we now return to the regularly scheduled broadcast

it has been a hot minute since my last post. (for those of you not from chicago, it means a long while.)

i am in the midst of many things. i say that. often. if you read my journal you would see that same phrase over and over in various wordings. but it seems to be always true.


i went to alaska. i played with old friends, hugged babies, drank beer, watched the sun kiss the horizon, saw family, ate flowers, laughed really hard, and filled up the alaska hole in my heart. i don't seem to feel the need to move back, but there is something about being there that fits. the air, the smells, it's bigger than me and it is me all at the same time.

then i came back, road tripped to seattle and fell in love with this woman and her music. please in the name of all things good in the world, listen. http://www.meklithadero.com/


the world cup! the world cup! the world cup! i was so thankful for univision.com who streamed the games live online, as well as, the black cat cafe. the owner of the cafe loves soccer and broadcast all the games. we had quite a little crew there each morning at 7am.

portland state reemployed me to do about 5 weeks of phone surveys. it helped me crochet and write letters and daydream. it also helped me pay my rent.

i have baked a little, but only for myself and friends. there are logistics that are cramping my brain regarding the legal sale of baked goods. it is making me anxious. so we pause.

i am trying to figure out what to do with my life. and i keep coming back to three things.

1. baking.
2. people in jail or recently out of jail.
3. gardening.

i have it in my head (and my heart...mostly my heart) to combine the three. now i just have to figure out how to get from point a: great idea and heart, through fear and feigned laziness to point z: functioning program that changes lives.

if you are interested in specifics, please ask.

and i should be back to blogging; perhaps even with photos of tasty treats! and an interim job until mysterious dream job becomes reality job.

renaissance woman

this week has been busy busy busy. who knew unemployment would be this crazy?

i have been baking, sewing, drinking coffee, biking, cooking, making new friends, mixing drinks, gardening, administering surveys, washing dishes, writing letters, hugging, being businessy, daydreaming, laughing, drinking wine and applying for jobs. renaissance woman, that's me!

recent exciting things to note!

1. my dear friend/ex-roommate, erin, had a beautiful baby boy named jude!

2. i sold my 4th order. a caramel cake with butter cream frosting.

3. celebrated my friend jayvin's birthday with beer, cake, fried chicken and hugs.

4. officially registered love pie with the state of oregon.

5. took three - four hour naps! that's 12 hours of non-night sleep time...

6. had sunday brunch at katie's place... fun friends and peach passion mimosas.

7. had a sewing gig for this guy ... made some cash money, possible future gigs and met some sweet people.

8. crossing my fingers for being able to sell my goods at the tualatin farmers market...


and in other news... the caramel cake.


this was quite the comedy of errors... i made a practice cake and it was dry and heavy. ack! back to the internet in search of the perfect recipe. i made a second one that came from ms. maya angelou via martha stewart's website. delicious, but much smaller than i expected. martha showed a picture that is a doubled recipe, but didn't let me know that. oy vey! this became apparent as the cake came out of the oven. i tried my hardest to make the caramel sauce needed for the recipe, left it alone for a minute (ONE MINUTE) and it burned. uf da! i went to a local coffee shop and bought some caramel flavored syrup from them. the woman was very sweet and wished me luck. the cake came out of the oven and i hopped a bus to my portland state job... when i got home i winged the frosting and it turned out super tasty.

butter + cream + sugar = hard to go wrong

the light that day was really poor for a picture, so this is the best i got. however, even in a dimly lit room it looks tasty. the lovely lady came to pick it up and i got a text the next day saying that the cake rocked it! BIG SIGH OF RELIEF.


the moral of this story is: lovepie, hatecake. or bake what you know. subtitle: all's well that ends well.

a little logo love

i need proper business cards. in my head i want to have a pie with a heart and some pretty script to accentuate clever wording that makes everyone who sees it want to buy a pie and some cookies every other week! in reality, i am not quite there yet. at this point, i have attempted twice to get pictures taken for said business card. neither attempt has been what i expected.

attempt #1

on sunday i baked a berry pie because i thought that the reddish purple of the berries would make the heart stand out better. yes, in theory. there was a minor bubbling disaster in the oven and the crust of the pie looked a bit like a massacre. NOT what i want on my business cards. (i prolly should have taken a picture just for kicks.) however, according to the panel at the BBQ it tasted just fine... if you closed your eyes.

attempt #2

today i made mini pies. apple with a whole wheat crust. i tried them out to see if mini pies are something i want to make regularly. they're not. however cute they are, they come with a lot more work and stress than a regular sized pie. i used these pies as another chance to add hearts *hopefully* make a logo. i got a couple of good shots. unfortunately the light changed on me right before i was going to take the pictures. sunshiny day to black clouds/thunder/hail... so this is the best i could do.

# 1

#2

#3

#4
would any of these pictures make your mouth water for a pie? if so, let me know which one!

agenda for tomorrow... sunshine for more pictures and caramel cake for

official order number 4!

do the hustle...

goodness... these last 10 days have been busy busy busy.

the cake, the first official order, turned out beautifully! it has been ages since i have eaten it. the recipe comes from my great great aunt ada. i used to write her poems and send her cards when i was little. it's true! when my grandmother helped clean out her house after she passed, she found all the little things i used to send her.

needless to say the cake is special... and DELICIOUS!

also, it weighs about 10 pounds when it is done.

in the midst of all this cake making, business plan scheming, and job searching, i had some dear friends, dave and tele, who were preparing to move out of portland. since i haven't been "working", i have been helping them out. taking their (almost) two year old, bea, to the park so they could pack without having to worry about her unpacking the boxes. she's my new best friend. we would go on the swings, throw wood chips, jump, watch the dogs at the dog park and touch all the flowers we could find... because that is how you say hello to flower friends. and sometimes, if we were lucky, the trees would give us hugs!

they also commissioned me for some special orders to keep them filled up with good things on their roadtrip back to baltimore. i made whole wheat blueberry muffins from the laurel's kitchen bread book. the berries came from my best friend, vanessa and her boyfriend, matt w... matt w. who happens to be long time friends of dave and tele. so the muffins were extra packed with love... and wheat germ. mmm! i also made cookies because you can't drive across the country without good cookies. in exchange i got all their leftover footstuffs, a small vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, tasty dinners cooked by tele and lots of hugs. they left today and they will be missed.

one thing that i have been learning (remembering) through this process, is that people really like to be helpful to one another. the woman who bought the first cake made sure to pass out my information people who liked my cake, so that my name got out, tele helped me brainstorm lots and lots of ideas for love pie, my friend matt offered to help me with an excel sheet to track costs of different recipes (in exchange for baked goods of course) and i even have a list of taste testers. not that having so many eager taste testers would be a suprise! it is encouraging to be surrounded by a community of people who are excited and willing to help.

it makes my heart happy. and i am thankful.

la la lucky lime cookies

i recently came into a lot of limes. my neighbors like to give me produce and this week i got limes from two of them. this is a beautiful thing, but what does a girl do with 30 limes? before they became a serious fruit fly farm, i went to allrecipes.com and queried the following: limes and SUGAR.

what came up was this tasty little treat.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Guyanese-Lime-Cookies/Detail.aspx

i thought to myself, what is there to lose? at worst, they won't be that great and i will have to eat them all myself... and bike everywhere for the next week. at best, they will be delicious! really it's a win-win. i zested and juiced three limes, mixed with nutmeg, sugar, butter... and they were good. they were REALLY good.


here comes the lucky part.

tonight my friend matt was having a dinner party. took the remaining cookies to get some second and third opinions. while matt was passing the plate of cookies, he said, "these cookies are really good. jess made them and she is opening up a bake shop." matt is a big advocate for my baked goods, however, he was a little ahead of the game. yes, that is a dream. yes, i would do that in an instant, if i had the capital to buy said shop and start up the business. but right now i am nowhere near owning a little place like that.

the cookies disappeared within a matter of minutes. later one of the women pulled me aside and asked me if she could order a cake.

what?!?!

my very first official order.

so thursday i will be baking a chocolate cake. which means tomorrow i will be pricing ingredients, buying cake pans ...and making business cards.

when the day comes that love pie opens it's doors, la la lucky lime cookies will definitely be on the menu.

you're not the boss of me

three weeks ago i quit my job.

it was a good choice. well, in actuality it was a GREAT choice.

and the universe rewarded me with these!!

purple shoes at a thrift store for $4. four dollars! they are lovingly called the i quit my job shoes. i wore them every day of my last week of work. they are powerful, they make me happy, and they remind me of making good choices.

so now i am working on being my own boss. i am doing things that bring me joy, gardening, playing with fabric and yarn and magazines, baking and biking. i am dreaming of doing things i love, for myself and being able to support myself this way.

so here's to saying no to things that are detrimental to me and a big fat YES to things that are good for me.

also, here's to magical purple shoes!