June 14th-last day ... JUne 15th-beginning of a new chapter

On June 14th is my last day of work. =( June 15th is my departure to Spain. I find myself sitting here.. my mind is drifting off somewhere between la-la land and limbo (same thing?) In the mist of it all, I managed to find a moment of clarity. What if this is a sign of something good to come? June 14th-saying my chapter of a good job is ending... June 15th-saying the chapter in a new life is beginning. I'm going off to Spain that day and I think it will be a mind-blown experience, I forget anything that happened when I travel. I'm going off to meet new people, experience amazing cultural traditions and eat great food. 

In the mist of all this chaos, I can't help but think of the people this effects. My units closing down, all I can think of is... where will my staff go? will they manage to find jobs? What about the benefits they will no longer have? This feeling, my friends is called "caring". Yes, I emphasized on it, but for me, its taken me a long time to develop and understand this feeling. I am so greatly sorry to deliver the news to my customers, it's been great. I couldn't believe the relationships that I built working here and I will sadly miss the funny conversations that I shared with everyone here. 

Now is the time to close this chapter in my life, and open the door to a new opportunity... 

-Cat

I was looking at some old pictures and I stumbled upon this one, fits the theme quite perfectly. I'm travelling to Spain in less 3 weeks, why? To be honest, I desperately need a vacation and why Spain? Well... why not.  In the picture above, I made this with my youngest sister, this dish is paella, it has rice, muscles, shrimp, chorizo sausage, tomato, saffron and garlic. 

I am staying with a host family in Malaga, Spain and just received information about them. I google walked through the internet of where the location is and I'll admit, all of Spain is beautiful, the walk to school will be amazing. It's around 15-20 minutes to get there to a street call Juan something. So far, I have taken-well-procrastinated is a better word for this, slacking on my Spanish Studies. 

I can have a conversation to the bare minimum.... "Hola, que tal?.. Mi nombre es Jessi..." That's pretty much it. I had thought about making sticky notes and writing words in Spanish and labelling everything but I figure that's a waste of paper and it would be annoying for my host family. I'm really excited to meet them, they all seem quite friendly. In the information package, they say they cook mainly Arabic meals. I'll be honest here, i have no idea what goes into preparing Arabic cuisine. I am excited to learn about it. 

Off to bed.. it's 5 am in the morning and I have to be at work in 1.5 hours.. how will i do this.... counting down the days until freedom!

-Cat

Baby Shower Cake

My sister knew a girl who was having a baby and asked me to make a cake, regretfully I had never made a baby shower cake before. I made a zebra striped cake, filled with chocolate cake and vanilla butter cream. 

This was my attempt at baby shoes and a monkey, it looks like a cross between a monkey and a gorilla. :(

-cat

Birthdays

I always enjoy making birthday cakes. Why? There is almost always a guaranteed smile and well the occasional gratitude when you finished it and they receive that small but meaningful gesture because you remembered their birthday.

I've always enjoyed making people happy through food,  well the weight gain is something to be said for a sacrifice, it is worth it!

-cat

Triple Chocolate fudge Brownie cake

I've been working at my job for the past year this month will be the year anniversary of when I started. Within that year, I've grown to build many friendships and great relationships with everyone there, the employees tend to move around every so often, this employee in particular was transferring over to a different building and he has been with the company for over 6 years. I decided as a farewell to make him this cake, getting to know people you feed, you learn to know about their tastebuds and personalities. Almost always I match their personalities with food. This one for Scott I made a triple chocolate fudge brownie cake layered with caramel, rolo chunks, french vanilla buttercream, raspberry coulis, fresh strawberries and pop rocks.

Everyday I would see him for breakfast and lunch and he would always talk about the cravings he had randomly of deep chocolate fudge and pop rocks combo, so I decided to merge those two together. Guess what? HE LOVED IT!

It is always sad to see people go, it's almost like a disconnect from the workplace but I was very happy to present him this cake.

-cat

Avid Sushi Fan!

Today, Sunday May 5th, 2013 I went and ate a new sushi restaurant. This specific restaurant is part of a chain of AYCE (all you can eat) sushi places in KW area. This group is the Ye's Sushi group. I have been going to the restaurant for the past 6 years, the transformation over the years has been quite the change from old to new, past to modern decor. I didn't get a chance to take a picture of the decor, but obviously I took a picture of the food, if that was my full time job I'd be one happy pucca!

Here is a little of what we sampled today.

New Year, Big changes!

I haven't written in this blog for almost a year now! =(  So much has happened over the last year, some memories I'd like to forget.. some I don't.. and most I remember =)

I'll be leaving for Malaga, Spain in just a little over a month. Over the last 2 years I've been practicing my Spanish, when I arrive there in Spain will be the true test of if all the studying paid off. I'm beyond excited to go, I work for a great company now and I got a promotion in January, so far it's been a learning experience. I don't get to do that much baking any more but occasionally I'll get a client or two every week. Last week I made a chocolate mousse dessert for a guy at work who just wanted some petit fours to eat at his desk on his birthday. Sad? no way!

I'm slowly but surely beginning to realize that packing is a tedious job, we as people tend to overthink and analyze too much of what we need and "have to have" in our suitcase, so far I've got a Spanish language book and my passport, much to be said about procrastination but it will get done before June hopefully. =S wish me luck!

-Cat