A Two Month Sabbatical, of sorts
I have not abandoned my sweet little hobby of Shared Plates. I took a few months off to devote my free time to practicing a newer skill, pastries. I’ve been moonlighting as a Pastry Chef for Aaron’s newest restaurant opening Skratch Labs Café. It’s not every day that someone trusts you enough to hand you a position that you are, in fact, not qualified for at all. I think I just described becoming a mother so maybe it does happen everyday…
I’ve been heading to the beautiful empty café kitchen after hours to make tasty treats while listening to spicy audiobooks. It’s like a little vacation after a day at my desk. My initial goal was to make consistent classic items that would sell in a coffee shop setting – muffins, cookies, maybe loaf slices. What it has morphed into is an all-out bake sale of whatever crazy concoction I can dream up and my is it fun! Once I was given permission to make whatever I please the real fun started. Since then we have sold hundreds of poptarts, dozens and dozens of sweet strawberry cream cheese biscuits, ham and cheese turnovers, budinos, horchata coffee cakes, brown butter tahini cookies and the classics like snickerdoodles, chocolate chip cookies and chocolate zucchini muffins. It’s become my new favorite hobby. In diverting my focus to this task I’ve allowed myself to hone my skills and gain confidence in doing it. It’s taken a long time to understand the ritualistic devotion needed to become skilled at something and for the first time in a long while I have a living example. Sure, I wish my devotion was to running or pilates or something that added to my physical health. Not sugar and chocolate- things that only add to my mental health but alas I am a kitchen goblin through and through.
As a savory cook for over a decade and a female cook at that, I never wanted to be grouped in the pastry department. Especially not in a kitchen that my husband was the chef of. I earned my chops as a chef and I was determined to never play second fiddle nor fit into a gender conforming role in the industry. What I’ve learned in allowing myself to practice something I used to scoff at is that just because there is a cliché, does not mean the role is an easy thing to do well. I’ve made deflated muffins, flat cookies, dry biscuits and had to start over and try again, all while watching the clock so that I could get home before Francie’s bedtime. I have pages and pages of notes, circled successful recipes and scratched out fails. 3 months in I’m actually very good at what I’m doing and am now training a pastry assistant because I can no longer keep up with the demand on my own.
Feeling gratitude towards a new practice has inspired my commitment to other things. I’m now (once again) a compulsive reader, I’ve committed to a more European lifestyle of walking everywhere I possibly can and I’m just generally happier. I’m sure baking isn’t the sole reason, considering it coincides with Springtime weather, but it has given me a more invigorated sense of my capabilities. Old dog, new tricks sort of thing. Considering I notice more and more gray hairs on my head each week, the new tricks are making this old dog feel quite young and capable.
I had grand plans for returning to Shared Plates with a full menu of fresh recipes but I still haven’t found my window of opportunity to properly dream up and test everything. Instead here are a few recipe variations for items I’ve been making for the café. Happy baking and I hope you feel mildly inspired to try a new task in the hopes of becoming skilled at it.
Spring Leek and Asparagus Tart
Strawberry Grapefruit Cobbler with Sweet Cream Cheese Biscuits
Spring Leek and Asparagus Tart