Elation, pride, euphoria, glee, disbelief; We did it! Our first full plated meal service! And interestingly enough, it was actually easier than my Gypsy.

This event was a plated lunch, including passed hors d'oeuvres, plated appetizers, plated entree salad, and a plated dessert. All for 140 people, five hours start to finish.

If someone had told me two years ago that this is what I would be doing with Starry Nights, I would have been very scared. But with the proper planning and prep, it all came together. Actuallyl the secret of the success was the very talented staff I had with me that day. I had 8 servers and three cooks. Everyone was perfectly professional and knew exactly how to do their jobs. I was particularly proud of Nadia: She took over the kitchen and ran it very well freeing me up to monitor everything else. In fact, there were times when I had nothing to do and was just standing around (I do need to get better at this, making sure I'm out over everyone's way, letting them do their jobs).

The client was very happy with the event, which could be good for Starry Nights in the long run. The venue for the event was a gated golf course community with an exclusive contract with another caterer. Starry Nights got to do this event because the other caterer got complacent and didn't impress the client. Strings were pulled at the community, and I got the job! Obviously the community is very affluent and since I seemed to impress everyone, I'm sure I'll get some future jobs off this for the residents. And it's a long shot, but I might even get a shot at becoming the official caterer for the community! Big dreams, I know, but this is how it starts!

I hate chocolate mousse. I just can't seem to get this right.

It seems recently I've accumulated several recipes I just couldn't make right, but with enough help and second opinions I've been able to figure out the problem and master technique. For awhile my mayo would always break when made in the food processor, even though I could make it perfectly well by hand. The problem was I was trying to do too much at once in the small machine and the emulsion would break. And then there was the time I wasted 7# of butter trying to figure out why I couldn't make pate a choux (similar problem of overloading a small machine).

This thing with the mousse, though, has me stumped. The technique is to basically cook the egg yolks with hot sugar syrup (like an Italian meringue), then fold in melted chocolate thoroughly, then add a batch of whipped cream. The problem is when I add the cream, it makes the chocolate seize which results in tiny chunks of solidified chocolate, rather than creating a perfectly smooth, chunk-free mousse.

Dan has said the chocolate can't be too hot, just below body temp (or at least that's my recollection), which I've done faithfully, but the problem still exists. I've tried all sorts of things, but it seems to me that the way to solve this is to make sure the melted chocolate is COMPLETELY mixed into the yolks before adding the cream. Unfortunately, this really runs the risk of deflating the yolks too much and losing all the desired volume. Another way to solve this problem (untested by me, though) is to not incorporate fully-whipped, super-cold cream, but to whip the cream only to soft peaks and don't let it get too cold.

This recipe hates me.

POSTSCRIPT: I just did a little online research which yielded that chocolate slightly WARMER than body temp is best, as well as whipping the mousse to soft peaks only, as I suspected. Several web sites confirm.

Getting control of my time is a constant challenge lately. It seems like I always have work backing up on me, no matter how much or how hard I work. It's constant balancing I do between cooking and office work. The more office time I spend, the less I cook, and the more I cook, the faster the voicemails and emails back up on me.

Tonight, however, I got everything wrapped up and when to martial arts. My instructor recently changed the uniforms; students are still in all black, but he decided that assistant instructors (me) will wear white tops and black pants. So after many years of an all-black uniform I'm back in white, the color I wore for Yoshukai (in high school). Feels good, and it's pretty cool to have a half-and-half uniform, too.

Class tonight was catchup and review for me: we went over the new black belt forms, very kung fu/tai chi in style and movement. They are challenging, but not super difficult. Most of the work is in making my legs and arms move in a fluid motion rather than the hard crisp way I'm used to. The forms and techniques are all related though, and maybe that's where some of the challenge comes from; it's like trying to learn Italian when you've been studying Spanish for years.

I'm going to try to schedule time going forward so that I can get out to Issaquah Tuesday mornings for more black belt training. I really need to make this a priority. I notice a significant improvement in my mental clarity when I am training regularly.

You know how it is when you don't want something, that's all you get? This is happening with Starry Nights celebration cakes.

There isn't a lot of money in celebration cakes since they are usually smaller orders (10-18 people), but require just as much client contact and kitchen work as any wedding cake. You can easily understand why I don't seek out these jobs. However, we're getting at least two calls per week for such cakes, so there seems to be plenty of business out there!

The good thing about the celebration cakes is that it gives me an opportunity to practice my decoration skills. I watch a lot of "Ace of Cakes" for inspiration, even though I abhor sculpted cakes. The TV show demonstrates, subtly, good professional techniques that I haven't yet learned or used on my own. And even though some people find him grating, I like Duff. He's a funny TV personality and entertaining to watch.

So my goal with the celebration cakes is to get enough business going that I can accumulate a bunch of pictures to round out our portfolio. It's a little thin right now, but as all these celebration cakes come in, hopefully we'll amass some good work.

I really do enjoy decorating cakes even though I don't have a lot of experience yet. I find that my graphic design background really helps though, since I already understand the concepts of colors, design, layout, typefaces, etc. All I really lack is knowledge about specific decorating techniques and materials. I think that will come through more practice!