is a major Development!
So here's the scoop: I'm throwing a breakfast get-together, cleverly labeled the "Bakery R&D Breakfast". I've invited a lot of friends and have promised them plenty of baked goodies in exchange for their honest feedback and opinions on both the baked goods and business names. Providing that the feedback on the muffins/tarts/cookies/breads/sweet rolls is predominately positive, I'm hoping to also enlist these friends to be the Shay's Bakery (official Bakery name tbd) PR Army. I'm hoping that these dear people will help pave a way for me to get into the Farmer's Markets by talking, tweeting, posting, sharing and whatever else people do these days to pass on good words. And I hope these friends will stay by my side, eating my baked yummies as things begin to(hopefully) grow.
So- you gonna be on Oahu in 2 weeks? If so, you should come to the Bakery R&D Breakfast! October 15th. In Palolo. Help me decide on a Bakery Name. Eat lots of food. Drink coffee (or mimosas) and be around some wonderful, amazingly supportive people called my friends. I'd love to have you!
