Baking and Pastry: Week 2

Ok so the last week I haven't been updating because I have been deathly ill since Friday before last. Which means I didn't post what happened last Thursday either. Thursday we made 2 French baguettes, 1 bâtard bread, and 4 French dinner rolls. I didn't get any pictures though because of being sick.  All of this week  I was awake long enough to suffer through class and then I came home and passed right back out. Thankfully we didn't have any school on Monday because of President's Day, so it was a short 3 day week. Tuesday we made a bunch of different doughs that we baked off through the remainder of the week. On Wednesday we baked off our brioche dough and made three different things:  1 galette, 3 à têtes, and 2 nanterres. Sadly I didn't get pictures of any of it because of how sick I was, so I am just going to grab some pics off the net so you can at least see what it is I am talking about.

Galette: Only mine was plain and had a little hand made whip cream in the center

à tête

Nanterre

The other thing we made Wednesday was one of my husbands favorites, cinnamon rolls. This I did manage to get a pic of while I was in class because I knew once I wrapped it, it wouldn't look as good.

Then on Thursday we had a pretty short day. First we took a quick quiz that I am almost positive I got a 100% on, and then we baked off our croissant dough that we made three different things with: danish, croissants, and chocolate croissants.

Once we finished that up we made our sourdough bread that we actually started on the first day of class. I haven't tried it yet but it looks pretty good.

Once class ended I swung by the Aria and picked up my husband so we could go home and go to sleep. Sadly we didn't get much sleep though because I started having a VERY hard time breathing and after a heated debate (I didn't want to go) my amazing husband took me to the emergency room . I spent the remainder of the night there getting chest x-rays and breathing treatments. Around 5:30 Friday morning I was released and had the joy of trying to stay up long enough to get my prescriptions filled. Then Jon and I passed out until he had to go to work. When he got back home I passed back out since we had to be up early this morning to help his parents move.

Some other exciting news. I received my score on the certification exam I took a couple of weeks ago, and I passed with a 96%. Hopefully in a few weeks I will actually get my certificate so I can add it to my portfolio. Anyways, I think that brings us all up to speed, so goodnight everyone.

Busy Night in Baking and Pastry

I am out of class and parked on my bench out side of my husbands job at Cartier. I am exhausted. Tonight we made peanut butter cookies, almond tea cookies, and brownies.

The first thing we did was watch a movie on cookies and then watched a demo on how to make our brownies. Then we were off and running. Most of today was group work, so Brian and I teamed up. We switched off mixing things and doing dishes.

Once the brownies were in the oven we all joined back up to watch the demo on peanut butter cookies. These cookies were our one individual project since we will be doing them again for our practical in a week. Once we finished the demo we made our cookies, got them in the oven, did dishes, then went on a short break.

I spent my break hunting down my English teacher. I was finally able to meet up with her so that I could get my last paper from her. I pulled out an A on that paper.

Once I got back to class our cookies and brownies were out of the oven.

Then we watched a demo on the almond tea cookies. I was really excited to do these cookies since they are a piped cookie. So we pulled out our piping bags and went to work. Even though this one was a group project I did the bulk of it for a couple of reasons. One, they are my favorite type of cookies, and two I had the most experience between the two of us with piping. Brian did a little bit of piping to get a feel for it and then I went to town piping out rosettes and fluer di lis. Once the tray was filled, we popped them into the oven and went to work cleaning.

Once we were done cleaning Chef pulled us together one more time to explain how to make French bread dough. Once he finished his demo he realized we had more than enough time to get our loafs started so they could rest over night. So, we went ahead and made our dough, got it in the fridge, then finished up the last of the cleaning. Once we finished and chef did a quick inspection we were released to go our separate ways.

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Baking and Pastry: Day 2

Tonight was fun and challenging.After we listened to tonight's lecture on quick breads we made the dough for our Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits. Then we made the batter for our two different types of pound cake, chocolate chip and chocolate vanilla swirl. Once we had our pound cakes in the oven it was time for a break which really meant dishes. I spent my entire 15 minute break doing dishes when I needed to get to my English class to grab my paper. Sadly I didn't get it tonight. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a chance. Once break was over we rolled out our biscuits and threw them in the oven. Fifteen minutes later we had the most amazing and delicious Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits I have ever had.

After we got those done we started measuring out our ingredients for tomorrow. Tomorrow we are making Peanut Butter Cookies, Almond Tea Cookies, and Brownies. While I was in the middle of collecting everything our pound cakes were ready to come out of the oven. Thankfully Brian was helping out while I was measuring so he pulled out my pound cakes and my biscuits. The chocolate chip pound cake sadly fell apart a little since a chunk stuck to the pan. I was pretty upset but got over it really quick when I realized a bunch of people were having the same problem.

The chocolate and vanilla swirled cake on the other hand came out beautifully. I was thrilled!

Once I was able to get everything measured for tomorrow we cleaned up and headed out. I ran over to my English class real quick only to discover I had missed my teacher so I headed for my car. On my way to my car I learned that we can exit all the doors now we just can't enter them. I hope that doesn't last much longer, but I have a feeling it will be.

Baking and Pastry: Day 1

Yesterday was my first day of baking and pastry and I can't wait till we really get started. Last night we kinda started up by making starter for sourdough bread that we will be making next week and once we finished that up we did all of our measuring for our assignment today, Jalapeno Cheddar Biscuits and Pound Cake. Other than that we just went over the expectations of the class. One thing that we learned was that we need to get digital kitchen scales. He said he has some available and he would be happy to lend them to us if we hand over our health card as collateral. I decided though it would be easiest to buy my own so I hit up Amazon and found one for $19 and it shipped this morning. Until mine comes in though, I am just going to borrow my mom's scale.

Another thing that came up last night is we have a few more girls in class this block, and I am no longer the only girl with purple tape on their equipment. So, last night after class I went to Wal-mart and bought some black tape. I plan on taping my equipment black and purple, which will match my tool box perfectly. I also managed to find some more red steno books while I was there so I plan on going through today and adding the recipes for this class into one so everything is organized the same way in all of my classes. 

In other news though grades we posted for my last two classes and I was able to get A's in both. Also it looks as though the tape has come off of the doors. My current class is next to purchasing so I haven't actually tested the doors to see if we can access them.Guess I will find out soon though.

And with that I am off. I have a lot of photocopying and taping to do. But, that is the life of a culinary student.

Brownie Madness

This morning I woke up at 10:30 and went to work making 6 batches of  Cocoa Brownies with Browned Butter half of those batches also having walnuts. Around 5:30 this evening I actually finished all of those brownies.

As you can see my plating skills are not the greatest, but that is one of the many reasons why I am going to school. Anyways, the brownie extravaganza started because Daniel and Raul had asked me to make them brownies and then next thing I new my mom needed brownies for work, along with my dad and my amazing husband Jon. So I decided to just do them all at once. Earlier this week I bought a Perfect Brownie pan for the occasion and was thrilled to get the chance to give it a work out.

After baking 6 batches of brownies I must say this is the best "As Seen on TV" product I have ever used. It actually worked and made my day much easier since the brownies were cooked pre-cut. It was great. Well I am exhausted from my day and I plan on snuggling in front of the TV and playing some video games before I head back to school tomorrow.

Back to Cooking

Well yesterday and today has been spent getting ready to head back into the kitchen. Yesterday I did laundry and was greeted with the typical cooking class laundry fiasco, a giant mess of apron knots.

Today I went through and cleaned out my backpack in the normal fashion as well. I still have a handful of things left to do, but I am mostly ready for class on Monday. I am so excited to get back into the kitchen, but most of all I am thrilled to finally be in the one and only baking and pastry class in my associates degree program. I know the majority of this class is going to be bakery basics but I am still thrilled. Anyways, I should get going since I need to be up pretty early in the morning so I can make 6 batches of brownies for my family tomorrow.

Final 1

Tonight we took our Cost Control final. I am so glad that class is done and over with. After the final I headed over to English and an hour later class started. We didn't really do much in English though. We just broke off into groups to study and mostly chat.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day though. Tomorrow is the certification exam for cost control which starts at 2 PM. If the exam starts at 2 that means I need to leave the house by 1PM. The exam goes until 4 even though I won't need that long and then I will have nothing to do until 6 PM. We managed to convince our English teacher to start the final at 6:15 since we are just taking attendance in cost control. Our teacher is telling us that the final is only going to be 8 questions long but we shall see. I am really hoping to be out of that test by 7. An early night would be nice.

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Vague Drama

A couple of days ago my phone exploded from a message the school sent out. I received 2 emails, 2 voicemails, and a text message all letting me know the same thing. A student threatened the school. They expelled the student, notified the police department, and have enhanced security at the school. I assumed they just added more security guards at the school. Boy was I wrong.

Today I got to school and discovered that all the entrances except for one had been disabled. Now all students have to go through the one entrance. Its really annoying since the entrance isn't close to my current classes or where I park.

Once I got into school I also quickly realized that it is also the only exit. They taped all the doors with caution tape and put up signs notifying students to proceed to purchasing and receiving to exit the building.

Now the exit thing actually causes more problems because of breaks. By the time we make it to the one exit its time to go back to class. Overall it doesn't really affect me since I stay in the classroom during breaks, but it really affects the plethora of smokers at school. They seemed to be the biggest complainers about the new security measures.

Personally speaking though I dont see how this is going to prevent anything since the original threat came from a student. We are all dressed the same and cary the same badges that grant us access into the school. All this is really doing is making things inconvenient for the students that didnt make a threat. On the bright side though my Foundations 3 chef instructor told me after class that this is just for 2 months and then everything goes back to normal. Hopefully it will go back to normal sooner than that though.

Also a quick update on my classes. My cost control final has been moved to Wednesday and my English paper has been moved to Thursday and opened up to any topic so long as it is a persuassive paper. I am so thrilled that the paper has been extended but annoyed about the cost control exam. Oh well Just qanother day in the life of a culinary student.

Typed 02/07/2011

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Long Weekend Ahead

Tonight was another long night that sadly has lead to a long weekend. In Cost Control we still had a sub. Monday we have our final exam and our project is due. Thankfully I finished my project three weeks ago. This weekend I have two chapters to read and two more that I need to review for my final.

In English we have a persuassive paper that we have to write based off of one of the MANY handouts we were given during the last 5 weeks. In addition to that we also have two chapters we need to read in our book. I decided that I am going to do my paper on an essay she gave us called "A Good Neighborhood". I figured it would be the easiest one and clearly my teacher agreed since she used that one as an example for the class. That part kind of annoyed me since I had chosen it about an hour before she used it as an example, but not much I can do about that.

Well I guess I better get going so I can hit the books. Hopefuuly my whole weekend won't be spent on homework.

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Substitute Teacher

Well for the remainder of the week I will have a substitute teacher. Sadly it isn't in my English class. Our Chef instructor in Cost Control recently lost her father-in-law so we have had a sub. Normally our sub teaches Buffet and Catering but this block there isn't a class so he has been helping out all over the school. He is a really nice guy but not a lot gets done while he is in class.

In other news this block is almost over. Just the remainder of this week and then next week is our last week. Yesterday I signed up for my certification exam in Cost Control. I am so excited and anxious to get this test done and over with.


Other than that it has just been the normal grind in English. Almost everyone did poorly on the midterm last week so she gave everyone the answers the night before last and told them they could retake it. I had an A on the test so I got to sit in class watching everyone else take it. I decided to use that time to continue reading the series I am on right now called the Dresden Files. I am less than a 100 pages away from finishing the 3rd book.

Other than that though its just another day in the life of a culinary student.