Dinner Time :)

So tonight I'm taking a break from making sweets...that's right, I cook, too :) The plan is risotto...chock full of chantrelle and crimini mushrooms, vidalia onion, peas, and plenty of thyme...I am soooooo excited. Jerry gets to taste my home cookin' at last haha! It will be so delicious. I think the plan next is either homefries, because let's be honest everyone, I do make the best...or maybe red flannel hash! It's the season, fo sho. ORRRRRR...butternut squash lasagna! I am 100 % starving, and also salivating....can't wait to start cooking xoxoxoxox

Pnut Butter Blossoms!!!!!

Today, i'm working. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I so do not want to serve people! However...Michelle (Bubbles!) and I are making cookies for the football-y stuff later :) We are going to make peanut butter blossoms! (for those of you who don't know...those are the pb cookies that have little hershey kisses nestled atop their golden brown peaks.) By request, of course...and I'm more than happy to oblige :-) Yay! Nothing better than baking on a chilly day!

<3 Victoria!

4-EVA

Holy crap, everybody...it's been forever! January 16th was the last entry! I am disappointed to inform you that I'm no longer baking full time. However, I am pleased to report that I have indeed still been at the old mix-and-whip. I've had a request for key lime pie! Little out of season, maybe, but indeed one of my favorites to make, and of course, EAT! I always make the standard graham cracker crust, but I use cinnamon-sugar grahams, add toasted coconut and ground, toasted almonds to it...with, of course, plenty of butter :) Oh, happy little pie. I can't wait!

Also, my birthday is less than two months away, so I am planning my birthday bash extravaganza and i'm very excited about coming up with a crazy cake!!! I'm thinking red velvet with the marshmallow icing...I keep trying to broaden my personal taste horizons, but it just keeps coming back to that dense red luciousness with its fluffy teal marshmallow frosting cushion resting daintily on top. You can't beat the color contrast either. It's striking. Last year was the breakfast-for-dinner bash, complete with my veggietastic homefries, banana and zucchini bread french toast, and bloody marys. One of my dear friends (Alyssa!) made my cake, which was a decadant black forest cake, dripping with dark, sweet cherries and bejeweled with sparkling tufts of whipped cream. YUM! I am now going to get a snack...thinking about all this has awakened my desire for lunch.

Well, adieu for now friends....more very soon! <3

Ahoy from...ah....yup, still Burlington

Hey there everyone! It's been awhile...still baking o'course, but this time at Fresh Market Cheese Outlet Bakery on Pine Street...meaning I'm still in Burlington. AAAAAAAaaaaaagggggh! You know, one day I do plan to get on outta here. However, I do love my job. I get to work with awesome girlies who love to bake as much, if not more than I do! Cool peeps, creative freedom, elbow deep in cookie dough....(imagine very contented sigh....now!)

I'm working through some personal poopie as well at the moment, but have no fear! My sparkly joie-de-vie will prevail! Though, I would appreciate some happy vibes sent in my general direction if ya got any to spare...I love you all and I'll be back in the bake blog mode in a snap...promise!

Cake, cake, cake...blondies!

And now, news from the cakefront...there are sweets to be had...even when life isn't so sweet. Not to be overly dramatic, but I find myself in the throes of yet another boy (or man, rather, since he's got 10 years on me...oh shut up) fiasco...living loving and losing. And still baking away. The dude is moving away far away...to WA to be a part of the reality that, unfortunately for me, does not include me. Apparently our feelings are very much not the same when it comes to pain of leaving/being left. I am incredibly unhappy to report that this incurable romantic, willing to go to the ends of the earth and beyond in her search for real true love, finds herself no more than simply a summer fling. Ouch. I think I need a cookie. That's right, everybody. The skinny girls gonna go eat her feelings. Think I might have two. Oh, Zack. You're a big ass. And now I'll be one, too.

And the beat goes on....

All right, folks...after much time spent slinging cocktails and spending daylight hours being hungover, thanks to free and cheap drinks, looking for work and generally BSing around (mostly watching HBO and eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches) I find myself waiting for the meaning of life to hit me hard in the face. Not having any real luck here, I've finally found a couple of new jobs and things are looking up! And I'm baking again like crazy!

It's true, I'm not in school at the moment, but that doesn't mean I'm not still teaching myself everything I can about baking, cooking, and decorating cakes...I just started work at Juniors, waiting tables in the evenings, and started working over at the Fresh Market bakery. I've spent my first 3 days there mixing and scooping cookies, making crumb pies (cherry-raspberry-rhubarb & peach-blackberry!), decorating and putting together an 8" heath bar cake [chocolate cake with milk chocolate ganache filling, caramel, and brown sugar cream cheese frosting complete with crushed heath bars on the sides of the cake].

It's wonderful because everyone at FM is talented, knowledgeable, creative, and driven...what an excellent atmosphere in which I find myself continuing on the way to baking paradise...more to follow...this week should be a full one. My nephew, Colin, is turning 1 on August 19th so I'll be coming up with a great big yummy cake for him....plus I'm putting together a fondant tutorial for 2 friends in the near future...need to get more luster dust in gold and pearl...so much baking, so little time! A bientot, lovelies...in the meantime I'll be spreading the love, one cupcake at a time :)

Oy, no CIA for me....

I would like to cry...stamp my feet, throw myself on the floor and beat my fists against the incredibly unfortunate series of events that have just unfolded before me....however, I must be "mature" and tell myself that things happen for a reason...and that eventually whatever will be will be...it's part of the plan...whatever....I cannot be positive about it right now.

As it turns out, there will be no school for me at the moment...or anytime in the next year. Things just did not come together as planned...I need to work things out in my personal life and get my finances in order before that can happen. So, really it's not the fault of the universe that I can't attend school now. Actually it has a lot to do with me, and there are a couple things you should know everyone! I have decided after much deliberation that I would like to study the general culinary arts as opposed to just baking...there is time for baking in my future, but I don't want to exclude cooking in general...it's a dream of mine to open a "real" restaurant one day that will focus on local, seasonal ingredients and incorporate many ethnic ideas to make truly bangin' fusion food. And perhaps maybe one day go on Top Chef. and Win. And use the $100, 000 to open my bakery. Ha! Just wait, guys...it will happen! Victoria's not going down just because school is not in the cards just now...that's the great thing about cooking! You don't absolutely need to go to school...I think I'm motivated enough to be in charge of my learning for now. As long as I maintain my motivation and drive to succeed in the culinary world!!!

In the meantime, I will be working at a couple new places! I will miss Sneakers, but I will be cocktailing at the 1/2 Lounge, so if anyone misses me, you can come over to the lounge and I will serve you fancy drinks! I have an interview tonight at Drink as well, so wish me luck, guys! Keep your fingers crossed for me!