Mama Jo takes on PEI: Tasty indeed

This past week was a busy one in the chocolate shop. With our new product “Moo Munch” hitting the store shelves my fellow pastry chef Claudia and I were hard at work making cookies all week. The first few days were trial and error, error, error, but by Thursday and Friday we had fallen into a rhythm of success. Each batch we turned out was better and better and the cookies were crunchier, more golden, and in general more delicious. We were able to pack away eight full cases of Moo Munch in the freezer and sent out four to the store. On Friday afternoon we heard that we had three sales of Moo Munch and it sent Claudia and I to cloud nine! It is so satisfying to hear that people are purchasing our product that we had made only hours earlier. Moo Munch is best described as a very thin version of a Skor chocolate bar with dark chocolate sandwiched in the middle. It is divine.

We are on summer hours in the chocolate shop which means we are open 7 days a week. I was scheduled to work on Saturday and to tell you the truth it was a lot of fun. There was half as many people in the shop as normal and it was very quiet. I was sent to the kitchen to skin truffles and cut toffee and found the emptiness a haven of solitude. With no one else around I freely and loudly sang and skipped through the kitchen as I went about my work. It was refreshing to have the absence of the all the extra machinery noise buzzing, whirring, clanging, or stirring. A steady hum from the milk chocolate enrober wrapped the shop in calming buzz and we were all able to turn our hands to our work and our thoughts to else where.

On Sunday the ladies of the church were invited to celebrate Elinor’s birthday. As you may remember Elinor was a friend of mine who passed away this past January. Her children invited us to her farm in Wood Islands to have a picnic, walk the grounds, eat cake and drink lemonade. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, a healthy and swift ocean breeze, and fresh golden sunshine. We laughed, and talked, and walked, soaking up each others company and the presence of Elinor. After our picnic lunch we were invited inside for tea and coffee and then we lit candles on a lemon poppy seed cake and sang Happy Birthday. At first I thought it odd and was a bit uncomfortable singing Happy Birthday to Elinor when she wasn’t physically present but as we sang, staring into the candles on her cake it seemed like the natural thing to do. I had a vision of her sitting there smiling widely and glowing with joy not selfishly that we had all come to celebrate her but she was looking back at us and celebrating us. After cake and more giggles we spent time in her families flower nursery. Each flower was a different smile and blessing from Elinor. Every where I looked I felt the over whelming soft eyes of Elinor blessing me. Everywhere I walked I felt Elinors hands cradling my elbow walking along side me as I strolled through her world. There was no path I couldn’t walk, no picture I couldn’t take, I was completely welcome to walk through the glass and taste an unreal dimension of friendship and sunshine. The presence of Elinor was perfectly indescribable.

I am leaving this week on a high note. Work has been successful, the weather has been scrumptious, and the company has been delectable. It has been a tasty week indeed.