Inspiration Filled Tuesday

This morning we watched Julie & Julia for the first time. Numerous people have told me I needed to see this film because they thought I would relate to it, and the whole being French and baking thing aside, it took finally seeing the movie to understand why.

The movie is funny and touching and all sorts of nice things, especially the scenes in Paris and all the delicious looking French cuisine. Julia Child's story was well played and fairly spot-on, but it's Julie's story that touched me. It reminded me of where I came from - I started my first blog, The Sweet Tooth Blog, a couple of years ago when I had hit a rut in my life and wasn't sure what to do with myself or my free time. So I decided to start baking simple recipes every day and blog about it. I maintained the blog for over a year and with it gained a huge repertoire of recipes, and most importantly, developed my passion for baking. This growing passion led to me applying for and attaining a job as a pastry cook at the Pluckemin Inn for a year and a half. And it followed me to Philly, where I now bake my own variety of coffeeshop type pastries for happy hungry customers. It was nice to be reminded of where I started, and it makes me appreciate where I'm headed.




Want to take a look inside my head a little bit? Take a peek at how I jot down recipes - I break them down to the basics - it's the only way they make sense to me anymore, I'll even rewrite ones from cookbooks because I think all the wordiness is unnecessary once you're familiar with a recipe or technique. Some of my handwritten recipes even only have the ingredients listed at this point and no directions whatsoever. At least I don't have to worry about anyone stealing my secret recipes!




Starting the day off with a movie about what I love doing most put me into baking mode for the rest of the day. I finally put that peanut flour I bought from Trader Joe's to use! I just went with it and made some peanut blondies with dark chocolate ganache. Just pictures for now, but I'll share the recipe next time; they are de-licious.


Oh, peanut flour! You smell just like... peanut butter! But you have the consistency of all-purpose flour!



Mmmmm....

I also made lemon bars because Shawn's been requesting some and we finally had some lemons in the house. The picture isn't great, but to be honest neither are the lemon bars. I always have trouble finding the right crust-to-lemon ratio in my lemon bars. And the crust was too flaky this time- I think I overworked the dough. But Shawn will eat them regardless!




On a side note, we know it's not Halloween yet, and we apologize for the scariness of the next picture, but it's actually just us on a lazy Tuesday afternoon, after realizing that blue M&Ms are the only color M&Ms that leave a stain. Shawn's hands were covered in blue, and I was amused by our tainted tongues. The blue bathroom is only fitting.




It's been a good week so far and we're doing well on posting for October, so we'll try to keep them coming! I have another post coming up that highlights some more tasty meals we've had lately. Shawn made meatloaf and hot wings last week... so stay tuned for photos!