Its about time!

You know when you put off something at first because you don't quite have the time to give it the full attention it really needs? But then the longer you put it off the more don ting the task becomes and then you realize that the task it just getting bigger and bigger and you have more and more to do and it is now going to take you 3x's as long. Well that is exactly what has happened here. At first I had no time what so ever to update and then it was that task that I knew that I needed to get to at some point but kept putting it off. Procrastination is my middle name. In fact the only reason why I am doing this right now is because I am putting of preparing my talk for Sunday, yes we were asked to speak on Father's day. Well at least it wasn't Mother's day! Anyway, so here I am almost 6 months later (HOLY COW!!!) with an update. Which I am sure for most of you will be very anticlimactic. So for those of you that I don't talk to on a regular basis let me quickly sum up. Almost immediately after the announcement of Alex closing I received 2 job offers. In fact almost everyone in the kitchen had more than one job offer. We were all soooo lucky that when we closed every single employee had a new job already lined up. I was having a really hard time making my decision and in the end I choose what was best for Jeff and I. I decided to stay at the Wynn and work more as a consultant with helping create new menu's for various outlets (restaurants, cafe, gift shop ect.) places that didn't have a pastry team on staff but still wanted something sweet to sell. I was able to go back to normal working hours and actually see my husband. We have not been on the same schedule since we moved here to Vegas, which will be 5 years this summer. YIKES! (We've gotta get out of here!!!) I am happy with the decision I made but that meant giving up the opportunity to work at Joel Robuchon. Resume and career wise it was the worst decision I could have made but like I said for me and my little family it was the absolute best one I could have ever made.

Lets see here, what else? Oh I turned 32 and I normally love birthdays but this year it was supremely awful! Any and everything that could have gone wrong at work did. I even had to leave the room for a moment and cry. Well the good thing is that next year it will be better, I will see to that!

Steve Wynn got married the same weekend as the royal wedding, which of course I got up at 2:45am to watch the whole thing before I headed to work, that was an extremely long day. Everyone at work thought that I was crazy for doing so but they all of course wanted to know every detail so I filled them in. Anyway SW got married that weekend as well and let me tell you it was a mad house. For weeks we were prepping for the wedding. Every single guest received a mini 3-tiered wedding cake. Oh and did I mention that there were 600 guests?! Ahhh, yes we were icing, piping and decorating until we couldn't see straight and our hands were about to fall off.

Something new, back in February I had vertigo. Well after 2 different doctors, 3 different prescriptions and 2 months later I was still dizzy. They had no idea what to do with me so they sent me off to a specialist. A cat-scan, MRI and another prescription later and I was still dizzy. So as a final result the neurologist ran one last thing, he tipped me upside down and turned my head from side to side. Tada!! Apparently there is a calcium deposit in your ear that helps with your balance and equilibrium. The deposit is supposed to be up high and mine had somehow moved down low, thus the only cure is to be tipped upside down and let gravity take its course. The neurologist said that he could send me to a balance clinic or it could simply be done at home leaning over the side of my bed. Unbelievable! Well guess it only took 3 1/2 months to figure that out.

Back in November I was asked to teach a class on how to make the perfect holiday pie. The class was such a huge success that afterward a couple of ladies came up to me and asked if I would be willing to teaching a smaller group of women in their homes on a monthly basis. And so once a month I've been teaching different techniques. Last month we did meringues. Did you know that there are 3 different types. Each one has a different purpose. We went over and made each and then with the Italian meringue we made my orange blossom buttercream icing. Oh, it is heavenly! I am really enjoying teaching these classes, it may be something to look into in the future.

Lets see what else? Oh, we've had lots of family visit over the last few months. Jeff joked that by the way I was acting you would have thought that Queen was coming to visit. And rightly so, my sisters and sisters in-law came with all of their kids. All at different times luckily, not that I wouldn't have loved for them all to come at once but when visits are spread out I don't feel as far away from everyone and I feel less alone. And since I have no children of my own I get to be the favorite aunt. I was actually able to take time off when my sister's came and I soaked up as much I possible could. I know that it may sound silly to some but for me my favorite thing was every morning when Jeff left for work and I was still in bed my nieces and nephew would come and crawl into bed with me and snuggle. We would lay in bed giggling and talking until our stomachs growled too loudly, forcing us to get up and make breakfast. I loved it, absolutely loved it!This is my youngest sisters' (Brooke) little girls, too cute!

And then my other sisters' (Brynn) two adorable kiddos.

I haven't posted any quilt pictures for quite sometime and seeing that that's what 50 percent of what my blog is supposed to be here are a few:
This is Marisol with her first quilt. Next to her is her brother Omar. Three years ago when my sister and brother in-law decided to adopt them I decided to make a quilt for each so that when they got home they would have something that was their very own, something that they didn't have to share with dozens of other children in the orphanage.


And this is Omar's quilt, I never got one with him holding it. I'll need to fix that next time I go up.

The last of the Alex dessert pictures and their descriptions will be in my next update, which I promise will not be in 6 months. :-) I vow to be better, much better!

News and not the good kind

Dearest family and friends, I have so much to say and update on but that all will came in my next post.

Now for the bad news, if any of you wanted to come into the restaurant to try all of the delicious and amazing food that I have talked about for years you all had better get down here and fast. Yesterday we were all blindsided when we were told that we would be closing our doors forever. Next Saturday, January 15th will be our last day of service. I still can't believe it or even wrap my brain around this!!

Even in this economy our amazing restaurant can't survive. Ever since Alex opened its doors 5 years ago we have won every top award, Forbes' 5 star, AAA's 5 diamond, Michelin 2 star, and Wine Spectators Grand Award (the only restaurant to win in Las Vegas and one of 4 in the US). But even all of our awards can't save us from closing.

For 3 years I have called Alex home and for 3 years I have felt like I was surrounded by greatness and extraordinary talent. Such talent that at times I have felt like someone that snuck in the back door, and pretended like I belonged. But that only made me want to work harder and learn more. I'm not going to lie at time it's been rough, really rough but I wouldn't change this experience for anything. I will always look back on my time here at Alex with such fondness and will always feel like I was apart of something truly special.

Fall Desserts part 2

The Hazelnut: On the plate is a swoop of a fig gastrique, which is a syrupy reduction of carmelized sugar and vinegar. On top of the gastrique is placed the creamiest cheesecake with a hazelnut cake base/crust. Small piles of mission figs are placed around the cheesecake. The cylindar tube is made out of brix dough, lined with white chocolate and brushed with gold dust. The tube is then filled with frangelico (a hazelnut liguor) caramel with candied hazelnuts folded into the caramel. To garnish on this dessert caramel lace is placed in the cheesecake. In the 3 years that I have been working here this is the first dessert that does not have a scoop of either ice cream or sorbet!

The peanutbutter: Starting on the left we have thin sheets of milk chocolate rectangles which separate squares of flourless chocolate cake and piped peanutbutter mousse. Chocolate crumbs and broken toffee bits craddle the large scoop of peanutbutter ice cream which is soooooo good! The garnish here is a super fragile toffee tuile, I swear sometimes all you have to do is look at it the wrong way and it breaks.

The Grape: This dessert was only on for a month because the quality of grapes didn't last that long. On the right we have a small pile of muskat, redflame and concord grapes that have been slightly roasted and then tossed in a vanilla white wine sauce. On the left a chevre goat cheese cheesecake that has been placed on top of a small pile of chopped candied walnuts. And to finish it off is a small scoop of grape sorbet that was made from the same grapes.

In other news the surgery went well yesterday and Jeff of course was amused by me. He said that he wished he had a video camera to record everything I said and did while I was coming out of my deep sleep.

The body truely is an amazing thing! I feel like all I did yesterday was sleep on the couch and then I still managed to be in bed at 10pm and sleep nearly another 12 hours. Today's agenda; continue to sleep, relax and heal. I am very much looking forward to reading and watching a few Christmas movies today and tomorrow.

Fall Desserts Part 1

The Tropical: Starting at the bottom; a coconut macaroon cake which I am told is delicious, then diced tropical fruit which includes papya, pineapple and strawberries. A passion glaze is then drizzled on top of the fruit. On the left of the cake is a scoop of coconut ice cream and to the right is a tropical chiboust (a meringue that has been folded into a thick custard and then set with gelatin.) To finish it off we have 2 pineapple chips as a garnish.

The Chocolate: Chocolate sauce is drawn onto the plate ancoring the hot chocolate tart. Hot fudge spills out of the tart as you dig in. On top of the tart we have a mint marshmellow which slightly melts by the time it gets to the guest, so that you have oowy, gooey goodness. And yes that is the proper technical term. A thin plaque of manjari chocolate (64% madagascarian chocolate) holds the mint ice cream and manjari ribbons garnish this dessert. This dessert is probably our most popular.

So this post was going to be one where I was going to vent and cry out my frustration and extreme disappointment, but after recent events it now has a different spin. But just so you know why:


Two weeks ago was a really rough week! One that I was hoping to have cause for celebration and excitement and then it turned as quickly as it could. Sometimes I feel like a jinx. It seems that if I get excited about something big that is going to happen to us I want to tell everyone but as soon as I open my mouth no matter how sure things were looking for us they change. This was no exception. My husband and I were getting ready (again...) to do in-vetro. The date had been set, the first week of December- that way I had time off work to lay down and do nothing but let nature (and modern medicine) take its course. The best part about this plan was that we would find out 2 days before Christmas if we were finally about to be parents. So we had begun the mounds of medication needed to make this work. I was on the 2nd of 4 that I would have to take, halfway there when my doctor had to run a test that could only be done at this point in time. It was a new test, at least for me. One that none of my other specialist had ever done before, maybe that's why we felt like this new doctor was the one for us. Anyway she discovered that I had a couple of polyps and a tear in my uterus. Come on! Are you kidding me?! Can't you give us even a little break?! So now instead of having in-vetro the first of December I get to have a surgery to remove the polyps and repair the tear. Of course I was a wreak after the news and I'm sure that the massive hormones I was on didn't help at all! All I wanted to do was curl up into a ball and cry. I couldn't help wondering if we needed to come to terms with living a child free life. Because after many fasts and prayers, even some more recent, we know that adoption is not the rout we are suppose to take.



I tend to listen to books on tape because with traffic and navigating the Vegas strip I commute about an hour a day. Well On Wednesday when I was heading back to work I was listening to April's General Conference. It was the priesthood session and Dieter F. Uchtdorf began to speak. I know that we aren't suppose to have favorites but he quickly became one of mine as soon as he was called and not just because he is German. :-) Anyway his talk was on patience, you can already see where I am going with this. So many things in his talk jumped out at me and it was exactly what I needed to hear. So even though we have been trying to have a family for 9 years I still need to be patient. If my heart had not been comforted enough I then began preparing my primary lesson for Sunday and wouldn't you know it was about Job. I was again comforted by what I was preparing and just to make sure I was ok and could make it through, Sunday's talks in Sacrament meeting were all about our trials, enduring through them and of course patience. I love how things like that happen, we hear just what we need to in order to have our prayers answered and hearts calmed. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Is it already November?!

For some reason my blog has been really acting up and it would not let me post anything forever! But don't worry you haven't missed much. I haven't been up to or done anything exciting in that time. As I reflect back on last month or two the only things I can think of doing are working and going up to Logan for the quickest trip ever for the sealing of my niece and nephew to my sister and brother-in-law. So to continue where I left off back in September..."Summer Desserts Part 2"

The Peach: Starting on the right; an almond peach bread pudding-cake that has been tossed in creme de peche (a peach liqueur) anglaise (a rich custard sauce, essentially melted down vanilla ice cream) and then baked. YUMM!! On top of the cake we have roasted peaches that will remind you of a world in a better place. In the middle of the plate, it's kind of hard to see but there is an almond milk foam that deflated by the time the professional photographer snapped the shot. Just know that it was really cool! On the left is a beautiful sugar lattice bracelet anchored by some sand that is really a brown sugar crumble and a scoop of sour cream ice cream. Which is heaven in and of it self. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this dessert, seriously one of my all time favorite!

The Cherry: As always starting at the bottom; a line of cherry port reduction was drawn onto the plate. Above that we have 2 thin sheets of Manjari (64% Madagascan dark chocolate) chocolate that sandwiches a log of white chocolate pistachio cream. On top of the sandwich is a pistachio sponge cake. Than there is a layer of neatly stacked cherries that have been sauteed in the cherry port reduction. To complete the tower we have a pistachio tuile. To the left; a square of flourless chocolate cake and a scoop of ever so smooth, melt in your mouth creamy pistachio ice cream. Oh ans to top it all off two chocolate curls to add height.