It's the Sweet Life: A Chef's Education

4th of July

2009-06-30T11:18:00.001-07:00

The summer is just flying by! This weekend is fourth of July, not a huge holiday but one I always look forward to spending with my family. Of course this year I can't join in the festivities ,in fact there are no fourth of July celebrations up here, no fireworks nothing! Maybe we're just a bit to close to Canada. Anyways, this Saturday, I'll be thinking of my families backyard, watermelon, BBQ, fresh corn on the cob, and fireworks! To honor this holiday I thought I might share a simple dessert with you, so in a way I can be a part of the summer fun! Hope you enjoy!

Watermelon Granita

24oz watermelon juice (to make juice put fresh watermelon in a blender, puree watermelon, then strain liquid into a separate container)
1cp sugar
1cp water

Combine water and sugar -bring to a boil to dissolve sugar completely.
Remove from heat and combine with watermelon juice.
Place mixture in a large casserole pan so liquid is distributed evenly and in a shallow layer (about .5-1'' high)
Put mixture in freezer, every half hour scrape surface of liquid ( you should see ice starting to form) with a fork until liquid is no longer apparent. Make sure you put mixture back in the freezer after each scraping!
Scraping the mixture creates a fluffy texture and allows ice crystals to form.
Once your granita is ready, scoop it into a dish and enjoy, or prepare a glass of lemonade and replace the ice with a scoop of granita for a real summer treat!

Hope you all have a wonderful fourth of July!

Transitions

2009-06-23T10:41:00.001-07:00

As you've all noticed its been awhile since my last posting! The reasoning: transitions- literally!

The last days of my classes at Texas Culinary Academy went by as a flash of packing, projects and saying my goodbyes to Austin. The day after my last final I forced myself out of couch (my bed was already in a storage unit by then) at 6am and drove to my home town of Lubbock, TX. Once arriving, I dropped off my dog for her own version of summer camp at my family's home and picked up my parents as travelling companions for the rest of the seven state trek across the United States. Over the next four days we drove through the plains, hills and Rockies of this great country. Eventually, 2,200 miles later we turned the car's engine off in Winthrop, Washington in front of Sun Mountain Lodge.

Needless to say you can't travel that far and not notice that your surroundings have changed dramatically. The Methow valley in which Winthrop resides is surround by tall jagged mountains, some still covered in snow. Wildlife is everywhere, mainly deer- but I see chipmunks, groundhogs, fowl on a daily basis and even the occasional black bear. The trees here are old and tall, with every rain storm the smell of pine intoxicates the air. When its not raining the perfume of lilacs is carried on cool breezes along with millions of seedlings that mimic snow fall. The weather is warm during the day and dry, but with night fall the temperature falls into the 40's-50's. I won't be surprised to see snow in September, before I leave! The people here are very friendly, but also very direct- I guess I'm to used to southern gentility and the blunt nature of conversation is surprising. The people I work with are what you would expect of chefs very colorful in personality and easy to be around! Most have been in the business for only a few years with the exceptions of the pastry chef (whom I work directly under) and the executive chef. Both have been in the hospitality industry for a few decades and are a great source of encouragement and knowledge.

The work aspect has been a fun transition to adulthood- this was very shocking to me, I expected 50 hour work weeks to be waring and stressful, but its not! I have fun at work creating and getting to know my co-workers. I also get the opportunity to create my own dishes and serve them in our dining room which has a 4 diamond rating- in other words fancy. I can't tell you how rewarding it is to serve something I've created from concept to reality and hear how much guests have enjoyed it! That was really the reason I got into this career- I wanted to create and give back. Its nice to see that happen after waiting to get to this point of my adult life. So far, its a pretty good start in my opinion. :)

This job also helps me appreciate my grandfather and uncles career's as farmers in a whole new way. The work it takes to produce high quality stock and literally seeing your work come to fruition and ( in a sense) giving it back to the community. I'm happy that my talents have lead me to this point and thank God for that!

This Friday I'm helping prepare a special dessert for a seven course dinner in our wine cellar room. This room is reserved for wine tasting and special dinners only . This dinner will be priced at $90 a head! Its crazy that I'm cooking at this level and it still surprises me at times!

I'm also excited to say that I and 3 other interns are planning a culinary research trip to Seattle in July! Chef Bradshaw is excited about all of us going and can't wait to see what ideas we bring back. I'm excited to see a city I've been dreaming about for the last 8 years! Seattle, is known not only for its farmers markets, but also its innovative restaurants, and convenient location to so much fresh produce. I can't wait!

I'll try to post more frequently so you can see my weekly adventures! But I'll be honest with you the lack of Internet connection effects that plan. But I'll try! God bless you all and have a wonderful week!

Pictures: Sunset and view from my front porch! ( I'm sharing a house with one other roommate and its great! only twenty minutes from the Lodge I work at.)

My first special! Lemon-black sesame seed pound cake with citrus-ginger ice cream. mmmmm...

The Bon Bombay

2009-04-23T10:34:00.000-07:00

As promised, this post is all about our most recent and delicious assignment- create your own candy bar. Chef Marc had his plate full literally of all different kinds of flavors from the strange to the most appetizing. Many of my class mates took this opportunity to get creative with their flavors, for instance my friend Abby made a walnut brittle, candied bacon, and bleu cheese ganache candy bar. It was definitely what I would call an exotic treat, but for those of us that enjoy the unusual, we found Abby's candy bar to be a wonderful taste bud adventure! Others chose to go with a traditional combo like my friend Katy. She made a wonderful chocolate caramel with candied cashews and yummy dark chocolate delicious and definitely a classic! They were all wonderful and a great chance for us all to put our creativity on display. So, you may be wondering- what did I make?

Well, I decided to go for something off the beaten path, after all , unusual flavor combinations is kind of my style! Anyways, over the last couple of years I have come to love Indian food, the spices are so different from any traditional American flavor but seem familiar at the same time when combined with chocolate. So I created what I called the "Bon Bombay" Its four layers from top to bottom are : a curry gananche (that's white chocolate, cream and curry spices), a toasted coconut filling, cashew crunch, and sesame seed brittle all covered in a delicious dark chocolate shell. Although this candy bar is not your usual find in the supermarket check out line the sweet and spicy flavors combined with a bit of crunch and a lot of chocolate made for a winning combo- chef said it made a colorful presentation and was a well thought out combination of flavors. Needless to say I was pretty happy with the result of my "risky" choices. So maybe if your lucky I'll make you a batch sometime. :)

The beginning of the End... of classes!

2009-04-20T13:37:00.001-07:00

Well, a lot has happened since I last posted on here. Cake block ended with our big wedding cake project and the last block has begun. This block is advance patisserie techniques including chocolate, confection and sugar work. So far we have been doing a lot of work with chocolate. While chocolate might seem easy its actually quite challenging work. Chocolate requires tempering ;a process that requires heating and cooling the chocolate to create a shiny and hard snap in the final product. In other words it brings chocolate to the peak of its own perfection. This might sound simple enough but a lot of factors can effect the out come, needless to say those with little patience might find chocolate work to be a very frustrating task! Personally, I find it more challenging than rewarding, but I'm thankful for the chance to get a taste of a chocolatiers profession.

After the first two assignments, we turned our attention to confection work or candy, which was a great relief to many of us in the class. We have dabbled in divinity and pate e fruit and fiddled with pralines and candied orange zest. I have really enjoyed the confection work and hope I can share some of the fruits of my labor in the future in the form of edible Christmas gifts!

On a personal note, I had the chance to see one of my oldest friends and her family for Easter; Noelle Preble and fam. They live just outside of beautiful Fredericksburg in a sunny house on a hill with a spectacular view. I love spending time out there, its so peaceful and the company couldn't be better. I was especially thankful to see the prebles just before I leave for my externship. Sometimes spending time with those that know your past make you feel even more confident about the future. I'm now less than a month away from moving to Washington and so many have been so encouraging about this externship, it makes me so thankful for those in my life and I know it makes me a better person personally and professionally.

This week in class will be inventing our own candy bar, so stay tuned for the next posting!

HELLO WASHINGTON!

2009-03-27T12:58:00.001-07:00

So I just received some very exciting news! As some of you know part of the program I'm in includes an externship. This portion is considered your on site education of how a real kitchen works. I applied to a few places and had a couple of offers, but today I was offered my first choice!- an externship at Sun Mountain Lodge in Winthrop ,Washington! The Lodge is beautiful and the Chef and his staff seem like a great bunch to work with! The work I'll be doing includes plated desserts and lots of baking from scratch! I couldn't be happier! The Lodge is only a few hours from Seattle and a of hours from the Canadian border! Go here to check out where I'll be working!

Besides that school is going great! We're almost finished with cake block and then we are on the last class- Chocolate and sugar work! Its gone by so fast! I'm also excited to say that Chef Michelle is going to let me come to her morning classes the last three weeks of class so I can sharpen my plate up skills and play with some of my recipe ideas! Thanks again to all of you that follow this blog!

I'll end this post with some pics of my latest work in cake block, enjoy! I'M SO EXCITED!

Cake and more Cake!

2009-03-03T11:30:00.000-08:00

Since my last update Cake block has begun! We're now on the third week of class and have already learn so much! We've made cocoa paintings, gum paste, and of course lots of yummy cake! So far cake block is treating me well, my art back ground has definitely come in handy. Its also a big help to be so familiar with the products and mediums we use because of my job. In fact the chef ask for price checks from me on a regular basis! While, I'm enjoying the chance to stretch my creative muscles, I am surprised to find that I miss the go go go pace of plated dessert block! It makes cake block seem like a break!

Other than school, work has been very exciting lately. The local cake club recently hosted a cake show that included all sorts of classes, competitions and vendors to show their stuff. My boss, Jennifer Bartos coordinated the whole thing which meant All In One Bake Shop was head quarters for information and supplies amongst other sponsors. Jennifer even arrange for food network stars Jaquey Phiffier, Nick Lodge, Elisa Strauss, and Brodwen Weber to come down and teach a few classes and judge competitors entries. It was one exciting show and very cool to be able to meet these amazing chefs in person. I was even lucky enough to be awarded another scholarship from the confectioners club to attend the Elisa Strauss Sculpted cake workshop! The Sculpted cake project was one of my favorite savory foods: Sushi! We learn so many tricks and secrets to rolling fondant, painting with food coloring and creating a realistic look in general. We made a sushi board, sushi, chop sticks, a soy sauce dish and shrimp! It was so much fun and Elisa was so down to earth and was such a wonderful teacher. If you would like to see some of her work check out her website at http://www.confetticakes.com/ . She is known around the world for her realistic sculpted cakes, books, and of course her appearances on the food network. I am so lucky to have had the chance to learn from such an accomplished person. Even though I am not currently leaning towards cakes as a concentration in my future career at this point it certainly was an appreciated and fun opportunity to learn. One that I hope I can use in the future!

Love n' stuff-

2009-02-15T13:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday-Valentines Day has many interpretations. For those of us that our single, the most popular views of this day are one of two things: a painful awareness of their current status or to simply agree with the hallmark marketing conspiracy the use of a Saint's horrible death as a boost in sales in the form of pink and red candies and squishy stuffed animals that have "I love you" written across plump bellies. Then there are those of us that considered a couple that see this day as either a chance to express their appreciation and love to one another or concur with the "hallmark holiday" angle.

What theory do I prescribe to? While the Hallmark crowd has a point, I would have to say this: Valentines day is a day that commemorates the death of a saint that performed marriages in secrecy against a King order forbidding marriages amongst his people until his son would consent to marriage. Saint Valentine risked his life believing God's work to unite those in marriage and therefore love was the higher calling than a Kings command. Love is a reflection of God and what we humans have to keep us going. While romantic love has been the interpretation of this saints work, I believe all forms of love should be celebrated and appreciated year round and enjoy the reminder February 14th brings every year. It is a remarkable choice that many cultures have chosen to recognize this day as one to appreciate the gift and privilege that love is one I think we all secretly enjoy - maybe even need at times. So to say it plain although I am single I neither despise nor ignore Valentines day but appreciate what is and what it can be.

Besides the latest holiday, I have been up to quite a few projects! I've been working on portfolios, going to career fairs, working, seeing old faces,meeting new ones and looking for my next opportunity in the culinary world. For those of you that do not know, my program is drawing to an end very soon. As of May I will begin the final step in my education with an externship. Where this externship will be- I do not know, but I have a few good leads and have begun talking to a few possible employers. There is one opportunity in particular I'm interested in but for now I'm not going to into great detail but ask for you to keep me in your prayers that I have an opportunity that will allow me to grow as a person and as a chef.

School itself has been quite exciting lately, I just finished the first advanced baking technique block known as plated desserts. It was a wonderful challenge to be both efficient and creative and I will miss the rush of the timed tests amongst others things! The next block starts Monday and is what many of us have been anxiously awaiting - Cake Block. Yes, this means the construction of wedding cakes and even some sculpted cake work that you see on the food network from time to time. I look forward to it and letting you know how goes!

May God give you all a week and grace and peace!

A welcomed New Year.

2009-01-10T10:37:00.000-08:00

A new year is upon us! I ended 2008 the way many did, surrounded by the familiarity of holiday aromas, traditions, and faces. Most of my break was spent celebrating Christmas, but I was also privileged to be a bridesmaid in my dearest and oldest friend's wedding-Holly Baker or now rather, Holly Tracy.Holly has always been a loyal and caring friend. God must have known I would need a friend like this, because she has always been such a source of inspiration to me and others for that matter. It was a beautiful wedding, and Holly was a radiant bride. The whole affair was very touching and a great reminder of how life has seems to drift by without the realization of its precious nature until moments such as these present themselves.

Shortly after the wedding, I returned to Austin refreshed and ready for the new challenges culinary school so willingly offered. The "offering" this time, being the most feared block thus far in my education- Restaurant block ( and believe me, I am not the only student that shivers at the mention of these words!). Restaurant block is "scary" because it is the first advanced block of the program in which students are expected to know procedures, methods, and use thier creativity. In addition, being efficient is a must and skill and speed become a factor in grading. While I was excited to finally allow my creative juices to flow, the intimidation of having mounds of culinary knowledge memorized and prepared for execution at the request of a master chef was swimming in my conscience. But the first day came and went with some reassurance that it would not be the mountain most of us were expecting but rather a steep mole hill.

Our Chef for this block, Chef Michelle , has been in the industry since she was in her late teens. She has worked for famous chefs such as Tom Colicchio , a well known chef and judge on the show "Top Chef". She has also worked in Chicago, New York and many other American Destination cities. Despite, her impressive resume, Chef Michelle is a very sincere and laid back Chef with a passion for food and helping others develop the same level of expectations for their own food. We all were are thankful to have such an experienced and willing teacher.

As Monday and Tuesday passed we prepared for the first "plate up" or test of the class. This first plate up had to consist of an infused custard dish, paired with at least two garnishes and perhaps an ice cream or sorbet depending on your choice of custard. Chef Michelle told us that this first test would allow her to see the level of sophistication our palates had and our creativity. I was shamelessly excited to prove myself worthy of the term "creative". For my dish I decided to create a refreshing combination of lemon mint infused Creme Brulee paired with a blueberry compote, some candied lemon zest, and finished with a honey tuile cookie. My dish turned out to be a strong one and Chef said I was very successful for my first plate up and had a good flavor combination! I was thrilled to do so well, and look forward to our next challenge - Chocolate Plate up!

So, with the first school week over, I have found that this year, 2009 has a lot of promise to it. I'm now down to 17 more weeks of classes and then I begin my externship where ever that may be! I have already started my search and have some good leads, but my hope is that my externship will be both an great experience as a chef and as a student of life. Please keep me in your prayers as I search for such an opportunity and to those of you that follow this blog I wish you a promising new year as well!

Custards and Chicago

2008-12-02T10:53:00.000-08:00

So, as many of you have probably noticed, life in culinary school has kept me pretty busy! Maybe posting more frequently will be my new years resolution. Anyways, I wanted to post some pics of my most recent block, custards! Custards include many different types of desserts that include dairy and/or egg products for example, ice cream or the upper crust favorite -Creme Brulee. We also made a wonderful layered dessert called a Bavarian which is a chilled gelatin set dessert with a sponge base, fruit gelee and finally a fruit coulis (or sauce). The following are some of my bigger successes:

I also had a wonderful opportunity last month to spend the Thanksgiving holidays with my Friends Travis and Erin in Chicago! It was a great break from the ordinary and to see some of the sights America has to offer. We went down to the lake the day after my arrival , and this ritzy neighborhood full of gingerbread houses. We also went to a local shopping area that was holding a tree lighting ceremony and was handing out free roasted chestnuts (which Erin and I both agree are not the best choice in legumes despite the Christmas songs) and hot chocolate. Some ice sculptors were helping set the holiday mood with there toy soldiers and train sculptors that were forming before the public's eye. The whole scenery could make the grumpiest of people glad that it is now the special time of year.In addition to all this, we ventured down town to check out some of the famous architecture Chicago is known for and went to a German Christmas festival where we dined of bratwurst and other traditional holiday favorites from the Fatherland.

The last two days of my visit we had a chance to try some of the local cuisine-Old Style Chicago red hots (or hot dogs) and of course deep dish pizza! It was a wonderful trip, I got to enjoy good sights, good food, and especially good friends all the things I'm thankful for!

Chicago was such a friendly city it even sent me away with a special parting gift- 6 inches of snow and a 5 hour flight delay. Don't get me wrong, I love the snow and I even enjoyed people watching at the airport, but I am glad to be back in Texas, if only I could have taken a little snow back with me!

Just "Bearly" Made It!

2008-10-19T19:31:00.000-07:00

So as you can tell from my lack of posting things have gotten pretty crazy! Two weekends ago my dear friends Linsday came to see me and we had a blast kayaking despite the crazy attacking geese and taking in the sights of Austin. That weekend was following by a busy week in class and work but ended nicely with a weekend in Lubbock. It was great to see all my friends and family and enjoy the cold weather for a change. Austin is still hitting the 80's so I welcomed the cool gray days that Lubbock had to offer. Although going home made me realize just how homesick I've been it was a great encouragement to see the people that care about me and their excitement for me as well.

Just before I left for Lubbock, my boss (at All in One Bake Shop) called me on friday afternoon with a great opportunity! A local group called Austin Cake Confectioners was flying in a Woman by the name of Loriane McKay from Scotland that is world famous for her edible sculptures and this group had a scholarship available for me to go to this work shope that would be the following friday!!! ( you can find videos of Mrs. McKay demos on youtube for those interested) Needless to say I was thrilled to take this opportunity! So after a great three day weekend in Lubbock and the completetion of Sweater Weather day (a mother -daughter holiday mom and I came up with when I was about 12)I headed back to a busy week in Austin. This week was particularlly busy because it was the end of my petit four block which meant a major project and final would be the upcoming friday (10/17) this also happened to be the day of the workshop that would last from 9am to 5pm and class starts at 5:30 and if you know anything about Austin getting from A to B in 30 minutes is almost impossible at this time so I was a bit nervous about how friday would play out.

The project I mentioned earlier was our biggest yet! We had to present a mock up petit four tray with descriptions of each item we had chosen to make for our final and why. On top of that we had to format this description paper as if we were writing to a client that was preparing for a banquet. This along with three days to prepare the 60 items (ten of each of the 6 items we had chosen) and a portfolio made this a very stressful week but I got through it with flying colors. I got an A on my project and Chef Emily said she really enjoyed the written portion of my paper, which is great coming from the chef responsible for the school newsletter club known as the Bleu Print. I also managed my time well enough to turn in my petit four tray 20 minutes before our time deadline and received an A on my tray as well!
I just realized that I have been telling you all about petit fours when some of you might not be familiar with the term. Allow me to explain: A petit four, which in French translates to little oven refers to pastry that is usually but not always sweet and is only one or two bites worth of food. There are many different kinds of petit fours including pecan diamonds which are a sweet pecan pie like treat and macaroons, an almond based cookie with a filling sandwiched in between two cookies. Needless to say they are delicious and beatiful to look at , but I think I have had my fill of them for a while!

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, I'm now writing an article for the school newsletter! I'm doing a review over a local restuarant called the Eastside cafe. Hopefully it will make the final cut and if it does you will be able to find the article at http://www.tca.edu/ by the end of next week! So cross your fingers for me.

Of course, I couldn't mention my great opportunity and not tell you how it went with my workshop Friday so here it goes! I arrived to the workshop on time, and met some very sweet people including Loriane and her husband ate free food and went to my final at 4:30 because we got out early .. the end.

OH OF COURSE THERE WAS MUCH MORE THAN THAT! I was teasing.. ;)

I have never really done sculpture work but I loved it! we did two projects that day a pair of wedding bears and single bear. The single bear was supposed to just be a bear holding a flower but I was having so much fun I ended up making a little chef bear! The instructor said I showed a lot of promise and couldn't believe I had never sculpted before and I told her I couldn't believe it either and if she needed an extern, I would work for free!

So this very busy week has come to pass and I passed with it in one piece thankfully. Monday we start laminated doughs which refers to breads like crossiants and puff pastry and I'm really looking forward to it. Thanks again to all that keep up with this blog, its was so encouraging seeing some of you this last weekend and your comments are always welcome and cherished. God bless!

BUSYYYYYYYY!

2008-09-27T19:02:00.000-07:00

Let me start off with an apology! Things have been very busy here but I'm finally able to update you on the happenings of culinary school and life in general. Last week was fast and furious, we were in the middle of bread block creating our own starters for sourdough breads and writing historical reports of the bread of our choice. I chose Challah bread (the photo on the right is a traditional star braided challah), a religious bread for the jewish faith that is traditionally eaten on Sabbath and special holidays. Most of you know this bread as the braided bread found in most bakeries. It represents the sacrificial bread that used to be offered to the priest by the commoners, but was later used in home ceramonies after some sometime in the fifthteenth century. The bread is never to be cut because this bread represents peace and harmony. Cutting the bread would represent warfare and bloodshed which would be inappropriate for such a sacred food. The bread has also come to represent the manna God gave the Jews while wondering in the desert after their exodus from Egypt. I really enjoyed reading up on this bread not only for the cultural and historical contributions it has made to the world, but to remember the importance of food in religion and how my soon to be profession help contribute to the memories of a peoples culture.
Needless to say, we sent a lot of time making these saymbolic breads. I also got a chance to make two very special cakes for my roommate Jennifer's sister Shelley. The cakes were for her Aggie Ring day and her suprise Engagement! I had a lot of fun working on them in the wee hours of the morning and I loved that I got a chance to help make her special day an edible memory!

When the weekend got here I finally got to partake in an activity I've been wanting to do since I moved here, I got to go to the down town farmers market! My friends Katy and Gemma accompanied me on this little adventure and although the market was small it was very entertaining. I purchased a fresh scone, locally made goat cheese and some Texas wild flowers amongst the general splender of local venders and knick knacks. I would highly recommend that anyone that has a chance to spend some time in a farmers market should. There is somehting about the simplicity of the whole atmosphere that makes you feel content with lifes little pleasures...like a good scone and boquet of wildflowers.

This week was just plain crazy! We finished up bread block with our usual written test, but we also had to present our bread portfolio and our own original recipe for a yeast bread. I really enjoyed this assignment because it gave me a chance to stretch my creative muscles. I Ended up making what I call a Wassail Bread with a Brown Sugar glaze! It turned out to be very festive and not to sweet just how I wanted it! Chef was also complimentary of my bread, which always makes a soon to be chefs day!I think makes a great companion to Apple Cider or hot tea and to close my entry this week the following is the recipe for my wassail bread and I hope you will enjoy it!

Wassail Bread

8oz Flour

1/4oz Dry Active Yeast

2oz Eggs

.8oz butter

3.2oz Apple Cider

.65oz Brown Sugar

.2oz Orange Zest

.2oz Shredded Apple

Pinch of Ground Cloves

1/4t Cinnamon

1/8t Nutmeg

.3oz Salt

Swirl: Glaze: One part Apple Cider, One part Dark Brown Sugar

Zest of one orange

2T of Cinnamon Sugar

1t ground red hots

Yield: 1 loaf

Instructions: Disslove Yeast in Apple Cider (Apple Cider should be warm but not hot!Combine all dry ingredients in mixer with dough hook attatchment ( or in large bowl). Add all wet ingredients; Apple Cider- Yeast mixture, eggs, orange zest, shredded apple, and butter to dry ingredients. Mix on medium speed for 10 minutes ( or knead). Dough should be wet nd sticky. Place dough in greased bowl and cover. Allow dough to double in size at room temperature. Once dough has doubled in size punch down and dust with flour to roll dough out to for a rectangle. After dough has been shaped brush with eggwash, then apply swirl ingredients: Orange zest, crushed red hots, and cinnamon sugar * Make sure to leave a clean edge around rectangles sides. Press swirl mixture lightly then roll dough tightly to form a log, pinch seam together and place dough seam side down in a greased loaf pan and allow to double in size.Meanwhile heat oven to 375 and prepare glaze in a sauce pan by combining apple cider and dark brown sugar and brown sugar has melted and glaze is hot. Take the glaze off heat and set aside. Once dough has risen, place in heated oven. Remove bread when top of bread is brown and makes a hollow sound when tapped on top. Remove from pan and immediately glaze. Cool slightly and then enjoy!

An "Ikey" Week

2008-09-14T21:03:00.001-07:00

Well another week has come and gone! I just finished our first week of bread block that included: ciabatta, focaccia, fougasse, milk bread, pizza, naan, pan de mie, pan de mais, and baguettes! I wasn't sure how I would feel about the bread block- so much of bread making is about being exact and having a good sense of time and attention to details, but I think over all my work speaks for itself and I have enjoyed the creativity of forming interesting shapes for the milk bread class (milk bread is basically a dinner roll dough, its very soft and tender.... mmmm). We also learned how to make yeast for breads this week! Oh yes I typed it..yeast making! It's a very interesting process that involves grapes, flour, water and lots of time.

Chef Cara went over the process of making yeast and told us that making yeast was like having a baby- we must feed it, love it, and take care of it. She then assigned our groups the task of naming our "babies". My partner and I named our yeast baby Kaisy Dimber, right now she is growing rapidly and smells like a mixture of wine and vomit... like parenting, no one said it was a pretty job but Chef assures us that it has its rewards!

We also had a bit of weather excitement with Hurricane Ike this week! Since Austin was at one point considered in the danger zone people began to prepare for the worst, grocery stores had no water or pop tarts, Austin ISD cancelled school for the afternoon on friday, evacuates were streaming in causing traffic to back up, and many places of business decided to close because of the drastic weather that was expected to hit Saturday. The 'drastic' weather we were expecting - power outtages, severe rain and wind turn out to be a cloudy day with a strong breeze. I find this a bit amusing, but it was a blessing that Austin was spared any severe weather. My heart does goes out to those in the Houston area and my prayers as well. May all of you have a safe and blessed week ahead!

2008-09-11T14:25:00.000-07:00

A few pictures from my first week in my bread block course I thought I would share! ENJOY!!

The End of The First Block!

2008-09-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

Already the end of my first course is complete! Baking 101 finished with a smashing exam this past friday! The practical was blueberry muffins and jellyrolls, both of which I received a perfect score on! Earlier in the week, we finally got to dabble in some cake work and chocolate ganache, both of which I got noticed for. Although being noticed for my technical skills was a great boost, I wish my writing skills were on the same level, btu they'll get there. But whoever said writing in chocolate was easy, if anyone has ever said that must have been a seasoned french chef and not an American that chooses lemon curd over chocolate most days.

Everything else is going great , my job is going very well and I'm making more friends with every class gone by!

P.S. The pics featured with this post are my chocolate chiffon cake!

P.P.S Thanks to all that are keeping up with my blog and all your encouraging comments!

Quick Audrey Update

2008-08-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

For the pet lovers out there that are curious about Audrey's adjustment to city life , she's doing great! Her house mate George an aussie cross is quite smitten with her and as you can see from the picture, Audrey always has a wink and a smile ready for George. They play, eat, and sleep together all day everyday. They even enjoy swimming together at the dog parks. So we're both getting along just fine!

The First Exam...

2008-08-30T16:01:00.000-07:00

Already another week has flown by- my roommates started back to school wednesday just as I was preparing for my first test in culinary school. Our first test like any other professional school consists of a written exam, but the difference for us is following the written exam we have a practical in which we make products that show our knowledge of the different methods chefs use in patisseries. This test covered sponge, creaming, and cut in method. These methods were demonstrated by producing not only edible but attractive almond macaroons, chocolate chip cookies, and buttermilk biscuits.

I was confident for the written portion of our exams and very at ease about the practical part. We had over three and a half hours to complete and present our products which aloud plenty of time to re-do products if necessary. As I said before I was not nervous about the exams, but the tension in the room was obvious especially for my younger classmates who just graduated from highschool. We were not allowed to talk or help anyone during any portion of the test which was difficult at times especially when I saw one of my friends chocolate chip cookie batches turn into something resembling a hockey puck, but a las I kept my mouth shut.

Over all the results for both my test were A's -a great confidence booster in deed! The next day we moved onto a very excited item called pate a choux, this is a french pastry that is cooked on the stove that is a save all in the kitchen. It can make appetizers , keep your mash potatoes creamy after freezing and thawing and is the base dough of eclairs and cream puffs. We made elcairs and swans (yes the bird) and filled them with chentilly cream and chocolate pastry cream. They were quite beautiful and I was disappointed that I have no pictures of my swans to share with you because my cameras battery died! I promise there will be plenty more photo opportunities for pastry swans to come! I did however manage to get some pictures of the scones, bicuits and quiche loraine we made earlier in the week that are featured above.

I also started my new job this week, and its just wonderful! The people I work at remind me so much of my days at my dads animal clinic and I'm catching on to the inventory system fast. My boss even gave me a free cake today that someone did not pick up. I wished I could have sent it directly to animal care clinic when I opened the box to discover a big sparklely pink pig cake! Donna Preston would have loved it just as much as my roommates love my work benefits!

So, pressing on and enjoying every minute of it!

The Safest Cookie

2008-08-24T20:49:00.000-07:00

WOW! It's hard to believe my first week of culinary school is already over! The first day of class like any, consisted of the usual hello's and short stories of peoples origins and explanations on their decision to come to culinary school including our Chef Instructor , Chef Cara who has an impressive resume that includes employers like Wolfgang Puck and the like. After the introductions were completed we dove into our first lesson on sanitation and running a clean opperation. This lesson continued for the first three days of class for all five hours of class and was happily ended on Thursday with an examination over our knowledge of running a clean kitchen ; and yes I passed the test so no worries with my food! You might be asking yourself what sanitation lessons at culinary school consist of, well basically sanition covers how to prevent and what causes food born illnesses. While this information is very necassary and perhaps a bit boring at times its also a little scary, not only are you learning about the causes of food borne illness but what it can cost you as a business owner. But of course the good always comes with some bad and thats that.
After our test Thursday night we finally got to sink our teeth (literally) into our first food course: knife skills. We had a demonstration by the talented Chef Jason on how to properly sharpen knifes, segment oranges, and chop onions. Chef Cara let us eat our oranges, which was a nice healthy alternative to all the free cheesecake and truffles we had been getting from the class next door.
I should probably mention at this point an interesting trading system at school:My class meets in the evening from 5:30 to 10:30 pm, there are of course both patisserie and culinary students that meet at this time so dinner isn't exactly an easy meal to come by. Some students pack snacks to eat during breaks but as most of us have learned dinner is not necessary if your patient. You see as patisserie students we make all the breads and sweet things that the culinary students want, while the culinary students make all the wonderful soups and meats we want. So classes trade off with eachother in a kind of bartering system so you can pretty much count on getting a decent meal every night! A good example of this would be Friday nights class. The patisserie students made peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies while the culinary students made french onion soup. Chef Cara was kind enough to provide us with some milk for the cookies and all the students had a good meal that night!
Our cookies were a big hit with the culinary students and our first taste of a real class. We watched Chef Cara demonstrate the proper method of making cookies , a particular method known as creaming method. After the demonstration,we went to work measuring ingredients by scale and mixing our cookie dough by hand. We also got a chance to practice our safety lessons by wearing latex gloves and cleaning the whole kitchen. The whole experience of Friday night, was very fast and fun- it helped re-emphasize that this was the right choice for me. So another week gone by and another to come!
On the job front I was incredibly blessed to get three job offers in the end! One was a tutoring job at school, another was an office assistant at school and the final job offer was
a sales associate position in a professional supply bake shop in Austin. I ended up taking the job as the sales associate at the bake shop and I couldn't be happier about it! I get benefits like a 25% discount on any merchandise, free classes on cake decorating ( yes my school will cover cake decorating as well but I can get extra practice and more detailed instruction in this field this way), and free lunch on Saturdays! The owners are a husband and wife team and very sweet people. In fact some of you that are familiar with the food network challanges and know of Brodwin Weber (the Gingerbread challange winner) might have seen my boss on the foodnetwork with brodwin. My boss was her assistant at the gingerbread challange you see and they are very close friends in addition to that! Work starts tomorrow and I'm very excited to see whats in store for me. My job will basically consist of me helping customers, knowing what to recommend, and the like. Everything else is coming up roses and I continue to enjoy getting to know my new roommates and city immensely. Stay tuned!

Hello Austin

2008-08-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Well, its been quite the marathon the last few days! After FINALLY graduating from A&M my family and I moved my belongings to Austin Texas August 9th. Since then, I have been a busy girl searching for jobs, going to a couple of interviews, organizing my stuff, and going to orientation for school. I've also managed to experience some of Austins sights in between everything. My new roommate stephanie and I took the dogs, George and Audrey (Audrey is my golden) to the dog park downtown where we witness Audrey's first attempts at deep water and swimming on monday. May I just say, as a proud mom that she's a natural! I just wish she would have stopped stealing balls the from other dogs that were swimming with her, but I guess thats just part of motherhood, proud one moment and embarassed the next! We also went to a well known restuarant called Magnolia- very good by the way, try the pot stickers next time your in town! Thursday, my other roommate Jen and I went to IKEA to pick up a few things for the house. I have never been able to actually go to an Ikea until I moved here so this was an excited moment for me! Although its an easy place to get lost in!
Oh! Did I mention I'm sharing a house with three other girls?! Well I am and their names are Jen, Krista, and Stephanie for future reference!
As far as my job search goes I have had two interviews so far. Both interviews were for jobs at my school one as a tutor and the other as a customer service representitive. Both jobs have there perks and though I have not received any concrete information on either job I feel confident that my interviews made a good impression.
And now for the best part... ORIENTATION! It was so much fun! They served us hors d'oeuvre and iced tea during the vice presidents welcome speech and the orientation presentation. This was followed by a group quiz that awarded prizes for correct answers;I won a TCA pendant. After the informational part of orientation was over we were sent to several stations to collect our books,supplies, and uniforms. For those of you that are familiar with the kitchen, this might not suprise but my tool kit (which I was expecting to be the size of a brief case) was the size a weekend trip suitcase! I have over 50 items in my kit! You talk about Christmas in July, move it to August for me! My uniform looks very sharp and even includes a pair of non-slip black shoes.

Side note: We can not wear any jewelry, perfume, or nail polish! It all makes since to me, but I was a bit suprised at nail polish to tell you the truth.

So as you can imagine I'm getting excited and a little nervous about monday, my first day of school! I can't wait to see what challanges are in store for me. On a personal note, I'm adjusting well here and finding much needed peace and serenity to make this transition easier. I was expecting this first week to be a hard one but God has blessed me with peace and a chance to get things started on a positive note. Thank you all for your on going support and prayers! Please keep me in mind this next week and pray that I receive some good news on the job front. May grace and peace be with you this week.

Let Me Introduce Myself

2008-08-02T12:42:00.000-07:00

I'm new to the blogging experience so forgive me if my first post is lacking! Let me begin by telling you a little about myself and what I hope this blog will accomplish. My name is Kimber ( I used to go by Kim so for those of you that know me , yes your reading the correct blog!). As of August 8th I will be a recent graduate of Texas A&M University with a major in History and minor in Anthropology. During my time at A&M I was priveledged to meet so many influentical people and gain new experiences that helped mold me into the person I am today. I believe going to Texas A&M was one of many good decisions in my life and has helped influence my next move in education- to pursue a career as a pastry chef. So, as a walk across the stage of Reed Arena to close one chapter of my educational career, I will be starting another as a student at Texas Culinary Academy in Austin, Tx.
The program I will be participating in, is the baking and patisserie program. It will last for about one full calendar year and is broken into two parts. The first part is nine months and will be mainly classroom and lab (aka kitchen) work. The second part is a three month externship which is basically an apprenticeship with an established chef. My classes have titles such as : "Sugar work", "Chocolate", and "breads" to give you an idea of what I'll be learning about. I'm hoping to post weekly updates about what I'm learning, who I'm meeting, what I'm making, and life in Austin. I'll try to include pictures as often as can as well as posting information about upcoming events at my school that are open to the public such as the chili cookoff in November and the Gingerbread competition in December.
I hope that this blog will be entertaining for those of you that are curious about what I'm doing and informative about the world behind the stove so to speak. Let me also say thank you to all that have supported and prayed for me over the years about this decision and many others!