Of Baking and Patriotism

So it would seem that I am destined to be followed around by the letter B. Why, you ask? Let's see. My name is Brody. I live in Brussels, Belgium. I'm a blogger. And now, I bake! Professionally!

I had the absolute luck to be approached by the owner of a rather nice cafe here in Brussels to begin baking for them! He had heard I baked from another cafe owner and friend, and decided to give me a shot! Now, I have never in my life baked on such a large scale as I am required to do with this job. 12 cakes at a time, measuring flour and sugar by the bag, but, though I was daunted at first (and still am a bit) I find that I'm getting used to it, and actually really enjoying it. The only downside is... the heat. I know, I know, if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. And really, once I get going, it's not so bad. But when the weather is right around 90F (32C), and you are stuck in a basement kitchen doing heavy lifting with ovens blazing, well, then we can talk!

The great thing is, I love doing it. I've always loved baking (probably because then I have something tasty to eat), and so far I still do. I was posed the question last night that since I bake so much now, do I still enjoy doing it on my own time. I tested that out today, the 4th of July, by making an American flag cake. That was my plan for my big show of patriotism (as of last night after some bowling and a few beers).

My idea was to get some food coloring at Delhaize and use 3 different colors of frosting to decorate. Easy, right? Well, this is Belgium, so, wrong. No food coloring to be found (where I could have sworn I saw it before), so I decided to get a bag of M&Ms thinking to use those instead. When I got back home I found that I did have blue food coloring and colored red sugar sprinkles, score! Here are pictures, it's not the most beautiful cake ever, but at least it was tasty!
My friend Laura, also American, came over to share the cake with us. Fun was had by all!

So there you have it, I still enjoy baking, especially when it's an imperfectly rendered symbol of patriotism!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today has been quite busy! Miguel's aunts and cousin are coming into Brussels tonight to stay for a couple of days!

I'm trying to be a good hostess and have the apartment clean and a nice dinner awaiting their arrival. The place is clean enough, I made brownies, coq au vin and I have a soda bread in the oven (it is St. Paddy's Day, after all!). So I'm finally having a sit while the bread bakes and the stew reheats!

Maybe it's time to start celebrating...

Rough Day

I'll finish writing about the wedding later, but I feel the need to blog about today...

I've showed you pictures of my little cat Sophie. She is so sweet, and loves nothing more than to sit on my lap (or my chest or knee, if my lap isn't available). I love her to death, but we've been having our problems.

She has had trouble, really, since we got her, with peeing in places she shouldn't. We keep making the mistake of trusting her, thinking that because it's been a while since the last accident, she's grown out of it. We always end up regretting that trust. The other day, we decided to leave the bedroom door open during the night, and we nearly made it, but at about 8am, while Sophie was innocently (or so I thought) sitting on my leg, I started feeling something very hot. Yep, she peed through the comforter and sheet, down to my leg and the mattress. Now mind you, this was 8am on a Saturday. VERY grumpy and upset, Miguel and I get up to throw everything into the washing machine (actually took 2 loads, as the machine is tiny), flip the mattress, remake the bed, etc.

Now, this was the final straw for me, and I decided to take her back to the vet. I had finally found our first vet, Dr. John Smets who has a great manner, good, modern technique and speaks English very well. I had been to a different vet about the same problem, and he prescribed Clomicalm, which is an animal antidepressant that really only served to make Sophie very groggy, disoriented, grumpy, frightened and drugged. This made me upset, stressed, guilty and very nearly sick to my stomach. We lasted 3 days. It took her about a week to return to herself.

So, I went with Miguel to take Sophie to Dr. Smets who gave us a couple new options, both natural, that god-willing, will work. One of them is Feliway, which is a cat pheromone diffuser, which I bought yesterday and installed.

Now, I was told it would take a few days to really kick in, so that's fine. But this morning Sophie was meowing pathetically outside the bedroom door, begging for attention. I finally obliged, deciding to watch her at every second. Cleo of course came barreling in too, and jumped on the bed. Sophie followed suit and IMMEDIATELY went for the spot where she peed the other day, and got into a squatting position. I wasted NO time and kicked her (through the duvet from underneath) off the bed. She ran off and hid behind the futon in the living room. I'm telling you, it did not take her 30 seconds in the bedroom to do this. So I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's becoming more and more difficult.

So that was how I started the day, and the rest of my day has been spent cleaning and baking. I am making brownies for the cafe downstairs to sell on Saturday. This is our first collaboration and I'm really hoping it goes well, so there's pressure. So I made the first batch and put it in the oven, and then sat down to look over the recipe again. It's my grandmother's, and it makes some of the best brownies ever. Of course, that was when I realized that, instead of putting in a teaspoon of baking powder, like the recipe said, I had put in a teaspoon of baking soda. Not good. It smelled weird and rose WAY too high. As soon as it was cool enough I dumped it directly into the trash.

I then cleaned the dish (and all the rest of the dishes I had dirtied) and proceeded to make the NEXT batch of brownies. Of course, I broke a plate in the process. While they were baking, I did the dishes AGAIN (I had also done the dishes from the night before, right before I started baking). It's times like that I reeeeally miss having a dishwasher. I was nervous while that batch was in the oven, because I still have to do one more batch today, and I really don't have time for 4 batches of brownies in one day. Thank god that batch was ok, and now only one more to go. Lord.

I also have a lesson today, which I think (and hope) I'm prepared for. All I really feel like doing, though, is curling up on the futon with the good cat (hahaha) and watching a movie.