Sounds of Haiti

Awakened
Crowing roosters, barking dogs
No need for an alarm clock
A woman speaking in a foreign tongue, selling her wares
Voices outside, socializing as they prepare the morning meal
I can hear you Jesus

Working
Songs come from the lips of laboring men, to help them pass the day
Motorcycles, whiz by with Haitians riding three or four deep
Water comes splashing, pouring out into buckets, but not without effort
Crackling fire, it is meal time, a relief from the exhaustion the morning brings
I can hear you Jesus

Children
Shouting “blanco” and asking me “What is your name?”

Giggling at my efforts to speak Creole

Cheering, clapping, laughing after a victorious soccer match

Sometimes silence, smiling, slipping their tiny hand in mine

I can hear you Jesus

Day’s end

The sound of competition on the basketball court

Praises pouring from a small church

My pencil scratches furiously on the page

Recounting the events of the day

I can hear you Jesus

Catering My First Wedding

My friend Mayuko gave me a great opportunity to do her cake for her wedding, which was this past weekend.  I felt honored that she asked me to do 80 cupcakes and a bride and groom cake for her ceremony and reception, which took place at the Ridley Creek State Park mansion.  It was a beautiful setting and a perfect day for her and Lloyce to get married.  I was also able to meet her parents and sister, who all traveled from Japan for the week.  Mayuko was a beautiful bride and all her hardwork in planning the wedding really paid off.

Fortunately, I was able to take a couple vacation days from work prior to catering Mayuko's wedding.  I hadn't baked such a large amount at home before, and if you've ever been in my apartment, you know how much I am lacking in counter space.  Nonetheless, I was able to maximize the space as much as I could.  Mayuko chose red velvet and lemon pound cake cupcakes, and a strawberry shortcake bride and groom cake.  I figured that the baking would be the easiest and fastest part of the entire process, but I was very wrong.  The first batch of red velvet came out burned badly on the bottom of the cupcakes.  I couldn't figure out what happened, except that it was a fairly new recipe and that I should have tried it out before that day.  I continued on with the lemon, and those burnt as well.  I eventually realized (after getting an oven thermometer and testing the temperature) that the oven was over-heating by 50 degrees.  Not a good time to be having oven problems!  After a lot of burned cupcakes and keeping an eye on the oven, I was able to regulate the temperature. 

The cupcakes were iced in a cream cheese icing in ivory, teal, and tan, piped on in a swirl pattern.  They also had an edible shimmer dust sprinkled on top.  The bride and groom cake was an American sponge cake also iced in cream cheese with strawberries layered in the middle.  Surprisingly, I was able to fit all the cupcakes in my refrigerator, which was quite a feat!  I was most nervous about transporting everything 40 minutes away on a hot and humid day.  After cranking up the air conditioning in the car, and with the help of Wilmina and her mom, we got everything there intact and in one piece!  I was so relieved.

This was quite the learning experience for me, and I definitely would change the way I did a few things the next time around.  I was pretty happy with the set-up and overall outcome of the presentation.  After all that work, I didn't even eat cake at the wedding! 

Eat, Pray, Love

For the first time in awhile, I went to a movie on opening day.  I decided to go see Eat, Pray, Love, a movie based on the book of the same name by Elizabeth Gilbert.  I read the book two years ago during my trip to Hawaii, and was able to relate to it in many ways.  While I am not a 35 year-old divorcee traveling the world to "find myself", there were some themes in the book that really spoke to me.  The book is basically Gilbert's diary of her life as she stumbled through a divorce, found new love, found God, then decided to travel to Italy, India, and Bali for three months.  While in Italy, Liz (played by Julia Roberts) found a deeper connection to life through the food she enjoyed:  pasta, wine, pizza, and all that is Italian.  As she moved on to India, she attempted to develop a deeper prayer life and was able to reconcile some of her misgivings of the past.  Finally, in Bali, she learned how to fall in love again and really accept who she is.  I thought the book was much better than the movie, but in most cases, it usually is.

This movie did a couple things for me.  First of all, it has increased my desire to travel even more.  I would say that I'm a fairly avid traveler, but my trips have been mostly in the U.S., with a few exceptions.  I realized that now is the time for me to take advantage of having ample vacation time, being single and (hopefully) fearless to travel to places that I have only thought about.  I have a list started of where I want to go next, with China (to visit my friend Sarah who is teaching English there) at the top of the list, followed by Gabon, and some South American Countries.  I'm going to attempt to do some major planning and organizing to ensure that a trip happens next summer.

Eat, Pray, Love also reminded me that prayer is often not an easy thing.  As Liz struggled with finding her voice to speak to God in the movie, I realize that I have the same problem at times.  Some days I find easy to talk to God and open myself up to hearing His voice, and other days I feel very empty and at a loss for words.  I don't think it's unusual for this to happen at times, but God just wants us to try, even though frustrating.  I want to be able to lessen a lot of the distractions around me that prevent me from being able to focus during prayer.  I want to enjoy silence more, although it is uncomfortable at times.

And of course, eating will always be something I can relate to.  Preparing a meal or recipe for me is like creating a beautiful project that in the end, has great rewards.  It's seeing all the pieces come together to make one whole that will, hopefully, be something that others enjoy as well.  Sometimes my "projects" or recipes don't go as planned, and I able to learn a lesson for the next time of what to do or not do.  Even when I mess up, I am reminded that although I have a culinary school education, that doesn't make me infallible when it comes to cooking (and many other things!)

Recipe of the Week

Heirloom Tomato Salad on Grilled Bruschetta

from one of my favorite chefs, Bobby Flay.  I made this last night, just to try it out, and it ended up being my dinner.  Lots of fresh, zesty flavor.  I'm going to make it for an upcoming party appetizer. 
2 lbs. assorted heirloom tomatoes, diced
1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 Tbsp red-wine vinegar
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup packed basil leaves, thinly sliced
Salt and fresh black pepper
4 1/2-inch-thick slices ciabatta bread

1. Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic, vinegar, 1/4 cup of olive oil, and the basil in a medium bowl and stir to combine. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to allow the flavors to meld.

2. Heat a grill pan over high heat (or a grill to high). Grill the bread on each side until slightly charred, about 30 seconds per side. Remove from the grill and brush the tops with the remaining 2 Tbsp of oil. Mound the bread with the tomato mixture and some of the juices and serve immediately.

Serves 4. Per serving: 290 calories, 22g carbs, 5g protein, no cholesterol, and 22g fat.

When I was in college, I started journaling.  It was something that I looked forward to everyday, the opportunity to put my thoughts down on paper to remain there forever.  I was always excited when I was able to fill up a journal, because that meant I could find a beautiful new book to hold my inner-most thoughts.  I recently was going through my closet and found boxes of old journals. While I didn't read through them, I was reminded of how special they were to me.  Those books held my struggles, fears, successes, joys, failures, and ramblings of nearly ten years. 

I haven't journaled on a regular basis for quite some time now, I've been sporadic at best, but something recently inspired me to start again.  I've always had a love for writing, and that love was re-ignited when I traveled to Haiti.  Traveling to Haiti was something that I didn't really expect to do, as the decision was made about a month and a half before the trip.  I had wanted to go to Africa this summer, possibly to Gabon, but those plans didn't work out.  It would be an understatement for me to say that this trip to Haiti was life-altering, which I will share much more about in the future.  But for now, in the context of writing, Haiti brought me back to journaling.  At the end of long, hot days, I would sit out on the porch of our house and write pages until my hand hurt about the events of the day, things that inspired me, shocked me, brought tears to my eyes, and brought me laughter.  I couldn't get enough of my journal.  I felt like my senses were on overload, and I had to get every sound, smell, sight onto the page in the best way I knew how. 

So now, this new blog becomes my public journal.  While it takes on a more public format, my hope is that it does what all those old journals reminded me of:  stories of experiences that molded, transformed, and sometimes, made no sense at all.