{"id":1777,"date":"2012-03-31T18:25:23","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T22:25:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/?p=1777"},"modified":"2012-04-04T18:26:53","modified_gmt":"2012-04-04T22:26:53","slug":"nostalgia-and-cake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/?p=1777","title":{"rendered":"Nostalgia and cake…"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 9am this morning I was standing in my kitchen with a satisfied smile on my face after admiring the cake I just finished icing. \u00a0I got to do what we all love(d) doing when we were kids: lick the spoon. \u00a0There\\’s a guilty pleasure in standing in your kitchen, donning pj\\’s at 9am and having chocolate butter cream icing for breakfast. \u00a0At that moment, I was hit with a wave of\u00a0nostalgia\u00a0so\u00a0fierce & so intense it brought tears to my eyes. \u00a0It also made me miss my grandfather a whole lot at the\u00a0moment. \u00a0It was him, along with my mom that taught me the more simpler pleasures in life: baking.<\/p>\n

As a professional Chef who is taking a totally different learning curve in hopes of switching\u00a0careers,\u00a0I\\’ve\u00a0been thinking a lot lately of the journey\u00a0I\\’ve\u00a0been on for\u00a0the\u00a0past 20 years in my career and how it\\’s played a huge role in my life and the person that I am today. \u00a0It was only this morning that I realized it had actually started a lot earlier in life. \u00a0Not just in any kitchen, but in my mom\\’s kitchen. \u00a0At both of their knee\\’s making cookies, cakes and other assorted things that were nothing short of homemade awesomeness. \u00a0It was in my mom\\’s kitchen that I learned how to do things the old fashioned way. \u00a0With quality, care and as cheesy as it sounds; lots and lots of love. \u00a0Sitting on my knees watching my grandfather with rapt fascination making pie, getting flour all over the place, the way my grandfather would\u00a0smudge\u00a0flour on the tip of my nose, the eager anticipation of the cake finally being done and my sister and I each getting a beater with left over cake batter and being able to lick the bowl, eating raw cookie dough with no fear of getting sick and the lovely smells that would permeate though the house while something yummy was in the oven.<\/p>\n

A time and place where things were simple and un-hurried unlike now.<\/em><\/p>\n

Who knew that those\u00a0moments, as simple as they were; would be the one thing that taught me the fine art of taking one\\’s time. The pride and satisfaction of doing a good job and not cutting any corners. \u00a0By doing it by hand, one ingredient at a time as opposed to opening a box. \u00a0It all started there, in my mom\\’s kitchen and perhaps\u00a0subconsciously carried me through all these years. \u00a0It\\’s taken guts, hard work, a lot of determination and some serious balls to make it this far in such a male dominated industry. \u00a0My grandfather and my mother taught me the value of doing it good and doing it right and working hard to achieve the desired results.<\/p>\n

I miss my grandfather always, today though I miss him a little more then I normally do. \u00a0I used to drive my mom crazy when she would come home from work in the wee hours of the morning only to find that I had destroyed it by experimenting with something in the kitchen. \u00a0It was worth it, every single minute. \u00a0It\\’s going to be hard to leave my life as a Chef behind when I finally do but it\\’s been one hell of a ride with more twists and turns than a\u00a0roller\u00a0coaster ride. \u00a0However, it\\’s led me to be able to do things like this:<\/p>\n

\\\"\\\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thanks mom, I love you and of course to my grandfather, the man who was my hero and who\\’s face is forever etched into my skin\u00a0beside\u00a0my heart where he belongs. \u00a0I\\’m in part who I am because of you and I love me.<\/p>\n

It\\’s a beautiful thing.<\/p>\n

So is that cake!<\/em> \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At 9am this morning I was standing in my kitchen with a satisfied smile on my face after admiring the cake I just finished icing. \u00a0I got to do what we all love(d) doing when we were kids: lick the spoon. \u00a0There\\’s a guilty pleasure in standing in your kitchen, donning pj\\’s at 9am and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stephs-junk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1777\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modologyworld.net\/steph\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}