The Good Life

It's nice being a pastry teacher.

That way, when it's 4:00 in the afternoon and you have a hankering for a chocolate souffle, you can just make one.... and tell people you're recipe testing. Two hours later when you're making tuiles, you can pull out that same story and it still works.

You do have to fit a salad in there somewhere... and maybe climb a few trails with your dog or swim a few laps, but it seems worthwhile.

My house is a very popular place for teenage boys after school, because they never know what they'll find.
Sometimes it's a crusty baguette, fresh from the oven and slathered in butter. Othertimes it's nutty financiers. They don't even mind snacking on the scraps when I'm trimming a cake. Their moms are used to getting bags filled with cupcakes or slices of pie.
I usually get pretty good reviews from the 16-year old set... who are good judges of the Yum Factor of a dessert. They encourage me to keep it simple... a good lesson in pastry and in life.