Full day and late night cooking

spritz cookies mise en place

Some days are so busy that it is incredible to think about after they have finished and you wonder how you did it all.  But at the same time those days can be enormously rewarding despite being ridiculously busy.

Today started early.  Up before dawn, I did some prep work on several things to make in the kitchen today and then hit the piano for a while, practicing some Beethoven, Chopin, and Busoni.  By mid-morning I was alternating between teaching piano lessons and cooking, and that alternation lasted for the rest of the morning and much of the afternoon.

When my last student left as the afternoon turned into evening, I put on Star Trek Deep Space Nine on the television and turned my attention to Stage 2 of the creation of palets d'or for some weekend orders.  Stage 1 is making a thin but large devil's food sheet cake and then cutting rounds after it has been chilled.  Stage 2 is making the chocolate cream that will be piped around and over double layers of cake for each dessert and then all the individual small cream-covered cakes go into the freezer.  Stage 3 comes tomorrow morning when the intense chocolaty glaze is made and then poured hot over the frozen desserts where it completely covers and immediately begins to set over the frozen cream.  It is a two to three day process to make these so that each part gets enough time to chill down before the next is done.  It is well worth the effort for these amazing desserts.

At the same time I was making the chocolate cream, I had apple turnover filling slowly simmering on the stove, caramelizing sugars, softening apples until they are extremely tender.  I do not like firm apples in pies or tarts.  For my taste they need to be very soft and extremely flavorful from simmering a long long time.

I followed that with setting up the few ingredients necessary for spritz cookies for weekend orders.  Those will be made tomorrow morning, but they won't take long as I've made them so many times that efficiency and precision are automatic.  And earlier in the day when I alternated multiple times between teaching piano lessons and cooking, two batches of different peanut cookies were made and baked, and French butter cookies were made so that the dough could chill overnight before baking tomorrow.   In addition to all that, I added a couple new items today to the Bruce Bakery and Bistro full menu (the two different peanut butter cookies that were made today).

Somehow during all that time I still managed to play a couple games of chess online with people in other parts of the world.  And I even have everything cleaned up in the kitchen to boot!

That sounds incredibly busy and it was.  In fact as I write this the clock has passed 10:00 PM and I just realized that other than a couple peanut butter cookies, I have neglected to eat anything all day long.  I suppose I had better put something in me before I go to sleep tonight.  I'm in the middle of one of the Lord of the Rings movies and my cat is impatient for me to head to sleep as he likes to cozy up on the comforter while I watch a little television or read as I prepare for sleep.  He's pacing around and watching what I do.  He knows my routine, how to read my actions, and he's meowing from time to time, wondering when I will finally head to bed.

As busy as this day was, when considering all those great things I got to do, it wasn't a chore to be so busy.  Piano, cooking, Star Trek, chess, The Lord of the Rings, teaching .... these are all things that provide me with considerable enjoyment.  It was a full day with time well spent.  And when I see my kitchen counters with cookies under wraps on trays, and apple turnover filling chilling in the refrigerator, and palets d'or chilling and waiting for the final chocolate glaze tomorrow morning, I see things that I did that were worthwhile.  Many people in the world go to work each day doing something that is only bearable because it provides a living for them.  I get to do things all day long that exercise intellect and creativity, that allow for me to be spontaneous but also well-planned, that make me feel like I am doing something that is meaningful both to me and to others.  In the end I consider myself fortunate.