Long Absence!

Sorry for the long absence, but with all the holidays, it got too crazy around here.
I am going to try to start to blog again, and have some big news to share.
Ill be back tomorrow!!
Pete

Bakery from Hell!

I am back! After a bit of an absence I am back! I got busy and lost track of time. Eventually I will catch you all up on what has been going on!
Where did I leave off now.....
Oh yeah. I was looking for a job at a bakery. After a few weeks I found one in the town near where I live (Babylon). It was great because it was part time (3 days a week). That gave me free time to work on starting my own business. (www.mycookiedaddy.com).
It started out pretty good, although on hindsight, I remember that the interview was very odd.
The owner and one of the pastry chefs (two women) were acting very strangely. They were staring and gigling. I don't know why, but I can guess now. It was very unprofessional, and as it turned out, the whole business was unprofessional. After about a month of being there, the owner told me that the business had lost money in all but one year of 9 years in business. She started crying and asked me if I could help with the Finances of the business. So I did.
The biggest problem was that she tried to take on too many things. She should have focused her business on one thing before she branched out to more. She was terrible at managing inventory and her finances. She complained about losing money, yet she would take orders at the last minute that would lose her money. We would spend time running out to the store to buy ingredients we did not have to fill these orders. There was never a cutoff on orders. Everything needed to be planned ahead so we would have the right ingredients, yet she would take an order when we had no inventory to make it!
At one point we added breakfast (eggs, pancakes, crepes, etc) and lunch (paninis, salads, etc).
I didnt think we could handle all that with all the cakes and pastries that needed to be done. With a small staff of 3 (plus the owner), it became chaotic at times.
We were making specialty cakes (birthday, wedding, etc) and having to stop to make an omelete? It was insane.
Then the mice came! Eek! They were all over the place! Traps were set everywhere and each day I came in to find them dead in the traps! One of the woman left things out and in the morning, you could see that the mice nibbled on the food!!
That woman eventually left. Then there were 2! Myself and an 8 month pregnant woman!
So my hours increased twofold. I didnt mind, except for the fact that the owner was not even looking for a replacement! So I started posting jobs everywhere (including the two Culinary schools I went to). I posted on the Internet. Calls and resumes started to come in. The owner kept dragging her feet about getting back to people. Then when she would interview them, she didn't hire them because they were fat or ugly. I told her she couldn't wait, she needed to get someone in to help. I was working 6 days a week 12 hours a day. I didn't want to be doing that!
Now I can see when she was interviewing me what all the giggling was. There were times when she really made me feel uncomfortable working there. She made it quite clear she wanted to do more than bake with me. Talk about unprofessional!
There was constant sexual inuendos about guys that she dealt with and customers as well. Meanwhile, she was married with kids. Then were were the girls (and I mean girls, 16-18 years old) that worked the front. The turnover out there was terrible. It is no wonder, the way they were treated and the conversations that went on. I was embarrassed. If a customer heard the conversations in that place they would walk out! Who knows, maybe they did!
So one day I came in and was looking at the calendar. Some of the Sundays were circled. I tried to figure out why. Then I realized it was the Sundays the Mets were home. I had told her that I had Sunday Season tickets to the Mets. Then I noticed a note for me next to the calendar. It said, "Just a friendly reminder that I need you to work Saturdays and Sundays from now on. Hmmmm....interesting that the calendar is circled next to it.
At that point I figured this was not going to work out for me. So I pretty much told her I thought if she found more than one candidate for the position, that I would be willing the help train them and that she could hire two people. She was annoyed and thought it was because I was unhappy. I just wanted to work part time and get my business going and it seemed she needed more.
When I got home and was eating dinner I got a call that she found someone to replace me and that Friday (it was Wednesday) would be my last day! Funny how for over a month she could not find a person for the other position and today she found someone to replace me and the other position?
I am glad the way it worked out for me. I was glad to get out of that place. In my next post, I will talk about the last three days and the famous Wedding Cake story!

My Externship at Mesa Grill

Part of the Baking and Pastry program required me to spend 200 hours working in either a bakery or restaurant. After spending some time at a few restaurants, I decided to do my externship at Mesa Grill. It was a great experience. Having never spent a day working in the food industry it was quite eye opening. My first few days there was incredibly hot, even for NYC. It was almost 100 degrees for three straight days, not to mention the humidity. Where is the worst place you could be in that heat? In the kitchen! Even the most experienced chefs were saying how intense the heat was. We were all hydrating like there was no tomorrow. We all took towels and continuously soaked them in cold water and put around our necks to stay cool. The pastry chefs I worked with were all great. I really enjoyed working with them. They were very patient with me. I think that first week, I made an impression on them. I was willing to do anything and never let them see that the heat bothered me. I do have to admit, growing up in NYC and not having A/C as a kid, made it a little easier to deal with. Plus, being new, I wanted to make a good impression.
I enjoyed learning everything I could. I think being an extern and helping out, the chefs were grateful because it made their job easier, plus I geniunely think they liked hanging out with me. They included me in their "family meals" each day and were fascinated to learn about what I wanted to do and why at my age, that I was changing careers.
One of the women I worked with had also gone to ICE, so she knew what I was going through. She was a really likable person and was a great teacher. She was patient and made sure that I learned every aspect of the job.
It was funny because I received a phone call from her on a Sunday night a week after I started there. One of the chefs was hurt that night at the restaurant and she wasn't going to be able to make her shift the next day. So they wanted to know if I could come in and take her place. I was amazed that they felt comfortable enough to have me take her place. My coming in made a huge impression on them. They all kept thanking me for weeks. Fortunately, the chef that was hurt wasn't serious.
I really got the sense that all the chefs that I was working for felt comfortable giving me anything to do. I really enjoyed working with each one. They each had different methods of making things so I was able to learn little tricks here and there. I just had to remember who I was working with and use their methods. Sometimes if I forgot and used another chef's method, they would correct me. Everyone has their own way they like to do things, as do I.
Time went extremely fast and before I knew it, my time was up at Mesa Grill. I did miss a couple of chances to meet Bobby Flay. That would have been really cool. Although I am not a big fan of Southwestern Foods, some of his dishes were interesting and a few of the desserts were dynamite (although I must give credit to the Pastry Chef Vicki Wells for that). And thanks to Vicki for allowing me to Extern at Mesa. I learned so much and was impressed that she included me a few times in some of the creations she was making for the new menu!
The only issue I had with working there was that I had to commute from Long Island on the LIRR every day! It seemed that there was always an issue with delays.
If I lived close enough I would have considered working there for a while. They did offer me a full time hob, however, the commute was too much, especially with the hours I would have to work. Nights and weekends would have been a nightmare to commute to LI.
All in all, it was a great experience!
Until next time, folks, have a great one!

COMPUTER issues!

Sorry folks been away due to computer problems! My HP died. From what we read it might have been a problem with the AC adapter connector in HPs. I got a new Dell Inspiron.
Its been a busy week of graduations here. My niece and nephew both graduated from High School. A busy week of baking a graduation cake and brownies. My nephew loves Carrot cake and I had a great recipe from Culinary School. It came out great. Ill post the picutre in a couple of days. I made these great triple chocolate brownies for my niece. I used three types of chocolate (intense, dark and milk chocolates). They are thick and gooey just like she likes them. They go great with a nice tall glass of cold milk!
I don't have much time today, so I am outta here for now.
Have a great day all!

Going to Culinary School.....

When I left off before I had chosen to switch career paths after 20 years. I entered Culinary School to get a degree in Baking in Pastry Arts. I had taken a 13 week Saturday Class at the Culinary Academy of Long Island. It was a lot of fun. We made cookies, cakes, and assorted pastries. I loved it and realized I needed more training if I was going to take up a career in Pastry.
I visited the French Culinary Institute (FCI) and the Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) both in Manhattan. Both schools seemed of great interest to me. The deciding factors were (1) ICE had only a few months wait to get in and FCI was over 6 months wait (2) ICE provided an Externship as part of their program where as FCI did not and finally (3) the commute was much easier to ICE. I know FCI has a better reputation but ICE has steadily been increasing its reputation.
In visiting the schools, I found the atmosphere to be a little more comfortable. An interesting tidbit, over 75% of the Pastry and Baking students were career changers. Of those, 80% of them came from Financial jobs (mostly Accounting). I think that basically Baking and Finance are similar in that they both deal with math and measurements. It isn't that people mistakenly thought they were registering for Banking and left out the N!
The program consisted of 5 days a week 4 hours a day for 5 months. School wasn't always easy. We were in a class of 12 students. We shared everything. Most of the mixing and baking was done as teams, and the finishing and decorating was done individually.
I had a really good class. Most of the people were in fact, career changers. There was one older woman who was taking it as a hobby. A pretty expensive hobby at that. She probably needed to be in more of a simple class. ICE does offer recreational courses that probably suited her better.
We also had a number of foreign students. They were from China, Korea, Brazil, Hong Kong, Bulgaria and New Jersey!
Our chef instructors were fantastic. We had four different instructors. Each had their own specialty. We did breads and doughs, chocolate, various pastries, cakes (including our own Wedding cake).
It wasn't always easy. Of course when dealing with 12 different personalities, there will be some conflicts. Some people aren't as willing to clean up after themselves, some are always looking to leave as early as possible, and some just don't know how to act in groups, especially when dealing with hot ovens and sharp utensils.
There was one incident where the older woman who was doing this as a hobby got severely burned when she poured boiling sugar into a plastic container and then tried to pick it up to throw it in the sink. We were all telling her not to do it, and she did anyhow. It healed ok, but she was in so much pain.
Part of the program was to get an externship at a Bakery, restaurant, or hotel. The school gives you leads and contacts and you are supposed to trail (work with a chef for a shift) to determine if you want to do an externship there. It is a great experience. After trailing at a few places, I chose to do my externship at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill.
I will talk more about that in my next post.
Have a great day!

HOT HOT HOT!

Summer is here! Wow, a scorcher today!
I am glad we BBQ'd a lot of different foods on Friday. There is no need to heat the oven and make the house any hotter than it needs to be today.
I made my famous hamburger recipe only I used ground turkey instead of beef. They were moister than if we just made them plain. We also made Lemon Herb chicken and Garlic Herb Chicken. These were extremely moist and tasty. We had the Chicken Saturday and Sunday and they were still moist! I cut up a Sweet Potato and broiled them in the toaster over with Rosemary and Olive Oil. We have some great toaster oven recipes. In summer, it makes a big difference in the temperature of the house.
Saturday was a beautiful day. We headed to the beach (Robert Moses State Park). We waited over half hour to get in to the parking lot. It was worth every minute. We had our relaxing 2.5 mile walk along the beach. Although, I did not use sunblock and got a slight sun burn!
Sunday was Pride Day in Huntington. Fortunately, we were able to find a spot along the parade route under some trees. It was so much cooler. After the parade, we set up a picnic with a group of friends at the Hecksher Park. There was food, entertainment and booths for vendors and various information. We had our cold tomato and cucumber salad, homemade guacamole and tortilla chips, ham sandwich and cinnamon coffee cakes I had made.
It was a lot of fun even in the heat of the day. The entertainment was various acts, the highlight was Maxine Nightingale singing some old time disco songs. That is my favorite type of music. I could tell by the clouds and heat of the day that we would be hit with some storms, so we started to head home for the day.
After we arrived home and at, we had some strong thunderstorms, and now we are in for a hot and steamy night ahead.
We are looking forward to more wonderful weather in the week ahead.

Monday is SUN day!

Another beautiful day in NY!
We had a mixed bag this weekend, weatherwise. Saturday was a bit of a washout. Although, we did manager to go to a party in the late afternoon and early evening. It was a pretty good party. Good food, good drink, great conversation and entertainment.
The food was pretty much standard party fare. It was catered by an Italian restaurant that we had actually eaten in a few years back. So, you were not going to go wrong with the food from there. I had some chicken marsala and pasta with vodka sauce. They were both delicious. I couldn't stay away from having at least one garlic knot. Although I am sure that kept people away from me for the rest of the night!
Joe's brother's band played throughout the night. Fortunately, the neighbors cooperated and didn't call the police!! They are pretty good. The play the usual 70s and 80s rock type music.
My downfall was the Rainbow cookies that came from the local bakery. They are one of my favorites, although I prefer to have them at holiday time, I couldn't resist!
It was a late night as we didn't get home until after 3am. Fortunately the only plans for Sunday was the Mets game and that wasn't until 8pm.
So we spent a lazy Sunday morning at home. I made some French toast (with whole wheat bread, a few teaspoons of cinnamon, and one of my favorite secret ingredients, nutmeg!)
Of course French toast isn't the same without Syrup! So we, of course, smothered it with syrup!
We took a nice stroll along the beach as it was another beautiful day. The ocean water is still chilly but feels like it is getting warmer! I can't wait to jump in!
We headed home and had an early dinner since I had to leave for the baseball game. It takes about two hours to get there by train (door to seat!). Between the cost of gas and the new stadium being built in the parking lot, I do not drive to the stadium anymore. It only used to take 45 minutes to get there. So, thats the price we pay!
It was a great night for baseball. Perfect temperature, big crowd filled with excitement after the Mets had won in dramatic fashion the day before. Everyone was looking for that excitement again! And the Mets delivered. It was a great game all around. Everyone went home happy after the Mets beat the Dodgers 6-1 and their star pitcher Johan Santana got his 100th career win!
So all in all, it was another great NY weekend!
I hope everyone else enjoyed their weekend!....well except in LA, I know they probably didn't!
That's all for now!
I am signing off for now!
Catch ya later!
PP

Now thats Italian!

My sauteed zucchini with tomatoes and baked with mozzarella cheese!

Happy Weekend!

Hey all!
It's Friday and I know everyone is looking forward to a fun filled and hopefully relaxing weekend! The weather here today is again beautiful. We have had some incredible weather lately! Sunny and low 70's, low humidity!
Yesterday, I spent the day in Westchester having lunch with the folks. We had lunch at a cute little beach restuarant named Sea Side Johnnies in Rye, NY. The weather and food were great. I had a Philadelphia Roll (Smoked salmon, cream cheese and avocado) that was very tasty.
Today was a day of chores, topped off by a nice afternoon stroll on the beach and a delicious dinner. We had Barbequed Turkey Breast (with a peach ginger glaze), homemade saffron rice and my famous sauteed zucchini and tomato salad.
The peach and ginger glaze really made the turkey breats zesty. I used sugar free peach preserves, ginger, Worcesteshire sauce, and thyme.
I have never made saffron rice and it came out great. I used an Organic Chicken Free Broth. I sauteed onions and rice with olive oil first and then added the broth, saffron, salt and pepper. I was a great addition to the Turkey.
Finally, the sauteed zucchini with tomatoes is one of my specialties. I take the zucchini and slice it up, sautee it in olive oil with oregano, thyme, salt and pepper. After the zucchini is browned, I put it in a pyrex dish, with a can of diced tomatoes, a can of stewed tomatoes (yes canned, Rachel Ray would love me!!) and top it with some slices of mozzarella cheese. I broil in in the oven for 15 minutes until the cheese starts to brown.
Put that together with a nice glass of Riesling and I am off to a great night!
If any of this sounds good, let me know if you want any of the recipes!
It's time for a movie. Tonight's showing is Before the Devil Knows You are Dead. I have heard mixed reviews. So I will let you know if it's worth the rental.
Have a great weekend!
PP

Memorial Day Weekend!

Wow, what a beautiful weekend! The weather here on Long Island was the best I can remember on a Memorial Day weekend since I moved here 11 years ago. We had a great weekend. It was very relaxing. Long walks on the beach, lying in the hammock, BBQing in the backyard, sitting on the deck, and Margaritas made this weekend a very memorable one. Hopefully this will be the start of a wonderful summer season. We are looking forward to some great outdoor fun this summer and hopefully the weather will cooperate!
We prepared and enjoyed some great summer foods this weekend. We BBQ'd shish kebobs (beef, onions, peppers, zucchini, and pineapple), fresh corn, Pete's "Special Burgers" (My special recipe), and hot dogs. I made fresh tzatziki for the shish kabobs. It was the best batch I have made to date. I bought a fat free Greek Yogurt that was thicker than I have found in the past. In the past it has been too runny even after draining the yogurt and cucumbers. I think I got the right amount of garlic too, not too strong! We had some nice homemade salads (Red Bliss Potato salad, Cole Slaw, and Tomato and Cucumber Salad). We will be enjoying these for the entire week!
Hopefully everyone enjoyed their Memorial Day Weekend as much as we did.
Until next time.
PP

I'm Baaack, and now for my second post!

So where did I leave off?
Well lets get to the why I changed careers.
It started a few years back. Things at work seemed to be getting to me. At times it was very frustrating. Over the years, it became apparent to me that in order to get ahead fast, you need to, as I like to say, "play the game". I never liked the game. The game consisted of "kissing the right asses", being part of the good ole boys network ("BSing", "talking sports", making side comments about women, playing golf, etc), and of course never going home. You know the routine. I always tried to steer away from all of that. So I just put my nose to the grindstone and worked hard. I figured I should get rewarded for that. But to be honest, it takes a lot longer and you need to work for the right person. The boss that will fight for you because of your work, not the game. For a long time, I never worked for someone like that and then luckily after 15 years I found it. But it was a frustrating 15 years. For the last 7 years, things were good. The hours were still crazy and I was not thrilled about it. But at least I got the recognition and the rewards.
There were rumors at work about the company moving from Long Island. Our lease was up and we either had to renew or move somewhere else. The company hired a consultant to looks for the best place. I will talk more about that some other time!
The beginning of April 2004 was a time in my life I would like to forget. My sister in laws mother passed awat after a long battle with Parkinsons, my beautiful golden retriever Shamrock died of Lymphoma 4 days after his 5th Birthday. The day after that, I found out that my company was moving to Allentown, PA and that I had to either move or lose my job. A week later, my dad had a heart attack and needed triple bypass surgery. I thought bad things happened in threes?
To me, this was a sign. What did the sign mean? I don't know if I will ever know. But I decided that life is short and that I needed to be happier. It wasn't all about money and getting ahead. You can't take it with you. I was tired of the daily grind, working my butt off for someone else, and all the aggravation that goes along with it! And only to have some fat rich bigwig decide what's best for 800 people? It was not a happy last few months of my job, but I was thrilled to get it over.
So what to do next? My partner Joe and I talked it over and we felt that I should do something I liked to do. As long as he had a good job, I could take the time to figure it out. We had the bills covered.
I love to bake, so I took a Saturday class at the Culinary Academy of Long Island and LOVED it! I felt if I wanted to make a career out of it, I needed to learn more, so I enrolled in the Institute of Culinary Education in NYC full time. 5 days a week I made the trek into Manhattan. Again, I LOVED it! It was so much fun.
So what next?? You will have to wait for the next post!!
Haha
To all of my readers ( I dont even think I have any yet!)
Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!
Joe and I are celebrating at home with our own little BBQ, walks on the beach, bike rides to the park and just relaxing in the hammock! It seems everyone we know went away for the weekend!

My Very First Post!

So here I go.
Where do I start?
There once was a man from Nantucket....
no no, not that.
There once was an Accountant from Flushing.....the Flashy Guy from Flushing, not the Nanny, the Flashy Girl from Flushing!
For as long as I can remember, there were two things I really loved to do....
numbers and baking.
When I was a kid I loved to watch sports and keep score. My best friend and I used to play Strat-o-matic baseball and keep statistics of all the games we played.
When I wasn't doing that, I was in the kitchen making all sorts of concoctions, but mostly cakes and cookies. I still remember my first cake. I switched the amounts of water and oil and what a disaster. After baking 2 hours and it still was a puddle I knew something was wrong. But it has been all good since then. And as you can see by the beautiful wedding cake I posted, I have come a long way since that day. I wish I had a picture of that very first cake.
Although I loved baking, I wasn't given much of choice as to which direction my life would go. I wanted to go to Culinary School, but my choice was limited to college first and then I could do culinary after. As things worked out, I got into Accounting and the Business world. I did love working with numbers and I was good at it. So, baking became more of a hobby.
I was making cakes, cookies, pies etc for birthdays, holidays, and parties. So I was able to do both things I loved.
I want to keep these posts short, so that's all for now. I will tell more about my transition in future posts.
Thanks for visiting and please feel free to send emails. I'd love to hear from you and any ideas for posts. Have a good one!

Wedding Cake by Pete