catering

Since moving to India, I've found a new love of baking. I figure it's because of two reasons.

#1- I have so much more time on my hands. So I started baking some in the afternoons when I was home while Levi napped. In a lot of ways life just moves at a slower pace here. You make up for it with the crazy days, but it's kind of nice to slow things down. It's just so different from the never ending, fast paced lifestyle of the US.

#2-I crave the food that I associate with home…and you sure ain't gonna find it anywhere in these neck of woods, so if you want it, you're gonna have to make it. And if you know me, you know that I l.o.v.e. anything sweet. Especially when it has to do with chocolate. So I bake a lot of desserts. Because I don't think there's ever a time when that doesn't sound good to me. Even more so when you're having a tough day or you're missing home.

Over the months I've definitely learned from trial and error. Everything is just so different here. Over time though, you learn things like where to get the "fine ground" sugar instead of the "regular" stuff they use here, because their sugar makes things super chewy and hard. You learn where to buy the "chocolate slab" that you then chop up, because chocolate chips don't really exist. You learn that you MUST sift your flour or you will have many a bug in your end product. You learn that just about anything that you buy in a box or a can in the US can be made from scratch. You learn that your hands work just as well as a kitchenAid, and I've learned how to operate our little toaster oven pretty darn good. Things like that.

Here's the deal about the majority of Indian baking.
It's just not good. It doesn't taste good. It's always so dry. It looks beautiful and the presentation is always so nice, but the taste is just way lacking. That almost makes it worse-when something looks so good and then you bite into it and it tastes gross. Sad day. Now there are some exceptions to this rule, but not too many...which is a bummer.
I've just decided that they are so, so good at the cooking side of things, that somehow the baking got forgotten about. Because everything else you eat here is delicious.

I bake a lot during the week and we constantly have friends dropping in to hang out, or neighbors stopping by for tea, or some kiddos playing cricket in the front yard that just need a cookie…so it works out great. Everyone loves the western style of baking. They can't get enough of it. I don't blame them to be honest…a good cookie is just hard to pass up. And a midnight snack of Chai and a muffin just ends your day right.
The baking at our house has earned us a reputation for some good eats. Mel makes excellent coffee cake-really just anything breakfast. She's good. She's also the No-Bake Cookie master. And I love to make just about anything and everything else. Everyone has been suggesting for a long time that we open a shop- Kate's Cakes. :) If I wasn't going home in May I would pretty seriously consider it. I could make some good money!
But after delivering some valentines cookie's last month, Richa asked us if I would consider catering an event that they were having in a couple weeks. I decided to do it, and it was so much fun.

I made all kinds of stuff. Mel and I had fun in the kitchen together. I baked and baked and baked, and she washed and washed and washed. She was awesome. She also made her famous No-Bakes which everyone loves. The end result was 6 very large trays of food, and many happy people.

Aside from students, there were a little over a hundred people there, some of which being very prestigious and important. It was almost like an art show. Students from impoverished and underprivileged familes, that took a photography class under JoJo and Richa, had an opportunity to show off their work and be recognized for what they're doing. We met some very interesting people, and made some good contacts for when JoJo and Richa really do open their coffee shop at some point. We walked away with 4 business cards and quite a few names of people who "had orders" (makes me laugh). And we already have our next event booked...who woulda thought.