GL’s Blog

There is this point in your life where you slowly start to change. One of my colleagues truly believes, from her experience, at the age of 27-28 a woman truly becomes a woman. I now believe this as well. In my personal life what I was confusing generosity and kindness with was lack of self-appreciation and acknowledgment. Which had left me lost in translation for years.

If you don’t understand the above, maybe you’re not supposed to. In short, a week into cooking Mario Batali’s Molto Italiano I have decided not to push further in this direction. My love will never stop with people like Mario, Anthony Bourdain or Nigella Lawson. They are just people I just wish I knew and what I’ve come to realize is that at the end of the day, if your not doing something you love, or you not coming home from work, to do something you love, life is not really worth anything at all.

I’ve brainstormed about what people are producing already. I try to think Green, I try to think out of the box. Where is there a gap in the market?

Through all these questions and the time I have taken to think things through, life, what you love, simply is what it is, starting from the beginning of time. You are who you are, and if you don’t know who you are, you’re nothing at all, lost and a hot mess 🙂 Until you realize who you are, what you love and accept it, only then, and only if your enlightened enough to realize this, can one come up with a creative idea and move forward.

It’s really funny because I think Facebook, of all things, reminded me exactly who I am. Feeling out-of-place with no father growing up, no job now, no one in my family who has really succeeded, no one to look up to I looked toward myself.  I also looked upon past friends and relationships on Facebook realizing that I am this really great woman now, I was smart in high school, “a math whiz” to quote one of my friends. I loved hanging out with nerds and was always in between them and the cool kids. I loved the grunge scene and I wore Kurt Cobains Death Tee (1967-1994) to Gym class and wondered why no one really talked to me. The core of who we are is who we are. That can not change. One can only thrive to know oneself and to love your core. whoa. that was deep.

No one is reading this, so I feel like I could be personal…… and if someone is I will be profesh too. 🙂

In these evolving stages of my life I simply asked myself what does Gina want? This is the hardest fucking question (pardon french) I’ve ever asked myself. I’ve struggled and probably cried but in the end this is what Gina wants.

I’ve come up with three different businesses that I have made from scratch. I am in production for sewing “Green” baby diapers, baking cupcakes and making a full service scrapbook studio. Making these websites has led me to reach my goals and has given me a great sense of accomplishment even in these early stages of production. Because I am providing a green service for the earth, sharing my love for cooking and feeding people and bringing back to photography what digital era has removed from it, I feel that this is a really amazing start to all the things I truly love.

Thank you for reading, whoever you are.

I’ll keep you posted with the creation and completion of all things ME. The scrapbook site is near completion, I’ve made my own recipes for more unique kinds of mini cupcakes with an italian edge, which may make you drool and I must start practicing more baby diapers. More to come soon 🙂

-gina lee

Well, my first 2 recipes.

Pasta alla Norma (Baked Penne with Eggplant) & Mario’s Basic tomato sauce.

As I had the deftones on soft in the background, I peeled an onion, I shredded a carrot, I opened 2 cans of tomatoes, bought An 8 ounce piece of ricotta salata for grating. I layered them, I forgot about life for a while and it was absolutely amazing.

The bread crumb in this dish is key, it is layered throughout so I served it with a little extra sauce on top as I cut the pieces and shaved the cheese, because it did look a little dry. 😦

I’ve never could have believed two things, one, that ONE carrot could make a sauce so beautifully sweet and then shaven ricotta salata was the perfect choice of cheese shaved over the top. It didnt weigh down the meal like a mozzarella and ricotta could have. ricotta salata is thick, creamy, moist and mild. Sooooo perfect to tone down yet compliment the sweetness of the sauce. Simply amazing Italian, and I say simply because I think I bought this entire meal for about 11 dollars having spices and bread crumbs on hand.

The only other sauce I’ve ever had in my life is my own and my family’s. I don’t count dinning out to local restaurant because they always mess up red sauce. This was so thick and rich i felt like i could drink it. Ok lets not get crazy.

Embarking on this day by day is very fulfilling to me at this point in my life. Listen, im not Nigella Lawson with writing but I do take amazing pictures. To me it’s about capturing a moment in time that can never change. You can never change a photograph, and you can never get yelled for being rude for staring. 🙂  Here are some photos from the first recipe on my fliker site.

Thank you Mario.

Here is a tiny glimpse of what I want to produce by the end of the year!! Taking baby steps!!

I will have a full flash site up of my home-made sweets, Italian jar sauce, small wedding cakes, birthday, holiday cakes (Bar Mitzvah & Bat Mitzvah), cupcakes of all kinds, brownies, cookies and brittle!!

What I have completed so far is basic production such as gathering recipes and taking amazing photos to make your mouth water!! I have already taken course 1 for cake decorating I am going to continue to educate myself as best I can by taking the classes and learning best by experimenting with different butter cream recipies, sugar flowers and cake flavors for the most amazing wedding cakes not only that taste good but have a creative shapes as well.

The recipes I have made so far have been quite successful amongst my friends and family and I am really excited to have this as a hobby of mine. I know so many children at the preschool I am working at for the time being and I think it will be a really great hit with the parents.

Cheers to hard work and sweet fun!

Unfinished or not, here are the rest of my creations from the best class I’ve ever experienced. I broke a few things, learned a lot about letting go and had an amazing time. This fall is ballroom dancing, a class for my NEW Brother Project Runway sewing machine (sewing 101) and a cake decorating class!! I’m so excited. Now all I need is the right job to come along. Anyway, hope you enjoy the pottery. More made by gL to come soon.

–GL

I’m currently enrolled in the Adult Program in Great Neck for Pottery class on Wednesday nights. It’s been a very sucessful and rewarding experience. Plus it’s a lot of fun :)) check it out! I’m thinking of taking a glass blowing class when this is over. Hopefully it too will be just as rewarding.

November 10th was my loves birthday. In the fun of being green, besides using reusable bags from the supermarket, I used the Stock & Business section of the new york times for his birthday wrapping paper. It was personalized for something that he is really into, and with a little glitter and glue, (who doesn’t love glitter, hello?!) it made for a fabulous green friendly gift wrap. why buy paper that’s super expensive if you are just going to trash it anyway. The back of the Village Voice might be appropriate for some other men but I found this was a great choice for mine! Go green.

My boyfriends brother just got engaged!

A present bearing a hand-painted monogram shows affectionate effort. I used a hand cut stencil out of bristol pad of this awesome font I downloaded from the internet called the king queen font. You just have to center the stencil on towel and, holding it firmly, apply two coats of washable fabric paint with a medium-size brush. Remove stencil, and let dry, about three hours. I had to iron mine, but different strokes for different folks.