Three Reasons I LOVE Being A Trini!

Three of the reasons I absolutely LOVE being a Trini!

Hilter Reacts to Trini Elections


And...

BRILLIANT!!!


And...


:D


Weeee!

Moving Day

Our apartment isn't modern or gorgeous or spacious... but it was our home and we were so happy there. My car isn't pretty or desirable... but it was the first one I bought on my own, not a vehicle from my dad or a company owned sweet ride, and I was so proud of it. Whatever little we've had I've cherished and I'm sure Wee B would say the same. The very admition to myself that Tuesday is officially the last night that I'll tuck my little girl in in her sweet little room and that Wednesday is the last morning that we'll wake up, sit on our couch, have breakfast together and then tidy up our wonderful little home, is making me feel like I could choke on this grapefruit that's become lodged in my throat. When I drive Zippy to my brother's office tomorrow I know I'm going to sob the whole way there and that sticking up the "for sale" signs will feel like stabbing myself in the heart.


I'm not being negative or wallowing in self pity, I know these things to be true of myself; I'm sentimental, probably to a fault, and if pealing off every single one of Wee B's stickers from their various resting places about the apartment (toilet included) could take me a week and a half to accomplish thanks to delays caused by taking a "minute" to blow my nose whilst crying so hard my nose stuffed up, I know all too well that turning those keys to lock the front door and my car and then handing them over to their new owners is going to be an ordeal of catastrophically heartbreaking proportions! I feel like we are saying goodbye to an old friend. And don't even get me started on the fact that I am going to have to learn to live without having Maria as my neighbor! That thought floats around in my head, wounding me.


I wonder when life will settle down for us. When we'll plant roots that can take a firm hold on the ground beneath us. I know this post has nothing to do with food but I'm coming to the conclusion that this blog, subconciously, was never meant for just bleating on about insane flavor combinations and my blossoming love for tomatoes.


One last thing... I thought long and hard about maybe leaving behind just one sticker, hidden behind her bed or on the underside of her dressing table, just one as a testiment to the life we loved there, but I began to imagine the next tenants finding it and ripping it off, crumpling it up, throwing it away and it was more than I could stand! I took a three hour long break (it was more like a sob-fest) thanks to that thought! I really hope that those new people, the faceless new tenants, love their new place as much as we loved it and that they make themselves a home there.


T minus 3 days and sobbingly counting! I promise a recipe for something divine and sinful as my next post!

So... I Bought A Pair Of Shoes...

I think I deserve to buy myself a little something every now and then. Without going in to the depressing detail, I really can't afford to buy anything for myself. Money, no matter how little, is strictly to be spent on survival these days. I'm thankful that we're just sqeeeaking by but every now and then, just because I work my arse off and need a major moral boast, I buy myself something. I buy myself something and then for ages (read "days", "weeks", "months", sometimes "years") after I am wracked, plagued even, by this all consuming, unshakeable guilt! The kind of guilt that eats you up inside. The kind of guilt that makes me wonder to myself, while I'm towelling off after a shower, whether or not I remembered to soap, so I get back in to the shower and bath again, only to remember when I've reached my legs that I did, infact, lather up the first time. The type of guilt that makes driving under the influence of alcohol, chemical drugs and three doses of Nyquil all in one shot pale in comparison to me behind the wheel of a car whilst hopped up on guilt. The kind of guilt that makes me wonder, while piping eclairs, whether or not I remembered to sugar the water for the pate au choux, pushing me to decide to dump the whole perfectly good batch and start again.

These are the culprits...

The bitches! That's right... Sequins!!! Hidden platform!!! Five inches to the naked eye, four to stand on!!! PINK(!!!) SKULLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Shoe orgasm! 

I've cuveted these babies for about three months now. I, literally, tried them on about 10 times. I'm sure the little sales girl (who is Selena Gomez's identical twim and just does not know it yet) rolled her eyes repeatedly and groaned everytime she saw me coming, taking bets with her co-workers about the fact that I'd never actually buy them! That particular pair has my foot smell in them I'm sure! Sadly, no amount of footwear territory marking could stop them from being sold.

So now I have a gorgeous pair of shoes en route from Canada... And I love them... I've planned an outfit around them... Even down to the earrings... But I feel so effin' shitty about them! So shitty I cried last night and I am DREADING their arrival, poor little things, no one to welcome them home. Not even a healthy dose of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!-MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!-HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!-MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! To ME" is remedying my buyer's remorse! Ugh!!! Rahh!!!

I day-dream at length about guilt free purchasing power!

Menu: Daily Cookie (others)

Menu: Daily Cookie (others)

 

Alfajores - Two tiny shortbread cookies sandwiched together with dulce de leche then rolled in

                 coconut  or dredged in powdered sugar.

Dustbin - EVERYTHING... literally! Ingredients are a secret until you've eaten one and admitted it was

               awesome!

Ugly Chocolate Chip - Some of the best things in life aren't pretty... These cookies are like that!

                                   They're ugly but the taste is a thing of beauty.

Rasta Bars - Seven layer cookies in black, red, yellow and green.

Brownie Cookies - All the goodness of a brownie but in cookie form!

To be continued...

New Additions and/or Corrections

Eclairs

Pastry - Ginger Choux
Fillings - Caramel Ginger Pastry Cream
Toppings - Sugar Glass
                 Spiced Sugar Glass


Eat It Too... Cakes

Cakes - S'mores cake is getting a name change... Because it has zero Graham (spelling?) 
             crackers in it I think calling it a S'mores cake is a little silly. So its a Hot Chocolate
             cake now! : D
             Shadow cake
             German Chocolate cake            

Discs - Graham (again... spelling?) cracker
            German coconut

Frostings - Green Tea butter-cream
                                     

Daily Cookie's 'Cookies For'

Inspired by my friend Gloria Neira I really want to get this idea off the ground... It formed in my head years ago and finally, there's a platform for it.

"Cookies for" is a cookie with purpose. Every month I'm going to change the design and all the proceeds from their sales will go directly to which ever charity, school or person its been designed in aid of. When things get a little more lucrative I'm hoping to match all the sales to double the help. They're your basic sugar cookie, dressed royally and decorated with organization logos or drawings from kids in whichever school is picked for the month.

So please look out for "Cookies for" and help people who really need it. I'll post a list and pictures as soon as all this moving craziness has died down.

And please check out Surfers Healing at www.surfershealing.org Autism is a cause very dear to my family's heart and we've seen what riding programs and the very nearness to a horse can do to open a window in to the world of an autistic child's mind. Sport is so vitally important to all of us and if we can communicate with our children through such a healthy means then its worth all the help you can offer!

When you're done over at Surfers Healing please check out E.P.I.C. or Everyday People Initiating Change at www.epicthemovement.org These ladies are absolutely awesome!

Sorry if this is kinda rushed but the moving craziness is exactly that... CRAZINESS! :)

Menu: Eclairs

Menu: Éclairs

Pastry

classic, chocolate and chocolate black pepper

Fillings

- classic vanilla pastry cream.

- chocolate pastry cream (dark, milk or white chocolate)

- toasted coconut cream

- Grand Marnier mousse

- rose scented pastry cream

- white chocolate mousse with candied lime peel

- mango ginger mousse

- banoffee mousse

- violet and chocolate pastry cream

- spiced caramel

- buttered popcorn

- fruit infused cream cheese (mango, guava, golden apple, banana, strawberry)

- spiced pastry cream (cardamom, nutmeg, curry, anise, masala)

Glazes

- dark, semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate ganache

- caramel

- spiced caramel

- flavored poured fondant (pineapple, lychee, butter, anise, peppermint)

Extras

- crumbles (coffee toffee, nut brittle, spiced nuts, dried fruit, toasted pumpkin seeds,

                 chocolate covered nuts, seeds or fruit bits) 

* Custom flavors and combinations very welcomed!

Babies... The Best Things Ever Baked!

In less than a week our family has welcomed two new babas. On June 14th Jessica gave birth to a beautiful melody... Wee little Lyric Pheonix. She's beautiful and precious and definitely a blessing like no other to her parents and her two big brothers!

At 12.04am today my big brother Jose became a daddy on father's day!!! He was scheduled to fly out to Miami today to make it in time for the birth, due July 1st and when Leisha called yesterday morning to say she thought her water had broken, understandably he was a mess! After many calls to airlines and friends with private planes he got on the 3-something flight to Miami from Barbados and we prayed, until he finally landed, that he would make it on time. And he did! He got there with an hour to spare before Leish started pushing and an hour and some of pushing later (VERY glad I 'm not built for natural child birth when I hear stories like these!) my new little nephew, Jonah Luke Hayden Franco, was born!!!

I know exactly how Leish and Jos must be feeling... Its like seeing the world with your new baby's eyes... Everything feels  right with the world... And love never felt so overwhelming and completeing!

We love you Jonah Luke Hayden Franco and we can not wait to meet you and claim our titles as "Favourite Big Cuzy" and "Favourite Aunty"!!!

Congratulations Jos and Leish!!!! Welcome to the best club in the world!

Menu: Daily Cookie

Menu: Daily Cookie (custom)

Daily Cookie custom cookies are each hand cut from templates made specifically for your order. Hand piped with royal icing, the finished product is a truly delicious and unique cookie to match your theme, event or logo.

Flavors - Classic sugar cookie dough with a twist.
- Chocolate sugar cookie dough
- Vegan sugar cookie

Decoration
- Royal icing
- Lemon royal icing
- Poured fondant
- Cut fondant
- Chocolate clay (dark, milk or white chocolate)
- Vegan royal icing


Embellishments
- Sugar sprinkles
- Edible glitter
- Luster dust
- Metallic dragée
- Rainbow dragée
- Sugared flowers
- Candy rocks

Presentation
All Daily Cookie cookies can be put in to lollipop sticks.


* Please note, pricing for Daily Cookie is based on size of cookie and labour and as such can not be provided before consultation.

Menu: Stuffed

Menu: Stuffed

Beef Burgers
All beef... seasoned properly... handled with care... lovingly thumb printed for even cooking.

Chicken Burgers
All chicken... seasoned properly... handled with care... lovingly thumb printed for even
cooking.



Stuffed Burgers

Beef, bacon, cheese and onion - All beef burger stuffed with your choice of cheese and generous amounts of bacon and caramalized onion.

Garlic bombshells - These are AMAZING! No really, amazing. But they're scorching hotand need lots of air blown on them before you sink your teeth in.

The Vulgarity - All beef or chicken, stuffed with bacon, American Cheese, pepperjelly caramalized onions, sauteed mushrooms, shredded pickles and pepper slaw.

Lambert - ... had to... sorry. Lamb patty stuffed with what else, mint jelly!- Pork Chops and Apple Shaush... Pork patty with caramalised apple in the middle.

Menu: Eat It Too... Cakes

Menu: Eat It Too… Cakes

What good is a beautiful cake if the satisfaction of your senses ends with sight? Seriously, our cakes are beautiful to look at but they've got something for every sense... Touch - excellent "mouth feel"; Taste - second to none; Smell - like someone should bottle it; Sound - "oh... my... God" is my new favourite combination of words. The combinations are limitless and so are the ways they can be decorated. I guarantee that you're not just getting a pretty or blow mind cake from us, that gorgeous creature will deliver on everything else as well!

Cake Flavors
- Standard chocolate
- Standard vanilla
- Red velvet
- Jamaica rum
- Sweet and salt
- Chocolate olive oil
- Chocolate chip
- Malted chocolate
- Banana caramel
- Hummingbird
- Marble
- Chocolate beet
- Mango cream
- Peanut butter
- Chocolate mint
- Dulce de Leche
- Chocolate cherry
- Coca Cola
- White chocolate
- Trinidad black cake
- Spice cake
- Chocolate cayenne pepper
- East 62nd St. lemon
- Lemon poppy seed
- Pistachio cream
- Carrot
- Coconut cream
- Bajan cherry coconut
- Tiramisu
- Ginger cardamom
- Pina colada
- Pineapple upside down
- Tres leches
- Pumpkin coconut
- Sweet pesto
- Curry coconut
- Pound cake
- Chocolate pound
- Malteser
- S’mores

Frostings
- Vanilla butter-cream
- Cherry vanilla butter-cream
- Mango ginger butter-cream
- Peanut butter butter-cream
- Chocolate butter-cream
- Malted chocolate butter-cream
- Chocolate mousse (dark, milk or white chocolate)
- Stabilized whipped cream
- Dulce de leche
- Fruit cream
- Fruity cream cheese
- Basil berry butter-cream
- Chocolate cayenne or jalapeno cream
- Chocolate curry butter-cream
- Olive oil butter-cream
- Malt ball cream paste
- Golden syrup butter-cream
- Standard cream cheese frosting
- Lime cream cheese frosting

Disks
- Malteser crumb
- Chocolate (dark, milk or white chocolate)
- Caramel crunch
- Golden Syrup
- Brittle crunch
- Bubble sugar
-Chocolate chip cookie pie

Covers
- Marzipan
- Classic fondant
- Marshmallow fondant

Embellishments
- Pastillage
- Classic fondant
- Marshmallow fondant
- Brulees
- Hot shaped sugar


* Please note, pricing for Eat It Too… Cakes is based on flavor, frostings, disk, cover, embellisments, size, technicality, required structural elements and labor and as such can not be provided before consultation.

*Any cakes that involve more work than simply frosting the finished cake itself will require at LEAST two weeks notice before due date.

Ultraviolet (remake) by Stiff Dylans

I LOVE this song! I really do. And I particularly love this remake!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQKlZ891z6c&feature=related

Going Home... OR... The UpMarket Menu

So Wee-B and I are headed home for the summer. Yes! The SUMMER! I refuse to believe it will be any longer than that. Maybe I should start a blog and call it something like "Desperately Mothering" or "Yes I Broke Your Immigration Laws Without Meaning To But Must You Punish Me For Trying To Make It Right?!?!" There's a lot of 'splaining to do and not enough space on the internet to blab about it on but for now... To all the other single mothers out there I say to you that with all our faults and desperate decision making I'm am proudest to be a member of our team than of any other!!!

Okay stop crying... Type on!

Right... While we're in Trinidad (by the way Trinidad I've been meaning to congratulate you on finally waking to ass up!) I have finally decided to take a stall at UpMarket. Well maybe. Ugh! I am no good at making decisions outside of the kitchen... "Will this chocolate cake taste just as delicious if I sneak in some basil and a dash masala???" Poof! Magic! "Should I take a chance and invest some of my seriously pitiful "savings" in a stall at UpMarket???" Late nights... Crickets chirping... Yes! WAIT!! No! Well maybe... I don't know! Monster headache!

Just what exactly is UpMarket? Its Trinidad's answer to the farmer's market. Its funny... I look back on facebook albums dedicated to Brighton and the description of each one goes a little something like "If we ever have to go back to Trinidad, farmer's market is what I'll miss most about Bim!" and here I am, faced with this "what if", and welcoming me warmly back is a little something dreamed up by a foreigner, coxing me in to a state of "well maybe this won't be so bad!"

To date UpMarket has opened only once. It was held on the 12th (I think) of June at my old high school and won some pretty awesome reviews! I'm glad the Trinis are happy because there is no kind of slander like the filthy brand we spew if we think something failed or was pretentious! The next date is July 10th, same venue, a hop, skip and a jump from where we will be staying, giving me exactly 9 days to start cooking for this &alreadyIamhavingpalpatationsan&openinganexcelspreadsheetinanattemptatschedulingmyselfintofeelinglikeIcandothis!
When I worry my fingers can find the spacebar!

Here's what I figured... I'd pick one brilliant and gimmicky menu to rope the crowd in, use that as my main draw, and then feature one or two items from my other menus, thank you folks for stopping by and forking over your money, here's a menu/book to take home with you, hope that coxinha wins you a proposal! So... Without further blabbage... Here is my menu (maybe) for UpMarket (so far):


Feature Menu: Meat Candy

Meat Candy - Dulce de Leche and Cream Cheese Buns With Bacon
Bacon Caramels
Bacon, Cheese and Caramalized Onion Stuffed Steak Burgers
Bacon Jam
Bacon Brittle

Hot Buns - Plain Dulce de Leche and Cream Cheese Buns
Euro Hotdog Buns
Pizza Buns (if I can't do the hotdog buns)

Eat It Too... Cakes - Sweet and Salt Cake with Fleur de Sel
Hummingbird Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Daily Cookie - Sugar Cookies in various shapes and pipings

The V Word - Vegan Sugar Cookies
Vegan Ice Cream Sandwiches

Tooth Rot - Bruleed Snow Eggs
Pina Colada Mousse

Stuffed - Coxinha


That sounds like a lot right?! I'm checking myself for fever as I type this. Sure I'm going to scale WAY down but I definitely HAVE to get at least the bacons, the buns, the cookies and the coxinha in come hell or high water!

Think I need to lie down!

MasterBaker... Everything You Didn't Know You Wanted To Know.

My name is Carla and my main priority in life is my little girl. Let's call her Wee-B.

When I lost my job almost a year ago I developed a nasty case of insomnia and worry-wortitis, dreadful afflictions both of them. On a regular basis my mind exists in a state of constant over-drive. With all this free time on my hands and financial worry on my plate, I had to find a way to silence the "helpful suggestions voices" that my mother, sisters, brothers, friends, family from far and wide had planted that competed for the soap box in my head with my own particularly loud and panicked voice. So I started cooking. And I cooked my little heart out from sun down to sun up and sporadically (I've been watching Clueless :D ) throughout the day. It wasn't until I came up with my addictive dulce buns that I decided to put my revived talent and wasted electricity to good use. The result... My sister the pervert, we call her Evil, dubbed my little company MasterBaker. And the rest, and all of it to come, is one tasty, sinful, food orgy!

I've been in to cooking since I was young. From 15 to 17 I worked in the kitchen of a restaurant my father designed, off and on during school breaks and weekends. I sacrificed liming (see Trini Speak link) with friends, parties and even vacations for sweaty hours enthusiasticall learning the basics from my Chef. The only way my parents were able to force me to make my confirmation was by promising me trips to the gourmet store on the way home from church. My daddy and I spent EVERY Sunday of life, to the day he died, with few Sunday misses, cooking for my family. Food means love in my life dictionary so what better way to love myself after the blow of job loss than to dive back in to the world of food?

Wee-B loves to cook and that makes me so happy! She's saving up for her very own Rachel Ray kid's knife set, complete with safety glove and blade saver! She makes awesome sauces and she's not in the slightest bit squeemish about the fact that the blue hairy crab that has been living in a pail in our bathroom is, this Sunday in fact, destined for a huge pot of kallaloo (again, Trini Speak) and I will be doing the killing (gulp!). She makes perfect, round arepas and sniffs herbs like Ewan McG (I LOVE this man!) sniffed powder in Trainspotting! She's is wonderful and amazing in so many ways and I absolutely adore our time together in the kitchen!

My approach to cooking is somewhat like a loaded and derailed freight train flailing headlong at a wall. I put "crap" in to "things" and don't tell people the secret ingredients until they've finished telling me how awesome said "thing" is. I enjoy making something out of nothing and I truely believe that as long as I have 12 or so eggs in my fridge we will never go hungry. We might get bored but hungry we will never be. Like any self respecting Trini I put pepper, in copius amounts, in EVERYTHING! One of my best sellers is my chocolate black or cayenne pepper pate au choux with a pepper jelly cream filling eclair. I'd put masala in most things given the chance and spice is my life! I prefer cooking sweet things but thats only because my sweet tEEth prefer sampling and adjusting things that tickle their fancy. I make the best flaky pastry now thanks to one courageous recipe from my hero, Pierre Herme and I loose my patience with macarons on a regular basis. When I cook, I curse. When I feed people, I smile. I'd burn almost everything I bake if I could because in my opinion, a good char is heaven.

If you want to contact me about any of my menus please email me at master.baker.barbados@gmail.com. Follow me on facebook. And please don't bark about my prices... If you don't want to pay what my labor is worth please buy a generic cake from your supermarket.

One last thing... I'm sure this is littered with really horrendous typos and grammatical errors but I'm really lazy when it comes to proof reading. You'd never guess I've been published! Gotta love editors!