Pastry chefs always seem to get stuck with more extra work than others in a typical restaurant kitchen. Someone in the dining room was served the wrong entree? Give them free desserts. Need something extra for a VIP banquet for 300 people tonight? Have the pastry department whip up several hundred petit fours. It takes superb organizational skills and excellent improvisational skills to be a pastry chef which is probably the main reason they are able to handle such things. Here is maybe the most common example: the chef approaches the pastry chef and says, “I have 3 cases of something that’s going bad - use them up.” That’s an easy one, just make some ice cream.

I always like to think that anything can be made into an ice cream, so whatever extra ingredients you have on hand can be used to whip something up. Since I’ve been making many marshmallows lately, especially for the FiFis last Tuesday, I’ve had lots of extra egg yolks lying around, plus some lemongrass, heavy cream, and even some toasted coconut from something I can’t remember. That sounded like a winning combination, one that I may have even tried before, so I made it using my basic recipe. It had a very smooth, warm tropical flavor and the lemongrass gives it that extra something that you can’t quite put your finger on. If you have an ice cream maker and want to try it, just use your favorite vanilla recipe and substitute plenty of fresh lemongrass and toasted unsweetened coconut for the vanilla. Strain it out and proceed as usual. I have a feeling I’ll be making lots of ice cream this summer.

We are mighty happy to see cherries at the markets and stores, and while they are still a bit steep, you can always find everything cheaper in Chinatown. We polished them off in one sitting and they were firm and sweet. By the way, a cherry pitter is a handy gadget to have around if you’re feeding cherries to small kids.

Aren’t these papers pretty? I went to New York Central Art Supply in the East Village this morning to pick up more paper for our sampler gift boxes and I admit I got a little carried away. I LOVE paper and I haven’t been to this store in well over 7 or 8 years. Along with our usual Tibetan sunflower paper, I also picked up a nice gray paper and this delicate white rice paper to play around with. We’ve been getting quite a few wedding favor inquiries so I wanted to experiment with packaging.

Unlike the East Village, New York Central has hardly changed since the years I used to frequent it way back when I was an art student at the Cooper Union a few blocks away. It was nice to be back after so many years and still feel like it was familiar. The surrounding neighborhood, however, is hardly like it was when I lived on St. Marks during college…or even just 8 years ago when I lived on 12th street (crap, I’m freaking old). I don’t come to this neighborhood very often so I forgot about the new stuff like that curved glass monstrosity that’s sitting on the former parking lot of the old Carl Fischer building that we used to cut across every day. It’s hard not to think of old memories whenever I pass by that old Cooper building. I look up at the 5th floor windows and think about how we threw eggs from that window, aiming at the then Cooper Chicken awning across the street (I know, TERRIBLE, but we were 18). It was a weird time to be in art school - the country was in recession and war in the early 90s - and I lost my interest in art. What I do remember about those years was that I grew up and actually lived life. I’m not saying that I had a sheltered childhood, but I spent so many years in high school focused so intently on drawing, painting and sewing, that by the time I got to Cooper, it really wasn’t all that interesting to me anymore.

Walking around in the drizzle today, I recall the morning I walked home from a friend’s apartment 2 months into my freshman year. It was my first time staying up all night with friends since I moved out of my parent’s house and it all felt terribly grown up. The group was mostly older, in their junior year, and we talked about art and life and looked at paintings in this smoke filled studio. When I left it was already at the cusp of dawn. The streets were eerily quiet and empty and I walked home alone down Lafayette towards Chinatown totally and completely happy.

You may guess by now that I am a complete nostalgic sap. When I moved to the West Coast after the Cooper years, I met my match in nostalgic sappiness through a classmate in music class. We later shared a house with 2 other people in Portland (Mark being one of them) and one of our favorite things to do was stay up late till the wee hours of the night, talking and reminiscing about New York. We didn’t know each other then, but we lived parallel lives (me at Cooper, him at the Jazz Program at the New School) and we both left the same year to come to Olympia to study music. We would lounge on the couch and stare at a NYC subway map that he had taped up on the wall and talked like old folks about food and restaurants, beloved streets and neighborhoods, and characters and experiences that we shared in common. Good times.

I’m actually better about letting go of the past since I’ve had kids. It’s not hard to do when you have so many things to look forward to, but when you live in the town you grew up in, it’s hard not to run into shadows of your former life.

I’m sure many people can relate to my latest shopping trip to Chinatown. I went for just one item - lemongrass for the marshmallows I made for the FiFis - but ended up buying much more than I originally intended. Specifically, I bought fresh cherries, fried tofu, chinese broccoli, canned wheat gluten, a nice pork belly, a roast pork bun for me, and a sweet red bean bun for Claudine, who accompanied me on this trip. The pork belly ended up on the dinner table the next night. Unlike my last recipe, I wanted to braise this one. It is actually based on the Chinese cooking method called “red-cooking”, which is commonly used for pork belly. The roasted version I previously made was fine, but wow, the braising really brings out the best of the belly - the meat is much more tender, and the fat… Let’s talk about the fat for a second. As much as I loved the cracklings from before, I loved the skin this time, because instead of being crisp it was completely the opposite - supremely soft, melt in your mouth goodness. Almost too rich and definitely not something for every day, but I will surely make it again.

Chinese-Style Braised Pork Belly (serves 4)

6 cups water
1 pork belly, about 2 pounds, with skin still on
1/2 cup rice wine
1/4 cup soy sauce
3 pieces garlic, crusheed
3 slices fresh ginger
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 Tablespoon five spice powder

Bring the water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add the pork belly and return to a boil. Add the remaining ingredients, reduce the heat to medium low - enough to keep it at a low simmer. Simmer, covered, for 3-1/2 hours, until very tender. Check occasionally to see if the pork belly is submerged. If not, do not add more water. Instead just turn it over so the exposed side gets submerged. When it is cooked, remove and keep it warm while the sauce reduces. Increase the heat and boil the sauce unil it has reduced to just about one cup of liquid. Strain the sauce, discarding the solids. Slice the pork belly, put it on a serving dish and pour the sauce over. Eat it with rice and stir-fried chinese broccoli.

Sometimes I’ll ask the kids what they want to eat for dinner before I make my weekly shopping trip. Yesterday Mia replies without hesitation, “Chicken Curry!” Sure, why not? My 4-year old actually asks for chicken curry, so I’ll make it. I picked up some chicken thighs and coconut milk and made a Thai curry with a coconut milk base. Thai cuisine is the first kind of food that I learned to cook, way back in college when Thai restaurants were just starting to open up, and it’s like comfort food for me so naturally I want my kids to like it as well. Until they take to spicy food, however, they won’t be able to try the real thing. I made a toned-down curry instead with my mild curry powder as opposed to an authentic curry paste which sort of made it a mix between a Thai and Indian curry. In the end it turned out that Mia was asking for neither, but rather a Caribbean chicken curry much like her babysitter often eats. She said, “Where’s the drumstick?”, referring to the fact that mine was boneless, whereas the version she wanted had whole pieces of chicken. But she ate it anyway and has also decided that she wants chicken every day - we’ll see about that.

Chicken Curry (serves 4)

5 boneless chicken thighs, cut into large pieces
1 Tablespoon curry powder
2 cloves of garlic, pressed
2 Tablespoons peanut oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 medium potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 can coconut milk
4 slices of fresh ginger
1 tablespoon soy sauce
Salt and pepper to taste
4 ounces haricot vert, cut in half
juice of one lime

Mix the chicken, curry powder and garlic together. Let it marinate for 30 minutes. Heat the oil in a heavy pot, then add the chicken and brown on all sides. Remove and set aside. Add the onions to the same pot and cook until golden. Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the carrots and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add the coconut milk, ginger, soy sauce, salt and pepper, and simmer until the potatoes are almost cooked. When they are almost cooked, add the chicken and cook until the chicken is done. Stir in the lime juice and haricot vert and turn off the heat. Let it rest for a few minutes, then serve over rice.

…in more ways than one. But seriously, Mia LIVES for crafts: glitter, paper, markers, paint, crayons, fabric, scissors - she loves all it all and more importantly, it keeps her occupied and is probably the only time her constant chatter takes a break. The playground and park across the street from our house hosts a few all-day events with crafts and music every year, and at last weekend’s eco-fair, there was one particularly great activity table where the kids got to make their own little stuffed animals and pillows out of recycled fabric scraps. Sewing machine stations were set up, kids were stuffing shapes with fabric bits, then bringing them to the tables to get the last finishing stitches in. A table of full of buttons, felt, ribbon and yarn let the kids decorate their creations for a finishing touch. Mia made this funny little creature who she named “Pillowface” that features a pretty blue and white striped back. They’ve been inseparable ever since.

My neighbor Sonjie and I went to visit our friend (and fellow neighborhood parent) Lindsey at ICFF today. Lindsey has just introduced her bubble chandeliers rolled in 14k gold foil and the effect is dazzling. Quite spectacular I might say, and if we ever hit big with the biz some day, I’m ordering one of her lights.

It was another gray and dreary day here in NY, quite cold and wet and we drove to a Vietnamese spot on Atlantic Avenue for an impromptu lunch after we left. Noodles in broth is the perfect way to ward off the chill, but I had something new that I’ve never had before - the Vietnamese sandwich: ham, pate, pickled carrots, mustard and greens, all on hot crusty French bread. Quite good, so much so that we ordered another to share. Yup, 2 sandwiches and a bowl of pho. We were very hungry.

We’ve been commissioned by the Fragrance Foundation to create 3 special marshmallow flavors for the annual FiFi Awards, which is an Academy Awards of sorts, for the fragrance industry (I know what you’re thinking - are there really that many new fragrances introduced every year that an annual award ceremony is necessary? Apparently, the answer is yes.) The ironic thing about the FiFis is that when I worked in the beauty industry in a former life 10 years ago, I designed the invitations for the Awards. Funny how some things seem to come back around.

It’s been feeling like the old days (as in 3 months ago…3 long months) when Mark started experimenting with marshmallow flavors. It’s interesting that we settled on classics like chocolate and caramel for our products because we tried a whole bevy of flavors during our test trials, most of which worked, but more in a “hmmm, interesting…” and not in a “I want to eat these one by one right out of the bag” kind of way. Having settled on Cardamom, Lemongrass and Grapefruit, Mark set to work today. Flavors are a bit tricky with marshmallows - while they may taste as you expect them to right after they are made, they can change as we soon found out a few months ago after a pomegranate marshmallow test. A few days later, the marshmallow ended up tasting a lot like a Flintstones vitamin. Unexpectedly, in this experimental batch, the cardamom marshmallow came out the best. The flavor of the spice really came through and it’s an interesting experience to bite into a marshmallow and taste cardamom. Texture-wise, Mark really came upon a great discovery when he began played around with technique - we’ve been keeping dated packages around of all our stuff and even a month later, the marshmallows are still quite soft and fluffy.