Give me a new kitchen toy and watch me geek out. The culinary nerd in me comes out in full force when I’m being paid to be creative and let loose in my favorite playground–the kitchen. Such was the case when I was tasked with testing out a new prototype whipped cream dispenser (called Max…
Author: Puddingyrl
I'm a pastry chef (geek) whose appetite invariably exceeds the actual size of my stomach. Skinny jeans be damned! My innate curiosity usually leads to full-blown obsessions--culinary and otherwise--which is why you'll find me sticking my finger in the proverbial pudding...if not licking the whole damn bowl. Given my varied interests, I figured blogging is a good way for me to explore those ideas that are always nibbling at my brain. Along for the ride are two of my girlfriends who share some of my obsessions and have no problems diving headlong into that bowl of pudding. After all, it's more fun to share the calories!
Sweet Fry Therapy
It’s been a crazy, turbulent couple of weeks, full of anxiety, sleepless nights and one category five meltdown…which has forced me to do a little soul-searching. Not surprisingly, I find that I always seem to think better when I’ve got something sweet to soothe my soul…even better when it’s sweet AND fried. The first thing…
Antidote for Weekday Supper Madness
Even for those of us in the food industry who spend the greater part of our lives cooking or baking professionally, when it comes to supper we’re often at a lost just like everyone else. It’s very easy living in a foodie city to succumb to the urge to simply eat out or pick up…
Better Cocktails Through Science
The long Labor Day weekend was the perfect time for binge-watching. With endless possibilities and viewing options to choose from, I found myself browsing through YouTube, where I discovered my latest obsession–the wildly imaginative, over-the-top culinary wizardry of Heston Blumenthal. I’d heard of his Michelin-starred restaurant The Fat Duck in Bray, England and knew a…
On your mark, get set…BAKE!
I have a confession…I’m a cooking/food show snob. With hundreds of them on the air and thousands on the internet, we are inundated from morning to night. I’ll admit I’m generally not a fan of the competition variety, like Chopped and Cutthroat Kitchen. I lost interest in Top Chef after two seasons, mainly because I…
Birthday Girl…or 40 is the new 30.
It took weeks of stealth planning…endless Facebook messaging…multiple revisions…crafty, deliberate misdirections…all in an effort to throw Rina the surprise 40th birthday party she richly deserved. She did not make it easy. We all knew she wanted something special to mark this milestone, but being the suspicious woman that she is, Rina kept her husband, Ken, and…
Happy Hour
For me Happy Hour can happen any day of the week, though more often than not it’s the weekend when I can really kick back and enjoy a cocktail (or two) since I usually don’t get out of work in time during the week to take advantage of Happy Hour. And since the Rio Olympics has…
Blame It on Rio (Olympics)
I’m trying to get into the spirit of watching the Rio Olympics…really I am. I must admit, though, the opening ceremonies left me more than just a little bored–so much so that I ended up switching over to The Great British Bake-Off (hey it was the semi-finals!) about an hour into the broadcast. Maybe it…
Cheers to the Boy Who Lived (On)
I may have been sitting in a movie theater waiting for Star Trek Beyond to start, but secretly I was counting down the hours until the release of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the long-awaited (and according to J.K. Rowling) final Potter story. Like millions of other Potter devotees, I want to know what…
In the Cocktail Hour
It’s not often I spend an entire afternoon playing with cocktails (and still remain sober enough to write a post about it), but that’s what I’ve done. I assure you it’s all for a worthy cause. A good friend of mine asked if I would be interested in testing out a few products she’s been…