Day 61:
Today I tore down the room from the cheese ball party and then I started washing the linens and putting them away. That was basically it for my day. It took all day long waiting for the washing machine.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Day 60 - December 17, 2009
Day 60:
Today I finished setting up the room for the cheese ball party. After I finished setting up I got to work making my caprese salad for the party. After I finished my caprese salad and got it all plated up I started arranging the rest of the cheese platters. Around 2 I started putting out all of the cheese. Cheese is best at room temperature so by the time the party started at 3 it would be perfect. I arranged the centerpiece and did some food decorations. After everything was all setup, I was really happy with the way it turned out.
Our room just about setup:
My rosemary tree centerpiece:
Amy's bread art:
Today I finished setting up the room for the cheese ball party. After I finished setting up I got to work making my caprese salad for the party. After I finished my caprese salad and got it all plated up I started arranging the rest of the cheese platters. Around 2 I started putting out all of the cheese. Cheese is best at room temperature so by the time the party started at 3 it would be perfect. I arranged the centerpiece and did some food decorations. After everything was all setup, I was really happy with the way it turned out.
Our room just about setup:
My rosemary tree centerpiece:
Amy's bread art:
Day 59 - December 16, 2009
Day 59:
For part of my competencies I needed to brew coffee. The school has a cheese ball party for the staff members for their annual Christmas party and Adrienne had signed up to make tiramisu. She needed some coffee to pour onto the sponge so I volunteered to make some. I ended up making 2 different batches, and a guy who came to taste it said it was pretty good. :) I wouldn't know ...
After I finished brewing coffee I started setting up the room for the cheese ball party. I laid out all the tables and started looking through the linens we had in the closet. I covered all of them with a white linen and then put risers on top and then covered the risers with red linens.
That was about it for my day
For part of my competencies I needed to brew coffee. The school has a cheese ball party for the staff members for their annual Christmas party and Adrienne had signed up to make tiramisu. She needed some coffee to pour onto the sponge so I volunteered to make some. I ended up making 2 different batches, and a guy who came to taste it said it was pretty good. :) I wouldn't know ...
After I finished brewing coffee I started setting up the room for the cheese ball party. I laid out all the tables and started looking through the linens we had in the closet. I covered all of them with a white linen and then put risers on top and then covered the risers with red linens.
That was about it for my day
Day 58 - December 15, 2009
Day 58:
Today I was in charge of lunch for the cafeteria. I made an orange chipotle marinated chicken breast and served it with green beans and a rice blend. The sauce I made to put on the chicken was really delicious. I bet it would be really good with shrimp!
Orange Chili Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 2 oranges)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp Asian red chili paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
3 scallions, green parts only, cut into pieces
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1. Put the orange juice, cilantro, chili paste, olive oil, garlic, scallion, chipotle and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth
Rex thought it was a little on the spicy side, but I liked it and thought it was really good.
Today I was in charge of lunch for the cafeteria. I made an orange chipotle marinated chicken breast and served it with green beans and a rice blend. The sauce I made to put on the chicken was really delicious. I bet it would be really good with shrimp!
Orange Chili Glaze:
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (about 2 oranges)
1/2 cup fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp Asian red chili paste
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
3 scallions, green parts only, cut into pieces
1 chipotle chile in adobo sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1. Put the orange juice, cilantro, chili paste, olive oil, garlic, scallion, chipotle and salt in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth
Rex thought it was a little on the spicy side, but I liked it and thought it was really good.
Day 57 - December 14, 2009
Day 57:
I was still feeling a little off when I got to school, but was well enough to go into the kitchen. Today all I did was make whipped potatoes for the line. I didn't want to push myself too far and there wasn't anything else to do anyway.
I was still feeling a little off when I got to school, but was well enough to go into the kitchen. Today all I did was make whipped potatoes for the line. I didn't want to push myself too far and there wasn't anything else to do anyway.
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Day 56 - December 11, 2009
Day 56:
Today was another sick day. After sitting and doing nothing but talking, Adrienne and I decided to go to breakfast at Village Inn. We met up with Kacean and Ethan and we all went together. After that, I went home with the hopes of being better Monday so I can cook again.
Today was another sick day. After sitting and doing nothing but talking, Adrienne and I decided to go to breakfast at Village Inn. We met up with Kacean and Ethan and we all went together. After that, I went home with the hopes of being better Monday so I can cook again.
Day 55 - December 10, 2009
Day 55:
I was sick again and didn't get to go in the kitchen. Instead I sat in the computer lab and worked on price sheets and evaluations. I also had Rex come in and pass off some of my competencies.
I was sick again and didn't get to go in the kitchen. Instead I sat in the computer lab and worked on price sheets and evaluations. I also had Rex come in and pass off some of my competencies.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Day 54 - December 9, 2009
Day 54:
Today ended up being a sick day. I was super sick and ended up getting to school really late. I hauled myself there somehow. Because I was so sick, I ended up not being able to prep my own meatloaf and ended up doing price sheets all day instead.
Today ended up being a sick day. I was super sick and ended up getting to school really late. I hauled myself there somehow. Because I was so sick, I ended up not being able to prep my own meatloaf and ended up doing price sheets all day instead.
Day 53 - December 8, 2009
Day 53:
Today was the women in business meeting that Adrienne and I were in charge of and had been prepping for a couple days. I got to school and checked on Adrienne who had to plate up 50 desserts. They took her several hours to get situated.
Here is the plating design we came up with:
And here is the final product:
It was so crazy delicious and the passionfruit sauce definitely made this dessert awesome!
After I checked on her and made sure she was situated, I went to go find enough plates for everything and started plating salads. We just did a baby green salad with croutons and raspberry vinaigrette.
While Adrienne and I spent forever plating salads and desserts, Rex started making our rice blend. We decided to go with wild rice, white rice and spelt (wheat). Once finished, it would be lightened up a tad with some orange zest (which also complimented the pork).
After I finished salads, I got started on my pork. I had to dry them, coat them in a corn starch mixture and then brown them all. After they were all browned and covered in my glaze I put them in the oven to finish cooking. We pulled them out of the oven at 140 degrees and let them rest. Pulling them out at 140 made them the juiciest piece of pork I've ever seen. Usually when I see pork, it is dry as can be!
When everybody had arrived and they were ready to go John and I started plating the pork. There were 45 people and our room was jam packed with tables so it was hard to maneuver around them to hand out the food, but we managed. It just took a little longer than normal.
Here is the plate we served them:
While we were serving Rex was doing a demo for the ladies and he ended up showing them exactly how we cooked their pork for their lunch. After we finished serving them he called Adrienne and I up to the front and introduced us to the ladies and had us tell them a little bit about ourselves and why we were there. They asked a couple questions and then we headed back into the kitchen.
After everything was over and Adrienne and I were finished cleaning up we were standing in front of the ice machine and Rex comes walking by pretty fast and I needed to ask him a question so I said "Rex!" and he turned and when he turned his coat snagged on the steam kettle and ripped open in one swift movement. He turned bright red! It was hilarious! He turned and looked at us and said in a quiet voice, "If I would have had normal buttons, they would have all been on the floor!" We laughed about it for a long time.
All in all it was a good day and it went well. I was really happy with the way everything turned out.
Today was the women in business meeting that Adrienne and I were in charge of and had been prepping for a couple days. I got to school and checked on Adrienne who had to plate up 50 desserts. They took her several hours to get situated.
Here is the plating design we came up with:
And here is the final product:
It was so crazy delicious and the passionfruit sauce definitely made this dessert awesome!
After I checked on her and made sure she was situated, I went to go find enough plates for everything and started plating salads. We just did a baby green salad with croutons and raspberry vinaigrette.
While Adrienne and I spent forever plating salads and desserts, Rex started making our rice blend. We decided to go with wild rice, white rice and spelt (wheat). Once finished, it would be lightened up a tad with some orange zest (which also complimented the pork).
After I finished salads, I got started on my pork. I had to dry them, coat them in a corn starch mixture and then brown them all. After they were all browned and covered in my glaze I put them in the oven to finish cooking. We pulled them out of the oven at 140 degrees and let them rest. Pulling them out at 140 made them the juiciest piece of pork I've ever seen. Usually when I see pork, it is dry as can be!
When everybody had arrived and they were ready to go John and I started plating the pork. There were 45 people and our room was jam packed with tables so it was hard to maneuver around them to hand out the food, but we managed. It just took a little longer than normal.
Here is the plate we served them:
While we were serving Rex was doing a demo for the ladies and he ended up showing them exactly how we cooked their pork for their lunch. After we finished serving them he called Adrienne and I up to the front and introduced us to the ladies and had us tell them a little bit about ourselves and why we were there. They asked a couple questions and then we headed back into the kitchen.
After everything was over and Adrienne and I were finished cleaning up we were standing in front of the ice machine and Rex comes walking by pretty fast and I needed to ask him a question so I said "Rex!" and he turned and when he turned his coat snagged on the steam kettle and ripped open in one swift movement. He turned bright red! It was hilarious! He turned and looked at us and said in a quiet voice, "If I would have had normal buttons, they would have all been on the floor!" We laughed about it for a long time.
All in all it was a good day and it went well. I was really happy with the way everything turned out.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Day 52 - December 7, 2009
Day 52:
Today was practice day for our luncheon tomorrow. Adrienne and I made two dessert sauces, a passion fruit and a raspberry coulis. After we finished the sauces, we got all the puff pastry squares Adrienne made and attempted to plate our dessert for tomorrow. After several attempts, some much better than others, we finally came up with something we somewhat like that has all the right flavors when you bit it, which means we had the perfect amount of sauce in the right places. That took us quite a long time to do.
After we finished our plating idea for the dessert I needed to pull out my pork tenderloin and do a practice run to decide which glaze I wanted to put on it. I had made a few different orange-chile glazes and if all those failed, we were going to do plain old maple glazed instead. I cut my tenderloin in half and tried two different glazes. Both turned out really good, everyone tasted and voted and it was pretty equal on both sides. I tried a piece of each so I knew what I would be serving and they both did taste really good. In the end, I chose the one with the less time consuming sauce to make. It will save me a lot of time tomorrow.
When those were both done, I just talked through the menu and plating ideas with Rex for tomorrow so we are all on the same page and ready to go tomorrow.
It was a nice busy day, just what I like. Tomorrow should be really fun. I like that he trusts me enough to put me in charge of such big lunches. It should turn out really good. I'm going to remember to bring my camera tomorrow so I can take pictures of everything.
Today was practice day for our luncheon tomorrow. Adrienne and I made two dessert sauces, a passion fruit and a raspberry coulis. After we finished the sauces, we got all the puff pastry squares Adrienne made and attempted to plate our dessert for tomorrow. After several attempts, some much better than others, we finally came up with something we somewhat like that has all the right flavors when you bit it, which means we had the perfect amount of sauce in the right places. That took us quite a long time to do.
After we finished our plating idea for the dessert I needed to pull out my pork tenderloin and do a practice run to decide which glaze I wanted to put on it. I had made a few different orange-chile glazes and if all those failed, we were going to do plain old maple glazed instead. I cut my tenderloin in half and tried two different glazes. Both turned out really good, everyone tasted and voted and it was pretty equal on both sides. I tried a piece of each so I knew what I would be serving and they both did taste really good. In the end, I chose the one with the less time consuming sauce to make. It will save me a lot of time tomorrow.
When those were both done, I just talked through the menu and plating ideas with Rex for tomorrow so we are all on the same page and ready to go tomorrow.
It was a nice busy day, just what I like. Tomorrow should be really fun. I like that he trusts me enough to put me in charge of such big lunches. It should turn out really good. I'm going to remember to bring my camera tomorrow so I can take pictures of everything.
Sunday, December 6, 2009
Day 51 - December 4, 2009
Day 51:
Today when I got to school Rex put Adrienne and I in charge of a big lunch on Tuesday. It's for the women in business lunch, so he didn't want any males working on the food. We spent the morning looking at plating designs trying to get ideas for this lunch. Adrienne found a puff pastry napoleon with mango and raspberry. It looks delicious! It's stacked pretty tall and looks really good. I think we are going to try and do something based off that for the dessert. For lunch Rex told us we are doing pork and was leaning toward maple glazed pork. I wanted to do something other than maple so we spent the morning testing out four different orange-chile glazes to put on the pork instead. the first one we made was burn your face off hot and thick and not pretty at all. The second was delicious with a spicy kick after all the flavors hit. The third was awful. Rex told us to try an orange simple syrup with red pepper flakes in it. It was super sweet and not at all what I was going for. He liked it though, it was comparable with the maple sweet wise.
We are going to do a test run on Monday and try out our second orange-chile glaze and see how it tastes.
After we finished our test run, I needed to cook my trout I had pulled out the other day so it wouldn't go bad. I seasoned both sides of the fish and coated it in corn meal. After that I took the entire fish and pan fried it in oil until it was golden brown, about 3 minutes on both sides. I pulled it off and stuffed it with my eggplant caponata and topped it with the eggplant as well.
It was pretty tasty! I liked it with the eggplant. I think it was a nice change for how I normally cook fish.
Today when I got to school Rex put Adrienne and I in charge of a big lunch on Tuesday. It's for the women in business lunch, so he didn't want any males working on the food. We spent the morning looking at plating designs trying to get ideas for this lunch. Adrienne found a puff pastry napoleon with mango and raspberry. It looks delicious! It's stacked pretty tall and looks really good. I think we are going to try and do something based off that for the dessert. For lunch Rex told us we are doing pork and was leaning toward maple glazed pork. I wanted to do something other than maple so we spent the morning testing out four different orange-chile glazes to put on the pork instead. the first one we made was burn your face off hot and thick and not pretty at all. The second was delicious with a spicy kick after all the flavors hit. The third was awful. Rex told us to try an orange simple syrup with red pepper flakes in it. It was super sweet and not at all what I was going for. He liked it though, it was comparable with the maple sweet wise.
We are going to do a test run on Monday and try out our second orange-chile glaze and see how it tastes.
After we finished our test run, I needed to cook my trout I had pulled out the other day so it wouldn't go bad. I seasoned both sides of the fish and coated it in corn meal. After that I took the entire fish and pan fried it in oil until it was golden brown, about 3 minutes on both sides. I pulled it off and stuffed it with my eggplant caponata and topped it with the eggplant as well.
It was pretty tasty! I liked it with the eggplant. I think it was a nice change for how I normally cook fish.
Thursday, December 3, 2009
Day 50 - December 3, 2009
Day 50:
Today I got to school and made sure that Rex remembered to put my stew in the oven. He was pretty sick yesterday so he might have forgotten. It was in the oven and simmering and looked perfect. After about an hour or two we added the potatoes and carrots and let it continue to simmer until about a quarter to 11am. Lunch is served at 11 so it needed to be done by then.
We pulled it out and the potatoes were perfectly cooked, not crunchy at all. I added some thawed frozen peas and it looked delicious. Once out on the line it went really really fast. John came back and told me that it needed a little more stock, it was getting too thick so I started warming some up and by the time it was warm, the stew was gone. I am glad it was such a hit.
Plated in Adrienne's bread bowls:
Mart also showed up randomly out of nowhere after having stress at work, and I fed him some soup and he liked it. He said he would eat it again if I made it at home. That's a good sign.
While I was waiting for my stew to cook, I found some eggplant in our produce boxes in the back so I wanted to make something with it. I had already made eggplant parmesan so I wanted to do something different. Rex found me an eggplant relish (caponata) recipe that I would make and stuff inside a pan fried trout.
When I finished, I put it in the fridge so I could make the trout tomorrow. It hadn't defrosted all the way yet.
Today I got to school and made sure that Rex remembered to put my stew in the oven. He was pretty sick yesterday so he might have forgotten. It was in the oven and simmering and looked perfect. After about an hour or two we added the potatoes and carrots and let it continue to simmer until about a quarter to 11am. Lunch is served at 11 so it needed to be done by then.
We pulled it out and the potatoes were perfectly cooked, not crunchy at all. I added some thawed frozen peas and it looked delicious. Once out on the line it went really really fast. John came back and told me that it needed a little more stock, it was getting too thick so I started warming some up and by the time it was warm, the stew was gone. I am glad it was such a hit.
Plated in Adrienne's bread bowls:
Mart also showed up randomly out of nowhere after having stress at work, and I fed him some soup and he liked it. He said he would eat it again if I made it at home. That's a good sign.
While I was waiting for my stew to cook, I found some eggplant in our produce boxes in the back so I wanted to make something with it. I had already made eggplant parmesan so I wanted to do something different. Rex found me an eggplant relish (caponata) recipe that I would make and stuff inside a pan fried trout.
When I finished, I put it in the fridge so I could make the trout tomorrow. It hadn't defrosted all the way yet.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Day 49 - December 2, 2009
Day 49:
Today I was in charge of beef stew for lunch tomorrow to go in the bread bowls. I started out by trimming all the silver skin and fat off a 16-17lb chuck roast. That took me quite a while, and I'm proud to say that I didn't cut myself once!
After it was all trimmed, I cut it up into cubes for the stew. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and browned all the pieces in a cast iron pan and moved them into a hotel pan. I sauteed my onions and garlic and added those to the beef as well. I deglazed my pan drippings with some red wine and added my stock, bay leaves and thyme and poured all that over my beef.
I also had some quartered gold potatoes and onion slices set aside, they wouldn't be needed for a while in the cooking.
After that was all ready, I checked the time and knew I wouldn't have time to get it cooked completely so I packaged it up and put it in the fridge to start first thing in the morning. It would need to simmer for an hour, have the potatoes and carrots added and cook for another hour and then have the peas added at the very end.
Rex was worried about getting the liquid hot enough to start simmering so he asked me if I wanted him to put the stew in first thing when he got there in the morning and I told him that would be great.
I will finish the stew up tomorrow and serve it with the bread bowls. It looks really good and really hearty.
Today I was in charge of beef stew for lunch tomorrow to go in the bread bowls. I started out by trimming all the silver skin and fat off a 16-17lb chuck roast. That took me quite a while, and I'm proud to say that I didn't cut myself once!
After it was all trimmed, I cut it up into cubes for the stew. I seasoned it with salt and pepper and browned all the pieces in a cast iron pan and moved them into a hotel pan. I sauteed my onions and garlic and added those to the beef as well. I deglazed my pan drippings with some red wine and added my stock, bay leaves and thyme and poured all that over my beef.
I also had some quartered gold potatoes and onion slices set aside, they wouldn't be needed for a while in the cooking.
After that was all ready, I checked the time and knew I wouldn't have time to get it cooked completely so I packaged it up and put it in the fridge to start first thing in the morning. It would need to simmer for an hour, have the potatoes and carrots added and cook for another hour and then have the peas added at the very end.
Rex was worried about getting the liquid hot enough to start simmering so he asked me if I wanted him to put the stew in first thing when he got there in the morning and I told him that would be great.
I will finish the stew up tomorrow and serve it with the bread bowls. It looks really good and really hearty.
Day 48 - December 1, 2009
Day 48:
Today when I got to school I headed into the kitchen to start on my wild rice and mushroom soup. After I had everything pulled out and ready to get started, Gloria Peterson walked in looking for me. She's in charge of BATC publicity, etc. She wanted to do an on camera interview, take pictures and talk with me about me being the student of the month for December!
We headed into the classroom and worked at the demo kitchen. The actual kitchen was far too crowded and busy to do any videos or interviews.
She gave me a certificate, with my name spelled wrong. =)
It made me laugh. She did fix it for the newspaper ad and the pictures she took of me.
I worked on sauteing my veggies for my soup while they interviewed me so I was working on my project and doing something somewhat entertaining for the camera at the same time.
I was supposed to say something I really liked about the program and BATC and I told her I wasn't exactly sure a perfect statement or anything and she told me to just start talking and they would pull what they needed out of it and put it together. She emailed me my finished picture/ad a few days later and had changed my wording completely! That made me laugh as well. I sound way more professional in my ad than I did when I actually spoke. I was okay with that, it makes sense if you are using it as advertisement for Bridge.
Here is my finished ad that she emailed me. I guess it's going to be in the Herald Journal on Sunday and featured on their website all month. I guess the students of the month for the next 6 months will be featured and honored at graduation in June so I am supposed to go to get recognized again there and I'm sure they'll play part of my video interview. With any luck I'll be graduating at that time anyway.
After my interview, I headed back to the kitchen to make my soup. It turned out really good and I was happy with it.
After I finished my soup I helped Adrienne weigh out bread bowls for lunch on Thursday.
That was it for my day.
Today when I got to school I headed into the kitchen to start on my wild rice and mushroom soup. After I had everything pulled out and ready to get started, Gloria Peterson walked in looking for me. She's in charge of BATC publicity, etc. She wanted to do an on camera interview, take pictures and talk with me about me being the student of the month for December!
We headed into the classroom and worked at the demo kitchen. The actual kitchen was far too crowded and busy to do any videos or interviews.
She gave me a certificate, with my name spelled wrong. =)
It made me laugh. She did fix it for the newspaper ad and the pictures she took of me.
I worked on sauteing my veggies for my soup while they interviewed me so I was working on my project and doing something somewhat entertaining for the camera at the same time.
I was supposed to say something I really liked about the program and BATC and I told her I wasn't exactly sure a perfect statement or anything and she told me to just start talking and they would pull what they needed out of it and put it together. She emailed me my finished picture/ad a few days later and had changed my wording completely! That made me laugh as well. I sound way more professional in my ad than I did when I actually spoke. I was okay with that, it makes sense if you are using it as advertisement for Bridge.
Here is my finished ad that she emailed me. I guess it's going to be in the Herald Journal on Sunday and featured on their website all month. I guess the students of the month for the next 6 months will be featured and honored at graduation in June so I am supposed to go to get recognized again there and I'm sure they'll play part of my video interview. With any luck I'll be graduating at that time anyway.
After my interview, I headed back to the kitchen to make my soup. It turned out really good and I was happy with it.
After I finished my soup I helped Adrienne weigh out bread bowls for lunch on Thursday.
That was it for my day.
Day 47 - November 30, 2009
Day 47:
Today was a really slow day at school. I decided that I wanted to make a wild rice and mushroom soup. They didn't need to for anything today so I just prepped the veggies and I would make the soup tomorrow for lunch.
I cut up the carrots brunoise, small diced the onions and cleaned and sliced my mushrooms.
After that, there was nothing left to do so I wandered around and talked with people. It felt like a major waste of a day.
Today was a really slow day at school. I decided that I wanted to make a wild rice and mushroom soup. They didn't need to for anything today so I just prepped the veggies and I would make the soup tomorrow for lunch.
I cut up the carrots brunoise, small diced the onions and cleaned and sliced my mushrooms.
After that, there was nothing left to do so I wandered around and talked with people. It felt like a major waste of a day.
Day 46 - November 25, 2009
Day 46:
Today when I got to school I saw my cheesecakes and they are perfect! They didn't crack and they look beautiful!
My job today was to bake my rolls, but I overslept this morning and got to school late. When I got there, Rex had already started baking them. I got started on making a gallon of mirepoix flavored bechamel, half for me to use in green bean casserole instead of cream of mushroom soup and half for Rex to use.
After that was ready, I got everything together for my stuffing, packaged it all up to take home, gathered my cheesecake, rolls, and anything else I needed for thanksgiving and worked on my Thanksgiving price sheets so I knew how much I owed Rex for my ingredients.
After that we all took off early. There was nothing left to do because of the holiday break.
Today when I got to school I saw my cheesecakes and they are perfect! They didn't crack and they look beautiful!
My job today was to bake my rolls, but I overslept this morning and got to school late. When I got there, Rex had already started baking them. I got started on making a gallon of mirepoix flavored bechamel, half for me to use in green bean casserole instead of cream of mushroom soup and half for Rex to use.
After that was ready, I got everything together for my stuffing, packaged it all up to take home, gathered my cheesecake, rolls, and anything else I needed for thanksgiving and worked on my Thanksgiving price sheets so I knew how much I owed Rex for my ingredients.
After that we all took off early. There was nothing left to do because of the holiday break.
Day 45 - November 24, 2009
Day 45:
Today I worked on my rolls for Thanksgiving. I made a 3x batch of herb rolls. I think I ended up with probably somewhere around 17lbs of dough. It took me forever to weigh out the correct sizes and shape them! Each batch makes about 66 rolls and I had 3 batches! I only needed 1 batch for my house, the rest were for Rex to sell and take home for his Thanksgiving. I had planned on making some soft white rolls when I finished, but do to some miscalculations, Adrienne had more than enough dough for white rolls so she sat next to me the entire time weighing out her own rolls and we just used her leftover dough for mine. Worked out nicely.
By the time I finished the rolls, it was probably 12:30ish. I wanted to start my cheesecake but I wouldn't have time to finish them. I had a meeting at 3:15 and they are in the oven for 1 1/2 - 2 hours total. Rex told me that if I got them all made and put in the oven, he would pull them out for me.
I got started on my cheesecakes. I decided to make a pumpkin cheesecake and a brownie cheesecake. I wanted them to be perfect, so I took a lot of time preparing my batter.
After I had everything all prepared I put them in a steam bath and in the oven and left them to Rex. For perfect creamy, crumbly cheesecake you put them in a hot water bath and bake them at 300 or 325 for 1 hour and then shut off the oven and leave them in there untouched for another 30 minutes to 1 hour. Pull them out and chill them.
I will see how they turn out tomorrow.
Today I worked on my rolls for Thanksgiving. I made a 3x batch of herb rolls. I think I ended up with probably somewhere around 17lbs of dough. It took me forever to weigh out the correct sizes and shape them! Each batch makes about 66 rolls and I had 3 batches! I only needed 1 batch for my house, the rest were for Rex to sell and take home for his Thanksgiving. I had planned on making some soft white rolls when I finished, but do to some miscalculations, Adrienne had more than enough dough for white rolls so she sat next to me the entire time weighing out her own rolls and we just used her leftover dough for mine. Worked out nicely.
By the time I finished the rolls, it was probably 12:30ish. I wanted to start my cheesecake but I wouldn't have time to finish them. I had a meeting at 3:15 and they are in the oven for 1 1/2 - 2 hours total. Rex told me that if I got them all made and put in the oven, he would pull them out for me.
I got started on my cheesecakes. I decided to make a pumpkin cheesecake and a brownie cheesecake. I wanted them to be perfect, so I took a lot of time preparing my batter.
After I had everything all prepared I put them in a steam bath and in the oven and left them to Rex. For perfect creamy, crumbly cheesecake you put them in a hot water bath and bake them at 300 or 325 for 1 hour and then shut off the oven and leave them in there untouched for another 30 minutes to 1 hour. Pull them out and chill them.
I will see how they turn out tomorrow.
Day 44 - November 23, 2009
Day 44:
Today I made my derby pie to show Rex I really can make it correctly. I added 2 Tbsp of bourbon to it to try it with that flavor added. It came out way better than the last time I made it and burned it, it did crack which it normally doesn't do. We tasted it and it tasted different than at home, it wasn't as sweet. Rex said that's what the bourbon did to it was kill the sweetness. It was good, but it just wasn't quite right.
After I finished my pie I started prepping my stuffing for Thanksgiving. Luckily, some high school kids had already cut up the dried bread so I just had to weigh it out.
I then diced some onion and celery and sauteed them and left them in the fridge to save them for when I needed them.
That was pretty much it for my day
Today I made my derby pie to show Rex I really can make it correctly. I added 2 Tbsp of bourbon to it to try it with that flavor added. It came out way better than the last time I made it and burned it, it did crack which it normally doesn't do. We tasted it and it tasted different than at home, it wasn't as sweet. Rex said that's what the bourbon did to it was kill the sweetness. It was good, but it just wasn't quite right.
After I finished my pie I started prepping my stuffing for Thanksgiving. Luckily, some high school kids had already cut up the dried bread so I just had to weigh it out.
I then diced some onion and celery and sauteed them and left them in the fridge to save them for when I needed them.
That was pretty much it for my day
Day 43 - November 20, 2009
Day 43:
Today was the day to assemble and decorate the wedding cakes for tomorrow with Kacean.
We started the day off by making raspberry coulis, raspberry mousse and raspberry buttercream. After those were made we got started making the giraffe grooms cake. We pulled out the sheetcake and put the stencil Berylann had drawn up on top and cut out the giraffe. It looked like a horse with a long neck so I worked on it for a minute and extended the legs and then it looked more like a giraffe. He was really cute.
Kace frosted him up with some buttercream and we covered him in fondant.
Once covered, I worked on smoothing the fondant as much as possible. It was really patched together because it was such a funny shape. Kace got started on the actual wedding cake.
We had a lot of problems that just happened one after another and the problem solving took a lot of time. First we had the tiers stacked on top of each other, covered in fondant and dusted with silver luster dust. The top tier was way too big and it just wasn't going to work. Kacean was beyond frustrated at this point so I took over while Kace sprayed the giraffe yellow.
I pulled the top tier off, laid a 6" plate on top and cut the tier smaller. I re-frosted it and re-covered it on fondant. Once it was put back on the cake, it looked a lot better. We re-dusted it with the silver luster dust and got to work on the fondant ribbon that would go around the base of the tiers. After a few minutes the luster dust started to sink into the fondant and the cake started to turn a gray color. Neither of us were very happy with it and made the decision to spray it purple. I thought we would spray it lavendar and do a dark purple ribbon but the spray ended up being very dark so we did a lavendar ribbon.
A few more problems later (such as running out of airbrush air, forgetting the vodka to spray the coloring on with at Kace's apartment and a few others) we had the cake sprayed and prepped for us to take home. We would be making flowers, butterflies and decorating at home.
Kace piped frosting on the cupcakes and we loaded up the car and headed home to make tiny flowers for the cupcakes, chocolate roses and chocolate butterflies.
Kace had a long night getting everything finished and I headed over in the morning to help her decorate and assemble everything together.
Berylann had helped the night before by painting the giraffe and he turned out so cute!
After everything was assembled and decorated we headed to the church to set up the cakes and take some pictures.
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They turned out pretty good and Kirsten (Kacean's friend) was happy with them and that's what matters.
The giraffe even bled when the head was cut off, just like it was supposed to!
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I had fun having Kacean come to school with me for 2 days. We make a good team and I'm sure we'll make more cakes in the future.
Today was the day to assemble and decorate the wedding cakes for tomorrow with Kacean.
We started the day off by making raspberry coulis, raspberry mousse and raspberry buttercream. After those were made we got started making the giraffe grooms cake. We pulled out the sheetcake and put the stencil Berylann had drawn up on top and cut out the giraffe. It looked like a horse with a long neck so I worked on it for a minute and extended the legs and then it looked more like a giraffe. He was really cute.
Kace frosted him up with some buttercream and we covered him in fondant.
Once covered, I worked on smoothing the fondant as much as possible. It was really patched together because it was such a funny shape. Kace got started on the actual wedding cake.
We had a lot of problems that just happened one after another and the problem solving took a lot of time. First we had the tiers stacked on top of each other, covered in fondant and dusted with silver luster dust. The top tier was way too big and it just wasn't going to work. Kacean was beyond frustrated at this point so I took over while Kace sprayed the giraffe yellow.
I pulled the top tier off, laid a 6" plate on top and cut the tier smaller. I re-frosted it and re-covered it on fondant. Once it was put back on the cake, it looked a lot better. We re-dusted it with the silver luster dust and got to work on the fondant ribbon that would go around the base of the tiers. After a few minutes the luster dust started to sink into the fondant and the cake started to turn a gray color. Neither of us were very happy with it and made the decision to spray it purple. I thought we would spray it lavendar and do a dark purple ribbon but the spray ended up being very dark so we did a lavendar ribbon.
A few more problems later (such as running out of airbrush air, forgetting the vodka to spray the coloring on with at Kace's apartment and a few others) we had the cake sprayed and prepped for us to take home. We would be making flowers, butterflies and decorating at home.
Kace piped frosting on the cupcakes and we loaded up the car and headed home to make tiny flowers for the cupcakes, chocolate roses and chocolate butterflies.
Kace had a long night getting everything finished and I headed over in the morning to help her decorate and assemble everything together.
Berylann had helped the night before by painting the giraffe and he turned out so cute!
After everything was assembled and decorated we headed to the church to set up the cakes and take some pictures.
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They turned out pretty good and Kirsten (Kacean's friend) was happy with them and that's what matters.
The giraffe even bled when the head was cut off, just like it was supposed to!
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I had fun having Kacean come to school with me for 2 days. We make a good team and I'm sure we'll make more cakes in the future.
Day 42 - November 19, 2009
Day 42:
I continued making components for Kaceans cake on Friday. Today I made modeling chocolate.
Modeling chocolate:
2 parts chocolate
1 part glucose or super thick corn syrup
We will be making flowers and butterflies with the chocolate so that the decorations are all edible, with the exceptions of the butterflies her friend had given us to put on the cake.
After I finished the modeling chocolate I sliced a huge roast for some roast beef sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and then helped Adrienne shape danishes. We also decided to make a lemon cream cheese filling instead of just plain, and it turned out delicious. It was perfect on top of the flaky pastries.
Here are the shapes we made our pastries into:
Bear Claw:
Pinwheel:
The diamondish shape I can't remember the name Rex told us:
I continued making components for Kaceans cake on Friday. Today I made modeling chocolate.
Modeling chocolate:
2 parts chocolate
1 part glucose or super thick corn syrup
We will be making flowers and butterflies with the chocolate so that the decorations are all edible, with the exceptions of the butterflies her friend had given us to put on the cake.
After I finished the modeling chocolate I sliced a huge roast for some roast beef sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and then helped Adrienne shape danishes. We also decided to make a lemon cream cheese filling instead of just plain, and it turned out delicious. It was perfect on top of the flaky pastries.
Here are the shapes we made our pastries into:
Bear Claw:
Pinwheel:
The diamondish shape I can't remember the name Rex told us:
Day 41 - November 18, 2009
Day 41:
Yesterday's fondant was perfect and Kace was happy with it. Today I needed to make a double batch so we would have enough for the giraffe cake and the 2 tiered cake.
When I finished the fondant, I cut up a bunch of fresh fruit to go with my chicken salad sandwiches. We used fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, kiwi and grapes. I topped the entire thing off with fresh mint. When I finished my fruit salad I moved the chicken salad, fruit and Adrienne's croissants out to the line and helped them with lunch. I plated and served the chicken salad sandwiches. They looked really good on the croissant.
Yesterday's fondant was perfect and Kace was happy with it. Today I needed to make a double batch so we would have enough for the giraffe cake and the 2 tiered cake.
When I finished the fondant, I cut up a bunch of fresh fruit to go with my chicken salad sandwiches. We used fresh pineapple, cantaloupe, kiwi and grapes. I topped the entire thing off with fresh mint. When I finished my fruit salad I moved the chicken salad, fruit and Adrienne's croissants out to the line and helped them with lunch. I plated and served the chicken salad sandwiches. They looked really good on the croissant.
Day 40 - November 17, 2009
Day 40:
Today when I got to school I was in charge of making more chicken salad. This time I was going to be making a ginormous batch to serve for lunch as well as another lunch meeting. I made it the exact same way I made it yesterday.
After I finished the giant batch of chicken salad, I worked on making fresh fondant for Kacean's wedding cake we are decorating on Friday. The fondant was a little weird at first, but after I figured out what was I doing it came together beautifully, it was the perfect consistency and tasted okay.
I needed to make it early so we could let it sit and see if Kace liked it enough to use for the cake. If not, we need to come up with something else.
Today when I got to school I was in charge of making more chicken salad. This time I was going to be making a ginormous batch to serve for lunch as well as another lunch meeting. I made it the exact same way I made it yesterday.
After I finished the giant batch of chicken salad, I worked on making fresh fondant for Kacean's wedding cake we are decorating on Friday. The fondant was a little weird at first, but after I figured out what was I doing it came together beautifully, it was the perfect consistency and tasted okay.
I needed to make it early so we could let it sit and see if Kace liked it enough to use for the cake. If not, we need to come up with something else.
Day 39 - November 16, 2009
Day 39:
Today Megan and I were in charge of making chicken salad for small sandwiches for a meeting later that afternoon. We chose to use toasted almonds instead of the normal grapes in the chicken salad. It looked really good. Because I worked with Megan, she was in charge of the tasting so I took her word that it tasted good.
Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
Cooked chicken, cubed
2-4 stalks celery, diced
1/2-1 red onion, diced
Toasted almonds
Mayo
Old Bay seasoning
Salt and pepper
Combine chicken, celery, onion and almonds in a bowl. Add mayo and stir until well coated. Season to taste with old bay, salt and pepper.
After we finished the salad, I got to work on the pate a choux shells. I was a little worried having never made them before, but they turned out beautiful! I was very happy with the final product.
After the shells cooled, I cut the little bump off the top and filled the inside with chicken salad. Pate a choux shells fluff up from the eggs and the middle is empty which is why they are perfect for cream puffs, eclairs and ... chicken salad. =)
Finished plate:
Today Megan and I were in charge of making chicken salad for small sandwiches for a meeting later that afternoon. We chose to use toasted almonds instead of the normal grapes in the chicken salad. It looked really good. Because I worked with Megan, she was in charge of the tasting so I took her word that it tasted good.
Chicken Salad
Ingredients:
Cooked chicken, cubed
2-4 stalks celery, diced
1/2-1 red onion, diced
Toasted almonds
Mayo
Old Bay seasoning
Salt and pepper
Combine chicken, celery, onion and almonds in a bowl. Add mayo and stir until well coated. Season to taste with old bay, salt and pepper.
After we finished the salad, I got to work on the pate a choux shells. I was a little worried having never made them before, but they turned out beautiful! I was very happy with the final product.
After the shells cooled, I cut the little bump off the top and filled the inside with chicken salad. Pate a choux shells fluff up from the eggs and the middle is empty which is why they are perfect for cream puffs, eclairs and ... chicken salad. =)
Finished plate:
November 14, 2009
Saturday: November 14, 2009
Today was the food show at Lee's. We had been prepping all week for this. We all arrived between about 9:30-10:30 depending on what we needed to cook or warm up and started to get set up for the show to start at 11.
Paul and his apple crisp with prunes...completely vegan:
Paul and Stefani:
Modeling my artichoke and green chile dip:
Kendall came to help us out because Rex and Jon were both gone. We were glad for her help!
Kendall:
All of us who participated.
Me, Jessica, Paul, Stefani and Amy:
It was a long day but it was really fun at the same time. I'm glad I participated and I think it was a good experience and a fun way to hang out with some of my class.
Today was the food show at Lee's. We had been prepping all week for this. We all arrived between about 9:30-10:30 depending on what we needed to cook or warm up and started to get set up for the show to start at 11.
Paul and his apple crisp with prunes...completely vegan:
Paul and Stefani:
Modeling my artichoke and green chile dip:
Kendall came to help us out because Rex and Jon were both gone. We were glad for her help!
Kendall:
All of us who participated.
Me, Jessica, Paul, Stefani and Amy:
It was a long day but it was really fun at the same time. I'm glad I participated and I think it was a good experience and a fun way to hang out with some of my class.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Day 38 - November 13, 2009
Day 38:
Today Kacean came to school with me. Rex had asked her to come and do a demo for the high school kids on something she learned while attending the Western Culinary Institute in Portland. She got an associates degree in Baking and Pastry. Her favorite thing while studying there was chocolate, so she did a chocolate demo. She tempered chocolate and made French and Swiss truffles for the class. She also showed them a few plating designs she does at work at Elements. She was cute, I think she had a good time. She was really nervous but warmed up after a few minutes.
Rex and Kace:
Tempering:
Filling molds with ganache:
Rolling truffles:
Coating the rolled truffles with a tempered chocolate shell:
Today Kacean came to school with me. Rex had asked her to come and do a demo for the high school kids on something she learned while attending the Western Culinary Institute in Portland. She got an associates degree in Baking and Pastry. Her favorite thing while studying there was chocolate, so she did a chocolate demo. She tempered chocolate and made French and Swiss truffles for the class. She also showed them a few plating designs she does at work at Elements. She was cute, I think she had a good time. She was really nervous but warmed up after a few minutes.
Rex and Kace:
Tempering:
Filling molds with ganache:
Rolling truffles:
Coating the rolled truffles with a tempered chocolate shell:
After the demo we both headed into the kitchen to start baking a wedding cake and 150 cupcakes for her friends wedding next Saturday. The plan is to make a devil's food sheet cake to be the grooms cake. I guess he wants a giraffe with a superman badge on his chest and when you cut off his neck, it will look like it's bleeding when raspberry coulis comes pouring out. I'm not sure what I think about that, except that I'm not a fan of it...
The actual wedding cake is a 2 tier lemon cake with a raspberry mousse filling and then we are going to have 150 cupcakes as well. The stupid thing is going to be decorated with butterflies. I hate butterfly wedding cakes...They never end up looking very good, at least I've never seen one that I like.
We started with the devils food sheet cake, everything seemed to go pretty well without a problem. That's surprising as I stink at baking ... I was super nervous to actually have to make a wedding cake for some girl I don't know. The only reason I thought I would be fine is because I would have Kacean do all the actual baking.
When the devils food was finished we started on the lemon cake. We were going to be using a gold cake recipe of Rex's that she had never made before and just adding lemon flavoring to it.
We had decided to do a double batch to make sure we had enough for the 2 tier cake as well as 150 cupcakes, so I weighed out 10 pounds of flour and 7 pounds of shortening and added it to the biggest mixer we have.
Our huge mixer:
Our huge mixer:
And now for Kelsie's Blonde Moment of the day:
Once I had the flour and shortening in the mixing bowl Kace asked me to turn it on speed 1 and just mix the two together for 4 minutes. In the back of the room, we have the same mixer just smaller and the settings are backwards. The ball on the arm is facing away from the number, and in the front on the huge mixer, I guess it's the other way around. I set the mixer to what I thought was speed 1, which ended up actually being speed 4.
I pushed start and there was a huge cloud of flour that came flying out of the mixer and covered me from head to foot and made probably a circle that went at least 5 feet out from me on both sides. I looked up at Kace and Adrienne and just started laughing. After we all started laughing for a minute, I ran to get the broom and get it swept up before Rex came over and saw it and started teasing me about it.
As soon as I put the broom away, he came over. Good timing. :)
We ended up getting all the cakes baked, and the lemon cake was delicious! We packaged it all up and put it into the freezer to wait until next week when we assemble them.
I pushed start and there was a huge cloud of flour that came flying out of the mixer and covered me from head to foot and made probably a circle that went at least 5 feet out from me on both sides. I looked up at Kace and Adrienne and just started laughing. After we all started laughing for a minute, I ran to get the broom and get it swept up before Rex came over and saw it and started teasing me about it.
As soon as I put the broom away, he came over. Good timing. :)
We ended up getting all the cakes baked, and the lemon cake was delicious! We packaged it all up and put it into the freezer to wait until next week when we assemble them.
Day 37 - November 12, 2009
Day 37:
Today was my prep day for the Lee's Food Show on Saturday the 14th. I spent the entire day making ginormous batches of spinach artichoke dip and artichoke green chile dip. After getting it all made I was super worried that I wouldn't have enough of the artichoke green chile dip so Dallan and I headed back to Lee's and bought more ingredients to make a second batch. After getting all of that made and packaged and put in the fridge I had the dreadful task of toasting 3500 slices of bread! They brought me giant french bread loaves so we didn't end up using even close to all of them. I think we had 5 or so people slicing the bread and once we had them all sliced I started toasting them all. I ended up with about 35 full trays with an average of about 100 slices per tray. The bread was for me and Amy both so I had to make sure I would have enough and not run out.
I was very surprised that I was able to get everything done in one day and that I wouldn't have to worry at all about it tomorrow. All I would need to do Saturday is warm the dip up and start serving. The bread was all ready to go.
Today was my prep day for the Lee's Food Show on Saturday the 14th. I spent the entire day making ginormous batches of spinach artichoke dip and artichoke green chile dip. After getting it all made I was super worried that I wouldn't have enough of the artichoke green chile dip so Dallan and I headed back to Lee's and bought more ingredients to make a second batch. After getting all of that made and packaged and put in the fridge I had the dreadful task of toasting 3500 slices of bread! They brought me giant french bread loaves so we didn't end up using even close to all of them. I think we had 5 or so people slicing the bread and once we had them all sliced I started toasting them all. I ended up with about 35 full trays with an average of about 100 slices per tray. The bread was for me and Amy both so I had to make sure I would have enough and not run out.
I was very surprised that I was able to get everything done in one day and that I wouldn't have to worry at all about it tomorrow. All I would need to do Saturday is warm the dip up and start serving. The bread was all ready to go.
Day 36 - November 11, 2009
Day 36:
This morning everyone who would be participating in the Lee's Food Show was to meet at Lee's in Logan at 7am to shop for all of our ingredients. We ended up with so much stuff! After we finished there, we all headed back to school.
When I got to school I felt so much better than I had the last couple of days. My stomach ache was mostly gone, thank goodness.
Today my job was to remake my pie crusts and bake off my derby pie. This time I used the same measurements for both the flour and butter, but ended up cutting it in half instead of doubling it. I used 1 1/2 pounds flour, 1/2 pound butter, 1/2 pound shortening and 1/2 pound of water. It ended up so much better! They were much easier to roll out and making the edges on them was so much easier. I baked them inverted again and this time when we flipped them, the shells came out just fine! Yay!
I filled one of them and started to bake it. I only had about an hour and 10 minutes before the lunch we were serving so I was nervous it wouldn't get done fast enough. I put it in the convection oven which was a huge mistake. It browned the pie way too fast while leaving the inside super gooey and not cooking it fast enough. I switched it to the floor oven and by the time we took it out the top was all sorts of dark and starting to burn. I was so disappointed. I have never EVER burned a derby pie of mine before and of course it had to happen while I was at school for a lunch we were serving. We cut it open and I was so upset, it just wasn't right so I tasted it and all I could taste was the burned part. Everyone else tasted it and said it was fine, not fantastic but not horrible. Rex would have served it, but after seeing the look on my face pulled out Meghan's Boston Creme Pie she had made that day and we served that instead.
After all was said and done, Rex told me that he wanted me to remake the pie again. I asked him if I could just make it at home and bring it in and he told me no. I had to make it there. I asked him why and he told me it was so I could have confidence to cook in any kitchen and have it turn out anywhere. Sucky.
I'm not very anxious to start that again, but I'll be doing it sometime. Next time I will be using the floor oven for the entire cooking.
This morning everyone who would be participating in the Lee's Food Show was to meet at Lee's in Logan at 7am to shop for all of our ingredients. We ended up with so much stuff! After we finished there, we all headed back to school.
When I got to school I felt so much better than I had the last couple of days. My stomach ache was mostly gone, thank goodness.
Today my job was to remake my pie crusts and bake off my derby pie. This time I used the same measurements for both the flour and butter, but ended up cutting it in half instead of doubling it. I used 1 1/2 pounds flour, 1/2 pound butter, 1/2 pound shortening and 1/2 pound of water. It ended up so much better! They were much easier to roll out and making the edges on them was so much easier. I baked them inverted again and this time when we flipped them, the shells came out just fine! Yay!
I filled one of them and started to bake it. I only had about an hour and 10 minutes before the lunch we were serving so I was nervous it wouldn't get done fast enough. I put it in the convection oven which was a huge mistake. It browned the pie way too fast while leaving the inside super gooey and not cooking it fast enough. I switched it to the floor oven and by the time we took it out the top was all sorts of dark and starting to burn. I was so disappointed. I have never EVER burned a derby pie of mine before and of course it had to happen while I was at school for a lunch we were serving. We cut it open and I was so upset, it just wasn't right so I tasted it and all I could taste was the burned part. Everyone else tasted it and said it was fine, not fantastic but not horrible. Rex would have served it, but after seeing the look on my face pulled out Meghan's Boston Creme Pie she had made that day and we served that instead.
After all was said and done, Rex told me that he wanted me to remake the pie again. I asked him if I could just make it at home and bring it in and he told me no. I had to make it there. I asked him why and he told me it was so I could have confidence to cook in any kitchen and have it turn out anywhere. Sucky.
I'm not very anxious to start that again, but I'll be doing it sometime. Next time I will be using the floor oven for the entire cooking.
Day 35 - November 10, 2009
Day 35:
Yesterday I was sick so when I woke up today I was determined to go to school sick or not. I woke up today with a crazy stomach ache instead of a headache which was good, so I headed to school. I decided to take it easy so that I wouldn't pass out or anything. Today Dallan and I made pie crusts. Rex had given me the recipe for a pie crust. 3,2,1. 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water. I decided to make mine with part butter, part shortening. Because I was still sick and a little bit out of it, I mixed measurements a little bit. I doubled my recipe because Rex told me I needed to for 2 pie crusts. I added 6 cups flour, 2 pounds fat and it didn't even look like it needed water. I hoped it would be alright in the end so I tried to just work with it. I got my pie crusts and chilled, rolled out, chilled again and again and again...etc, I finally got it all into pie pans and partially baked.
While the crusts were baking I made my derby pie filling with a little bourbon added in to try it out. When my crusts were ready I pulled them and out. I had cooked them inverted so they wouldn't get any huge bubbles and shrink majorly. I went to flip them and they just crumbled to pieces. They were definitely messed up and to the point I couldn't use them at all. I just threw all the crumbs in a bowl in hopes that somebody would end up using them as bread crumbs.
After that giant mishap, I didn't have any more time to make them again and just headed home. I will try again tomorrow.
Yesterday I was sick so when I woke up today I was determined to go to school sick or not. I woke up today with a crazy stomach ache instead of a headache which was good, so I headed to school. I decided to take it easy so that I wouldn't pass out or anything. Today Dallan and I made pie crusts. Rex had given me the recipe for a pie crust. 3,2,1. 3 parts flour, 2 parts fat, 1 part water. I decided to make mine with part butter, part shortening. Because I was still sick and a little bit out of it, I mixed measurements a little bit. I doubled my recipe because Rex told me I needed to for 2 pie crusts. I added 6 cups flour, 2 pounds fat and it didn't even look like it needed water. I hoped it would be alright in the end so I tried to just work with it. I got my pie crusts and chilled, rolled out, chilled again and again and again...etc, I finally got it all into pie pans and partially baked.
While the crusts were baking I made my derby pie filling with a little bourbon added in to try it out. When my crusts were ready I pulled them and out. I had cooked them inverted so they wouldn't get any huge bubbles and shrink majorly. I went to flip them and they just crumbled to pieces. They were definitely messed up and to the point I couldn't use them at all. I just threw all the crumbs in a bowl in hopes that somebody would end up using them as bread crumbs.
After that giant mishap, I didn't have any more time to make them again and just headed home. I will try again tomorrow.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Day 34 - November 9, 2009
Day 34:
Last night I went to bed with a pounding headache and when I woke up this morning, my head was pounding. I felt awful so I sent an email to Rex telling him I wouldn't be there and went back to bed with hopes of being better tomorrow. So today was a Kelsie sick day.
Last night I went to bed with a pounding headache and when I woke up this morning, my head was pounding. I felt awful so I sent an email to Rex telling him I wouldn't be there and went back to bed with hopes of being better tomorrow. So today was a Kelsie sick day.
Day 33 - November 6, 2009
Day 33:
Today is Mart's Birthday so I today my goal was to make him a delicious birthday cake! A few days ago Adrienne had made a hot chocolate layer cake with home made marshmallows that they found in a magazine. Not only was it pretty, it was really a good chocolate cake. When I got to school that day, Rex suggested that I make that cake for him.
I was crazy nervous to spend the entire day baking, so I told Adrienne that I was going to just have her hold my hand the entire day. She helped me all day long and didn't complain out loud once. I was so grateful for her help and because of her help, the cake turned out so good. I couldn't have made it any better.
Here is my cake all frosted after Rex and Adrienne showed me different ways to pipe the edges. I'm very proud of how the piping turned out.
Here is my finished cake with the homemade marshmallows piled on top and dusted with some dutch cocoa powder!
It took me all day long, but I was so proud of my cake and really excited for Mart to see it and taste it. He loved it and it was by far the best birthday cake I have ever made.
Today is Mart's Birthday so I today my goal was to make him a delicious birthday cake! A few days ago Adrienne had made a hot chocolate layer cake with home made marshmallows that they found in a magazine. Not only was it pretty, it was really a good chocolate cake. When I got to school that day, Rex suggested that I make that cake for him.
I was crazy nervous to spend the entire day baking, so I told Adrienne that I was going to just have her hold my hand the entire day. She helped me all day long and didn't complain out loud once. I was so grateful for her help and because of her help, the cake turned out so good. I couldn't have made it any better.
Hot Chocolate Layer Cake with Homemade Marshmallows
For the cake:
6 oz (3/4 cup) unsalted butter; more for the pans
13 ½ oz (3 cups) unbleached all-purpose flour; more for the pans
¾ cup canola oil
4 ½ oz bittersweet chocolate; finely chopped (I used chocolate chips)
3 cups white sugar
2 ¼ oz (3/4 cup) natural unsweetened cocoa powder (If you use Dutch cocoa powder, don’t use any baking soda. Use baking powder instead and double what it should have been for the soda. i.e. 1 tsp baking soda = 2 tsp baking powder instead)
3 large eggs, at room temperature
¾ cup buttermilk, at room temperature
2 Tbs. vanilla extract
2 ½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp. kosher salt
For the frosting:
2 ½ cups heavy cream
3 oz (6 Tbs) unsalted butter
2 tsp vanilla extract (originally called for 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise and seeds scraped out)
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped (I used chocolate chips)
2 cups white sugar
6 oz cocoa powder
½ cup corn syrup
¼ tsp kosher salt
Position racks in the bottom and top thirds of the oven and heat the oven to 350 F.
Butter three 9x2” round cake pans (springform works best) and line each with a parchment round. Butter the parchment, then dust with flour and knock out the excess.
In a 3 quart saucepan, combine the butter, oil, chopped chocolate and 1 cup water. Heat over medium heat until melted.
In a large bowl, whisk the flour, sugar and cocoa powder. Pour the hot chocolate mixture into the sugar mixture and whisk until combined.
Whisk in the eggs, one at a time, then whisk in the buttermilk, vanilla, baking soda(powder), and salt. Divide the batter evenly among the prepared pans.
Set two pans on the top rack and the third on the lower rack. Stagger the pans on the oven racks so that no pan is directly over another. Bake, swapping and rotating the pans’ positions after 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center of each cake comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. Cook on racks for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto the racks, remove the parchment paper and cool completely.
Make the Frosting:
In a 4 quart saucepan over low heat, combine the cream, butter and vanilla and stir until the butter is melted. Whisk in the chopped chocolate until melted (completely melted! Don’t leave any little tiny chunks). Whisk in the sugar, cocoa powder, syrup, and salt until smooth. Be sure the cocoa powder dissolves completely. Pour into a 9x13 pan and freeze until firm (about 2 hours) or refrigerate overnight.
Remove the frosting from the fridge or freezer. Transfer to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium for 2 minutes to soften. Change to a whisk attachment and beat at medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Make the marshmallows. (Adrienne made some for her cake so I just used her leftovers). I'm sure you could use store bought as well, but it won't be quite as cool.
Assemble cake.
Here is my cake all frosted after Rex and Adrienne showed me different ways to pipe the edges. I'm very proud of how the piping turned out.
Here is my finished cake with the homemade marshmallows piled on top and dusted with some dutch cocoa powder!
It took me all day long, but I was so proud of my cake and really excited for Mart to see it and taste it. He loved it and it was by far the best birthday cake I have ever made.
Day 32 - November 5, 2009
Day 32:
The Bridgerland Culinary Arts class was invited to participate in the Lee's Food Show that is held every year around Thanksgiving. Today was the day we decided to do our test run. I had decided on doing artichoke dip, so I had 3 different recipes to test run and have everyone vote on. The first was a normal spinach artichoke dip with mayo, the second was a spinach artichoke dip with cream cheese and the final dip was artichoke and green chile dip. Everyone who would be participating prepped everything and set it out for the class to sample. We also had Tim the frozen foods manager from Lee's who invited us come out and try everything as well. In the end, I decided on making two different dips for the show. I ended up making the spinach artichoke with cream cheese and the artichoke and green chile dip. Both were very very good.
I ended up deciding to make dip for several reasons. The first was we were going to be serving around 1500 people. I wanted to make something that was easy enough to just throw together and not spend 4 days prepping for. Also, dip is a universal people pleaser...just about everybody I know loves a dip of some sort. I also know tons of people who love artichoke dip and not everybody knows how to make it. It's also something that you can stretch a lot further than other things by just spreading it really thin on the toasted bread slices or crackers and last of all...dip is good hot and it's also good cold. If my dip happened to sit out on my table too long, I knew even if it was cold it would still taste good. That way I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it hot the entire time.
The food show is November 14, I now knew what I was going to be making and was comfortable with my decision.
The Bridgerland Culinary Arts class was invited to participate in the Lee's Food Show that is held every year around Thanksgiving. Today was the day we decided to do our test run. I had decided on doing artichoke dip, so I had 3 different recipes to test run and have everyone vote on. The first was a normal spinach artichoke dip with mayo, the second was a spinach artichoke dip with cream cheese and the final dip was artichoke and green chile dip. Everyone who would be participating prepped everything and set it out for the class to sample. We also had Tim the frozen foods manager from Lee's who invited us come out and try everything as well. In the end, I decided on making two different dips for the show. I ended up making the spinach artichoke with cream cheese and the artichoke and green chile dip. Both were very very good.
I ended up deciding to make dip for several reasons. The first was we were going to be serving around 1500 people. I wanted to make something that was easy enough to just throw together and not spend 4 days prepping for. Also, dip is a universal people pleaser...just about everybody I know loves a dip of some sort. I also know tons of people who love artichoke dip and not everybody knows how to make it. It's also something that you can stretch a lot further than other things by just spreading it really thin on the toasted bread slices or crackers and last of all...dip is good hot and it's also good cold. If my dip happened to sit out on my table too long, I knew even if it was cold it would still taste good. That way I wouldn't have to worry about keeping it hot the entire time.
The food show is November 14, I now knew what I was going to be making and was comfortable with my decision.
Day 31 - November 4, 2009
Day 31:
Today I was feeling a little sick and I wasn't sure if I would make it through the day or not. Before I headed to school we had caught and killed a mouse in my house. Being allergic, it did all sorts of wacky things to my body before I left. By the time I left my house I was itchy and getting a bit of a headache. Halfway to school I was having a hard time breathing so I used my inhaler, which made me so dizzy I couldn't see or focus for a minute and made me super sick. That has never happened to me before. After that I also had a major headache. I got to school and just warned Rex that I might not make it through the day and he said he would help me but if I needed to leave then I was okay to leave. I got started on my chicken fried steak lunch. I made some mashed potatoes, Dallan made some pepper white gravy for my potatoes and for my veggie I decided on some corn. We roasted and diced some red peppers and tossed them with corn which was sauteed in a little butter and then roasted in the oven for about 30-45 minutes. It looked really good. Rex helped me out by frying the steaks for me and with his help I was able to get everything done on time despite being sick. I was worried part way through the day that I'd have to go home, but I made it through and was okay.
Today I was feeling a little sick and I wasn't sure if I would make it through the day or not. Before I headed to school we had caught and killed a mouse in my house. Being allergic, it did all sorts of wacky things to my body before I left. By the time I left my house I was itchy and getting a bit of a headache. Halfway to school I was having a hard time breathing so I used my inhaler, which made me so dizzy I couldn't see or focus for a minute and made me super sick. That has never happened to me before. After that I also had a major headache. I got to school and just warned Rex that I might not make it through the day and he said he would help me but if I needed to leave then I was okay to leave. I got started on my chicken fried steak lunch. I made some mashed potatoes, Dallan made some pepper white gravy for my potatoes and for my veggie I decided on some corn. We roasted and diced some red peppers and tossed them with corn which was sauteed in a little butter and then roasted in the oven for about 30-45 minutes. It looked really good. Rex helped me out by frying the steaks for me and with his help I was able to get everything done on time despite being sick. I was worried part way through the day that I'd have to go home, but I made it through and was okay.
Day 30 - November 3, 2009
Day 30:
Big surf and turf lunch for president of ATC colleges, breaded chicken fried steaks
Today was the huge lunch for the president of the ATC's. (Applied Technology Colleges). I started the day by plating up some salads. I had some mixed baby greens, so they were light, crisp and sweet. I added some diced roasted red peppers, a piece of melted Parmesan and we made some candied grapes. The grapes were so delicious, I loved them! To make the grapes, we lightly whipped up some egg whites, dipped the grapes into the egg whites and then into a bowl of sugar and shook off the excess sugar. After they set up and hardened a little they were so good. I am going to try making them at home and freezing them. Anyway, my salads were then served with a vidalia onion vinaigrette.
My salad:
For the steak we served a new york strip marinated in worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and garlic. I made a huge mistake and put granulated garlic on it instead of fresh. I didn't know he meant fresh. It freaked me out that I might have messed up the steaks. Luckily, we caught it in time and wiped them off and put more worchestershire sauce on them. He said they were good and turned out okay even with my mess up.
To serve with our steak, I made shrimp scami, carrot sticks and roasted potatoes.
I had a choice on the carrots between a sweet maple glazed carrot or a savory carrot. I am not always a huge fan of sweet foods so I picked the savory carrots. We lightly steamed them and tossed them in fresh horseradish (it was like a sauce), sour cream, salt and pepper. They were so good!
The roasted potatoes were first steamed and then coated with butter and roasted until they were golden. They were really good as well.
As for the shrimp scampi, it's pretty much the easiest dish alive. Melt butter, add a ton of minced garlic, add the shrimp and cook until they just barely turn pink. Season with salt and pepper and top with chopped parsley. Yum!!
We wanted to top the steaks with a demi glace. It's a sauce made of stock that has reduced down until it thickens and has a little bit of tomato pasted added at the end. Ours was veal stock with beef base to make it beef flavored with the tomato. It seemed to go well with the steak, I didn't try any. It was a bit runny, it could have reduced more to make it thicker for sure.
This picture shows the process of plating up our meal. We line everything up in the order we put it on the plate and the last step is to put it onto a serving tray.
Our finished plate. The food was delicious but I wasn't happy with the actual plate. The colors are all too similar and that bothered me. It could have used some green. Oh well, at least it tasted good. :)
For dessert we served a brownie cheesecake with some raspberry puree and a chocolate ganache. Rex slaughtered the presentation of the sauces, it almost looks like a smiley face. The raspberry had a hard time coming out of the piping bag and we were in a super hurry. Hopefully next time the desserts look better.
When the plates came back the waitress we had for the day said they were all really happy with the food and that we did a good job. I'm so glad it went well. :)
After the lunch I breaded 48 chicken fried steaks for lunch tomorrow. We coated them with egg and then coated them with seasoned flour. After that, they went in the freezer.
Big surf and turf lunch for president of ATC colleges, breaded chicken fried steaks
Today was the huge lunch for the president of the ATC's. (Applied Technology Colleges). I started the day by plating up some salads. I had some mixed baby greens, so they were light, crisp and sweet. I added some diced roasted red peppers, a piece of melted Parmesan and we made some candied grapes. The grapes were so delicious, I loved them! To make the grapes, we lightly whipped up some egg whites, dipped the grapes into the egg whites and then into a bowl of sugar and shook off the excess sugar. After they set up and hardened a little they were so good. I am going to try making them at home and freezing them. Anyway, my salads were then served with a vidalia onion vinaigrette.
My salad:
For the steak we served a new york strip marinated in worchestershire sauce, salt, pepper and garlic. I made a huge mistake and put granulated garlic on it instead of fresh. I didn't know he meant fresh. It freaked me out that I might have messed up the steaks. Luckily, we caught it in time and wiped them off and put more worchestershire sauce on them. He said they were good and turned out okay even with my mess up.
To serve with our steak, I made shrimp scami, carrot sticks and roasted potatoes.
I had a choice on the carrots between a sweet maple glazed carrot or a savory carrot. I am not always a huge fan of sweet foods so I picked the savory carrots. We lightly steamed them and tossed them in fresh horseradish (it was like a sauce), sour cream, salt and pepper. They were so good!
The roasted potatoes were first steamed and then coated with butter and roasted until they were golden. They were really good as well.
As for the shrimp scampi, it's pretty much the easiest dish alive. Melt butter, add a ton of minced garlic, add the shrimp and cook until they just barely turn pink. Season with salt and pepper and top with chopped parsley. Yum!!
We wanted to top the steaks with a demi glace. It's a sauce made of stock that has reduced down until it thickens and has a little bit of tomato pasted added at the end. Ours was veal stock with beef base to make it beef flavored with the tomato. It seemed to go well with the steak, I didn't try any. It was a bit runny, it could have reduced more to make it thicker for sure.
This picture shows the process of plating up our meal. We line everything up in the order we put it on the plate and the last step is to put it onto a serving tray.
Our finished plate. The food was delicious but I wasn't happy with the actual plate. The colors are all too similar and that bothered me. It could have used some green. Oh well, at least it tasted good. :)
For dessert we served a brownie cheesecake with some raspberry puree and a chocolate ganache. Rex slaughtered the presentation of the sauces, it almost looks like a smiley face. The raspberry had a hard time coming out of the piping bag and we were in a super hurry. Hopefully next time the desserts look better.
When the plates came back the waitress we had for the day said they were all really happy with the food and that we did a good job. I'm so glad it went well. :)
After the lunch I breaded 48 chicken fried steaks for lunch tomorrow. We coated them with egg and then coated them with seasoned flour. After that, they went in the freezer.
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