Thankful Thanksgiving

I am very thankful that my Thanksgiving meal turned out well this year. I don't usually do too much cooking at Thanksgiving, just maybe a dessert. Last year we got take out so I did nothing. I may have rasied the bar too high.

Braised vegetables, turkey, potato leek potage

We usually have a small Thanksgiving, just my husband, my parents, my brother and often his roommate (if he doesn't go home to the east coast). Most of my extended family is scattered across the country so we don't see them for Thanksgiving. Out of the 6 of us at dinner this year, 3 were vegetarian so I had to keep that in mind as I cooked. I planned to make stock out of the turkey bones and use the stock to make some of the other dishes but apparently vegetarians frown on their vegetables being cooked in turkey. Who knew? I made vegetable stock instead.

I really wish I had taken pictures of the process of making the vegetable stock because it is just so pretty. The combination of carrots, onion, leeks and celery all chopped up just makes me happy. It looks so fresh and delicious. I love making stock now.

Pumpkin Chiffon Pie

Anyway, I made the stock the night before and we used it to brine the turkey. We also used it to make the braised vegetables the next day and the potato, leek potage (probably the biggest hit at dinner). I also made citrus cranberry relish, biscuits, crack butter*, and pumpkin chiffon pie. My husband cooked the turkey and made couscous. I had learned to make gougeres (tasty little cheese puffs) the day before in class so I decided to throw those in as an appetizer.

Grugeres

Probably the most startling change from all years past was the lack of panic. If nothing else, my classes have taught me that you can accomplish a lot in four hours. I had about 12 hours including the night before so there was nothing to worry about.

Now what to do with all the leftovers? So far they have become turkey tacos and turkey soup.






*Crack butter is a butter mixture that we first had at our friends' wedding. It is called crack butter because the more you eat it, the more you need. I saw people eating this butter plain at the wedding. I have been known to spread it on an inch thick. It is simply butter mixed with a little cream cheese and a lot of spices but it will change the way you think about butter (meaning, you will begin to think about it all the time).

Flakiness

I really feel like the word flaky should be spelled flakey. I don't know why. I just feels right. My textbook disagrees.

I learned a lot about flakiness last week. We made biscuits and scones. We actually made biscuits twice, once to learn and once as a practical exam. I got an A! I froze some biscuits for Thanksgiving, had scones for breakfast for a couple days and the rest of the biscuits and scones were dispersed among friends. Now they have something to be thankful for this Thursday.


Flakiness is all about the size of the fat. The larger the chunks of fat in a dough, the flakier it will be. I like super flaky things so I left my fat about pea sized. For less flaky you could go down to cornmeal sized.

I am pretty excited about the rest of this week, mostly because it involves a lot of cooking and not a lot of anything else. We are hosting Thanksgiving at our house this year and I am going to make some things that I learned (in theory) how to make in culinary class. In that class we were told how to make all the basic stocks and sauces. We were shown how to make some of those stocks and sauces and how to execute all of the basic 7 cooking techniques. Occasionally we got to try it too but mostly we watched. I feel like I need to try as many of these things as possible before they go out of my brain. A couple days ago I filleted a fish and did a decent job considering I only saw it done once. Lets hope, for my family's sake, that everything for Thanksgiving goes as well. At least I know the biscuits will be good.

All about the Pie

I have started to really love making pie. I have always liked it but now lets go ahead and call it love.

Last week in class we made two pies, apple and blueberry. I haven't had the chance to taste the blueberry but the apple was great. My favorite part of making any pie is the crust. I love making crust, rolling it out and making the top pretty. For my apple pie (I need to become a better photographer) I decorated the top crust with star cut outs. We made the blueberry pie in pairs and I volunteered to do the lattice. I just couldn't get enough of it so I went home and made a blackberry pie for a friend who was having a birthday party (with a plaid inspire lattice on top which I forgot to take a picture of). If anyone ever needs a pie, let me know.

After two weeks of class one theme is clear, there are no shortcuts in good baking. When making the pie crust for example, it is all done by hand. Up until this point I have been using a food processor to mix dough because that is what the recipe says to do. Also, the crust on the bottom should be different than the crust on top. You want a flaky crust on top but a flaky crust on the bottom will lead to a soggy bottom. The dry ingredients should all be sifted and pastry flour is the best. Most of our recipes are more complicated than anything I have done at home, even the brownies. They aren't more difficult, just more involved and time consuming. They also taste a lot better.

Friday was the best day ever. After making two pies that turned out nicely and getting an A on my biscuit practical (more on that later), we were treated to a soup and salad buffet put on by the catering class next door. Everything I had tasted amazing. I don't know how often they do buffets but I hope it happens again.

I love culinary school.

Earlier this week we made meringues. I love them so much. They are relatively easy to make (if you have a stand mixer with whip attachment) and they are like little clouds of happiness. The unbaked meringue is equally delicious and a brilliant girl in class discovered that dipping the baked meringues in the unbaked meringue fluff gives you the best of both worlds! After bringing home so many cookies last week I immediately got rid of these. After a slow start I have managed to get rid of everything so far. 

These chocolate chip cookies went away too. These were for my practical cookie exam and they look much healthier than my sickly no baking soda cookies. I got an A on these.

Also, let's check in. I had predicted that at some point I would set something on fire, break something and cut myself. I managed to cut myself pretty quickly. I haven't set anything on fire yet but I did burn myself this week enough to get a blister. I have not yet broken anything but I did almost drop a whole tray of scones.

Best Weekend Ever

I feel like I haven't been home for a week which is pretty much true. This past weekend and the beginning of the week has been just overfilling with awesomeness. Here are the highlights:
Friday - pizza with friends followed by watching youtube videos (one of my favorite past times)
Saturday - seeing the Tune-yards live. They really put on an amazing show.
Sunday - Pudgie Pie party (see more on that below)! We also went to see David Sedaris who is a hilarious and dirty little man.
Monday - We went to see Noah and the Whale. I wan't too familiar with their music but they also put on an entertaining show while dressed in 3 piece suits, as I'm now assuming all English gentlemen do.
Tuesday - checking out our new neighborhood pub with friends.

All of these activities were great fun and made me happy but the pudgie pie party made me especially thrilled because I got to eat things and judge people.

Every year our friend holds a pudgie pie contest for her birthday. A pudgie pie is a sandwich that you make with a special iron and cook over a fire (google it). The iron kind of seals everything in. Each year the entries are judged by the previous year's winners. Most people seem to take it pretty seriously so there is some seriously delicious sandwich action every year. I won last year along with 2 others (my husband included) so I had to try all the pies and after some intense debate we picked three winners.

1. Currywurst - So delicious. That is pretty much the only way I can describe it.

2. Brownie aka Fudgie Pie - It turned out more like a molten chocolate cake. Covered in salted caramel and whipped cream. And made over a camp fire!

3. The F@#& You - This sandwich has as much attitude as the guy who made it. It was full of meat and had the perfect amount of spice. My personal favorite.



We tasted 12 sandwiches in all. What a delicious day.

Cookie Time!

This week has been very cookie-centric. We made chocolate chip cookies earlier in the week and yesterday we made biscotti, Strassburger cookies and brownies. Did you know brownies are considered a cookie? They are a sheet cookie or a bar cookie. Ours are topped with white and dark chocolate ganache. And they are fantastic. I have managed to not forget any more ingredients.

On Monday I have 2 tests, one on all the book reading we've done and for the other I need to bake chocolate chip cookies. I will be muttering under my breath, "baking soda, baking soda, baking soda" the whole time.

I am doing my best to give my products away so I don't eat them all but I don't have time to make deliveries and there isn't a line at my door. I should have a sign in my window that lights up when I have baked goods to give away. I might have to start giving them to the culinary students in the class next to us. Maybe they will repay the favor!

Growl

I have been debating whether to even blog about today. It was one of those days that I would like to block out.
6:55am I went to my physical therapy appointment
7:00am I was told my appointment was actually at 8:30 so I went back home
8:30  I returned to physical therapy. I was told that there was a cancellation at 7 and I could have gotten in.
10am class starts
10:30 getting my mise en place together for making chocolate chip cookies
10:35 I say to the girl next to me "I kind of like this mise en place business. This way I won't forget anything like I usually do at home."
10:50 I put my cookies in the oven
10:52 I start to clean up my space and find my baking soda hiding under my parchment paper. Curses.

I blame being frazzled from the earlier appointment mix up.

Luckily, it turns out, baking soda mostly acts as a browning agent in cookies. My cookies taste fine, they are just a little pale and sickly looking.

Alright, none of these incidents are a big deal as I reflect on them. I am a bit of a perfectionist though and slightly competitive (slightly may be a slight understatement). The last thing I wanted was to screw up the first time baking something in my first baking class. It was bound to happen. Also, the last thing I wanted was for the instructor to point it out to the whole class. That happened too. Now we all know what happens if you forget the baking soda. Now you know too.

Now I'm glad I shared. Sort of.

*Update: I just stepped in dog pee.

...

Remember when I used to blog sometimes? That was fun. I should do that again.

I can't believe it is already November. This past week flew by in a whirlwind. I had 6 tests and a paper to deal with plus visits to medical people nearly every day. Foot is getting better and neck is not so much.

I passed all my tests and both of my classes. I got A's in both even. I am now Servsafe certified and I got 49/50 on my final knife skills test. Not bad.

The real adventure starts tomorrow, my first baking class.