bakery Archives - The Baytown Project

Her goal: make the most of life while she’s here

David Berkowitz — Fri, 14 Sep 2018 12:56:11 +0000

In her third semester at Lee College, Nadege St. Marie is studying business. One day, she would like to open a bakery.

“I’m from Saint Lucia in the West Indies. I’ve traveled within the Caribbean, but never to another big continent before coming here two years ago. I probably wouldn’t have done it by myself, but I have family here. It’s me and my older sister. We came together.

“I was looking for a different experience, a chance to explore the world a little. Somebody told me once that you need to travel in order to have really lived. Because you get to see different things, you hear different things and you meet different people. That’s what I’m trying to do. I have only one life to live, so I’m trying to live it to the fullest that I can.

“I’m 27, but I feel as if I’m 19. Especially when I’m around younger people here at the college, I feel really young as well. I try to take life one step at a time, and I try to enjoy all the experiences. Because you never know what will happen. You see young people with different problems in life, some of them even passing away. So I try to enjoy my life while I’m here.”

— Nadege St. Marie

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Flaming hot Cheetos cheesecake, anyone?

David Berkowitz — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 02:12:34 +0000

“I was pretty much raised by my grandmother. The first thing she taught me to make was pie crust. You didn’t progress until you got one thing right. I remember not being able to see over the kitchen counter. But by the time I was 4 or 5 years old, I could do pie crust. From then on, that was my job. Then I started baking the pies, baking cookies, baking bread. I grew up doing all of that.

“I love to cook, too, making whole meals. I have a completely Texan problem of cooking small. I’m not very good at cooking small. So it translated well to running a bakery.

“Cheesecakes are my signature item now. I love doing them, and I think they’re different from anyone else’s. I put a couple of extra ingredients into my crust.

“I also try to extend myself by using ingredients that you normally wouldn’t consider for a crust. For example, I have amaretto cookies that I’ve crushed and mixed with other ingredients. I have a request that I still need to fulfill for a friend. She wants a flaming hot Cheetos cheesecake. It’s sweet, salty and hot. That could be very interesting.

“I’m willing to try anything. When I’m making muffins or cheesecakes, I sometimes feel like I’m Willy Wonka. I have all of these ingredients. It’s kind of like a pallet where you can try everything and mix things together. If you have a sense of the tastes that go together, the things that might complement each other, it’s endless what you can do. The only thing that’s not endless is my time and my energy.”

— Joni Glaze

Joni, who runs Glaze Baking Company, has a circle of friends who are willing taste testers for her recipes. “I try not to bring anything home, though. I eat enough here.”

(Update: she closed her business in late 2017.)

Related:

Running a bakery is not for the faint of heart

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Running a bakery is not for the faint of heart

David Berkowitz — Tue, 19 Sep 2017 02:26:41 +0000

Joni Glaze was surprised at the amount of work that goes into running a bakery.

“I was laid off from my job at one of the plants last summer. Then I went through Thanksgiving making dozens and dozens of cheesecakes out of my house. I mentioned to a friend that maybe I needed to run a bakery so that I can have my cheesecakes done in a certified kitchen. Well, the next thing you know, I’m over here looking at this bakery that shut down three days earlier. Four days later, I owned it. We bought it in December and we’ve been open since January.

“I’ve run a lot of businesses through the years. I have good life skills to put to the task here. I know what’s it’s like to work hard. But I’m still surprised every day at the amount of work that goes into this. It’s really astounding.

“What I was not prepared for was the physicality of it all. I was not prepared for 19 hours a day on average. I was not prepared for my feet to give out or my hands to just give out. That’s been the most challenging part, realizing my age. I’m 52. But up until now, I didn’t feel it. Now I feel 152.”

— Joni Glaze

Joni owns Glaze Baking Company, which specializes in baked goods, cakes and desserts, but also serves breakfast and lunch items.

(Update: she closed her business in late 2017.)

Related:

Flaming hot Cheetos cheesecake, anyone?

The post Running a bakery is not for the faint of heart appeared first on The Baytown Project.