Home, Sweet Home

It's been one month since graduation. What a month it has been! I graduated and left Chicago within about 24 hours. Not that I didn't love living in the city, but I had enough city living. I was so ready to sleep in my bed, drive my car and cook in a kitchen comprised of more than three cabinets and a mini-stove. I'll admit that I just unpacked the last box from the move this weekend. It has taken us a while to settle back into living with another person, but I think we got it figured out.

Christmas was the next big event and it was a good one! I received some great cook books, kitchen tools and clothes. We watched Elf on Christmas Eve and I went to midnight mass (at 9) with my mom. Christmas Day, the hubby and I spent the morning together, but traveled to my parents' for lunch and his parents' for dinner. It was a wonderful day, but I hope next year I'm more in the holiday mindset. With graduation and moving, the holidays weren't so much on my radar.

The best Christmas gift we got each other is our dog! The hubby and I decided to only spend $35 on stocking stuffers and then together, get a pet. We went to the Humane Society the week before Christmas and fell in love with a dog, Jax, that turned out to be not other-dog friendly. It was a hard decision to not adopt him because he was so sweet with us. But it wasn't meant to be. Indie was meant to be! On Monday, 12/27 we went to meet him and within 5 minutes we knew he was the pup for us. We picked him up on Tuesday after readying the house and ourselves and he has made himself at home in the apartment and in our hearts. He's a lover- loves to be in right next to you, cuddled and petted. We are his third home and he's bonded to us pretty well in the three weeks he's been with us. We love having him around, even when it is bitterly cold and he needs to pee.

Then it was the end of the year, my birthday on New Year's Eve. I had a great 26th birthday. Hubby gave me some very warm socks for walking the dog and cute magnets. We got all dolled up and headed to my parents' for drinks with them and my aunt and uncle. Sadly, my grandma's travel plans were foiled by the weather and she wasn't able to join us. They headed to dinner downtown and we met up with my best friend and her fiance. I wanted nachos and beer, so in my finest dress, we went to the local taco hut and got exactly that. I was disappointed in the nachos. Limp chips and the flavor wasn't awesome. I did have Oreo ice cream cake to look forward to, though. And was it ever delicious. We played games, drank champagne and watched the ball drop. Another year behind us- 2010- the most eventful year in my short life: I got married, went on a great honeymoon, transitioned back to school to follow my pastry dream, lived apart from my new husband, graduated with honors, got a dog and turned 26. Phew! What a year!

The week after my birthday, the hubby was back to work and I went to a second, working (paid!) interview for a job I really wanted. I GOT THE JOB! I started that Thursday and have hit the ground running. I am essentially the pastry lady and I have a lot of creative freedom. I do report to the Executive Chef, but he is okay with new recipes and products, and doesn't mind tasting! It is such a relief to be employed. I was getting worried that I didn't have a job lined up or many interviews before graduation. Again, it was meant to be with this job. I had to wait to get the right one. I like the people I work with, especially the Sous Chef. She is a strong woman who knows her craft really well. She's new to Madison, so it is fun to share my love for this city with her.

It has been quite a month. This past week I finally felt at "home". We did a bunch of home projects: hubby build another shelf in our laundry/baking room so I could settle in there. I finally went through my closet and the last boxes from the move and put things away, we put together a bed for our spare room for hubby's brother to stay with us, re-arranged furniture in our living space, got some lamps for our room (we are sorely lacking overhead lighting in this place), and re-organized the kitchen so it made more sense. As I look around, I can see a few more things to do, but it feels great to have done so much to make this house into a home.

Submitted

So, I tried out a recipe that failed last week, prompting the last entry. I thought about it over the long weekend and decided NOT to compete. Then, on the L traveling towards home after dropping hubby off at the bus for Madison, I had a brainstorm. I went past home to the grocery store, picked up a few things and rushed home to try it out.

Overall, it worked. I needed to tweak some recipes here and there, but I got the picture taken- most important part. Then Chef J came to class and told us to keep it French, vague and talk to him or Chef E for pointers. Hrm. Of those, my recipe is vague. Not French and I didn't consult with either chef. Oh well, what's done is done.

I just clicked submit. What's done is done. I'm not in this one to win, just to submit. Maybe they'll like it. Most likely they won't. C'est la vie.

Last day at Starbucks tomorrow. I'm kind of indifferent about it- happy not to work, will miss some of my co-workers, free drinks, discount. Work adds a routine to my life that I kind of like. Cross your fingers I can find something before or right after graduation in Madison!

compete or not?

i haven't posted in almost two months. it's been busy around here! more on that later, but for now, i'm contemplating chocolate. more specifically, entering a chocolate competition.

it's due on 11/30. i've been thinking of entering since i heard about it in september, rolling ideas around in my head. i finally settled on something and have been trying it out over the past couple days. i'm not happy with it. all the components, in theory, should work together, but they just aren't. i'm sorely missing all the awesome equipment we have at school and piece-mealing together tools. ugh.

so, do i throw in the towel or give it another go? 8 days and counting, with travel and a major holiday in the middle, is it worth it?

I forgot my brain

Ugh. Exams are going a lot worse this time around. I don't know what it is- less confidence in the topics/products, more confident in the exam process, more products, being less emotionally invested- or a combination of all of those- but I feel terrible about these exams.

Today was worse than yesterday. It started out rough- I forgot to do the base temperature for my bread, but didn't realize it until it was mixed and resting. My partner proceeded with hers and I needed to get some mini tart shells done- had to put bread off another 45 minutes. The tart dough was giving me hell and the temperature in our classroom was climbing. My financiers were crowded in the middle of a flexipan and didn't bake evenly or get the color they needed (=points off). I forgot a small, yet important detail when sheeting my croissant dough and it turned into a blob. This made my croissants look a little lopsided. At the end of the day, my large tart dough was either so soft that I couldn't pick it up or so hard it was cracking. I was so frustrated with myself all day for making so many mistakes. I still am frustrated, but what can I do? Like Chef JP said, it's better that we bomb at school than in a real job. This is the time to make mistakes. I just have a hard time with not doing my best.

The one thing that went well is I got my salambos done. I piped my pate a choux yesterday, so today I made some very smooth pastry cream and good dry caramel, both of which helped the final product. I am still concerned that my pate a choux weren't perfectly piped, but I stuck to my gut and didn't remake them. I turned them in and I noticed that the chefs ate at least 2! That's a good sign, right? I've had a couple myself and will have a few more in a bit.

Tomorrow should, er- will, be better. I have less to finish up, so I can spend more time doing what I need to do, which will hopefully result in good products. I need to make my plan for tomorrow and get some sleep. I hope that tomorrow goes better than the last two days, but more than that, I just want tomorrow to be over. I'm sticking around Chicago this weekend and have lots of things I want to accomplish/experience. *BIG sigh* Thanks for tuning in. I hope to post more about what's been happening for the last couple of weeks.

And the results are in...

A quick update: I passed my exams last week! And I did pretty well too! :) I'm very happy with my score and agree with a lot of the comments made about my products and process.

And we're on to breads and breakfast pastries this week and next. So far this week, we've made toast bread, brioche dough by hand (this is a messy endeavor), lemon pound cake, blueberry muffins, yummy almond brioche bites, Nanterre (a brioche specialty), whole wheat bread, French bread, and started croissants and beignets. Our new chef instructor is very charming; he is very knowledgeable, invested and personable.

I bought some Nutella when grocery shopping this morning. BEST. IDEA. EVER. It was fantastic on the semi-warm French bread when I got home today. Don't worry Mom and Kyle, I did eat a real dinner, complete with a green vegetable. Plus some bread. LOTS of bread. And I put three loaves in the freezer, on top of the two from yesterday and an assortment of breakfast pastries. Guess what?! That'll all come home with me next weekend! YAY!

Time for bed. Still contemplating volunteering at school in the morning or spending some more time on my resume, timing the bike ride to work to get my schedule for next week, and clean up my place a little bit. What to do, what to do? :)

Intrigued

Enough about Starbucks. Let's chat about school & life, shall we?

I finished up the two-week wedding cakes class on Friday with a traditional French wedding cake, the croquembouche. Wonderfully labor intensive and beautiful, it was one of my favorite things we've made so far. However, thanks to the near 100% humidity, it was in a pile on the floor less than 12 hours after it was completed. Bummer. I did get some pics before it crashed, thankfully. Hope to post soon.

PIE HOLE was in town this weekend and we had a blast. I rode the CTA orange line for the first time out to Midway with Kyle to pick her up on Saturday afternoon. We made our way back to my hood, Edgewater, and then went to Calo in Andersonville for dinner. A-MAZ-ING. I would totally go back! We waddled home, rented a movie (Bounty Hunter), and then helped Kyle pack up and sent him home to Madison. Seriously, my place is only big enough for two to sleep. I was sad to see him go, but happy to have some girly time with my PIE. I also have exams this week, so I will either be studying or sleeping or working or at school, which makes for a lot of boring alone time for my hubby. Anyway... PIE and I didn't get 2/3 of the way through the movie before we were both snoozing- not because it was bad, but we were so tired! Movie off and we hit the hay- without an alarm set for morning.

We woke up around 8:30am, which was glorious! I had the day off from work, also wonderful so PIE and I had the whole day in front of us. We mozied about, got ready and were out the door around 10. Our first destination was Ann Sather, a local, popular Swedish breakfast/lunch spot famous for their cinnamon rolls. They were HUGE and good, but not as good as the best I've ever had (my mom's). We also had fruit and eggs to balance out the sugary carbs. It was so nice to linger over coffee and catch up about life. I value PIE so much and miss being able to see her often.

Shedd Aquarium was our next destination. When we got there, the line was a million miles long (or so it felt), but thankfully I planned to become a member and we zoomed right in. We got there around 12:30pm, took in a few of the exhibits and the Fantasea show at 2, and then Sam, a friend from college joined us. Some lady gave her tickets for the 4-D Planet Earth show at 3, so we saw that. And then everything again. We were there until it closed at 6! The three of us came back to my apartment. They went to the beach while I studied and did some laundry. And chatted with my mom <3 Sam headed back to Oak Park and PIE and I heated up some leftovers from Saturday night, made some broccoli and enjoyed dinner. And finished our movie. Then it was time for bed. She got up and left the apartment around 6 this morning, just as I was getting up for work. Sad, but not too sad because I'll see her on Saturday for Sarah's wedding!

Today, work was work-y and went by quick. I headed down to school and today was our first Master Demo. Chef J, one of the founders and co-owners of the school, spent 6 hours assembling a gorgeous sugar showpiece, talking us through it the whole way. It was hard to sit through six hours since we were all so used to being so active in the kitchen, but it was okay because we had chairs! With backs! And cushions! I am so intrigued by sugar work. When I started school, I put sugar showpieces at the top of my Most Scared Of/Intimidated By List. Now, though, I can't wait to do it! All the techniques he showed us were interesting and the products were fantastic. I hope I like it this much after I learn how to do it!

I'm off to bed to get up at 3:30am to schlep coffee for the masses. Nighty night!

Ridiculous

This incident is RIDICULOUS! As a Starbucks barista, I have two thoughts. First, I ask each customer if they would like cream cheese or butter with the bagel they order, and if they want it toasted or not (unless they beat me to it). They don't have exactly say, "I want/don't want butter or cheese," for me to finish their order. A simple YES or NO suffices. The barista was out of line. However, so was the customer. Brings me to my second thought, which relates to the first. The customer could have simply answered "Yes," or "No," and avoided the whole thing. YES and NO are correct and polite English, Ms. English Professor. She could have just gone to any of the other hundred bagel shops in NEW YORK CITY. Sheesh.