Snow Sculptures & Shyness

    

      Brett and I went to the snow sculpting competition at Navy Pier yesterday.  They are huge and amazing.  This one of Medusa was the winner.  I wish we had a picture of it from behind too because the snakes look really neat looping around in the back.
     Our favorite sculpture was the eels with the coral.  It had a lot of detail, a lot of them did.  One was an octopus and a skeleton with a treasure chest and a zillion little coins scattered around the bottom.

      People were taking pictures standing in front of the sculptures and Brett couldn't understand why.  So I made him take a picture of me standing by our fav.  There was a good turn out and it was pretty impressive.  Even the high school ones didn't look to bad.  Bretty was definitely in awe and I was glade we went.
     I also managed to get us home okay.  I think Brett was impressed and he just managed to hide it well.

     It felt like a crazy day at school today.  I feel bad for my new partner; he probably thinks I'm always a crazy face but I just felt behind all day.  We made like four different batters and piped some pastries.  It doesn't sound like much but jeezies.  We also had our first review with our chef, he told me I'm too quiet. It's not like I've never heard that before.  He asked my old partner what it was like working with me and she said after a couple days I opened up and that I talk a lot once I'm comfortable.  He was surprised.  And then my new partner told him that he likes my sense of humor.  He was surprised again.  Everyday he asks for a joke at the beginning of class and I'm going to find a joke; I'm sure he'll be surprised.

Brett's snow sculpture from the competition in Rockford.  Tiki Clause is over ten feet tall 

French Pastry Experience

      Today I worked a French Pastry Experience at school.  I think I'm going to try and get Mom and Dad to go to one.  Anyone can go to these things, some people are interested in going to the school and some just go for fun.  We gave the people tours and they watched a demo and sampled tasty treats.  They also took home a gift bag and a loaf of fresh bread.  I wasn't too excited about giving a tour but it wasn't bad.  The people were all really interested and friendly, which made it easier.
     Tomorrow Brett and I are going to Navy Pier to see snow sculptures; he just did a snow sculpting competition that ended last weekend.  Here is the link to pictures from the competition http://www.snowsculpting.org/teamsstate.html his team was block 7.  I don't know yet what else we'll do, probably not much because we're both poor.  I don't really care if we do anything, I'm just excited to see him.

     The "For the Love of Chocolate" gala is next Saturday.  They strongly suggested everyone "volunteer".  I am excited to rub elbows with the pros.  I want to do a stage (job shadow) at Graham Elliot
http://www.grahamelliot.com/ but I didn't have the guts to call, so I sent an e-mail.  I know he's going to be there, so it would be neat to meet him and maybe make me less nervous. I have no idea what to expect at the event.  I think it'll be over the top and amazing.  Also very long, working all day means from 9 am to 1 am.  Yeup, I said 1 AM!  I know I'll survive; I'm excited.

Bread Friday

Country Bread (shape: Couronne Bordelaise)

Multigrain

     I brought home two paper grocery bags full of bread today.  We finished almond croissants, made almond brioche (that uses bostock and my partner said the smell reminded her of a spa... in a good way) baked sourdough, mixed and baked country bread and a multigrain bread.  Woo! And we're only there for six hours.  Next  time you're at work and you look at the clock and go "It's only noon!" just know that I did all of the above by noon time.

Sourdough

     Monday we have new partners and start on petit fours.  I love bread but I don't imagine myself becoming a "baker" so I'm looking forward to all of the other classes.  Who know what I'll really be good at or end up doing... I guess time will tell.  I am going to miss my first partner but I'm excited about working with my new one.  We happen to  have the same chef for petite fours as we had for bread and he can be pretty entertaining.    
     Meanwhile, Brett is coming to see me this weekend!  Haven't seen him in about three weeks and I miss him bunches.  Saturday morning I volunteered to work a French Pastry Experience at school.  Just until noon, showing people around and helping with the demonstration (probably just doing dishes and such).

Almond Croissant and Almond Brioche

Welp.  I guess that's it.

Pain Au Chocolat

       Today we baked our chocolate croissants and believe it or not, they taste even better than they look.  This also happens to be my big sisters favorite pastry!  She will be stopping by to partake of my school day successes. 

  
     Here is a better picture of the beer bread.  This time we split the batch with our partners, to do all of our own shaping.
     Class has been going really well and it seems crazy to think this is our last week doing bread.  I heard that on Friday we'll be bringing home a ton... I'm a little surprised because I feel like everyday I bring home a ton.  I believe next week is petite fours.  Time really is just flying by.

Kugelhopf

Where has kugelhopf been all my life?  

It's so delicious I cannot even explain.

    

     Baguettes!  This beautiful photo was taken in Jen's dinning room, so nicely arranged in her giant plastic pitcher.  The one in the front is shorter because I was hungry. 

    
     Mmm... I love me a good danish.  These are made with a dough much like a croissant.  They have a layer of almond frangipane and either apricot or pear.  I love how good everything looks.  Sure, I know the chef's look better than mine but when they're all you see they look awesome!

Salt

Croissants, Beer Bread and Lemon Pound Cake

     It was a whopping 1 degree this morning on my way to school.  Worse than the cold is all the ice on the sidewalks.  I was out there slipping around.  I've made myself a promise, if I'm ever responsible for a piece of sidewalk in the city, I will salt it.

Heaven in a Cake Carrier

Brioche nanterre, beignets, brioche with bee sting and french bread.

     That's right, you should be jealous.  When I got home I ate a "little" bit of everything and it's all delicious.  The brioche is awesome and the bee sting takes it to my top ten.  "Bee sting" is what they call it in France.  Somehow they shape it like a bee hive; here it was made in a little mold.  It's basically almonds and honey amazingness.  The beignets are fried like doughnuts and rolled in cinnamon sugar.  Can you say yum?  Cuz I can!  YUM!  Last but not least is the french bread, which everyone knows and loves.  It's crusty and it's scrumptious, nuff said.
     Also, where are all the people who said they'd be taste testers?  Because I have A LOT of bread and such on my counter now....  Come and get it people!

Mmm... Bread

Toast Bread

     This week we're learning to make bread.  I love bread; someday I will be very fat.  We started brioche today and did it all by hand (no kitchen aid) and like everything else so far, I thought it was pretty fun.  I'm also excited to make croissants because they're tasty and I've heard they're hard to make.  Needless to say I was pumped to see them on the board for tomorrow.

Cream Puffs and French Meringue

Cream Puffs dipped in caramel and French Meringue Cookies

My Pastry Cream is better than yours

    Yesterday we learned just a little bit about knife skills and made a sweet dough.  Today we made our sweet dough into cookies and made pastry cream.  The pastry cream is amazing!  Every time Chef  Jon said something that could go wrong I knew what he was talking about because it described my old pastry cream.  And people liked my old pastry cream; I guess they just didn't know any better.  Chef Pierre showed us how to pipe chocolate and we get to try that out tomorrow.  His demonstration was super impressive, especially when I had a hard time just making the piping tip.
     I think my partner and I work really well together and I'm having fun.  I'm excited for the first time I get to really wow someone.  People like the things I make now but I've always known it could be better, I just didn't know how.  One thing I do know is that no matter what happens, pastry school is the best decision I ever made.  I am still ridiculously quiet but it's starting to feel like home.

The Beginning

uniform

     The first week of class is now kind of a blur.  We started on Monday with introductions to all of the staff and our classmates.  They served us fresh croissants and chocolate croissants, they were awesome and I'm super pumped to learn to make them myself.  The second and third day we did a sanitation class that felt like a week.  The teacher was pretty entertaining and the test didn't seem too hard after all the videos and such.  Thursday we learned some in depth things about milk and butter which may sound boring but was very interesting.  Friday they went over some info about bread and eggs.  Everyone in the class had to say something interesting or weird about themselves.  I hate doing things like that because I never know what to say.  I said how I make up words sometimes; I heard Tony say jeezies once and it made my day.  We were also given our amazing tool kits!  I feel cool carrying it around the city =)
    There are 72 people in the program and they are split into a morning class and an afternoon class.  Morning and afternoon are each split into two groups of 18.  That means there is a total of 4 groups that they call streams.  I'm in stream 1.
     Making contacts in the food industry is super important so they strongly encourage us to do stages.  A stage is basically cold calling a business (restaurant, bakery, etc) and persuading them to let you volunteer there.  While we're there we'll be doing whatever they ask us to.  From taking out the garbage to I don't know what (because I've never worked in a restaurant, bakery, etc).  I should do as many as I can while I'm in school but I'm definitely nervous about it.  I think I'm more nervous about the phone call than the going and working there part.
     Next week we start in the kitchen with basic skills.  We start at 6:45 on Monday morning.  I'm giving myself an hour to get downtown so my alarm'll be going off at about 4:45.  This may seem really early (and it is) but it's not as early as I use to get up when I opened at Starbucks.  Regardless of the early hours I'm uber excited about school.  And yes I know, everyone is willing to be a taste tester.

Brett's 1st Visit

     Brett drove out here yesterday and I was very excited for him to see where I live and what my life will be like.  I made him tortellini for lunch and then we went out.  I took him to an el stop that Derek showed me and we wandered around in the cold.  We explored a giant used bookstore and tried to go to a record store.  It's not my fault it was closed for New Year's, I did take him there.  Then to try and take the edge off the chilly weather we stopped in a nerdy little coffee shop.  Bretty was jealous of the baristas ability to make pretty pictures in our foam.  It was also Brett's first time taking the el.  He made me feel knowledgeable and I liked it.  After that we made "whatever we can find in the cupboard" tacos and watched some LOST.  I made him start watching it a month or two ago and now he's hooked.  We watched a total of 8(!) episodes yesterday.  It was a fun day and a nice way to start the new year =)