Apricot Tart

The main kitchen hands down any excess of its supply to the bakery.Lucky me! A recent surplus was a huge can of apricot. I have used it to make Danish pastries but there's more left. I have to finish it before it goes off. I dislike wastage. I hate seeing food get thrown away. To reduce the cost, I find ways to minimize  bakery's expenses. A smart way   is to make something which serves dual purpose.  I made two tarts. I cooked twice the amount of pastry cream so I could use the other half as my base for apricot tart.

Apple Pastry Cream Tart with Crumble Topping

One time last week, a commis handed me a bag of apples and told me to make something out of them. Apparently, someone had purchased more than what was needed. Apple tart came to mind. Not the classic French apple tart. I was thinking of combining cooked apples and pastry cream, then top it with crumble. Sunday was a few days away. I had enough time to do a trial run and if it passed the taste test of my loyal fans I could proceed :)

Breakfast Muesli Bread

The off-season is an opportune time for recipe testing. Less crowds means less demand.And less demand means more time to explore new things.  I did a few trial to test this muesli bread recipe. I lack the right ingredients so I resorted to using a mixture of different stuff. "A little bit of this and more of that" kind of experiment. It was a trial and error for days. In the end, I finally got  the texture  I was targeting. I served it at breakfast a couple weeks ago. When I collected the bread basket after breakfast, I was thrilled to see an empty container.The resort's occupancy at the time was the lowest this year. Only a handful of people came to eat. It only meant one thing. The bread must be so good. I was grinning inside.

Loy Krathong Festival 2013

It is this time of the year when Thai people  flock to a river, canal or pond to float their krathongs (floating boat or floating decoration) which symbolizes  letting go of anger, hatred and defilements. Many Thais, however,  use krathongs to thank the Water Goddess, Phra Mae Khongkha (WIKI). For others, it is a time to pay respect to Buddha and ask the Goddess for forgiveness  for polluting the rivers. As for me, this was a chance to take my mind off the heartbreaking situation in my country. Well, at least for a moment joining in the merrymaking did help.

So I was with two friends. We went to the main beach where locals and tourists alike gathered together to celebrate the festival. We brought our krathongs with us. We walked through a crowded walking street. Stalls selling food, drinks and floating decorations lined both sides of the streets. It was busy.

Triple layer wedding fruit dish

I have been preoccupied with the devastation that my country is facing following a super typhoon that struck last week. My family are safe but seeing  reports of suffering of my countrymen is too much for me to bear. I keep track of the rescue operations  in Philippines as often as I can. It's been a few days since my last post. A lot has happened at work in that period of time but given my curiosity of what is going on back home, I spend more hours on the internet to get answers than write emails and update my blog. I am eager to know what measures have been done to help those who survived this calamity.

Now that I have  time to spare, let me share with you this wedding fruit tray prepared by the cold kitchen staff for a wedding.  A friend of mine painstakingly carved roses out of  papaya and cantaloupe. Both were used as  topper of the wedding fruit dish. Other fruits were peeled and sliced for guests' ease and comfort.