Thursday, August 21, 2014
man bites shark
Sunday, July 27, 2014
"English Bill & Ted, right?"
one gene we apparently share is a tendency at this age to love a sci-fi show. i went through a pretty heavy Trekkie phase in my teens, so i get Taylor's geekness and the cult following a particular fantasy story line can gather. ("so Who is her Trek?" i asked her dad, my brother. "Yup.") except she gets to play in a much more mature internet so she can feast her eyes on all things Who, while i had to go to a bookstore. (uphill barefoot in the snow!) then Grandma found Dr. Who cookie cutters, and i was directed to make some for Taylor. looking up the art was delightfully informative. the many versions of sonic screwdrivers reminded me of the array of Ferengi ear cleaning tools in The Art of Star Trek.
and while i'm pleased with the results, they're horribly late. this is due to a confluence of the greater Chicagoland area's monsoon season, the properties of cookie and icing, and allotted home baking time--long drying time exceeded cookie work time, and shortened cookie shelf life. summer cookies really require a pro kitchen, extra time in ITNs larger location requires babysitter time... you see the hole it all digs. so, it stopped raining, and i actually had 2 straight days, and they are sent. (i also know it should be white text on black across the top, but some divergence was required, i don't have a white edible ink marker!) on the plus side, Tay's birthday fun is extended into the summer. haha...
if you're wondering if i'm a fan and how my sci-and/or-fi fandom continues to influence my baking, here's the essay portion of the blog post.
Dr. Who was on in my youth, except you had to be watching PBS at some weird time like 1:15am. i knew it was a sci-fi classic, i knew i liked time travel stories, i knew i liked British tv shows, and yet i would see the title on the menu, turn to channel 11, and i'd be in the middle of the show, with some guy with a perm and a striped scarf running through tunnels. without seeing it from the beginning, there was no context. so i didn't pursue it. i apologize. but when i saw it again on the menu, and popping up online among the fans, i went, "oh, i'll have to look into that," but it was already 3 seasons in. no perm guy, instead a hyper guy with a bow tie, and a panicky redhead that likes to draw little lines on herself? (shrug) if you ask me about time travelers in a phone booth, i could only reply with Bill and Ted. (shameful head-hang) i look forward to my cable provider including all past seasons during it's next watch-a-thon week, or to having my [stuff] together enough to have something as this-century as a Netflix subscription. i'm certain if i saw it from the beginning, and didn't have the kiddo jumping on my head wanting a 26th popsicle, then i'd get it, and have a big nerd-glow about it too. time-traveling Brits--c'mon!
if anything is truly as good as they say, i prefer to start at the beginning and give my full attention, and that isn't easy with other people. when everyone went nuts about "The Lord of the Rings," no one seemed to be able to play the dvd for me on a decent system, and also be quiet while we were watching. it was a 9 hour story about some people walking and fighting monsters. with the dishwasher running in the background.
but when i absorb a story properly, i can easily fall in love with it, and i likely get really into how it's created. the hubby finally sat me down for a Frodo-fest, and even though my dork-side favors a techie future more than sword-fighting long-ago, i understood it's appeal, and though i still can't list all the guys in LOTR, i've watched the making-of special-addition dvds 3 times--the miniscule detail they achieved blows my mind. in my Trek days, i fantasized about an art major that would take me into film make-up. i read and adored so many books, i majored in fiction writing probably more to learn how they did it, creating magic in my head, than to get any magic out of my own head and into text. [and i've read The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series 3 (maybe 4? i forget) times, so how's that for liking British sci-fi?] and i mentioned that i didn't play with my Barbies as much as just arranging them, their furniture, and items from around the house serving as interesting art pieces. i've always been better at scene than plot. the actors can do the acting, the writers can do the writing, i've always loved knowing what the story was all about, and making the illustrations, storyboards, sets, props, costumes, make-up, etc. layer that illustrator-directive over catering, and i want to make cookies for the once-upon-a-time (meh, timey-wimey...?) story your event is presenting. your rodeo wedding, your turnip farmer retirement party. it can all have a fun little just-right picture. and then you get to eat my art. boom.
i should add, i don't have anything Trek-specific in my around 800 cookie cutters. crazy!
coming soon, more work stuff, silver wedding stuff, and likely a Where the Wild Things Are reprise at the library. stay tuned... or hop in a TARDIS and see them now, i guess ;)
Thursday, July 24, 2014
just keep swimming, just keep swimming...
Wednesday, May 28, 2014
dancing the cookie shuffle
And I’ve returned. Where
have I been? Baking chocolate chip
cookies and banana bread at the library.
Good feedback, more on the job later.
Also picking up my kid from the bus stop, and laundry, and I still have
no internet at home, so getting more than 140 characters out of me can be
tricky. I’d save myself a trip if I could
text on a smart phone while driving, but my phone is not smart, and I am, so in
short (not really) it’s much ado getting my pics posted.
These were from a weekend in [March?] when
many dancers convened at The Hemmens in Elgin.
It just so happens that yours truly performed there—ballet, tap, and
tumbling—in my very young days. Recitals
were at The Hemmens, but class was in Bartlett, a ride across town on the back
on mom’s bike, at the park district’s odd little log cabin in a park off Oak
St. It was one of those little clubhouses
where you’d have ballet class on Friday, and someone could rent it for a baby
shower on Saturday, then next Tuesday the township trustees would have a budget
meeting, or something. Anyway, I twirled and tapped
and tumbled, and our teacher would send each of us off after class with one of
those daisy-shaped shortbread cookies with the hole in the middle, just the
right size for a 5-year-old’s pinky, and I’d ride home in my yellow bike seat
pretending my finger was wearing a tutu.
So imagine my happy little sense of purpose to be making pretty ballerina
butterfly cookies for young aspiring dancers.
I had a 'gone-full-circle' kind of contentment.
About the rest of the job.
Firstly, people keep calling me a pastry chef. You need credentials to be called “a chef”
and I don’t have ’em, and “pastry” actually encompasses more than I know. I’m kind of hit or miss on pie crusts for
example. I didn’t take the class, and I rarely
make pie. Never made a scone, croissant,
madeleine, popover, éclair, or benier. I
prefer say I’m a baker, and I’d like to think that because I’ve been baking
since forever, and because my mom always said if you can read you can cook, I’m
sure I can make all the things I just listed once I studied the recipe, and
gave it a try or two.
But what I really
bake from week to week are: cookies,
especially chocolate chip; banana bread, or I switch out the bananas for
zucchini, pumpkin, apple, carrot; bar cookies like brownies and what Grandma
called “hello dolly” bars; “truffles” like brownie- or peanut-butter-pretzel-balls
dipped in chocolate; and the occasional cupcake. Basically the stuff a mom bakes, only I bake
it in volumes to fill the front case.
And
when I stated that I’m the sole baker, that was a bit of a misnomer as
well. If it’s advantageous for someone
else at one of the other locations to bake a couple pans of brownies, then they
bake them. And if they cater a wedding
the weekend I’m having my fantasy butt-lift, they’ll find a way to dip some
truffles. It’s just that of all the
employees, I’m the one that was hired to bake first, and then do sandwich
stuff. And when something fancy is
ordered, like lemon bars for that thing at the library, or some footprint
cookies for a baby shower, it’s my project. And, more often than I’d like because I like
baking all fresh and natural, some of our baked goods are from a boxed mix, or premade
from a vendor, so again, I don’t do all
the baking. But yeah, I’m the go-to gal
for dessert. 
And it’s pretty awesome
that I can bake cookies and sell them at the library. I can’t get over how quaint that is. I get all nerdly about it. Meanwhile, pics at this end of the post are
the ones I had on my phone. I make
something neat at work and realize I don’t have my camera, so i resort to the
cell, then when I’m on my computer, I don’t have the memory card thingy to
upload them. Yeah, baking by the seat of
my pants. And knowing me I probably sat
in brownie batter. Ha!
So next I have some wedding cookies that weren’t
for a wedding, and some evidence of my prowess in marketing. And I will still be making pretty
cookies. And I will still be taking
pictures of them. I just have to sit
down and do my homework.
Till then,
happy lead in to summer, and we got all new fancy coffee at the library, so
come on in…Thursday, March 6, 2014
for your throwback thursday
and everyone loved them, and everyone bought them. i was getting a text every few hours, "13 left," "4 left," etc, from the bosses until they sold out. this is exactly what i wanted--local events that have a situation for attendees to have a snack. and that snack is fine tuned to be part of the entertainment of being there. you don't break for lunch and leave the dresses for a while. you get lunch and see even more. and i love how versatile a dress shape is. i had to limit myself to 4 styles or i'd never finish.
coming next, little ballerina silhouettes for a big dance event.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
also it snowed like, 8 times...
i’m soooo very behind. but so much has happened. i left off with Christmas, and shortly after that i was planning on posting these crosses for baby Ryder’s baptism, and some snowmen that are still on my phone's memory card, that were for the snowy end of December, i'll post them eventually... and then I had some super-M's to make for Mary Jo’s grandson Maddox’s super-hero-themed birthday, before heading to visit my dad for the last time.
i spent the whole project reflecting on my comic book loving father (who likely wouldn’t [and ultimately didn’t] see these M’s), and how i’ve been committed to this cookie life, and how my dad would kinda give me an elbow nudge after each well-made art project and tell me i could make money doing that. nothing would have made Dad happier than to see me get rich, especially for cookies—anyone who knew our family knew that there was a mother-daughter team that made pretty awesome Christmas cookies, and we’d roll our eyes when he’d talk about how we should open a bakery and rake in cash. so after i got these cookies in a bag, we had a real swell a banking oops, and Mary Jo’s payment was my only cash to go downtown. (so much for riches. yet. thanks MJ) Dad passed away January 10. he was 66. he is very missed. then after the service, i took a deep breath and got back to the grind. (building my cookie empire, and all that.) 
and then two St. Augustine grads were in love and in town, and the young lady’s mom, a drawing winner from November, requested some luv-bugs. and then something extraordinary happened.
backstory: last summer i discovered a little café in the library, and thought of how charming it would be to illustrate cookies for a building full of stories, or even just crank out buckets of chocolate chip cookies. c’mon, books and cookies—it’s perfect. i was hired, but worked at the East Dundee location, usually making sandwiches, and baking when i could.
then the extraordinary part. at the beginning of February, the library location had a bit of a staff renovation. they asked me to come in and i was told that A: in the scramble to get treats on the counter in time for a Black History Month event that weekend, anything i baked in East Dundee was brought to the library, and quickly sold out, so good job Katie; and B: i would be working from the library starting that Sunday, and would be the sole baker for all 3 locations. and that i could bake whatever i want, and do my cookies, and that i should make a shopping list of everything i need to hit the ground running. i swooned.
my first project, strangely enough, was for a bring-your-own-hair-dryer themed event we catered at a salon. i
was told with very little time to complete it, so i did mini hearts on
the side, because they dry faster, and when it came time to go, only the
hearts were ready. i renamed the glamour-girls “Rapunzel” and library patrons and staff found them adorable. they
were actually from a Pocahontas cookie cutter set--John Smith’s
pioneer-mullet had a nice right angle to it, and made the perfect hair
dryer. they were quickly joined by froggy princes and heart balloons for Valentine’s Day. those are also on my phone, sorry. they didn’t last long either. [in fact nothing does. brownies, cookies, Grandma’s Hello Dolly bars, banana bread, cupcakes, i’ve been crazy baking. and I make “truffles.” balls of different things dipped in chocolate. the
most popular is the super-simple s’mores version: a big marshmallow
dipped in chocolate and rolled in crushed graham crackers. the men i work with say i cook with crack, and often use lewd vocabulary when expressing their enjoyment of my desserts. so i’m doing something right.]
on Valentine’s Day itself i had aqua hearts with pink roses. i didn’t get a picture, but they were inspired by the color scheme on my sister-in-law’s dress, and the roses were a simple 2 tone swirl like this [an upcoming post]. 
my next cookie goal is to get good at different rose techniques. my goal after that is making In The Neighborhood Fresh the best darn cookie and coffee stop in Elgin. and since i know that no goals are reached overnight, i’ll go get a good night’s sleep because i work tomorrow. empire building and all that. 
Saturday, January 4, 2014
radiant Sons
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