Ready Set Sleep.

 We're catching our breath. We're raising our glasses. We're packing our bags. 

Then we're unpacking them. We're booking flights. We're reorganizing. We're saying goodbye.

The past two and a half weeks have been, to be blunt, totally out of control. We graduated, we hosted family, we celebrated. And then we promptly sold everything we owned. We crammed what was worth keeping into the back of a jeep and wove through the mountains, belting out Piano Man and chugging Red Bull just to top up the fumes we've been running on for the past few weeks. (Do you ever notice Piano Man is always on the radio? Especially when the radio keeps cutting out through the mountains. So many opportunities and I STILL don't know all the words.)

But we are here now, with family, chillin and relaxin all cool. There've been cloudless HOT days (a welcome change) and plenty of wine to go around. In a week and a half, we fly to London whether all of our shit is in a pile or not, whether we feel like we've done all we can or not. And for the trip of a lifetime, that's a pretty romantic concept. To be swept off your feet by the world and it's people, everything that is beautiful about it. 

I'm going to sleep at a scotch distillery. I'm going to see the Berlin Wall. I still don't have a place to sleep in Paris but I'm going to be there regardless. I'm going to see the highest city in the world. Red Square. The Outback. Angkor Wat. And I'm going to digest it all here. 

It's actually happening. 

My husband has been more to me than I ever could have asked for. In all of the ways that I am a very bad person to travel with, he has worked with me and fought with me everyday to make this process meaningful and to make this trip one that we will never forget. Because we will most likely never get another shot to do it this way. I am reminded daily that I could not do this life with anyone else. And I never would want to. 

Turn to your love. Now turn back to me. Now look back at them and think, "My life is going to be far better than I can even imagine." 

Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Raaaaaaaaaw!

And here's to my first Full Moon Party. Cheerio!

 

Hello Stranger.

Hi, my name's Bri. Maybe you've heard of me. I bump around here sometimes. I make promises of dedication that I don't follow through on. Join me on my culinary journey. You will question my sanity and my photography style on a daily basis. That would be if I posted on a daily basis.

I've missed you. But I haven't been able to talk about school. Because it makes me tired. And as the photos that I will share with you today will attest, it has not all been experiences of grandeur.

I like his face. And his BEARD!

I wanted first and foremost to share what the Moozh has been up to. His first fun week was amuse bouche. The amuse bouche is the course before the appetizer. Not all restaurants do it but what it is meant to do is to stimulate your palate and prepare you for the meal to come; 'amuse the mouth', as it were.

Duck Carpaccio (or green pepper) with Cassis pearls

Salt-crust toasted beets and pickled walnuts on Belgian endive with lemongrass creme fraiche
caramelized orange rind and edible flowers. 

Shave smoked scallop and pear, with pomegranate and black garlic on goat's cheese crostini

For his fourth amuse, he did a dashi broth duck breast but he didn't get a picture of that one. Sometimes things just get too crazy and something's got to give. Moozh has such a creative mind though, especially when it comes the pairing of flavours and the melding of textures. I am so blown away. His technical proficiency has totally exploded since he got into advanced. It was good in basic but really being able to apply it in advanced and incorporate it into presentation, he has gotten so much better. And with the duck carpaccio as an example, he is extremely mindful to vegetarians, always having an option available. I am his blessing and his curse.

This week he's on appetizers.

Rainbow Salad

Beef Tartar

Tonight he's doing Pork Belly and I can't wait to see what it looks like. Moozh LOVES pork belly. Like it probably goes, "Jesus, Me, Pork Belly." Sugar puts up some seriously fight for a top spot in the trinity but pork belly does have a lot of uniqueness going for it.

Moozh and I are currently working through the Intermediate WSET Wine course at school. This past weekend, Moozh cooked for the courses on Saturday and he made the most amazing Thai Noodle salad. The salad itself was simple but then the dressing was so amazingly complex. He sweat lemongrass in sesame oil. He added red chiles turmeric, galangal, ginger, garlic. There was mirin, and rice wine vinegar. I said numerous times during the night that I wanted him to make me that salad for the remainder of our marriage. Numerous times.

Our wine class is fantastically fun. The sommelier at the school is such a wealth of knowledge in wine but also extremely accessible in the tasting of wine and the development of palate when it comes to wine. The above picture was from our red flight, including Pinot Noirs, Grenache, Merlot, Cab Sauv, and Shiraz. We also get to taste from the taller wine glasses that you can see behind, which are 'varietal specific' glasses. Each glass, designed by Riedel, presents the wine in the best way on the nose and on the palate. I know it sounds like bullshit, but it works. Works for $45 a stem? If you have the money yes. But you can enjoy wine just as well out of your run-of-the-mill, Ikea stems.

And now for my turn. I really have run the gamut these past weeks. I'm nothing if not versatile.

My first successful macaron, pistachio creme.

This was my dessert today. Lavender Lemon Posset, Chamomile madeleine, and a cherry mint galette.

Posset is the most amazing thing. I answered the question, "What's a posset?" probably a dozen times today and I didn't even have to deal with customers. Posset has only three ingredients. Lemon juice and sugar, which are combined and brought to a boil, and heavy cream, which is also brought to a boil but separately. The liquids are then combined, portioned into their serving containers and chilled. The lemon juice and cream react and 'set' the posset into almost a curd or pudding-like consistency. It is ethereal. Like a lemon curd but oh so creamy. If you are ever short on a dessert and you don't know what to do, make posset. It has to set for a minimum of two hours but it can set overnight for a really creamy texture that is more stable.  It is so simple and fresh and EEEEEASY. But we know how I feel about lemon.

I saved these pictures for last because this day will live in my memory for a long time.

Bad cupcake day.

Now I attend a culinary school that trains in the French style. Let's just say, we don't really 'DO' cupcakes. We make numerous varieties of 'gateaus' which is a layered cake. We make pate a choux (cream puffs, eclairs, etc). We do butter sauces and plate using classic French decor involved lattice work and filigree. Fancy muffins aren't really in the French repertoire.

But cupcakes. Are. Easy. You find a cake batter of which you are fond. You scoop it into muffin tins. You slater it in buttercream. You box it up. It sells. Always. Without fail. Even in Vancouver where cupcake shops are the new Starbucks. They are friggin' everywhere.

So when we got a special order for forty cupcakes, twenty chocolate, twenty vanilla, we were not concerned. I was not concerned. That was my station and I was responsible for making sure that most of it was prepped and ready to go. The request on the order was for 'garden cupcakes' so we were going to decorate them with coloured buttercream in a variety of different flowers. We have girls in our class who have taken cake decorating courses before and some even work at a grocery store in the cake decorating department. They had the decorating part down pat. Now I had to hold up my end. Simple.

Didn't end up being so simple.

Y'all I don't even know how it happened. Danielle in my class, (SHOUT OUT) said they were 'apocalypse cupcakes' and honestly that is the only description that feels appropriate. It looks like mummification. And it was a CIA recipe!! The CIA (Culinary Institute of America) publishes all of their textbooks and recipes. They are extensively tested. They are to be trusted. SUPPOSEDLY. It was a cake recipe and I am racking my brain trying to come up with a solution for why they did what they did. I followed the recipe. I did it twice! The pan turned out like this TWICE.

They souffléd (meaning they puffed up in the oven). They also souffléd ALL OVER everything. But just as a soufflé, when we opened the door to check if they were done, they collapsed….into that. And I ended up with the worst burn of the program that is easily two and a half inches long on my forearm. I'm not bent out of shape about the burn but my conscience as a writer knows that it needs to be included to somehow communicate how bullshit the day was. So bullshit, that's how.

After the second batch, I was NOT doing the recipe again. Not even my respect for and belief in the CIA's recipe practices could make me do it a third time. DEvil's food it was. And they turned pretty good.

You see those leaves? Those were my doing. And the chocolate icing underneath the flowers. But the roses, gardenias, plumeria and daisies had nary a whiff of me near them. How beautiful are those?! The girls did a mega job on them. And we boxed those babies up and sent them away. I don't even care if they lady liked them.

And the moral of this story is not to avoid CIA recipes. Just when you are making their High Ratio Chocolate Cake, have your whits about you.

There is a Food and Wine Writer's conference in the Okanagan in the middle of June that I want to go to so bad. But it ends the same day as my written final. School is a buzz kill once again. But there's also an event at the UBC farm called "The Joy of Eating" or something like that going on pretty soon that I am GOING TO BE AT.  So help me God.
(Please help me.)

Find a recipe you like. Make it. Feel like a boss. Cover it in cream cheese icing but it makes everything better. Repeat.

Can't I just put butter on it? Butter makes everything better.

 Not gonna lie, I'm kind of tired of being in the kitchen. Thank God it's not the 50's. 

It's been a full day dry run of my midterm today. I know that it doesn't sound like a very successful dry run. 'Bri', you say, 'don't you only have four hours for your midterm? And today took you ten?' 

*In my head you sound like a Precious Moment when you talk.

But yes you would be absolutely right. I only have four hours to do everything that I took all day to do today. And there are even things that I will have to do on Wednesday that I didn't even DO today. Self-sabotage? Perhaps. My life resembled a bit of a science experiment today. I had my projections of what my midterm should look like, my HYPOTHESIS if you will -(guaranteed I just lost a couple of readers)- and compared it to what I felt I was capable of against what I was able to actually pull off. 

To my surprise -probably an hour added up throughout the day was made up of me congratulating myself on being realistic about my abilities and that I was 'going to be just fine at the midterm'- everything went fairly smoothly.  

Now being in pastry school has been an exercise in managed expectations. Anything you do at school -ANYTHING- that you choose to try and replicate at home, you will likely be disappointed. Professional kitchens are laid out with a certain modicum of premeditation. Ergonomics. "Flow". And you have a $1000 knife kit at your disposal. Your tuition has paid to enable anything you could want to put your hand to to be at your fingertips. Your apartment kitchen was made with the premeditation of "We were just going to put in a hot plate and a plug-in for a microwave but the building next door just put in new faucets and privacy film on the bathroom windows. So we have to at least make room for a full-size refrigerator." So any moments of Sound of Music-style spinning that was possible at school is only possible OUTSIDE your apartment. I don't remember my kitchen being inadequate before I went to pastry school. This is why you don't sleep around with other kitchens. Hindsight and all that.

So you get home. And you realize that you have a cloth piping bag that smells like morning breath (It DOESN'T dry well OKAY!?), you have a dough scraper that was obviously designed by someone who had never made bread before and purchased by someone (me) who hadn't a clue either, and your spatula has chunks missing along the side due to it being left on hot surfaces unattended. And then you feel sad. 

But then. You look back at your recipe. You remember the glory of school days recently passed. You conjure up your best show stopping dish. Commence dancing and inspired chanting at the glory of your semolina bread and how it's going to bring all the boys to the yard. 

Fast forward fifteen minutes: "Bah! This thing doesn't work AT ALL!"

Inspired chanting is replaced by swearing under one's breath. You make concessions for your recipe not shaping up like you had hoped. You pass the buck to the (now) broken spatula. You say that "It's just not for the home baker". And then you feel ashamed because you promised yourself that you would be better than that. Whatever you were making comes to a relative state of completion and you eat it with your eyes closed trying to resuscitate the previous beacon of talent and unchallenged winning. 

I have done this before if you couldn't tell. 

But today went well. I tried my best to preempt any tool-related shortages and use what I had at my disposal for it's intended purpose. I know you say, "Just take your knife kit home." But I would probably just say -and probably not very nicely- that it is simply not that simple. I don't know if you have ever been in the charge of a toddler or related small human before but there is this inevitable moment where you realized that they blew a shoe, or their pacifier or their blanket at all Hell breaks loose when they are without it. You search and retrace your steps. "You just had it. I don't understand." This life is my life. Everything I have is on an idiot -ahem, tether- when we go to the airport.  So two days before my midterm I am not going to lose my shoe THANK YOU VERY MUCH. 

I documented my truffle making process today because... I am a product of my generation and I have this insatiable desire to take pictures of my life on my phone using unnecessary photo sharing apps. Mae culpa, mea culpa. I worked with milk chocolate today whereas I've only worked with dark chocolate before. This made for a learning experience I probably could have saved for AFTER my midterm. Because dark chocolate has more cocoa solids in it, its sets up faster and requires less work to create the proper crystallization. The milk chocolate ganache is quite soft but it has bourbon in it so it can't be THAT bad right?

Including the Saran wrap and Archimedes the napkin holder seemed necessary. Or I just didn't realize I hadn't moved them until after. Our glass table isn't a marble and therefore will never be as great as marble but it definitely served its purpose well today. 

I also practiced my pate a choux paste today. I made eclairs, with drive me crazy but are on my exam, and then some profiteroles, which are much easier to work with and therefore more gratifying. I practiced some lemon curd today as well so instead of pastry cream I crammed the profiteroles full of lemon curd and left the finicky eclairs without any filling. That'll teach them right? Lie to me. 

 Tomorrow I have time to further finesse my agenda because I am the queen of over planning. A third of my class has already done their midterm. I want to ask them, ya know, pick their brain and TOTALLY obsess. But I know it is a short distance for me right now to go from there to rocking back and forth whispering, "I'll never teeeeeell." Best if I just keep to myself until Wednesday morning. 

Moozh did his this morning. The culinary students weren't told ahead of time what would be on their exam so Moozh went in blind. His chef told him that all of his stuff was cooked perfectly and that he did very well. And after six years of education and a master's program, Moozh still considered this midterm the most stressful exam he's ever written. I concur. Already. 

One more day to overprepare. 

Find a cookie. No, two. Find some ice cream. Make a sandwich. CUZ WHO DOESN'T LIKE AN ICE CREAM SANDWICH? Repeat. 

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Beta 5

The Oven Wall went on a field trip! And by field trip I mean, I got cabin fever and decided in the Vancouver drizzle to venture out of Yogapant-land (aka Kitsilano) and out into the land of some of the best coffee you will EVER HAVE, the art of finding beauty in concrete and a chocolate shop holy grail (aka EastVan). Next time I'll bring a good camera. 

When we were learning about chocolate in Foundations, Chef mentioned a chocolate shop that had started up in Vancouver by a buddy of his. Then he mentioned that they had a tobacco-flavored truffle. I think at that moment my brain kind of shorted out. Definitely didn't hear anything he said after that. I don't think he realized how dangerous it was to throw out such a mind blowing concept in such an off-handed way. The whole idea -nay- the INTENTION of combining those two glorious things into a TRUFFLE?! Mind blown. I knew that I had to have one. And I had to buy AT LEAST one for my scotch-lovin', Johnny Cash-quotin', corn cob pipe smokin' man aka The Moozh.

The moral of this story, preemptively of course because no one ever likes to wait for the moral, is when you feel these compulsions, act on them. Tobacco being the flavor of the month, and me having discovered it's existence on the 28th of February -even with a leap year on my side- I missed the February flavors.

The shop is called Beta 5. The name is very clever because the stablest formation of crystals in chocolate making and tempering is called Form V or Beta 5. That is the crystallization that is responsible for shiny chocolate, chocolate that isn't grainy and a bar of chocolate that has that great 'snap' when you break it. Nestled just off of Main St on Industrial Ave in a building a color somewhere between Pepto Bismol and flesh tone, Beta 5 Chocolates specializes in chocolate, marmalade, and other confections like caramels and marshmallows. 

*Why I felt compelled to take pictures with the awful camera on my phone, I don't know. It was all I had. Apologies. 

Despite having only the window on their door to work with, the shop has an open, brightness to it. The decor is industrial in a very cool way with exposed lightbulbs, metal shelving, wooden boards and cool cardboard packaging. 

 

 The people there are freaking awesome, even though all Vit D deprivation considered, we should all be feral and snarling at each other.

Beta 5's Chocolate Union is the version of chocolate of the month if Jesus had come up with it. Utter perfection. (Or Christopher Nolan. That guy's got a great track record.) It will redeem any negative connotations you have with the word 'union'. You can purchase a three-, six- or twelve-month membership. On the first Saturday of every month, you pick up your union package. Inside you will find an assortment of treats associated with a monthly theme. March's theme, because they're awesome and they GET IT, is Legends, Leprechauns and Libations. Within this theme you will find treats like Guinness truffles, green apple shamrock fruit jellies, chocolate covered potato chips among other things. *They have a 'crunch' category every month. Can't wait. 

Understandably this month's memberships are all old out.

 I picked up a six-piece Monthly chocolate, even though I was POSITIVE it wouldn't live up to the mythical tobacco truffles that I had hoped for. Wrong again. Sometimes our instincts, when clouded by our emotions, just aren't that reliable. The monthly flavors this month were Spanish olive oil, lime, pistachio, wasabi and genmai cha. The olive oil chocolate was smoooooooth.  Like Marvin Gaye smooth. The wasabi was good if not as pungent as I was expecting. I need to try another one in order to feel truly informed. You know, in order to give constructive feedback. My favorite out of the six, by far, was the lime. All of a sudden I felt like Mexico was in my mouth. (In the good way not in the hep-B, bad beef kind of way.) I associate Mexican cooking with that really intense, clear lime flavor. This truffle had that. I didn't share that one. My wifely dedication only extends so far. Mea culpa, Mea culpa.

I also went intending to buy a jar of their Bergamot Orange marmalade. *I feel marmalade is misunderstood and I appreciate that Beta 5 is working at a kind of renaissance. Beta 5 placed Second and third at the World Marmalde Awards (because there IS such a thing) for their Seville Orange marmalade and their Rangpur Lime marmalade respectively. They were out of the Bergamot orange (I'm seeing a pattern here) so I came home with the Blood Orange marmalade instead. The Blood Orange isn't as tangy as I assume the Seville Orange would be but its got this subtle deep pink to it. So preee-tay. I'll be hassling them until they get some more Bergamot in but I will also take what I can get in the meantime. By any account, their tactics to get me to come back are totally working. 

 So the moral of this story, yes there are two, is that if you are ever in Vancouver, you must make a stop at Beta 5. Tell 'em Chef sent you. You might get a deal. Don't tell them I sent you. They be like 'huh?'

Eat chocolate. Be happy. Repeat. 

Friday, March 9, 2012

SWISS MERINGUE!!?? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

It's 10 am. Guess where I am? IN MY PYJAMAS!

No I didn't get kicked out of school. I kicked school out of the…park.
I think I got my metaphors confused.
But anyway. My midterm is done and gone with a 97% scribbled in nearly legible writing! Boo-friggin-yah man! Going into my exam this morning, I was coaching myself, "It's not about the grade. The grade you get doesn't matter. Trust your abilities." And then I found out my mark. Suddenly, it IS about the mark.

And of course, it being the Pacific Northwest, I walked to school in the rain, wrote my test so fast that my clothes were still wet when I walked home in them. But suddenly you are in your pyjamas, drinking the first cup of coffee you've had all week, sitting down in a comfy chair and catching up on blogs as if this is your life.

All kidding aside, my practical is on Wednesday and that's the one that really counts. When I was in school for writing, it was all conceptual knowledge. In the 'real world' as a writer, you would sit in your pyjamas in a public place and look like you were doing nothing so book knowledge did matter. As a baker or pastry chef, you will NEVER be sitting as a part of your job. Being able to hustle, do rosettes double time, whisk-whisk-whisk are all the pieces that make the man. (Isn't that a reference to a suit? Metaphors. Not my thing today. My writer-self is ashamed of my baking-self right now.)

And academia is a totally different world. You take your exam in a gym or a huge lecture hall with three hundred other people. The teacher sits at the front and plays Angry Birds or talks to some brown-noser TA. In pastry, there is absolutely nothing standardized about it. The Chef looms and looks over your shoulder to tell you that the answer you just wrote is wrong.

Moozh walks into his exam in a couple hours. He'll kill it too. He has so much discipline when it comes to studying. I'll have all of my books spread out around me and yet still be on my computer looking at Pinterest. He's constantly writing, printing off worksheets and diagrams. He always draws sunglasses on the diagrams of the animals on his butchery worksheets.

Yesterday he made Foie Gras, which is a fatted duck liver,

And Braised short ribs to finish off his journey in Foundations. He won't be eating a three course meal at 730 at night anymore once he gets in Advanced. Which I think he'll be just fine with.

Five days until my Practical. Having another go at eclairs and truffles on the weekend. I'm gonna SLEEP IN. I may or may not make myself a Rocky montage. And then Wednesday comes. And I RUN.

Find yourself a crossword. (Or a sudoku, word search, or a word scramble.) Whether you finish or not, reward yourself. (Hot chocolate, wine and/or cake acceptable.) Repeat.

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

The Man Bakes

Moozh has been baking!!

In their last week in Foundations, the culinary students had their pastry unit. They learned to make basic breads, tarts and sweet soufflés. I am so glad there was no vice versa where we had to learn culinary things. Because I don't have the patience for that crap at this point.

I'm so proud of him because it all looks gorgeous!
Lemon Meringue tarts are just really effective when it comes to presentation. The torched meringue is so eye catching.

Vanilla cream soufflé.

Baguettes and Pain Epi.

Fruit tart. 

They also made burgers! Which looked so tasty! Handmade bun and everything.

Here's a rant. Cuz I need it.
Some of the culinary punks -I mean, students- in the AM class were dishing out as we were leaving the other day. We were looking at their lemon meringue tarts. We were being supportive. Telling them they looked nice. Asking for their 'numba'. And then they said, 'Not bad for culinary kids, hey?' We said yes. Maybe that's where it all started. We kept on walking -because stroking someone's ego is hard on my hand. And I was tired. Then they say, "We're totally as good as Pastry students." Maybe it was my sensitivity (and territorial nature) when it comes to pastry and my abilities. Maybe it was my MISPLACED sensitivity and territorial nature. Or maybe I just needed a nap. Either way, I am not kidding you when I tell you I ranted the whole way home.
Some of the things that came out of my mouth were:

• "Oh yeah. Well you're bread looks like a potato. And your Beef Bourginon the other night? It smelled like socks. COME AT ME BRO!"
• "You know why they give you lemon meringue tarts? Because they're EASY! You know what's NOT EASY?! Sponge cakes, tabling chocolate, sugar work. Are you doing any of that?! No. Cuz you're in CULINARY."
• "Rah!"

I don't know if you're picturing this but the picture in your mind is probably accurate. I looked like a well dressed crazy person. Not super articulate either. We should be nice to them though. They will be cooking our staff meal as of next week. Their meringue tarts did look nice. I SAID THAT.

I'm really asking to not be held accountable for many of my actions right now. It's allergy season, so I look like Mickey Rourke right now. (And not 9 1/2 weeks Mickey Rouke. Weird-face, Iron Man Mickey Rourke). Talk about PUFF. And I have a "nose situation".  I'm talking about first world problems.

You know what's not a first world problem. KONY2012. If you haven't caught the wave of this thing in the past couple days, check it out. Very worthwhile. I caught a good point from my cousin while I was on FB today. Invisible Children is not the only organization trying to do something about Kony or about child soldiers, or about conflict in central Africa. But they are a great organization and they've got LOTS of people's attention right now. The goal of the campaign is to spread awareness about who Kony is and why he has to be stopped. The night of April 20th, the idea is to take the campaign material and cover EVERY AVAILABLE SURFACE with it. The reality of our society now is we are products of unconscious advertising. And that's part of the idea of the campaign. Stick a tic in people's brains. Get it in their faces visually.
What is just as effective as covering your local downtown core with posters and flags and lawn signs about KONY2012 is to write to your representative. The great piece about a representative democracy is they will listen if the voice is big enough. Our Prime Minister is on the targeted list of policy makers. You have municipal, provincial and federal resources at your disposal. And you are FREE. As a citizen of an empowered democracy, you have a vote that counts. Let's HASSLE SOME FEDS.

Two rants in one post. Wicked. Pretty pictures to come, I swear.

Acquire yourself a evening snack. Give someone a high five (With your free hand). Educate yourself. Repeat.

Wednesday, February 22, 2012

"Why can't you wear black shoes like the other mothers?"

I was completely blown away by how NOT into chocolate I was today. Our entire day today was a demo day where Chef demo'd how to properly temper chocolate using two different methods. We had what in my opinion (being presently jaded -just for a day) was an excessively long lecture about the origin of chocolate, the fermentation process, drying and processing. We tried different kinds of chocolate, which varying degrees of cocoa butter, cocoa solids, sugar, from different companies, origins. It really just left me confused. Then the tempering came and I am going to be SOAKED in chocolate tomorrow. I got my jacket dirty today and I didn't even DO  anything. I am going to wear the dirty one tomorrow because then I still have something to wear on Friday.

And today was Ash Wednesday so my typical catharsis method of swearing my face off is officially out the window.

I'll just do my best to channel Vianne tomorrow. Chocolat is one of my favourite movies, there is something intoxicating about it. Vianne is so whimsical. Perhaps it is chocolate's role in her life, maybe not. Maybe it's the red shoes. I wonder if Chef would let me wear red heels tomorrow. That would really help my frame of mind. But my Chef pants are pegged and everyone knows you don't wear heels with pegged pants. Unless you want to look like an extra from Dynasty.

There's a quote in the movie, "Don't worry so much about supposed to." That is going to be my mantra tomorrow. I get too caught up in frustration when I make mistakes, I miss the opportunity to learn. And we will be making a passionfruit ganache for our truffles tomorrow. Anything with passionfruit is a win.

Here are the cakes we finished yesterday!

We did a sachertorte, which actually comes with quite the history. The Viennesse do not joke about their pastry. There was a lawsuit fought for years over who could claim the 'Original Sacher Torte". Doesn't matter to me because it tastes good. It's a dense chocolate sponge cake, almost like a brownie texture. It's split and filled with traditionally apricot preserves (duh-lish) but we used raspberry jam and then glazed with a chocolate ganache. As you can see, I was SHAKY when it came to writing on the surface. That is a skill that will come with time.

We also did a lemon blackberry mousse cake, similar to the raspberry one we did  a couple of days ago but using lemon curd, one of my top seven favourite things. We had to use the walk in freezer for our two mousse cakes and both of mine came out looking a little worse for wear. The glaze didn't set evenly and the outer edge got a little mangled but this cake is seriously SO GOOD. I find the assembly of modern cakes (mousse, ganache, etc) very meditative. You've got to have everything together but once you do you can knock off so many. Bodes well.

We did last a Bavarian Charlotte which is a vanilla cream filled cake with lady fingers around the outer edge. It made it out of the freezer a little more mangled but it still tasted good and when you pile some fresh fruit on top, it never looks all that bad.

The cross section shows the inserts. A lemon cremeux and a blackberry fruit gelee.

We glazed the top with the same glaze as the mousse cake, which is not traditional, to cover up some of the tears. The cremeux layer is WAY too thick even for a lemon lover like me. The gelee is bent but overall the layering is not too bad for a first time attempt hey?

Today Moozh made rabbit confit, which is rabbit cooked in it's own fat! Whose idea was that because I think they need a prize.

Yesterday, Moozh made a chicken roulade (which means a rolled thing) which a prawn filling.

Less than three weeks until our midterm. Then it's advanced. Then it's real. No red shoes in advanced.

Find some red shoes. Wear them in bed while you eat some chocolate. Consider yourself a rebel. Repeat.

Monday, February 20, 2012

Don't listen to anything I say. Basically.

Heyo! So we're doing our best to get back on the once a day track for posting. Otherwise, there are simply too many pictures. And pushing 'email photo' on my iPhone more than three times in a row is just exhausting.

Today was a hard Monday. I'm not gonna lie. All day I was just wishing for a stat holiday, or even (in my silent, inside voice) for something contagious. I was somewhat consoled by the fact that I wasn't the only one that stared at myself in the mirror this morning and contemplated calling in a sick day.  But eight hours a day, five days a week is pretty good training for real life. Except real life won't be like an Italian spa.

Today had a good clip though. There wasn't a ton of 'viamo guys!' going on. As long as you nestled your head firmly in the group and put one foot ahead of the other, you looked pretty ridiculous but two o'clock arrived with everything done. Tomorrow is our last day of cakes which will involve another mousse cake (yay) and infinite glazing, which is not so much 'yeah' and more so 'nononononono not like that'. All good.

The cake we glazed today is a cake custom to the school called a 'Pasuwa'. It consists of a chocolate sponge base, chocolate mousse, chocolate chips, cheesecake chunks, another sponge layer, more chocolate mousse and cheesecake chunks and then chocolate ganache, aka Boom. I brought it home, had a little chat with my digestive system and then went and made friends with my neighbours. The conversation that begins with 'Do you guys want some cake?" really only ever goes one way.

But Moozh had a good day today. Let me preface this by explaining that my husband has what could be described as a charismatic experience every time he eats Indian food. Something about the flavours, the textures, being able to eat it with your hands…something. It just speaks to him. So when he texted me this with the caption, "Indian Buffet", I knew he was going to be a very happy man when he got home, which a little bit of a kick in his step.

I feel personally blessed that Moozh has learned to make Indian. Especially such a spread. I am going to request an instant replay of this meal complete with everything you see represented here and I will dangle WHATEVER CARROT I HAVE TO in order to get. You have no idea how seriously a white kid can take Indian food.

Moozh also made quite the spread last night for our small group. Nothing is better than having people you love to pieces over for delicious food and wine. Nothing.

Rack of lamb, cumin rice pilaf, garam masala bean medley, roasted asparagus, and roasted veggie tower with a raspberry vinaigrette-pearl onion compote.

Not bad right?! My life, I tell ya. The man does me right.

Thursday, February 16, 2012

"Guys, when it go wrong. Do not desperate."

So Chef prefaced this week as being "a very challenge" if we were to miss even one day. I was all prepped to study study study.
And then I got the most amazing surprise. My Best Friend, author of the Love Tour and Reflect What You Believe and my long-distance partner in crime, surprised me as a belated birthday present. She has been here with me everyday this week! And I have still managed to learn something! Everyday when I would normally be stoked to stand around in class after I am supposed to be home and in my loungewear, I am itching to GET OUT OF THERE. It has been so wonderful to have selfish time with someone you usually have to share every time Moozh and I head home to Cowtown. We've been able to hang out and talk and drink tea and make crafts with pop rocks. (It involved rimming a glass. Booyah.)


Here's a rundown on what Moozh and I have been up to since I was here last.

Moozh made cream puffs and lamb stew one night.

He also made breakfast for dinner which consisted of mascarpone stuffed French Toast.

We made soufflés on Monday. Cheese (Gruyere), Vanilla Cream and Chocolate.

The chocolate was the only I managed to snap before it began to collapse. The cheese was great -if you like stinky cheese. (Be advised, you go to culinary school and stinky cheese is in everything. No cheddar up in here.) The Vanilla Cream tasted vaguely like vanilla scrambled eggs which was…weird. The chocolate was awesome, though. Very light and airy. Not eggy. Win. We also made a chilled lemon soufflé that I think was my favourite out of them all. And the advanced pastry chef liked them enough that he featured the ones we made in the restaurant as a dessert feature. Woot!

What has followed in the days since, when I have company of course, has mostly been prep. We made a lemon pound cake yesterday that was very much like pound cake. I didn't know this but the name 'pound cake' derives from the original recipe in England that called for one pound of flour, one pound of butter, one pound of sugar and one pound eggs. It's also known as The Four Quarters cake. One POUND of butter.

Today was fun because we began to learn the assembly of cakes, which is just as important as the proper baking.
We learned how to properly crumb-coat or 'mask' which is simply a thin layer of buttercream on the outside of the cake to keep any crumbs from getting onto the outside of the cake.

Then we learned how to fully ice and decorate the cake. Throughout the entire process -cutting, filling, masking and icing- I have never felt so uncoordinated. Everything else we have learned thus far I have felt like a beginner but today I just felt ridiculous, waving around offset spatulas and serrated knives. "Chef! What am I…What am I doing!?"
I went for a more monochromatic look, simply, minimalist. What I forgot about minimalism is that it shows ALL YOUR MISTAKES.

For a first try, I am happy with it. I realized that my general aversion to excessive icing kept me from playing around and really decorating up my cake. I am the person at the party that scrapes all the icing off the top of the cake and then dissects each layers so as to simply get just cake. Others did really impressive rosette work and piping.
Chef did some major piping.

 Tomorrow we ice our cupcakes, we finish off our opera cake, we make two mousse cakes, 

Opera Cake from Hardian Nazief

Also on the weekend I made cream puffs for some friends we were having over. I definitely feel more confident that I know what I'm doing.
Before the bake:

After the bake:

Filled with pastry cream!

I have been very blessed this week with simply quality time. The cakes continue next week and then we move on to chocolate!

Find a friend. Find some pop rocks. Brainstorm. Repeat.