love and hot chocolate

I had today off and it was wonderful.  I spent the better part of the day making dinner for my love.  I wanted to make it completely from scratch, and I wanted to make it something I know he would love.  We got a pasta machine for Christmas last year but we've never even taken it out of the box, so I thought it was more than about time.  It was intense.  I say intense because I've never made pasta before, and it made a lot... and quickly all the free surfaces and even the mixer were covered in fettuccine. 

Joshua really doesn't like red sauce, so I made a roasted garlic white wine alfredo cause, along with a tomato cucumber salad I know he loves.  All in all, it was a giant success.  He said it was the best meal he's ever had, and I'd say that puts a gold star on my wifely duties for the day.

He really is wonderful, and I am so very blessed to have him.

After supper (and a lot of dishes) I started working on Christmas presents, and who doesn't love hot chocolate?  One of my favourite magazines is called Where Women Cook and in this issue there was an awesome idea for individual servings of hot chocolate.  I can't wait to make more!

A very successful day off indeed!  Tomorrow... the possibilities are endless, but I have a feeling it's going to be sweet.

waffles make everything better... right?

I have not posted in a long time.  I have not taken a photo of anything I've baked in a long time. I have not reallly felt like it, life gets in the way sometimes. 

I am married now, and I love it.  I am almost done school, and I love that too.

Tonight I made waffles for my Joshua because we finally got a waffle maker. (HUGE thanks to Lauren and Jamie!)  He has been begging me for months but it's kinda  hard to make waffles without the iron.  So because we finally have one, I have no excuse anymore to not make them for him.  I was inspired to take pictures because the gift came to us with love from one of my oldest friends.  I wanted to take pictures because I'm very lucky to have Josh.  Baking for him makes him happy, and in turn it makes me happy.  I needed to take pictures becasue despite the fact that I've been away for so long, I knew I had to start somewhere to get back to where I feel the most comefortable.  To get myself back to basics. 

So despite the simplicity, and with one foot back in the door, I hope there will be lots more to come... and soon. 

Christmas is almost here, and there is a desire inside me to make things sweeter by sharing with those I love.  One step at a time, and I will get where I'm going... and until then, I will bake.

celebration cake

In the Grob family, whenever there was a cause for celebration, it was done with a mandarine cake.  I never had the privledge of meeting Josh's Omi, though  I wish I had, she was a wonderful woman.  The glue that held them all together.  I have this idea in my head that I would have loved her.  She would have taught me so much about the way she baked for her family.  The only thing I know she really baked was the infamous mandarine cake.  I have seen this cake in many pictures from many celebrations, and while it was always decorated differently it was always made with the same three ingredients: white cake, mandarine oranges and lots of whipped cream. 

It's Josh's favourite cake. 

I started a facebook page for back to basics, initially as part of my final project in baking management.  It's been growing slowly and steadly since March, and yesterday I finally hit 100 fans.  A cause for celebration.

 

Because the cake wasn't fancy enough I made a mango frozen yogurt to go with it.  Super simple, I just blended frozen mango, added some greek yogurt and vanilla and voila. 

Josh loved the cake, which is really all that matters to me.  I love feeding him my baked goods, and I know he loves to eat them. 

Only 3 more months and I will officially be Mrs. Grob.

Life is sweet.

something blue

I'm getting married!

I got to try my dress on tonight and it made it so much more real.  Not a sample dress, but MY dress! I'm so in love with it, I wish so bad I could show Josh! 

Two of my wonderful sisters are what make up my side of the wedding party, and they're throwing me a shower in 3 weeks.  I know nothing about this shower except that I'm to make mini doughnuts that are coloured tiffany blue.  It's going to be epic, I just know it.

After such a wonderful night I decided I'd try out the doughnuts when I got home, just to practice and they turned out so much better than expected! 

I just can't wait to see what other wonderful goodies are at this shower!

heat wave

It's hot.  

I don't think I need to go further into that statement, it's pretty self explanatory.  Especially if you're fortunate enough to be living through this insane heat wave.

I work in a bakery, so the temperature getting up t0 90 while not always the most comfortable, is fairly expected.  The heat outside on the other hand is unlike anything I've ever experienced.  We've had some record breaking heat this past week, but Thursday the worst, supposedly... yesterday at the bakery was worse for me, but I was lucky enough to have Thursday off.  

Side note: yesterday it was so hot that all my butter cream was melting.. I'd pipe a rose and it would wilt right away.  I'd chill the butter cream in the fridge, and within minutes it would be melting.  I had to make two slab wedding cakes and the time constraint was so bad that I ended up finishing the second one with 10 minutes to spare...  in the fridge.  Yes, the walk in fridge.  But that's a whole other story entirely and that's not what this post is about, so back to what I actually did on Thursday during the hottest day of the year.

My girlfriend Stephanie asked me if I could help her with a cake order she had.  No problem, I love helping out.  Her air conditioner being broken the hottest day of the year and baking 2 cakes (because we had issues with the first one) in an oven when the inside of her house was already an oven... big problem.  We did it though, and thankfully had a small reprieve while decorating cookies in her mom's air conditioned studio.  Despite the heat, it was a wonderful time.  We even had a little helper, Coral, the granddaughter of the the woman who's cake we were doing.  

All in all, one failed cake and her house being 97, it was really a wonderful night.  Steph's since sent me a picture of the final cake and she did a wonderful job!  Next time though, air conditioning... or a sprinkler.

copy cat scone

Sometimes when I'm waiting for Josh to pick me up after work, I go to this grocery store that has a cafe in it and they make the most amazingly delicious cinnamon cranberry and walnut scones.  Last week I tried to recreate them, and while they were delicious (despite my forgetting the cinnamon) they were not at all like the ones at Commisso's.  This week I tried again and holy crap... They may even be better.  When I found the recipe I didn't read the directions thoroughly, just checked to make sure I had all the ingredients.  I'm glad I didn't read the directions, I may have been deterred from the puff pastry like process, but I'm so glad I stuck through the time intensive process.  These scones (despite my having forgotten the walnuts... maybe next time I'll actually remember all the ingredients... grr) were to die for.  I will be making these again.  For sure.

I didn't start taking pictures until after the two folds and chill time in the fridge. 

I also added 1/2 tbs cinnamon to the dry ingredients and 1/2 tbs to the butter mixture.

 

 

 

Yum.

veggie love

I love vegetables.

I'm not a huge bread person, and there are days I forget to eat meat, but veggies... now veggies I would die without. My dinner tonight was so delicious I just had to take a picture.

Usually I blog about my baking adventures, being a baker and all, but I love to cook too. It was all about quick and easy tonight and as easy goes, tuna melts are always high on the list. Pair it with local asparagus and the spicy maple glazed pecans I made earlier in the week, local tomatoes in a balsamic pesto dressing with feta and holy moly... Party in my mouth. So glad there are leftovers!