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Petit Fours Day 1- Culinary School

Day one of petit fours was interesting. Everything seemed pretty simple, but not everything turned out quite right. The hazelnut financiers stuck in the molds and would not come out well and the tuiles d'amandes burned somewhat and then hardened faster than we could shape them. I got a few good ones for the sake of the pictures. :-) We also made raisin cookies, which taste very strongly of rum due to the rum and powdered sugar glaze on top. There is so much more to petit fours than I previously thought. Friday we are making macarons. I am excited about learning how to make these from Chef Alex. My chef instructor owns his own macaron company: L'Artisan Macarons. His macarons are delicious. Of course we will not be using his recipes, but that's ok. :-)

Last night after school Jason upgraded my iPhone to the new operating system, so unfortunately I lost my pictures. I called Jason this morning and he was able to get pictures of what was left after bringing everything to work. Thanks babe!

Top: Financiers Aux Noisettes (Hazelnut Financiers)

Bottom: Tuiles D'Amandes (Almond Tuiles)

Palets Aux Raisins Sec (Raisin Cookies)

Bread Final

Last night was my bread final. I was really nervous going into it. I wasn't sure I could fit everything in considering bread dough needs to proof. Bread is a lot of hurry up and wait. I actually finished a lot earlier than I thought I would. I still made a rookie mistake though, I took my croissants out too soon. They ended up not being fully baked. It was hard to figure out the bake time of everything. I baked them longer than what the recipe called for, but since the oven had been opened so many times by everyone in the class, they didn't bake like they should have. Chef didn't count me off too much for it though. I actually did rather well. He gave me two 10s and an 8 (the eight is due to the croissants).

Bread final waiting to be graded.

Pain de Mie

(I am very excited to make French toast with this.)

Croissants

(They are too pale. I should have noticed, but for some reason I didn't.)

Brioche a Tete

Apple Crumb Bread

(The recipe is actually for Banana Crumb Bread, but the school didn't have bananas. We all had to change our plans last minute. Chef told us to use apples and to saute them. The bread is really good. Next time I'm going to add some cinnamon to the batter.)

Bread Day 5

Last night was a whirlwind. We had so much to do. I came home with 5 different types of bread, muffins, etc. We didn't finish until 10:15pm and then looked around at a kitchen that looked like a tornado had passed through. Luckily, we are all pretty fast cleaners and we were still able to make it out the door on time. Monday is the final! Wish me luck! :-)

Here are pictures of everything I made:

Pizza- I know it is not a bread, but we made the dough and then were able to finish and bake an actual pizza. I didn't try it, but Jason said it was good.

Oatmeal Raisin Nut Bread

Lemon Poppyseed Muffins

Foccacia

Cornbread Muffins

Bread Day 4

* I missed day 3 due to being sick. :-(

Last night was a first for me. I came home and didn't try anything I made. It was not because I didn't want to, though. It was because I was completely stuffed! The culinary students are cooking "family style" meals right now, which means they provide dinner for the entire school. Last night was Italian. We had green salad, bruschetta, spaghetti and meatballs, two different types of penne pasta, and lasagna. I grabbed a little bit of everything and it was delicious! Then a little later we went to visit the pastry 2 class's buffet. They had mini desserts spread out buffet style: eclairs, cream puffs, swans, macarons, pies, tarts, strudel, chocolate candies, chocolate teacups with cream, and some other tasty treats. We all grabbed plates and enjoyed! So you see, by the time I got home there was no way I could eat another bite. :-)

Class was pretty laid back last night. We made danishes, kaiser rolls, english muffins, pizza dough and oatmeal raisin bread dough. Both the pizza dough and oatmeal raisin bread dough will be used on Friday. We learned last night that we have a final on Monday. This unit went by so fast! Guess what I will be doing this weekend?? Yup! Baking bread. :-)

Pictures:

Kaiser Rolls

English Muffins (I actually had on this morning toasted with butter and it was pretty good.)

Cinnamon Danishes

Bread Day 2

Friday night I came home with a bag full of bread. We made two different kinds of brioche rolls as well as brioche donuts. We also made both regular croissants and chocolate croissants and a bread called Musli. I had a lot of fun in class on Friday. Making the donuts was probably my favorite part. :-)

Musli

Croissants

Chocolate Croissants

Brioche Donuts

Brioche a Tete

Bread- Day 1

Last night we started our new section: bread. We made Viennois, Irish Soda Bread, Croissant dough and Brioche dough. The croissant dough and brioche dough will be used on Friday. Things were fairly simple last night and we finished early. We also had a lesson in nutrition. I actually enjoyed myself last night. Maybe bread is not that bad after all. We'll see.

Viennois (It is like a light brioche.)

Irish Soda Bread (Not one of my favorites.)

Friday, we are making croissants, brioche, Musli, and bagels. I will have a lot of bread for this weekend. Anyone want some? :-)

Today

TODAY I'll trust Thee, Father God.

Thy hand may hold the chastening rod,

But I will love Thee nonetheless,

As when in pleasure Thou dost bless.

TODAY I'll walk with head held high,

Nor ask to know the reason why

Heart doth break and winds are chill-

Still I pray to do Thy will.

TODAY, Your gift of love and grace,

Let me but look upon thy face;

Strength of my life, my keeping power,

Be near me in the testing hour.

TODAY I dedicate to Thee;

Thy purpose, Lord, fulfill in me,

That I may say when comes the night:

"This is the path of peace and light."

Frances J. Roberts

Cakes Final

Last night was frustrating. Unfortunately, my cake did not turn out as well as I would have liked it to. Chef was very nice to me though in grading it. I think he takes into consideration how we have done through-out the course too. It is frustrating knowing I have done so much better. My practice cake this weekend is an example of that. O well. At least now it is over and we move onto bread on Wednesday. After breads I believe it is petit-fours and then cakes 2.

It may not look too bad in the photo, but my cake sunk in the middle and the layers I cut kept crumbling. I had to put too much butter-cream on the top to make it level and one of my edges caved. Not my best by far. :-(

My marzipan parchment and roses came out really well. My writing on the other hand... Really bad. Chef said at least it is legible. Not what you want to hear. I don't think he counted me off too much for the writing.

These roses were the only thing I was proud of last night. Chef said they were really nice. He had nothing bad to say about them. Yay!

After our final, we all finished our chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake from the previous week. This cake is pretty and tastes really yummy. I was very happy to be taking it home.

All in all, this section was fun and challenging. I really wish it had ended on a better note. The nice thing is that I know I can do better. Practice makes perfect and I really like practicing cakes.

Cakes Day 8- Culinary School

Last night felt like an off night for me. Things seemed to keep going wrong. The bright spot in the night? I was the first one to successfully created a chocolate fan. Yay me! The chocolate fans will be placed on top of the chocolate-hazelnut mousse cake we made last night that is currently in the freezer at school. The other cake we made was a flour-less chocolate cake. Mine seemed to be a different color than everyone else (not sure why) and my creme d'or that frosted the cake, set too much too fast. My partner and I had to use chefs. At least our chocolate meringues came out well. (It tastes pretty good, too.)

Here is a picture of the cake:

Flour-less Chocolate Cake decorated with chocolate meringues.

Cakes Day 7- Culinary School

Last night had a few challenges, but it was still fun. First off, glazing the sacher-torte with fondant was a disaster for me. You can't really tell by the photo, but it is completely lop-sided. At least my writing came out better than I thought it would. The other cake we made is called a Dobos Torte which is layered dobos sponge and butter-cream. The sponge was very difficult to pipe and we ran out and had to make a second batch, but after everything was baked and built, I got a "very nice" from my instructor. So basically, both cakes had good things and bad things. My favorite has got to be the dobos torte. I had no idea how pretty it would be. We also finished the cupcakes from Wednesday.

Here are pictures:

Sacher-Torte (chocolate sponge layered with apricot glaze and covered in fondant)

Dobos Torte (sponge cake layered with chocolate butter-cream and topped with slices of sponge covered in caramel)

Top of the Dobos Torte

Chocolate Cupcakes

Cakes Day 6- Culinary School

Last night I could barely get everything to the car. We made so many delicious desserts! It was so much fun making and decorating goodies. It was a great night. We made carrot cake, pecan coffee cake, and baked chocolate cupcakes. We also finished the two mousse cakes we made on Monday. Everything came home except for the cupcakes. We didn't have enough time to finish them. We will be doing that tomorrow and I will be bringing them home for the weekend.

Here are pictures of everything we brought home:

Gateau de Mousse aux Deux Chocolats avec Pate a Cornet (White Chocolate and Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake with Pate a Cornet (sponge cake))

Pecan Coffee Cake

Miroir aux Fruits (Fruit Mousse Cake- This mousse is black currant)

Carrot Cake

Cakes Day 5- Culinary School

Last night we made 2 cakes and finished our Charlotte Royale from Friday night. We also learned how to make roses out of marzipan. I practiced today with some fondant I had at home and I think I am really getting the hang of it. I am really enjoying cakes now. I'm not sure how I am going to get everything home on Wednesday because we are making carrot cake, chocolate cupcakes and pecan coffee cake. I will also have the two cakes we made last night that we didn't get to take home because they needed to chill. There will be lots of pictures for my next post!

Here are pictures of the finished Charlotte Royale and my first marzipan rose:

The Charlotte Royale: almond sponge rolled with raspberry jam and cut into discs which are then arranged in a dome and filled with a creme anglais-based bavarian cream. The base is a genoise disc.

My very first marzipan rose.

Cakes Day 4- Culinary School

Last night was actually fun. I probably had my best night of cakes so far. I baked and layered a genoise well (it's in the freezer for Monday). I also piped well and the other cakes I baked turned out well too. I felt really good about last night. Maybe I can do this after-all. :-)

Here are pictures of what we finished last night (I say finished because lately everything we bake in class does not get finished until the next class):

Marjolaine cut in half to show layers

Marjolaine

Lemon Cake (the only thing brought home last night that was made from start to finish in class last night)

Chocolate Genoise Cake

Charlotte Russe (ladyfingers bottom and sides- filled with bavarian fruit cream)

In case you are wondering, here are the layers (from top to bottom) for the Marjolaine:

Chocolate Glaze

Dacquoise (baked nut meringue)

Creme Chantilly (sweet whipped cream)

Dacquoise

Praline Buttercream

Dacquoise

Creme D'Or (heavy cream and chocolate, whipped)

Dacquoise

Ganache

Chocolate Genoise

Cakes Day 3- Culinary School

Last night was frustrating. We made ladyfingers and not only did I need to make them twice, but when it looked like they finally were going to come out, they were dry and I had to use my classmate's left-overs. However, the cream that went inside that dessert turned out well. The other two desserts that were made last night were not as bad. I had to make the marjolaine with my partner because I didn't have any pre-made dacquoise due to missing class on Friday. That was ok with me because I still had the opportunity to try making it and I think I could do it by myself pretty easily. I don't feel like I missed out. The other dessert is a chocolate genoise cake that everyone started on Friday and finished last night. I was able to start mine and I will finish it on Friday. I was glad I was able to make my chocolate genoise. It is one less thing that I missed from Friday. Once I finish the cake, I will feel like I have "caught up" somewhat. :-)

I really hope we will be done with sponge cakes soon. I do not like them. I am having a hard time with them and it is making class less enjoyable. I need to practice at home. Speaking of practicing, my classmates informed me last night that on Friday Chef told everyone to keep a log of when they practice at home, what they do, and for how long they do it. (For things like piping, he said to practice no longer than 15 minutes.) He will periodically check these logs so we need to keep them on us at all times.

I do not have any pictures for you today. Everything I made last night needs to chill overnight. I will be bringing it home on Friday.

Maddie's First Trip to Disneyland!!!

We have been looking forward to this weekend for months. Early this year we decided we wanted to visit my sister and her husband down in southern California sometime over the summer. We decided on Labor Day weekend and also made plans to take Maddie to Disneyland for her very first trip. The trip soon became a family affair when my mom decided to join us. (We wish my dad could have come too, but he had to work. Bummer!)

Our original plans were to leave for SoCal on Saturday morning, pick up my mom on the central coast and then continue the drive to Anaheim. Sunday we were going to meet up with my sister and her husband at the Disneyland Resort and spend the day at the parks. Monday we would spend at my sister's place and then leave in the afternoon to take my mom back home. We then would stay at my parent's house Monday night and drive back home Tuesday morning.

Those plans were changed last minute when we found out the Disney Marathon was being run on Sunday and an extra 40,000+ people were going to be at the park. We switched gears and left for SoCal Friday afternoon, spent the night with my parent's and then left first thing Saturday morning (6:30am) for Disneyland. We made good time and were in the park by 11am. :-)

The park was not crowded at all on Saturday and we had a wonderful time. Maddie was completely in awe! She had a fabulous time! She didn't nap at all. She didn't want to miss a single moment. We made special reservations at Ariel's Grotto for character dining with 5 of Disney's Princesses. That was definitely a highlight in the day. She loved every moment. She was such a trouper. 6 hours in the park and not a single complaint!

Here are some pictures from our day:

Meeting Princess Aurora

Meeting Snow White

Meeting Princess Ariel

She loved meeting Minnie. She gave her a big hug! It was too cute!

On "It's A Small World"

Meeting Tigger

Meeting Eeyore

Meeting Winnie the Pooh

Sunday was spent hanging out with family at my sister's place and then Monday we headed back to my parent's like originally planned. We made it home today. We are exhausted, but we had a fantastic time!