A week off

As we head to the final weekend in June, I'm going to take the weekend off.  Sorry to say there will be no food this weekend.

But next weekend is chocolate mousse and almond cakes with blueberries and cream.

As we head into the final days of June, I'm preparing for a period of more than a month with no teaching.  And the plan is for me to use all that free time for making food, trying new recipes, doing updates to my recipe database, and other related activities.  

I hope to completely finish the initial entry of all remaining recipes into my database and then begin proofreading everything.  Once it's done, I will have everything organized and in a format that will be very convenient and very efficient.  I was hoping to have it done a couple months ago, but to be honest, it's not that much fun to update.  I don't feel much reward from doing it.  But I will feel reward from getting it done.  And that's one of the most important things I want to get done during the month of July.  After that, as new recipes are added, it will be easy to maintain.  It's typesetting all the existing recipes in this new format that is time-consuming and brain-numbing.

In addition to the database updates, I have several foods I'm working on as special requests from different people.  These include a sandwich with sauce, a strawberry cream cake, a yellow cake, macarons, a new ice cream, and a new cookie.  Plus I want to work on cinnamon rolls which I have been promising everyone for a long time, and also buns for sloppy joes and other sandwiches.  And let's not forget the continued work on something I've already started -- a pasta meat sauce.

Someone might say, "Can't you just get any old recipe and use that?" (for the pasta meat sauce, for example) -- but the answer is a resounding, "No!"  I experiment, I tweak, I adjust, I test, I test some more, and finally I end up with a recipe that I've made my own, one that has certain qualities in the finished product that I love.  It certainly takes time, but it's worth it.  When it's done and added to the full menu, the recipe has been tested and sampled, and the printed copy has notations I've added regarding the technical procedure for making it in addition to how to prepare certain ingredients.  Everything is written so that not only are the proper ingredients in very specific quantities detailed but also how to mix or fold, how long to let it sit, what kind of baking vessel to use, etc.

So July will be a vacation month, but a busy vacation month.  And that sounds fine to me.