I think one of the hardest things of all time is starting and maintaining a blog. Do I have time for it? Absolutely. Do I regularly think about posting? Yes. Do I make enough food and try new recipes on a consistent basis? Yes. Have I made any headway into blogging? No.
Alas, we try and try again, do we not?
I love cooking. Which is funny really because not even five years ago I was absolutely refusing my mother in her requests for me to TRY making one dinner. She was horrendously worried about me venturing into the real world and not knowing how to do anything for myself. I tried to make the point that I could at least do my own laundry, which was more than half of my high school friends could say of themselves. So it amuses me still that after five years, a BA in Psychology, minor in dance, months of nannying, and the small seed of an idea later…I’m in culinary school. I know, I know, it baffles me too.
Culinary school is one of those things people dream of and catch themselves saying, “Wouldn’t it be fun to go to culinary school?” It would be fun. You should do it too. I think culinary school has been one of my top three life choices (just barely behind answering “yes” to “will you marry me?” five months ago). It has been the most delightful and invigorating experience. When else in life do you get to come home and say that your homework is to bake a three layer cake interspersed with clouds of whipped ganache, caramel buttercream, and raspberry curd? I have actually started to regularly hold three course meals. Me. The one who refused to make my own pasta. Or cook rice.
It’s hard to explain the joy that comes from cooking or eating really, REALLY good food. How exciting it is to watch your dessert finally come out from the kitchen. How good it feel to see the satisfied looks on the faces of your friends and families after seven hours in the kitchen for 30 minutes of eating. Because food is good and it makes people happy.
I had an instructor that was constantly telling us that we were really in the business of entertainment. He always wanted to know how you could serve something to awe people and keep them guessing. I would say we’re really in the business of making people happy. There is no greater pleasure than taking a freshly baked batch of cookies out of the oven and later hand delivering them to people you love. Three weeks ago I delivered cookies to a friend’s mailbox over the weekend and ran into her at the grocery store a few days later. “Those cookies you brought over made my entire weekend, thank you so much!” Enough said.
Love and Buttercream is just a place for me to talk about how much I love food and I how much I have really come to love cooking. I would never say I’m the best at anything but I try my darndest to cook a great meal and bake a mean batch of cookies. I hope I can move someday from practicing other people’s recipes to writing my own. I also hope you (husband and three other friends) will come with me on the journey to find myself as a “bakist” (my good friends affectionately call me), a cook, and really just as a person.
Thank you for your time and for your willingness to look over my humble attempts. God bless you and the food that is made here.
Love and Buttercream 