After yesterday at work, I felt like this topic finally deserved a mention.

At the restaurant, I make all of the desserts. I do it because I absolutely love baking (and at the restaurant, there's no need for me to do dishes when we pay a dishwasher), and there is huge satisfaction in it for me to serve our customers beautiful desserts that I made and to be able to receive such raving reviews on the spot.

And while all my reviews have been positive (although I do know that even though my desserts are excellent all the time, none of my customers are going to tell me that it was bad if I told them I made them myself), some reviews have been just extra hilarious.

They all seem to connect my amazing cooking abilities with love.

One lady, a middle aged woman, tried my plum tart. Plums arranged over an almond frangipane in a tart shell, glazed with thinned orange marmalade and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

She told me that if she had the recipe for that plum tart, that her boyfriend (of 15 years) would finally ask her to marry him.

Another couple had the chocolate ganache tart. A rich milk chocolate ganache poured into a tart shell made of an almond cookie-like crust, topped with a dollop of whipped cream and drizzled with chocolate syrup.

The gentleman told me that "if the boys knew you could cook like this, your dad would be a very busy man chasing them away."

And then last night, a couple had the blueberry pie. A slice of pie absolutely bursting with plump blueberries enveloped by my signature flakiest pie crust, finished with the necessary scoop of french vanilla ice cream and dusted with confectioner's sugar.

The lady kept going on about how she needed to introduce me to her nephews, because boy could I cook well!

I suppose it's some relief, to know that if all else fails personality wise about me in my search for love, that my fabulous cooking skills will kick in and sweep any man I could possible want into my waiting arms.

Rather hilarious, I think.

For the drive to the Gorge to see Coldplay today, my packed snacks include:

Antioxidant Trail Mix from Trader Joe's. It is the best trail mix ever, seriously.
Honey Bunches of Oats with Almonds
Mission Tortilla Chips (very salty, these)
An apple (Gala)
A few Dove chocolates (the 63% dark is my favorite)
Lots of bottled water

Pretty healthy but still tasty, I think.

The restaurant was open all day for the 4th of July, so my family didn't get to have our July 4th BBQ celebration and whatnot (though I did get to go out for fireworks and other exploding things after work, despite being so dead from a long day).

So my mom decides that instead we should have our 4th BBQ today, Monday the 6th, just with my parents and me. Good idea, I say, because the weather had been fabulous all week, anywhere from 70-90. But of course, I think my family jinxes the weather for barbecues... Today was stormy...a warm storm, but rainy and super windy nonetheless.

However, a little bad weather has never threatened my family's cooking courage, and lo and behold, we had a perfectly BBQ grilled dinner (overlooking the fact that I stood over the fire with an umbrella and the other fact that cedar leaves and pine cones were being blown into the grill by huge gusts of wind that rattled the house).

The menu tonight:

A couple well seasoned rib eyes, some rosemary marinated chicken skewers with a delicious plum sauce for dipping, grilled purple potatos, mini mild peppers, and portabella mushrooms, and for dessert, grilled fresh pineapple spears topped with my fabulous balsamic reduction.

I guess a late 4th of July BBQ is better than none after all. :)