Stumbling Towards Bakery

Cake, cake, cake, cake, cake

2012-03-09T09:05:00.001-06:00

I really like making cake. Good think too since I will be making a lot of cakes. Last week I made 3 cakes and yesterday I made 3 more. We assembled 2 of them earlier this week.

One was the Sacher torte. It is named after the chef who created it. It is actually patented so if you wanted to make it and sell it you would have to call it something else or get sued. I really liked this cake, mostly because if turned out perfect. It is a European style cake so it is a little on the dry side. It is made with cocoa powder and almond flour, brushed with simple syrup and has a layer of apricot jam in the center. It is covered with chocolate ganache and then a layer of chocolate glacage which made it super shiny. The tricky part of the glacage is you get one shot at it. You pour it over the cake and try to get it to cover the whole thing. If it doesn't you are pretty much just screwed. Any attempt at a touch up will be very noticeable. If there is any dent or imperfection in the cake the glacage will highlight it. If done correctly though it looks awesome.

The carrot cake was a whole other beast. This cake is so full of stuff. Spices, nuts, carrots, oil. It is really dense. Almost the opposite of the sacher torte. The best part about this cake was getting to make the little marzipan carrots on top. I love marzipan. So. Much. I don't love carrot cake usually but this recipe was pretty good (except it was a little crumbly).

I have a yellow chiffon cake, devil's food cake and two chocolate butter genoise cakes in the freezer at school. I'm excited to see what they will become!

12 Step

2012-03-04T19:54:00.000-06:00

This weekend I had some spare time so I decided to make bread. I kind of miss baking bread all the time. It is almost therapeutic. Besides, during our breads class we had an assignment to create our own original bread recipe and I wanted to see if mine would actually work and taste good. I made a variation of ciabatta bread with fresh herbs and pine nuts.

Making bread involves 12 steps. It occasionally involves a bonus pre-step as well. I actually managed to take pictures along the way as I made my bread so here we go.

0.5. Bonus pre-step. Make a preferment. This is a bit of dough that you ferment 12-24 hours ahead of time. It gives the bread a lighter texture with more air bubbles (the sign of a good bread). I made mine the night before. This preferment is called a poolish and it made by mixing yeast, bread flour and water. It is really important whenever you are mixing yeast with water to have the water between 90 and 95 degrees. Warmer and you will kill the yeast. Cooler and it may not activate and ferment as much as it should.

1. Scale. It is important to measure all the ingredients accurately. We always use a scale.

2. Mixing - Bring all the ingredients together in a bowl first. Once they come together you can start kneading the dough on a lightly floured surface. Most breads get about kneaded about 140 times (or turns). You can see if it is ready by checking for what is called a windowpane. You pull up a bit of dough and stretch it out til it is a little bit translucent. If the window tears quickly it needs a few more turns.

3. Ferment - Cover the dough and leave it alone for about an hour or until it has doubled. You can check if it is ready by poking it. If it collapses it isn't ready. If the hole stays there and doesn't close up it is ready.

4. Punch - Once it has doubled punch it. Squish it down, fold it over, squish it down, repeat.

5. Scale Again - If your recipe is for 2 or more loaves now is the time to divide the dough. Weight it to make sure you have equal amounts.

6. Round - Pretty much was it sounds like. Roll the dough into a nice smooth ball.

7. Bench - Cover again and let the dough sit for 15 to 20 minutes.

8. Make-Up - Now is the time to make the final shape of the dough. I made mine into kind of an oval shape.

9. Proof - You need to let the dough double again. In bakeshops you would use a proof box, a warm and humid environment. Most people don't have those at home. You don't really need one, it will just take a little longer to proof. Put your dough in a warmish place like on top of the fridge. I had my oven on earlier and it was still a little warm so I put my dough in there with some hot water. If you do this make sure your oven isn't too hot. about 90 degrees is perfect for most doughs. Either way you can tell if your dough it ready when it doubles or when it springs back a little if you tap it lightly.

9.5. Score - Another bonus step I guess. If your bread needs scoring (cuts with a serrated knife), now is the time. If you want to egg wash the bead or add any kind of topping, like sesame seeds, now is the time.

10. Bake - Finally! Bake your bread. Most breads bake at around 450 degrees and will take 20-30 minutes.

11. Cool - Let your bread cool all the way before you cut or store it. I think this is impossible. I usually cut my bread when it is still a little warm. I just can't wait.

12. Store - Another important step. If you are making a crisp crusted bread store it is paper once it is cool. For a soft crust bread store it in plastic.

There. You did it! Or, at least I did. Don't worry, you can live vicariously through me this time. My bread actually worked! it is soft and tasty. It made a great sandwich for lunch today. I'm excited to try making my own dough recipe again.

All at once

2012-02-28T09:05:00.000-06:00

Yesterday it seems like every thing came together at once. We have worked for a week on components of various items and yesterday we finally assembled. We were also surprised to find out that we would be graded on two of the items.

First up was the Gateau St. Honore. This is the most complicated item we have made so far. It has a pastry crust, alternating rows of chocolate and vanilla diplomat cream, pate choux balls filled with cream and dipped in caramel. I made some caramel spirals just for fun.

We made these little pate choux circles filled with cream called paris brest. Apparently they were named after a pastry served on a train in France that went from Paris to Brest.

We made chocolate souffles as well. They were pretty simple to make.

We knew going in to this class that we would be evaluated on 13 items. In our last classes we were evaluated on 3-4 different items. We have also been able to practice the items a couple times before the test in the past. Not anymore. We have to do it right the first time and get graded on it. So far we have been graded on the souffle and the gateau. I got 100% on both! I actually think it helped not knowing that I would be graded on them. I was a lot less nervous that I normally am when making a practical item. Hopefully the winning streak continues!

My new love

2012-02-26T16:33:00.001-06:00

Crepes.

I have never really cared much for crepes, or really tried them very often. We made them in class last week and the light bulb finally went on. They are so easy to make and so versatile! You can make them savory or sweet depending on your mood. The batter whips up quick in a blender and then you can store it for about a week in the fridge. They take less than a minute to cook on a hot pan. And, they taste great. AND! They aren't too bad for you, especially if you fill them with fresh fruit.

On Saturday my husband and I filled our crepes with strawberries and blueberries. Today some friends picked up savory ingredients to fill them with. We had grilled chicken sausage, sauteed red pepper, green onions and a little cheese in our crepes. Amazing. As a final treat we had crepes with strawberries, nutella and whipped cream.

I see crepes happening every weekend.

New Beginnings

2012-02-24T08:27:00.000-06:00

New class this week! International pastry, cake formula and assembly. So far we have made many components of items but have not yet assembled anything. We are back to the lecture one day, production the next schedule which also slows things down quite a bit. I am very excited about this class though. It is all about technique. This is the first class we have had where the teacher critiques almost everything we do. Awesome and frightening at the same time.

So far this class has been going well except for burning myself yesterday. It was bound to happen. I grabbed a hot pot handle and wound up with an inch long blister on my index finger. At least today is Friday so I will have the weekend to heal.

More bad news. I made a cake last weekend and forgot to take a picture. Growl! What is wrong with me? Friends! You are now in charge! Take pictures of things I bring you and send them to me. Please.

And then there were 3

2012-02-16T13:19:00.001-06:00

Another class done. 3 down, 3 to go.

Our last week was a pretty mild one. On Monday we made apple strudel. We made this one before in our last class but we used pre-made phyllo dough. This time we made the dough and stretched it out. It had to be stretched to 3 feet by 4 feet, it was pretty much transparent and looked like an animal hide. The difficult part is not tearing holes in it. You end up filling it with apples, cinnamon, sugar and raisins so if you get a hole in it all your fillings will ooze out. It was a pretty fun and I managed to not tear any holes. Other people weren't so lucky. One of my classmates asked our instructor for help and he replied, "I usually let you guys sink or swim on this one." He pretty much cut us off on all help the last week of class.

We made another batch of cinnamon bread this week too but the make up was a little different. We used all purpose flour instead of bread flour so the texture of the bread was quite different, much softer. Then we spent 2 days making croissants for our final practical. Shock of all shocks, I got 100%. I didn't think it was possible actually. That has never happened. Just look at those flaky layers!

This week was my husband's birthday. I made him a tiny cake filled with crushed Take 5 candy bars (his favorite). Valentine's day came and went. My husband made me the cutest video Valentine ever and got me cupcake earrings. I got him ramen, so romantic. Once Valentine's day was over I was feeling guilty that I didn't really make anything so yesterday I made a silly amount of heart shaped macarons. Flavors included lychee, anise, raspberry mint, orange blossom, creme de cassis, and cayenne chocolate.

Next up: Cakes!

Home Stretch

2012-02-09T19:37:00.000-06:00

Things are heating up at school. Next week is our last week of this class already. We have a whole lot less down time and a whole lot more "oh crap I have five minutes to get this in the proof box" time. We are on to croissants and danishes right now. They are a lot like puff pastry in that they require folds that can only be done every 30 minutes but they have the added steps of dough that needs to ferment and rise for an hour and then the final products need to be put in the proof box to rise again for 45 minutes or so. It would seem like a lot more waiting around but we have 3-4 products going at once so it has become more of a slow and steady marathon instead of sprints here and there.

So far we have made classic croissants, pain au chocolat (chocolate filled croissants) and standard fruit filled danishes. They have all been delicious.

I have noticed a shift in how I view the things I make. For some reason I view them as this product I make. I don't really see it as food and I have no desire to eat the things I make. Maybe it is because I try the samples of the version our chef instructor makes first and his is better. Maybe it is because I don't want to compare the two. Maybe it is because I know that down the line it is not going to be ok for me to be eating things that I make. Maybe I'm all sweeted out. Maybe after putting hours and hours into one little pastry the last thing I want to do it be responsible for its destruction. All I know is that I am much happier giving them away.

Also I need an iphone. The pictures today are courtesy of the food photo app on my husband's phone and they are much better than anything I have ever put up here.

Puffalufagus

2012-02-07T07:26:00.000-06:00

Bam! I got an A on my pithivier. I felt like I was screwing everything up during the practical. It never helps that the instructor walks slowly in front of each table, just watching what you are doing and saying nothing. I was pleased that my puff pastry did indeed get puffy, there were no leaks or air pockets and the coloring came out nicely. It pretty much looks just like the last pithivier I made. And now that I am comfortable with puff pastry it is time to move on.

There are 3 types of laminated doughs puff pastry, croissant and danish. We are now on to croissants. They pretty much follow the same process as puff pastry in terms of making it but the dough in much stiffer so it is more difficult to roll out. I love croissants though so hopefully they are worth the pain.

We made cinnamon rolls yesterday, seemingly just for fun. They are fun and easy to making after spending hours and hours on one batch of puff pastry. What? All we have to do is mix it, let it ferment and roll it out? I forgot what that was like.

In other news I will be taking a giant leap this week by doing my first stage. Yikes. I am incredibly nervous. I talked to my chef instructor about it and he assured me that I will be fine. So have all my friends. They are all probably right but I'm still nervous. It is at a bakery I really like so if it doesn't go well and they hate me I will be asking my friends to go in and buy stuff for me since I won't be able to go back. Ever. I maybe should have given a fake name. That is the worst case scenario. Best case, they love me, I do well and I am helpful, they give me a french macaron.

We've only just begun...

2012-02-02T09:12:00.001-06:00

As predicted, as soon as I got very comfortable with the 12 step process of making bread, we have moved on. Not before making a last few delicious loaves and learning how to formulate our own bread recipes though.

A couple weeks ago we made our own "wild yeast" starter. Every time I mention this to people they like to picture me lassoing yeast with a very tiny lasso (now you can picture it too). There is yeast all around us so as long as you are willing to put in the time (6 days or more) you can lure them out of the air to make a starter for bread. This starter works especially well for sourdough breads. We made sourdough, rye sourdough and marble rye sourdough with ours. The marble rye was beautiful which means I forgot to take a picture of it.

Now we are on to laminated doughs. So far we have focused exclusively on puff pastry. Puff pastry can be a tricky little expletive to work with. It is kind of a messy business, you can only work with it for a few minutes every half and hour and if you don't do it just right your puff pastry won't rise evenly or your butter will leak out and it won't rise much at all. Classic puff pastry requires you to roll it out, fold it a specific way and then chill for a half hour. Then repeat four more times.

Despite the tediousness of puff pastry, it is fun to work with and there is a huge satisfaction when you finally get to bake it and it rises correctly. We have made a variety of puffy good so far and they have all been tasty. The prettiest was probably the napoleon pastry but I didn't take a picture of it before I fed it to my book club (shock!). If you google it that is pretty much what mine looked like.

Today I start my two day practical exam. We will made the puff pastry today and tomorrow turn it into a pithivier (an almond cream filled pastry that looks like a flower pictured above). If all goes well I will consider myself queen of the puff, or puff master flash, or something clever that someone else thinks of.

Blah, blah, blah

2012-01-27T08:19:00.000-06:00

All I talk or think about is bread. Bread, bread, bread. I have started planning my meals around what will go well with the bread I just brought home. The only trouble is, our instructor doesn't abide by the syllabus so I can't plan ahead. I guess that also makes it kind of exciting.

Last week was baguette ridiculousness. We made 2 on Tuesday, 2 on Wednesday and 2 on Friday. On Wednesday we had a banh mi party at our house to help get rid of the baguettes.

This week we have made quite a variety of things. Pretzels were delicious and we even made pretzel rolls which I have been meaning to make for months. They taught me a very important lesson as well. Proper cooling and storing is crucial. I threw the rolls into a ziploc bag while they were still warm and they ended up wrinkly and disturbing and found a new home in the trash. Sad. You must cool bread all the way before storing! Must!

We also made bagels this week. I wasn't super excited about these since I can't eat them (I broke my jaw long ago and wound up with a list of thing never to eat again) but my friends were happy to take them.

I love challah bread but I wasn't sure what to do with two loaves of it. Luckily I had a friend with a plan. She invited us to dinner where we paired the challah with a bohemian goulash dish. A match made in heaven!

I love just looking at the challah bread. It is so shiny and it was fun to braid. I am really starting to love my breads class. Kneading practically puts me in a trance. Getting something to rise and double perfectly has become a new obsession. Just when I am getting used to it all we are preparing to switch to laminated doughs and a new learning process will begin. I wonder what my new obsession will be?

*New thing of last week - I walked into a bakery I have never been to and inquired about doing a stage.
*This week - new foods, kolache, a super yummy bohemian dessert. Like a yeasty cookie. I feel like that isn't really enough so I'll try to squeeze something else in.

Moves like...

2012-01-17T08:37:00.000-06:00

On Friday in class we made cute little dinner rolls. Our instructor showed several different to prepare them including braids, knots and Mick Jagger lips (not pictured). One of my favorite parts of baking is trying to make things look fancy or adorable. I like making loaves of bread and baguettes but it is so much less satisfying to just dump dough in a pan than to work with it and try to give it a very specific look.

We also made tortillas on Friday and they were delicious. I had no idea that real tortillas contain lard. That is probably why they were so delicious. I made them again at home with shortening and they were good too. So good that of the 24 tortillas I have made I got zero pictures of them. They will be made again!

Earlier in the week we made pizza and pita bread. That was a delicious day! I have made pizza and pita bread many times before but I always enjoy it. These turned out kind of rectangular because we had to form them on half sheet trays. The pizza dough recipe we made was different that my usual and it was so easy to work with. We let it ferment overnight and when I took my dough out of the fridge the next day it was so light and fluffy it could have been a pillow. Or a pizza cloud. Or something else that I can't think of.

This week I think I will learn how to make my own yeast starter!

A Bounty of Bread

2012-01-12T08:06:00.001-06:00

I started breads class this week. We will spend the first half of this class focusing on typical breads working towards artisan breads and then the second half will be devoted to enriched breads and pastries. That means croissants and danishes are on the way.

The first day was all lecture but we have been working nonstop since then. And by nonstop I meant sporadically. Turns out, there is a lot of waiting around when you are making bread. This is in stark contrast to our last class when we were in constant motion in an effort to get everything finished. No one is quite sure what to do while waiting for our bread to ferment or proof so we have started playing battleship and hangman. Yesterday I was smart enough to bring a book.

All that waiting around has produced 2 baguettes, one loaf of white pan bread, one loaf of cinnamon pan bread, pizza dough and two baguettes epi style. I froze the white bread, my husband and I ate one baguette almost immediately, the cinnamon bread became french toast for breakfast this morning (with leftovers for tomorrow) and I fed the kids at school one of the epi baguettes. The last baguette will hopefully become banh mi sandwiches tonight and I think we are making pizza during class today. One epi baguette left. Phew! Bread is easier to find a use for than cookies at least.

I resolve.

2012-01-09T18:36:00.002-06:00

Everyone has been talking about resolutions lately (shocking) and I hate to tell you this but I'm gonna do it too.

I don't usually make resolutions because I don't stick with them. I don't stick with them because I feel like it is something I'm supposed to do, not something I want to do. My family and my husband will tell you that it is very difficult to make me do something that I don't want to do.

This year I was going to skip even pretending to make a resolution but then I thought of a good one that I really want to try. Plus it is simple and pretty open-ended so I can probably cheat. I am going to do something new every week. I decided it can be anything new. Eating something I've never tried, making something new, going somewhere, a new activity, whatever.

It started on New Year's Eve, before I had even thought of the resolution. We had dinner with friends and every couple was asked to bring a dish to share. We have adventurous friends so we brought roasted bone marrow. I have never had bone marrow but I hope to have it again soon. It was far tastier than I imagined, like delicious meat butter.

Late last week I made pasta with braised oxtail. I have never prepared or eaten oxtail before. I usually leave the meat preparation to my husband but this needed to be cooked all day and he was at work so I had to do it myself. This was also delicious and I will prepare it again soon.

Over the weekend was one more first. I volunteered to make a dessert for a bridal shower I was attending. I went for Tres Leches cake from the new cookbook my brother got me. Another first.

So far it has mostly been new food adventures. I will try to mix it up. Later this week I am going to a concert of a band I have never seen at a venue I haven't been to. Plus I started a new class at school!

Chocolate Overload

2012-01-05T13:39:00.003-06:00

My poor book club. This is what I'm bringing for dinner.

At the end of my Intro to Baking class I was drowning in baked goods. I ended up bring home three cakes one day and had the good sense to freeze two of them. One was a genoise cake which I turned into a tasty trifle at Christmas (resolution for the new year, take pictures of things and also try to take better pictures of things).

The other cake was a devil's food cake. I have never been a fan of devil's foods cake but that may have something to do with the fact that the only form I have had it in is a Snackwells cake/cookie thing. Remember Snackwells? Low fat cookies and such. They were also low on deliciousness.

Since this has been my only experience with this kind of cake I had no idea what to do with it and I also wasn't very excited to try to do something with it.
Enter Christmas.

For Christmas I received many wonderful things. My brother got me this book on a recommendation of a friend of his who is a pastry chef in New York. In this book is a really good looking devil's food cake. It has layers of caramel and dark chocolate ganache. The frosting is dark chocolate ganache coated with toasted cake crumbs. Now who can I make eat this cake? My book club. I hope it is good.

The crumb coating makes the cake look "classy" in my husband's words but I felt it lacked a little something extra. In the book there is a perfectly placed dollop of ganache on top of the cake. I tried to replicate it but it always ended up looking like a turd. I have been wanting to try my hand at making roses so I warmed up the ganache a little and hoped for the best. I don't know if you are supposed to pipe roses out of ganache but I did.

I made 5 roses and they each turned out a little different. The first ones were smaller and tighter since the chocolate was a little cooler. The edges of the petals were rough which I think made kind of a cool effect. The last 2 I did were bigger and softer looking since the chocolate had warmed up while I was using it. After chilling in the fridge for a while I chose one of the bigger ones and stuck it on the middle of the cake. Done and done.

New Year!

2012-01-02T14:17:00.003-06:00

I couldn't have really asked for a better year than 2011 was. It was a year of firsts and a year of adventure.

This year we traveled to Asia for three weeks to visit Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. It was my first time traveling in that area. Again, my husband made an awesome blog for it so if you are curious about what it is like to travel in that part of the world I will refer you to him.

This was a the year of weddings. Four of my husband's cousins got married and one of our friends got married twice (sort of). I'm usually not a big fan of weddings but these were each so fun and unique in their own ways. One had brunch for the reception dinner. One had a hot dog cart late in the evening. One had karaoke at the dance plus it was at a beautiful resort up north. One was in a local park. Three had fun photo booths. One was on the beach in Florida and officiated by my husband (another first).

We made our first trip to New York. We traveled to Chicago to see my brother perform in a play that we later got to see him receive his first Ivey award for.

There were also new babies (4 friends and one family member brought some new humans to the world) this year and other new beginnings. My husband and I both left our jobs. He left his for a new opportunity at a different company, I left mine for a part time teaching job that allowed me to start culinary school. We had several friends that also started new jobs and even started new companies this year.

This year I also started running. I completed Warrior Dash, Tiger Tracks 5k and Muddy Buddies. I also obtained my first running injury.

We survived 17 flights and a million concerts. We had way too much fun with our friends doing things like camping, a wig out, pine wood derby, a pie party, a milkshake party, a pudgie pie party, Christmas in July, Bratstravaganza, roller derby, wine party, birthdays, sledding, crafting days, book clubs, bowling, rib club, game nights, etc, etc, etc.

I also made it through the entire year without getting a tattoo.

It was a very brave year.

2012 is going to have a hard time competing.

NYC, I love thee

2011-12-22T11:23:00.002-06:00

I will write a little recap of my very first trip to New York City. Note that my husband blogged about our trip as it was happening so his it better. Really you should just ignore this post and read his.

I learned two things on this trip.
1. All stereotypes about NYC are true.
2. NYC is the heart of Christmas.

1. Seriously. The accent, yelling over cabs, overweight cops eating bagels and donuts, the fast pace, the smells (good and bad), etc. New York is a lot like what you see in the movies and on tv. I wasn't disappointed.

2. Christmas is New York is better than you would expect. I feel like now I know what Christmas is supposed to be like. Every bar and restaurant we went to was decked out with Christmas decorations. So were most stores. Rockefeller Plaza and the surrounding stores could be part of the north pole. We saw a firetruck that had Christmas lights all over the front of it. Everyone wished you a Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays. Even the strip club we walked by on Broadway had a huge Nutcracker statue and the bouncer was dressed as Santa. I felt the immediate need to come home and decorate our house more. I cannot be outdone by a strip club.

I learned four things about New York.
1. All stereotypes are true
2. It is Santa's workshop
3. It is all about the bakeries
4. The shopping is varied and wonderful

3. Their bakeries are serious. I didn't eat anything bad (although I had help from a friend picking the good ones). Also there are bakeries on every block. We had cupcakes from Magnolia bakery which were so cute and delicious. At Amy's bread I had a scone and my husband had brioche and they were both fabulous. The brioche was the best I had EVER tasted. At Sarabeth's I had a breakfast sandwich on a croissant with ham and gruyere. The croissant was as light and fluffy as a pillow. We made several trips to Le Financier for macaroons. They were huge and very tasty. Especially the cassis one we had. At Le Pain Quotidien (which we called the pain quotient) I had another fantastic scone topped with ricotta cheese and paris ham. I plan on recreating that experience for breakfast every day possible. They also have a hazelnut spread that puts Nutella to shame.

4. The shopping was better than I could have imagined. I was picturing big department stores and name brands. That really isn't my kind of shopping. I knew there would be cute little boutiques too, and there were. The star of the shopping show, however, were the pop-up holiday markets. We went to five of them. They are temporary stores with lots of vendors selling anything you could imagine but mostly things that you couldn't. They ranged from kind of fancy (the Grand Central Station holiday market) to hipster and gritty (Artists and Flea pop-up shop in Chelsea market). I pretty much did all my holiday shopping at these markets and we both bought plenty for ourselves too. We would have bought more but that would have also required buying an additional suitcase. We seriously spent hours in these markets, shopping, pining and chatting with the vendors. I would like to live in Chelsea market please.

I learned six things during my trip.
1. Stereotypes - real
2. Santa lives there
3. Bakeries, you will eat until you explode and you will be happy to do so
4. Shopping, you will shop until you are poor and you will be happy to do so
5. It really is the city that never sleeps
6. I want to go to there, again

5. I felt safer in NYC at night than I do in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It is mostly because there are always people on the street. Walking back to our hotel at 2am we never went down a street without at least 3 other big groups of people walking as well. And many of them seemed to be just starting their nights.

6. As promised by everyone who has gone before me, I am already planning a return trip. We didn't make it to any of the other burrows or most museums. I am told that if I go to Brooklyn I may just settle in, never to return to MN.

We really crammed a lot into our trip. We only had 3 full days so we kept moving the whole time. We made it to the Nutcracker in Lincoln Center, the NBC studio tour, Top of the Rock, the Museum of Natural History, and a taping of the Letterman show plus lots more cute restaurants and shops. We really couldn't have done it without an awesome itinerary made for us by a friend and advice from my brother and lots more friends. Thanks everybody!

Refreshed and Renewed!

2011-12-21T12:58:00.001-06:00

My finals are over and I couldn't be happier with the results. My final written exam went very well, so did the product id test and so did my final practical exam.

For the final practical I had to make a fresh fruit tart, strassburger cookies, eclairs and pastry cream to fill the eclairs and tart. These are all things I have made before but I historically screw up under pressure and forget to put in sugar or baking soda or whatever. This time I actually felt remarkably calm and confident during the whole baking assembly process. What a difference six weeks of instruction can make. Then came the grading part and I was extremely nervous. I'm actually surprised that I didn't drop the whole tray just walking up to the from to get graded. Luckily I didn't and my chef instructor was very happy with my products. Phew! Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture before she tasted everything.

As a reward I went to New York with my husband. As part of our pre-flight routine we went to the Surdyk's Flights for a cocktail and late lunch.

Then we got to New York. And I ate. And I shopped. And I ate. And then we did some eating and shopping.

It was the best trip ever.

Oops

2011-12-14T08:04:00.001-06:00

I forgot I had a blog. It is finals week this week so I can't really be held responsible for my sanity. My life will return to normal very soon but not before it gets a whole lot awesomer. Cryptic!Mysterious!Ooooooooooo (that was a ghost sound)!I'm tired.

I declare!

2011-12-07T14:21:00.001-06:00

Eclairs!

These are yummy. I really had no idea how delicious eclairs were. And the best part is that the dough is easy to make and you can use it to make eclairs, fancy swans, churros, cream puffs and those tasty little gougere things I mentioned earlier.

Because I'm not a very nice person...

2011-12-02T08:24:00.001-06:00

A while ago I accidentally stole a friend's hat. I borrowed it for the morning and then it warmed up so I put it in my purse and forgot about it until I was later accused of stealing it. I went with it. I began texting him pictures of different people with his hat on or me in various locations wearing his hat. His hat went bowling, went to the farmer's market, visited some restaurants, etc. Then one day he told me that he felt sorry for his hat because it had to spend so much time with me. I told him his hat would be punished.

His birthday was approaching so I figured that would be a good time to give the hat back. I used to do a lot of knitting so I found some yarn about the same colors and I distressed it a little so it looked worn. I also made a pom pom. Then I found some fleece similar to the lining of the hat and sewed a new lining. I thought the lack of tags would give me away so I cut the tag out of a hat I had (same brand) and sewed it into the lining. Then I made a ransom style note, just for fun.

I made a false bottom in a box and put the real hat in. On top of it I wrapped up the hat pieces with the note. Justice.

I only fooled him for a few minutes but what a precious few minutes they were. And the best part is my husband recorded it!

On a totally unrelated note, we made turkey pizza. Pumpkin puree was the base, topped with turkey, red onions, gruyere cheese and red pepper flakes. Pretty tasty!

Thankful Thanksgiving

2011-11-29T08:23:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-23T08:35:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-21T08:50:00.001-06:00

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.

2011-11-18T08:31:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-16T07:50:00.001-06:00

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!

2011-11-11T13:58:00.001-06:00

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

2011-11-08T19:18:00.001-06:00

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.

...

2011-11-06T19:02:00.000-06:00

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.

You win some, you lose some

2011-10-31T09:23:00.000-05:00

The good news is that my foot has been getting better.

The bad news is that I've gone and broke my neck. Or I pinched a nerve. Something bad mysteriously happened. All I know is that I can't turn my head and it hurts a whole lot. You win some, you lose some.

This is also my last week of my first classes. If things go according to plan I will be servesafe certified and finish Culinary 1 strong.

What I will miss most about Culinary 1 is the lunches. I already told you about the braised lamb and the grilled salmon. We also had pork chops with chambord sauce, asparagus with hollandaise and mashed potatoes one day. We also made fried shrimp and tartar sauce. Another day we had a duo of soups. One was a leek and potato potage and the other was lobster bisque. They were both incredibly delicious. The only down side of the lobster bisque was the killing of the lobsters. I hadn't really expected to see that. Our chef said the most humane way to do it is to just chop them right in half, which is what he did. I was slightly disturbed but by the time we were done cooking, the lobster had become just ingredients to me. Oh so very tasty ingredients.

Oh, and Happy Halloween!

I'm Learning!

2011-10-28T09:13:00.000-05:00

Write it down! I made dinner for my husband!

I have made dinners before (usually something I can bake or put in the crockpot) but it is always for company and it is always from a recipe. Earlier this week I COOKED my husband dinner for maybe the first time ever, and I didn't even need a recipe. I have maybe made him a grilled cheese sandwich before and once I think I cooked him some eggs for breakfast, but dinner? Never. (well, I guess there was the lamb last week but the husband helped a little with that)

I made grilled chicken tacos with a fresh and warm corn, tomato and red wine vinegar onion salsa. There was also a side of black beans and queso fresco and avocado to put on top. It was delicious! I was shocked! I felt so good about it that I made desert too!

For desert I poached pears in white wine, then I stuffed the center with chopped up dates and pecans and put them in the oven. Meanwhile I made a syrup with brown sugar, water, a little wine, star anise, cloves and cinnamon. I drizzled it over the pear and done! Dessert! *I forgot to take a picture so I will recreate it and add at a later date

Next week is my last week of culinary class. I am sad. I have heard it said over and over that if you want to be a good pastry chef you need to be a good savory chef. I am determined to make that happen so I am going to try to cook at least once a week from now on. In theory, I should know how to do that now.

3.1415926535

2011-10-24T20:49:00.000-05:00

So my brother had a pie party last weekend. A brilliant, filling, and then sickening idea. Just kidding, it was plain great. The rule was you had to bring pie or a beverage. I made two contributions because I am an over achiever.

All the pies!
(My pecan pie is the 1/2 eaten one)

First I made this pecan pie recipe. I was curious what a pecan pie without corn syrup would be like. Fabulous. Way better than normal which is good news for me since I am technically allergic to corn. It was very much a typical pecan pie but without the syrupy sweetness. I made a clove crust and Amaretto whipped cream which really sealed the deal. The whipped cream was more popular than the pie actually. I forgot to take a pic of this pie until it was half eaten on the pie table.

Pi pies

Next I made these apple pie cookies. I mostly wanted to make these so I could bring in pi. I had the idea to carve the numbers into the tops of the crust instead of the usual little slits you make in pies (is there a technical term for those?). It was really had to get a good picture of these cookies but you get the idea. They were really yummy too, a perfect cross between pie and a cookie. I used a cinnamon crust for these. I can't wait to make these again.

I did not use the pie crust given in the apple pie recipe. I always use a recipe from America's Test Kitchen that I found in a magazine a few years ago. I never really thought too much about the crust of a pie until I made this one. It is so delicious. I now love the crust and feel like it should really have a presence in a pie. It isn't just there to hold the filling together, it can make or break a pie. I usually pump up the volume of the crust recipe by adding a few extra spices or some secret ingredient. Making the crust has become my favorite part of making pie.

All the pies were really tasty. I was not smart though and I took too big of pieces to begin with so I did not get to sample all the pies. Now I know for next time!

Ah, Friday

2011-10-21T13:33:00.004-05:00

It has been a rather stressful week (4 tests!) but this weekend is sure to make up for it.

First, my lovely pseudo-sisters brought me back these little beauties from Paris! Lets pretend I took the photo before I started eating them. They are wonderful and they make me happy and I haven't been sharing them with my husband.

Second, tonight my brother is having a pie party. The only point of the party is to eat pie. I'm in. I made a pecan pie this morning (which I over baked a little, oops)and I have another project in mind for this afternoon. Lets hope I can pull it off in time.

Third, we don't really have any plans this weekend. Lately this is rare. I can't wait to get appropriate amounts of sleep and get some housework done. And make macaroons, lots of adorable little french macaroons.

Skillz

2011-10-18T14:21:00.001-05:00

I realize that what I consider to be major accomplishments in school right now are things that normal people do on a daily basis in their homes because it is what normal people do. Normal people can cut things up without incident. Normal people can saute vegetables without breaking into cold sweats. Normal people will also know when these vegetables are done cooking. Normal people can grill a piece of fish. I don't know how I missed obtaining the basic skill of cooking, even cooking simply. If you watch How I Met Your Mother, this is one of my (many) gaps in knowledge.

I really shouldn't be so excited and feel so proud that I grilled a piece of fish today but I do. I have never grilled anything except a cheese sandwich before. But, I also can now fillet and skin that fish. Not everyone can do that (right?).

The culinary course I am in now has stepped it up a notch. There is a whole lot less cutting going on and now more cooking. I know how to make stocks and sauces (with fancy french names). I know what it means to sweat vegetables. I can tie, cut and de-bone a chicken. But what I am most proud of is that I made dinner on Sunday.

In class last week our instructor showed us how to make braised lamb and I wrote down every step so that I could try it at home.

For braised lamb you want something like a shoulder, something a little more on the tough side and with lots of connective tissue. You also need a large pan or dutch oven that you can bake. Lightly season the meat with some kosher salt. The first step is to sear the meat to a nice brown color on all sides, getting a good carmelization in the pan. Set the meat aside.

Cut up a couple onions and shallots in a medium dice. Heat them up in a little oil and then cover the pan to sweat the vegetables until they are translucent. Add minced garlic (about 10 cloves). Cook for another minute. Then add a small can of tomato paste and mix in with the veggies. Once that has been well incorporated add some flour (about 3/4 cup). Gently mix in the flour and cook for a minute or two. Then add 4 roma tomatoes, halved and slice thin. Cover and cook for another minute to release the juices. Make a bouquet garni with some thyme, black peppercorns and a bay leaf. Throw the meat and the veggie mixture into the pan with the bouquet garni and bake for about 2 1/2 hours with a cover on. I started out at 350 and reduced to 325 after about an hour.

Mean while blanch some green beans and cut up some turnips, carrots and potatoes. I used 4 of each and a bunch of green beans. You could add more if you want to go heavy on the vegetables. Steam the potatoes in one pan and the carrots and turnips in another (add salt to the potatoes and sugar to the other). We steamed ours by making a parchment paper cover. Set the veggies aside.

Right before the lamb is done, saute the potatoes in a little oil. Saute the carrots and turnips in a little oil with some sugar to make kind of a little glaze. Throw the green beans in for a minute towards the end just to heat them back up.

When the lamb and all the vegetables are done, put them all in a large bowl and gently mix to combine them. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Eat and enjoy!

When the chef made this in class and we all got to eat it, our class was ridiculously happy. It made my day. It is perfect for these damp, cold fall days and I can't wait to do it again.

This is what we call the...

2011-10-16T21:33:00.000-05:00

Muppet show!

This weekend I got to exercise my decorating skill. Our godson turned five last week and he requested Muppet cupcakes for his birthday party. The Muppet Show was a big part of my childhood so I was happy to help. His mom and I did some research to see how this could be done. We ended up dividing the labor, she made the cupcakes and I decorated. It worked out well since she also needed to prepare lunch for the other guests and also entertain people.

I have never really attempted anything like this. I used fondant to make some of the faces or embellishments like glasses or Fozzie's hat. My friend bought candy eyes so that part was all done for me. I did change Kermit's,,
Miss Piggy and Gonzo's eyes a little to try to make them look a little more accurate. Some were dipped in white chocolate ganache that was colored and some that we wanted more texture for I used buttercream. I used a Jim Henson book for reference and I did a google image search for muppet cupcakes which came up with some amazing results! I made Kermit, Miss Piggy, Bunson, Beaker, Rolf, Fozzie, Gonzo, Scooter and Animal with varying levels of success. Beaker and Fozzie were my favorites. Overall, I was happy and so was the birthday boy. He ate Beaker.

I couldn't handle eating any of them so I had a plain cupcake.

I'm excited to try something like this again. Fondant is very fun to work with. Trying to mix the correct colors was my favorite part.

Mise En Place

2011-10-14T10:58:00.000-05:00

For the first week (at least) of class the instructor kept referring to mise en place and I had no idea what he was talking about. I'm not sure if he explained it and I wasn't paying attention, or more likely he didn't explain it ever and hoped we would just figure it out. He does that. He is a very brief man.

Mise en place for cupcake fail

Mise en place means everything in its place. I have never been great at having everything ready before I start a recipe. I'm not even good at reading all the way through a recipe before I start. I was making cupcakes yesterday morning and I thought I might as well give it a try. Turns out, it is super nice and handy to have everything ready to go. I like it!

Actually I made cupcakes twice this week. The first time I used a new recipe. I'm not sure why. It all went fine and the cupcakes looked great but then they sank when I took them out of the oven. They tasted great but looked terrible. The recipe seemed suspect to begin with, it had tons of sugar and very little flour. And a lot of milk too.

After that fail I went with my go-to cupcake cookbook. It is a vegan cupcake book I got when I made 500 vegan cupcakes for a wedding last summer. I'm not vegan so when I use these recipes for me I use real butter and milk and they turn out fantastic. The hair salon we go to changed ownership, one of the awesome stylists bought it and gave it a make over so to celebrate I wanted to bring cupcakes. Hair-O-Smith is an 80's themed salon and dance studio (and everyone there is totally rad, you should go to there). They made the floor pink and black so I thought I would reflect that in the cupcakes. I made pink and chocolate marble cakes. I didn't taste them but they looked super cute!

For the frosting I made a simple vanilla bean buttercream. I tried to make pink and black swirls but it was really hard to get a true black. They ended up looking more purple. Oh well. They were well received so I am happy about that.

In other news I cut myself yesterday but on a transformer toy at work. AND, I have my first practical exam next week. I will have a time limit and several knife cuts to perform. I should probably practice this weekend. Anyone have any veggies they need cut up rather small?

Blah

2011-10-11T21:50:00.000-05:00

I actually did some baking this week and I managed to take zero pictures. Fail.

I am in two bookclubs, because I like people and I like books. One of the bookclubs (and I promise I love you both equally) does a potluck of sorts when we meet. Everyone brings a dish to share, the hostess makes a main dish. Usually the hostess will tell everyone what she is making and occasionally the rest of us will tell what we are bringing. More often it is a complete surprise. We never know if there will be repeats or if anything will really go together. Somehow it all works out, it is always a fantastic meal.

I hosted this month and we read The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie by Alan Bradley. I made a savory pumpkin pie and a chicken pot pie. There was also a variety of cheese and crackers, pickled green beans, beets and okra, tiny cupcakes, pumpkin cookies, tuna and veggie dip, and custard pie. All delicious. Wish bookclub happened more than once a month.

I got more skills in school today that I can't wait to bust out. I made mayonaise for the first time and learn how to tie up a chicken. I also learned how to cut that chicken all apart, with or without bones. I actually really want to buy a whole chicken now and cut it up. I really, really do.

Tomorrow I will again me battling my nemesis, the tourne. I have to tourne a turnip, carrot and potato for homework. And then maybe I'll make cupcakes.

Take That Veggies!

2011-10-07T14:30:00.000-05:00

I julienned the crap out of some vegetables this week. Carrots, zucchini, celery, leeks, green pepper and scallions all went down without much of a fight. Are you sick of my cut up vegetable pictures yet? I'll try to add some variety this weekend. I can now also paysanne and make a basket out of a lemon (which I'm sure has a french name too but I wasn't paying attention). I was able to tourne some carrots and even got a "looking good" from my instructor (which is the highest level of praise we have heard so far). All while not cutting myself. Winner.

Strangely, I'm actually starting to enjoy cutting things up all thin and tiny. I have even started looking at knives in the kitchen stores. I feel fiercely protective over the precious knives in my kit. I would never have expected this. I'm a little bummed that this will probably be my only class where I get to cut stuff up. But I am happy to be in a program where I don't have to kill a lobster or deal with raw meat. I would much rather be making gingerbread houses and pies. I'll just cut up more stuff at home. Plus the culinary students seem kind of intense. You can definitely tell who is in which program.

In other news, I signed up for another food swap this weekend and I'm not sure what to make. I have a ton of canned goods but I can't bear to part with them and I certainly am not up to canning more. I'm all canned out for the season.

Victim #5

2011-10-03T19:06:00.001-05:00

Oh, the French. Who's french idea was it to make 1/4 of a potato look like a football?

Today I learned a new form of torture. It is called tourne. It is the act of turning a vegetable into a tiny football (they also come in medium and large). It caused five students to cut themselves in class today. I was number 3.

My potato on top
Chef's on the bottom

What is really funny is that last night I had a dream that I cut myself but it was so small that I questioned whether or not I had to admit that it happened. That is exactly what happened in class. I nicked myself as I was cutting and I though, "Phew! That was close!" A few minutes later I noticed a small red mark on my hand. I assumed it was pen since I had just been taking notes with a red pen. When I smudged it off and it returned I had to admit the truth. My time had come. The second day of practicing knife skills.

Also, I am not so good at this particular cut. Luckily no one else was either. My chef instructor looks like he is slicing through butter when he does it. I look like I am hacking through cement. I can only imagine what will happen when I have to do this to a carrot.

Knives out!

2011-09-30T09:06:00.001-05:00

I like to blame all my inefficiencies on not being allowed to be a boy scout. I consistently lose pine wood derby because of it (it has nothing to do with the aerodynamics of my dinosaur or fail whale car I'm sure). I'm not so good at camping. I'm going to go ahead blame them for my lack of knife skills too. I know, I know, I could have been a brownie. Let's face it, other than the cookies, girl scouts got nothing on boy scouts.

I did get to attend some boy scouts meetings since my brother got to participate and my dad often helped out. I even got to go when they learned about whittling. I asked my dad with puppy dog eyes if I could try too, I think I was 6 at the time, so he gave me his knife and soap. I cut myself immediately. No tears, just the revelation that knives are something I'm not good at. Soap and knife were taken away but my dad did make me a nice little soap whale.

Yesterday was the day I had to face my nemesis. After a brief demonstration we were asked to perform nine different knife cuts ranging from 1/2x1/2x3 inches to 1/16x1/16x1/16 inches. Heart palpitations. I took as long as possible to set up my station but at a certain point I had to get started. The chef instructor was walking around checking our work and I guessed at some point he would be wondering what I was doing. I started off by turning my potato into a nice little rectangle. Man, potatoes look like butter after you square them off! I started with the big cuts and gradually got smaller. I had to blanch a tomato and cut it up but luckily I am a pro at that after all that canning (I did learn a way to cut up the tomato real tiny without coring it and without getting seeds mixed in). Garlic was no problem because who hasn't minced garlic before. I also learned that if you cut the root end of an onion first, no tears!!

I got all my cuts done (first to finish even) and approved by the chef. The knives did claim their victims though. Two girls cut themselves, almost immediately. My time will come. I know this. I am just happy I didn't go first.

Camp Out!

2011-09-27T18:57:00.000-05:00

This past weekend we had an awesome camping experience with friends. I am not the best at camping but the experience was seriously improved by the company we were keeping, the air mattress my dad lent me, the great weather and the lack of mosquitoes. And it didn't hurt that this particular group of people happen to be fantastic cooks.

For the first time ever while camping I had ribs, a sampling of the biggest steak I have ever seen, grilled veggies, risotto, oatmeal, bagels and lox, cookies, and bars, all in addition to the regular camp fare of hot dogs, chips, etc. My contribution was pumpkin scones with cinnamon/pumpkin spice icing and cheddar bay biscuits. Yup, like the biscuits from Red Lobster. You can find anything you want on the interwebs. Lucky for me I had leftovers of both that I popped in the freezer and now will enjoy at my leisure. Yesterday I made a breakfast sandwich out of one of the biscuits and today I had a scone with my morning latte.

My only regret of the weekend was not taking pictures. I took none. Fail.

In other news, today I learned to sharpen knives and on Thursday I will have to use them. Did you place your bets yet?

You take the good, you take the bad, you take them both and there you have?

2011-09-26T21:16:00.000-05:00

I'm having a good news kind of day.

Good news! I finally got an x-ray and it showed a fracture. This is good news because it means I haven't been wearing that clunky boot for the last 4 weeks for nothing.

Good news! It seems to be getting better.

Good news! I can start weaning off of the awful boot that has helped my foot feel an awful lot better.

Good news! Culinary school started today.

Good news! I don't have to wear the boot to school! They have strict footwear rules so I'm not sure how that would have gone over.

Also, today I received the best textbook ever. It is full of delicious recipes and I think I will start making them immediately. Immediately meaning this weekend. Or maybe tomorrow.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Place Your Bets

2011-09-23T22:28:00.001-05:00

I can promise you three things. At some point in culinary school I WILL:
1. set something on fire ( they use gas stoves which terrify me). Let us just hope it isn't myself that I set on fire
2. Break something. I am super good at this.
3. I will cut myself. Maybe cut off a finger.

Start placing bets as to when these things will occur. I don't think I'll be doing much cooking the first week so believe in me and set your dates out a bit.

I had my orientation for culinary school today so these worries are fresh on my mind. Very soon someone will be giving me a sharp knife and asking me to cut things in a rapid fashion. Foolishness. Even though I am going to school for pastry and baking I still have to take a basic culinary class. It is one of the first I take so lets hope I don't flunk out immediately. I have been doing all this canning and food prepping lately in hopes of sharpening (hahahahahaha) my knife skills. I cut myself twice. And we have dull knives. I maintained all digit attachment, no worries (due to the dull knives).

In other news fall is here, officially. I am trying to celebrate the farewell to summer by using up the last of my heirloom tomatoes. We had blt's but my favorite use of tomatoes is to put them on crackers with mozzarella cheese, basil and balsamic vinegar. I could eat a mabillion of these. And I have.

I did it

2011-09-19T13:47:00.000-05:00

I canned the farmer's market. All of it.

I also saw the movie Contagion over the weekend. Should a pandemic ever break out we will be well stocked. Or next time we get a blizzard, we will be ok. Or next time I'm hungry, I'll be able to find something. Or when zombies strike, well I'm not sure canned goods will help in that situation.

Have noticed how one project will inevitably lead to another? I had so many canned items that I had to clean out a kitchen cupboard to hold them all. That led to some major reorganization. Then I filled said cupboard with the canned items and I still have about a dozen jars of this and that without a home. That means we need to make additional storage in the basement. That means we need to clean out a basement closet and build shelves. More reorganizing. I will also have to make that space look cute or I won't use it (or less likely). More and more projects. Fall seems to be the right time for such endeavors.

Also, orientation for culinary school is finally happening at the end of the week. I have been talking about going to school for so long that it started to feel like it was just something I talk about, not something I do. Now it is going to happen for real. Emotions. All kinds of them.

Banana Cake

2011-09-14T09:38:00.000-05:00

My cat loves it when I buy more jars.

I haven't done a lot on the baking front lately. I have made a decision. I decided to can the crap out of the farmer's market while I can (hahahaha, can). There is all kinds of fresh goodness available right now and it is going to go away, soon. Today's high is in the 50's I believe. In preparation I went to 2 farmer's markets this weekend and spent a lot of money. I intend to do the same this weekend.

So far I have made canned blueberries in syrup, red wine vinegar red onions and chili okra. Today will bring salsa.

Hoi An, Vietnam

I did manage to bake one item a couple days ago. Banana cake. I got the recipe from Luke Nguyen's cookbook, My Vietnam. I love Asian desserts so much. They aren't too sweet but they just hit the spot in a way nothing else does. I have been eating them all my life (thanks to my awesome Vietnamese second family). Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to travel in Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. My only regret of that trip is not eating more dessert in Vietnam. I turned down the ladies with the tasty pastries every time. What was I thinking? I went crazy in Thailand but nothing compares to Vietnamese desserts. I guess I have to go back. As soon as possible.

Anyway, the banana cake was so simple and so delicious. It called for finger bananas, which are plentiful in Asia and a little harder to find here. I did track them down and combined them with a little sugar, lots of eggs, butter and condensed milk and some flour (recipe here). The result is banana cake. Almost like banana pound cake. This deceptive little number doesn't even let on to the amount of naughtiness it contains so we gave half away and should have given away more.

Hopefully I will be canning and baking more but my peg leg is still slowing me down and I made the poor decision yesterday to test my foot to see if it still hurts. Yup. Sure does. I have a really hard time waiting for things to heal. I feel the need to keep testing the waters. Not smart. Today will be a day of rest (after I make the salsa... and maybe try out pickles again).

Like a Bandit

2011-09-11T17:59:00.001-05:00

That is how I made out.

All of my crazy canning lately has been for a purpose, several actually.
1. I have more veggies in the garden than the three families participating in the FSA(friend supported agriculture) have been able to eat. More cucumbers at least. I wanted a way to preserve the overgrow for a later time.
2. I like learning new things.
3. Winter is coming. Won't it be nice to open a jar of farmer's market preserved tomatoes or blueberries in the dead of winter? I'll let you know.
4. I signed up for a food swap event.

The food swap event happened yesterday. My friend and co-conspirator Miriam and I had no idea what to expect and we were very nervous. What if no one wanted our things? I am really not good about putting any products I make out there for the world to see and sample. I am very self-conscious and a perfectionist when it comes to my own product. I will never think it is good enough (this is going to be a huge obstacle if I become a pastry chef). Anyway, all of these fears gave me the sweats, that and the 90 degree weather.

For my first swap I brought carrot daikon pickles, peach lavender jam, carrot habanero hot sauce, mago chili butter, wasabi green beans and petite baguettes. I only brought two or three jars of each item because I had no idea if they would be popular (and I becoming a canned goods hoarder).

Luckily all my items went away with happy people and I returned home with their things. I got candied sesame walnuts, matcha rice krispie bars, cowboy caviar, fresh pasta, giardinara, concord grape jelly, ponzu sauce, leek soup with dill oil, chocolate cake pops, healthy truffles, mock watermelon pickles, ginger plum applesauce, taco seasoning, savory seasoning and a fresh herb bouquet. Miriam and I also traded our opened sample containers so I also got zuccini relish and tomato apple chutney.

The fresh pasta we used right away along with a baguette that I didn't bring to the swap. My husband made a delicious, fresh tomato sauce with the herb bouquet and tomatoes from the farmer's market. The rest of my bounty is being slowly munched on as I type.

I had so much fun at this food swap. I really want to do it again, and again, and again. I have a feeling it will become super popular and hard to get tickets in the near future.

Help

2011-09-08T11:53:00.000-05:00

I may have gone canning crazy.

I don't have a lot to do during the day.

Don't judge me.

Waste not...

2011-09-06T22:14:00.000-05:00

One of my book clubs recently read this book on food waste. I knew that ridiculous amounts of food get wasted everyday but I was not aware of the environmental effects that come along with food waste. Long story very short, food releases methane as it decomposes and methane is bad. Plus it is just wrong to throw away perfectly good food. This book changed me. After reading it I am much better about composting and trying to use all the food that I have in the house before I buy more. I can hear the book whispering as I'm about to wash food scraps down the sink. I see it on my shoulder as I am about to throw a banana peel in the trash. I feel it judging me when I think about going out to eat instead of eating what is in my fridge. I guess haunts me would be a more accurate description. This book haunts me.

The ghostly form of the book popped up while I was canning raspberry rosewater syrup yesterday. I found myself with a whole lot of raspberry pulp. The juice went to the syrup but the meat was left behind. I tried it and it was delicious, I couldn't just throw it away. Eating it plain didn't seem like a great plan. Mixing it into yogurt seemed boring. I decided to bake it into bars.

First I made a simple crust of sugar, butter, flour and salt. I pressed the crust into an 8x8 square glass dish and baked it for 15 minutes. Then I smoothed the raspberry bits over the top and baked again for about 15 minutes. When I pulled it out of the oven I spread dark chocolate chips over the top. Once they were melty I smoothed them out and VIOLA! Dark chocolate raspberry bars!

Thank you book ghost for helping me create this delicious dessert.

Do the Can Can

2011-09-05T14:20:00.000-05:00

What can you do with such a beautiful bounty of vegetables? You can can. It is scary but I was assured by this book that it is not rocket science. It is some kind of science but no rockets are involved.

First things first, I had to acquire the right equipment. It actually took me about a week to find a stock pot that was the right size and also worked on our crazy induction stovetop. Target to the rescue (as usual) and I was ready to go (and also shaking in my boots). At first I didn't realize why I was so scared of canning but I developed a list:

It is cooking. I love to bake but I am terrified of cooking
It seemed fast paced
There is so much to go wrong
I won't know if something is wrong until I open the jar
I may poison my friends
I may poison myself
I may burn myself
The name doesn't make sense to me (you use jars, not cans)
There is a lot of prep work involved

I decided to dive in and face my fears. Turns out it is a combination of fast paced moments but also a lot of waiting. There is a lot of prep work but with the right music on it is sort of fun. I have burned myself but that probably would have happened regardless. There is endless potential for disaster but that is life. The poisoning is still a concern but that is a risk we will all have to take. I promise to taste everything first. The name still bothers me though.

First I made some simple salsa with tomatoes from a friend's garden and jalapeños from my own. Not too difficult and not too scary. Next I made mango chili butter because mangoes were on sale at the grocery store. Other than peeling pounds and pound of mangoes, it wasn't too difficult either! Success!

Then came the pickles. I recently made refrigerator bread and butter pickles with cucumbers from my garden and they turned out great. I assumed that meant that I could use any old cucumbers for any old pickle recipe. Wrong. So wrong. I made spicy dill pickles and everything went along fine, until I took one out of the jar to taste it. It was floppy. It was soft. There are a million jokes to be had here but I wouldn't touch them with a foot-long floppy pickle. Yuck. Out they went.

It seems I have caught the canning bug. And it is labor day weekend so what a better way to celebrate than laboring over a hot stove full of jars?

The real deal

2011-08-31T11:35:00.000-05:00

Here are the real chocolate chip cookies that I have been wanting ever since the ice cream cookie dough experiment. This is my Aunt Georgia's recipe from one of her many small town church lady cookbooks. She made these cookies for me a couple months ago when I went down to visit her in Iowa. I was blown away with how tasty they were. I usually just go with the recipe on the bag of chocolate chips and they never turn out this good. She gave me the recipe, and after some explaining (do any of you know what oleo is?) I was excited to try them out.

They turn out to be the prettiest cookies I've made. And delicious.

Aunt Georgia's Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup butter (or oleo I guess)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt (I used Kosher because it is yummy)

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix butter, oil, and both sugars together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla and beat again until smooth. Add the dry ingredients in two additions. Add the chocolate chips. Bake for 8-10 minutes*. Cool on wire cooling rack

*Note: They are probably done before you think they are. They firm up a lot on the wire rack. Bake until the edges are golden and they are firm enough to transfer from baking sheet to rack.

Under Pressure

2011-08-30T12:11:00.001-05:00

I had an amazing weekend. On Saturday I ran a 5k with my husband at the zoo. It was so cool. The bears were sitting at the glass watching us run and the sheep all ran out of their little house as we went by. The were jumping and butting heads as if to join in the festivities (but more likely because they were freaked out). It was a great run.

On Sunday I ran/biked/walked Muddy Buddies with my closest/longest/bestest friend, her sister (who is also this girl) and my husband. It was an adventure. It was the most dificult thing I have ever done. It was worth it.

Except that yesterday I found out that I probably* have a stress fracture in my heel. Not being able to walk Sunday night was my first clue and hardly making it one block to my car yesterday after work was my second. I scored a walking boot for at least two weeks and I will take up some cross training. 30 days of biking here I come!

Tomorrow I will make myself sympathy cookies. Perhaps from ice cream.

*I say probably because they do not x-ray for such things, but all my symptoms align so the doc was confident that it is a stress fracture

HAD TO KNOW!

2011-08-26T22:17:00.000-05:00

I love ice cream with a lot of "stuff" in it. The more the merrier. I often get cookie dough ice cream because in my mind cookie dough is better than actual cookies and combining it with ice cream is genius. The last time I was eating it I mentioned to my husband that I was curious if you took the cookie dough pieces out of the ice cream if they would bake up like cookies should. He told me that I must really need to know because I say the same thing every time I eat cookie dough ice cream. I had no idea.

I really did need to know. If they don't actually bake then they have no business calling it cookie dough ice cream because if it won't make cookies it isn't cookie dough! Right? Right!

Today was the day to find out. I bought the ice cream, dug out the dough, washed off the ice cream and set them to bake at 350. I figured that if it failed I could make some back up chocolate chip cookies to cheer me up (since I would no longer be able to purchase one of my favorite ice creams again on principle).

Thankfully it didn't come to that. Can you believe it? They baked! They turned out a little shiny, due to the ice cream coating I think, and the texture is a little off but other than that they are normal chocolate chip cookies.

I set 4 on the baking sheet as is and then combined some to make normal sized cookies. The little ones turned out crunchy but yummy. The bigger ones had more problems. They were crunchy on the outside but doughy on the inside. Still not terrible and still a cookie.

Now we can a sleep all little more peacefully.

Lazy Daisy

2011-08-25T13:22:00.000-05:00

I have done very little that can be considered productive this week. I blame allergies and a new job. Today I decided that I had better do something or this blog will be boresville. I'm sticking with the theme of trying to use up what I have on hand. Right now I have cucumbers, which will be dealt with soon I hope, and strawberries. My friend gave me a huge container of strawberries that were left over from a party. Yesterday I brought them to another friend's house and we dipped them in chocolate ganache that I had leftover. We used up the chocolate but hardly made a dent in the berries. Today I decided to make my favorite scones to use up a few more. As a bonus, I had some left over marzipan too!

As usual, I don't have a scone recipe that I love so I made a hybrid of two that I like. I like my scones to be light, fluffy, flaky and not too sweet. This recipe pretty much met those criteria.

Strawberry Marzipan Scones
2 cups flour
1 tbsp baking powder
3 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp kosher salt
6 tbsp chilled butter cut into small pieces
1/2 cup chopped strawberried
1/2 cup marzipan cut into smallish pieces
3/4 cup heavy cream

Preheat oven to 400.
Mix the first 5 ingredients together on low speed for about 3 minutes or until crumbly. Add the strawberries and marzipan and combine on low speed. Slowly add the cream and mix until combined. I like to kneed the dough a little bit here to make sure everything sticks together.
On a floured surface roll out the dough to 1/2 inch. I like to roll the dough into a vaguely circle-like shape and then cut the dough into wedges. You can also cut with a cookies cutter. You should get 10-12 scones.
Place on baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

If you like a sweeter scone you could bump up the sugar level a little. I consider this recipe a work in progress but it works for now. I plan on working on a savory scone next. Yum!

The Test Kitchen

2011-08-22T20:01:00.002-05:00

I've already posted about my new obsession with message cookies. I did not talk about how frustrating it has been to find the perfect sugar cookie recipe to use them with. I tried three recipes over the course of a couple days to try to find perfection. It was not found.

The first recipe, the one that came with the cookie cutters, I found to be too crunchy. They turned out more like sweet crackers. I think they did this so that the letters would keep their shape. The text did look fantastic but I was not a huge fan of the cookies (sorry muddy buddies). Fail.

Next I tried a recipe from my favorite baking book. It is kind of fancy and everything I have ever made from it has been fantastic so I was expecting the best. These cookies tasted great and kept their form well but I thought they were a little dry. Almost like shortbread, which I love, but it just wasn't what I was looking for in a sugar cookie. Tasty Fail.

The last recipe was from one of those cookbooks that has a little of everything and it all turns out pretty good. It is an old standby. These cookies were more like a typical sugar cookie. They were pretty sweet and slightly puffy. I found them hard to roll out because the dough got a little crumbly. The puffiness meant the letters didn't turnout as sharp. I was not a fan of the level of sweetness either. I think sugar cookies are often too sweet, almost to the point of being grainy with sugar, yuck. These weren't that bad but still too sweet for me. Sugar Fail.

The only solution was to combine the best elements into a new recipe. I think they are perfect, not too dry, not too puffy, not too sweet.

Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt

Beat the sugar butter, shortening and vanilla together on medium speed for about 3 minutes. Add the egg and beat for another minute or until well combined. Add the flour and salt slowly, beating well after each addition.
Divide the dough in half, wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick, cut out shapes.
Bake cookies for 12-18 minutes, rotating baking sheet once halfway through. Cool on wire cooling rack.

I made Thank You cookies to go in the freezer and Wine Party cookies for a party we were going to. I added a little frosting to the wine party cookies just to make them a little cuter. It is just a combination of red wine (for a wine party after all) and powdered sugar. I just played with the ingredients until I got the consistency I wanted.

I love the way these cookies taste and I really love the way they roll out. Try it out and let me know what you think!

Over in the garden

2011-08-19T11:04:00.002-05:00

Purple Peppers!


Eggplant Flowers

Crazy Cucumbers

We have a garden that is looking beautiful. Some smart friends and I decided that we could get a greater variety of summer produce if we each planted different things and shared. We are so smart. It is going well but the cucumbers are growing out of control. I can't even keep up with just my share. With two cucumbers in the fridge threatening to go bad and eight thousand more on the vine, I decide I had better take action. I made pickles.

Anyone who knows me probably knows that I hate pickles. If you go out to eat with me you will find my pickle on your plate. Actually I don't usually like anything pickled. There are only two circumstances under which I like pickles. One is if they are bread and butter pickles.

Lucky for me Alton Brown had a quick bread and butter refrigerator pickle recipe. I put it all together in the morning and by afternoon they were delicious. Even better the next day on burgers. Now everyone I know will be getting a jar of pickles.

But I don't really want to turn all my cucumbers into pickles (I have thought that word every time I typed it and it is just occurring way too much in this entry. PICKLES, PICKLES, PICKLES). We have done salads and spring rolls with them but what else? What else can I do with all these cucumbers?

***I'm not kidding. I just picked 14 cucumbers. I need help.

And jelly

2011-08-17T09:38:00.003-05:00

Yesterday I was scouring the kitchen for a snack and all I could find was unsalted peanuts. So unsatisfying. Peanut butter is very satisfying but did we have that? Nope. I was recently reading about how much food people, but especially Americans throw away each year. The article urged readers to look through their fridge and try to make dinner with the things they have instead of running to the store. I applied these general principles and made peanut butter! I know the peanuts weren't going to go bad anytime soon but why waste the time and gas to go buy peanut butter when it is basically sitting there in your cupboard?

After a quick Google search I found out that all you need are peanuts, salt, honey, peanut oil and a food processor. Throw 15 oz of peanuts in with 1 tsp salt and 1 1/2 tsp honey and blend for about a minute. Then slowly add 1 1/2tsp of peanut oil while you blend until it is smooth. Voila! Peanut butter. I used kosher salt in mine and locally sourced honey from Ames Farms. I also used slightly more of these ingredients because I love them. Kosher salt especially makes everything better.

Toast with homemade peanut butter and homemade strawberry freezer jam that I made last month is the perfect snack! Now comes my favorite part. What else can I put in peanut butter? How can I make it better? What baked goods should I make with homemade peanut butter?

Sadly, these experiments will need to wait for another day. I am out of peanuts.

Lesson Learned

2011-08-16T22:45:00.002-05:00

Netipot water temperature is important.

Watch It!

2011-08-16T10:01:00.001-05:00

So far, everyone I know has been really supportive of my decision to try something new. I have gotten lots of comments, mostly variations on two specific comments.
#1. You are going to be very popular now.
Rebuttal - Um, I already am.

#2. Aren't you worried about gaining weight? Variations: You better be careful, I hope you don't lose your figure, you better keep going to yoga, be careful with how much tasting you do, I've never seen a skinny baker.
Rebuttal - I found a skinny baker here (co-author of my favorite bread book).

Most of these comments came from people I don't know very well and will probably never see again. Why do they care? I really hadn't thought about gaining weight until it was all I heard about. Then I stopped thinking about it because I thought it was dumb. Now I am thinking about it again because I am blogging about it. I firmly believe that you can be a pastry chef and be healthy. I firmly believe that you can be in love with dessert and be healthy. I believe in moderation. I believe in staying active. I believe in maintaining whatever weight makes you happy. I will never be Hollywood thin because I would rather eat half a chocolate bar when I get home from work, preferably followed by a glass of wine and then maybe pizza. I am fine with that.

I also believe that you can indulge without really indulging. There are fantastic things to be done with fresh fruit. With egg whites and sugar you can perform miracles (called meringues). I performed one such miracle yesterday by making my first angel food cake. The most tedious part of making angel food cake it beating the egg whites. If you have a stand mixer you will be fine, if not you will get your work out for the day.

Everything went according to plan because I actually remembered to read the directions first. I used a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks and went with the chocolate version of the cake. My favorite part was letting it cool upside down on a bottle. I was nervous about it at first but it did not tip over or fall out so now I think it was fun.

In the end I decided that it should have a little extra something. I am always looking for reasons to use Creme de Violette so I melted some white chocolate and mixed in a shot of the liqueur. As the finishing touch I added whipped cream and blackberries and I was happy. It isn't the prettiest cake I've ever made but it is probably the healthiest and it even tasted great.

Decadence without guilt can be had.

*But just in case, I signed up for a 10k.

ABC's of Baking

2011-08-15T09:14:00.003-05:00

I recently received the best gift ever. As a going away gift at my previous school a couple of the families got me some great bake ware and these ingenious cook cutters. Nothing makes me happier than baking treats for friends but I don't often have an occasion to. Now anything can be an appropriate occasion.

Example! My husband and a couple friends and I decided to sign up for Columbia Muddy Buddies. I am not a runner, or a biker really, so this has required a lot of training. Especially because the people I signed up with are regular runners. And even more especially because I recently got tortured trying to handle Warrior Dash. Don't get me wrong, Warrior Dash was so much fun that I would have signed up for another race the next day. I even considered driving 6 hours to another city to try again. However, I didn't not have an admirable time and I slowed down my friends who were gracious enough to keep me company while I yelled about how much I hated them (I love you Jen, Zeb and Micah)! All this to say that I suck at running.

That has been slowly changing with the invention of Muddy Buddy bootcamp. Friends and I go running 3-4 times a week with some biking mixed in. What better occasion for cookies! I made us some Muddy Buddy cookies complete with mud icing splashes. Awesome.

Next: Pinewood Derby. I missed out on pinewood derby in my youth because I am a girl. Stupid rules. Girls like racing cars too. I feel incredibly lucky to have met and befriended a creative and talented couple who bring derby back every year as a birthday celebration. Another fantastic occasion for cookies. They disappeared quickly. My car, however, was slower than molasses. Or a dinosaur. Because it was a dinosaur.

I can't think of an inappropriate occasion for cookies. You are only limited by the small area for text, only two lines. I can see the possibilities now: Eat Me Santa! Go Away Rain! It Is Monday!
See! Anything!

So this is happening

2011-08-11T14:46:00.003-05:00

To be honest I haven't been a huge fan of blogs in the past. I've had two but I don't think I was ever really committed or figured out why I was blogging. I've followed blogs off and on and I have enjoyed reading them but then I just fell out of the habit when I stopped blogging. Now, recently, I've had some major life changes with more coming down the road. I feel like I might actually have interesting things happen to me! Also my friends have all started blogs and I want to copy them. Just kidding. Not really. Sort of.

So back to the life changes. I have been teaching preschool for the past 7 years and most days I love it. The families are amazing and their children are hilarious and inspiring. And I think I am good at teaching. The problem is that a big part of me feels unchallenged in that profession and a little unfulfilled. It seems weird because teaching is challenging and fulfilling for most people. It was for me in the beginning and in many ways still is to this day. Just not in the right ways. I have no idea how to explain it. I just know that for the past few years I have struggled with the question of "what else"? What else can I do? What am I missing? Why do I feel unsatisfied?

Cupcakes made for a play my brother was in

I decided it was time to answer these questions. I did a little soul searching and discover that what I do for fun and for stress relief is bake. I read cookbooks for fun. I buy fancy extracts just for the challenge of figuring out something delicious to create with them. I make elaborate cupcake murals. It fills a creative need in me that I don't get anywhere else. So why not try to delve in a little deeper? I took a leap (a very careful, well thought out leap) and quit my job. I enrolled in culinary school for baking and patisserie. I start next month. I still love teaching though so I got a part time job teaching preschool that fits in well with my culinary schedule.


Pastry sampling in Hanoi, Vietnam

So I figured that documenting this new journey will help me see areas that I have grown and where I need to grow. And I'm hoping you will come with me. I promise to reward you with questionable recipes of my own creation and pictures of food you can't eat, at least until we figure out how to do this whole emailing food thing. What do you say? Deal?

Deep breath, here we go.