Ashley’s house was filled with the aroma of freshly baked cinnamon rolls as we embarked on two marathon days of recipe testing, food photography and musical theater sing-a-longs in preparation for the launch of the Galette website. The cinnamon rolls are for our “Holiday Brunch Favorites” culinary party we are developing, and is only one of the many recipes we are taking out for a spin this week. So far, a sampling of our culinary projects includes rolling croissants, piping macarons, searing scallops and forever stirring risotto.

I’d hauled over a load of my photography equipment to take photos of the dishes as we finished and plated them, but I was distracted by the prettiness of shaped and proofing croissants and snuck out of the kitchen for an impromptu photo session. As I dusted boards with flour and arranged the croissants, Ashley seared off a prosciutto-wrapped pork loin before popping it in the oven to roast. Mmmmm. Pork and butter. All the good smells.

So, other than the joy of spending a few days in the kitchen, cooking our little hearts out and singing along to Pandora’s showtunes station, what’s all this recipe testing about? Well, there are aspects such as taking pictures for the website and the fact that we just like cooking. But, most importantly, we want to ensure that our clients have the best possible experience, so we make sure that we’ve thoroughly tested each and every recipe that we bring into your home. And we aren’t just looking at whether it tastes good in the end. We look at what skills these recipes teach, how they will fit into the a set time frame and whether they are fun to make. We want to inspire joy in the kitchen and all of these facets come into play when putting together our culinary experiences.

So we are prepared to face the oh so terrible prospect of our houses having the faint lingering aroma of butter and shallot as we continue with our recipe testing. We can’t wait to start cooking with you and hope that you, too, will get to enjoy all the incredible smells in your own home.