my first picture here

The first call came from my son at GCM at 8:30, Saturday morning. The folks at the crepe stand needed more batter. Makin' it is easy, gettin' it down there, not so much. Fortunately I kinda had my wife on call Saturday. It was our first Saturday running three markets, I assumed we would need something run somewhere. I found her, and she came and got two more buckets of batter and off she went. She must have left here around 9:15. My son called again at 10:35, and they were done. The market was still goin', but we were done. When my wife came back, she said she never saw the market that crowded, except during the chef's bbq. They have expanded it to fifty four vendors. It is massive. A long way from what it used to be. On top of what we sold at the market, we sell the buns to Sunday dinner, that they use for their burgers they are grillin', we also had two hundred brioche buns for chef Stephanie Izard, who was grilling something at the market. The Evanston market had two loaves of bread left and we got back eighteen donuts and eight loaves of bread from the Wilmette market. Put that stuff in our store and it vaporized. It was a good day at the markets. No, a great day. Weather for Wednesday is most promising.

Here in the store, we are brunin' thru macarons. I've been making two, three mixes a day. we're to the point, I think we can stop freezing them and start keeping them under refrigeration. We are turning them over that fast. I gotta say, they are really nice. It's one of those things, they are really nice, because the are being turned over. And they are being turned over because they are really nice. Thank you, Chicago magazine. I spoke to baker buddy/coupe teammate, chef William Leaman, Bakery Nouveau, Seattle, about caramel. We are making caramel macarons, really tasty stuff, however the caramel could be firmer. William suggested twenty percent milk chocolate, added to the caramel. while it's still warm. Viola! Sharp guy he is. Caramel, what could be better. Sugar, creme, butter and a little milk chocolate. We caramelize the sugar, add hot creme and melted butter, and a little chocolate at the end, my, my. It's somewhere between butterscotch candy, caramel corn and butterscotch ice cream topping. Reminds me of the days at the Dolton, Fourth of July carnival.

While I was on the phone with William, he said I need to add pictures to my postings. Today is my first try. If you get a photo of Christmas morning at my house, or an eighth grade graduation, I apologize. I will get it figured out. Friday we took a picture of our maple bacon long johns, being held in a Bennison's midget tissue. That is the picture I am intending on posting. Figured I would cover a few things I've been talkin' 'bout.

Gotta get started here. Actually been here for a few hours, sortin' thru the rubble. I have a conference call at 10:30, then it's off to the donut fryer for my final day. Don't know if I mentioned it, but we've had a night baker on vacation for the last two weeks. We've been limping along. Arturo returns Tuesday evening for the Wednesday bake. Jenny is in Philly, returns tomorrow. Vacations are done. I try to avoid anyone taking vacation time between Mother's day and Halloween, aka market season.

Oh, Jenny's rhubarb danish Saturday, stellar. Be at GCM Wednesday morning. see for yourself.