At home in the kitchen

Something happened a few months ago in my house that has both present and future significance. My daughter has taken a genuine interest in cooking...well that's not entirely accurate. Her interest is more specifically in baking. For anyone that knows my daughter, its common knowledge that she's a picky eater. Lot's of kids are; but for a chef and foodie, its a bit of a bummer. The good news is she loves almost everything in the pastry world...breads, pastries, candies, etc. The reason this is good news has nothing to do with nutrition of course but instead for learning the art and craft of cooking. Over the last few weeks we have tackled a handful of recipes: cakes, breads, donuts, meringues, and even stepped into the savory kitchen to make gnocchi. That's what this entry is about. Great friends of ours were coming to stay for the weekend and a request was made for gnocchi with mushrooms, peas and truffle. The light bulb went off in my head...its just like making any other dough, my daughter will dig this....

Granted she never tasted the final creation but hey, that's not really the point.
I mentioned this has significance...here's why. As my daughter learns the skills of frosting cakes, rolling out doughs and much more, she is opening her eyes to possible career paths. It's a creative outlet and skill that really can pay the bills and after almost 25 years in kitchens, I can tell you that you never go hungry and you'll always have friends.

Tomorrow we are making hard candy and you can bet she'll be trying that....