A Labor of Love?

Labor is one of those connotative words, a word that gives you an instant image, feeling or impression; think of a word like abort or arrest. Labor leads to birth. Labor leads to production. Labor is exhausting but rewarding. Ergo, my darling, my brownie.

Starting Rebel's Kitchen has been a labor of love and though not an actual human birth, it's been the birth of an idea, the nurturing of an intense interest in ethnic foods and ingredients and the graduation of a hobby into a business. And it's about making people happy. Truly.

Without a doubt, starting a business is self-serving. But when doing what you really enjoy benefits others directly (because you know how awesome that I'm-about-to-eat-the-best-croissant-of-my-life feeling is), it largely mitigates the hours spent in the kitchen that you don't factor into your budget, the curses your kid accidentally learns when your French Macarons don't get feet and the eyeroll from the cashier when you go back to the Market for the third time in a a single day because your organization skills have fallen victim to your 35th hour of consciousness.

Totally worth it.

Totally worth it when I have a 15 minute conversation with a visitor at the Market who wants to talk about the absurd possibilities of pumpkin or the appropriateness of cranberries outside of the fall holiday season.

Totally worth it when I see the same people, week after week, and I want to hug them, thank them for buying my things and then give them everything for free.

Totally worth it when I collapse after Market, sleep for three hours and then wake up, already thinking about next week's Bake List and how I can manipulate goat cheese into something that no one has ever heard of but can't resist.

Baking has managed to combat a significant character flaw that I have. I like to be challenged, I don't like routine and I like things to be new and different - all the time. The hardest yet most rewarding part of establishing a presence at the City Market this summer has been baking the same things each week. Fortunately and early on, I realized that you don't really build a customer base by changing your product each time they stop by. So, as hard as it is, I've baked several of the same things each week, week after week, month after month. And the surprising side effect is that I've gotten really good at making these things (bastard oven and bastard humidity, aside).

So you can expect Pretzel Croissants and Chocolate Brioche and French Macarons each week and I will adore you for being a regular customer who wants regular offerings. But humor me when I ask you to try an Asian Twinkie (a Black Sesame Madeleine with Lemon Curd Filling) or suggest that you buy a Pandan Fortune Cookie - if you don't like the flavor which is derived from pandan (screwpine) leaves, the John Water's fortune inside is still worth the purchase.

See you at the Market!