Day 74

I finished my goomba today and started on the food for my buffet.  I got everything on my checklist for the day done, which is nice.  I am feeling very time-pressured and lack the energy to meet it.  While I'm excited about the buffet project (I LOVE projects!),  I think the whole menu project just took too much out of me.  I need a break and to recharge.  It's almost over though, this is our last week of class....

I started by candying fruit today.  Just a note, it's WAY better to candy whole slices and cut them into the size and shape you need them afterward than to cut them first....

It's a long process involving 4 pots...3 of boiling water for blanching and the last one on the right is full of simple syrup to simmer the fruit at the end

I candied the oranges in the cherry-brandy liquid that I made.  Hope they turn out!

They turned out pretty, anyway.  The one on the bottom I've already rolled in sugar

I still have to put my pastillage hills together and make my sugar piece but here's my goomba...

This is right out of the mold.  I could leave him like this and it would be fine....

But I felt cutting him out into his true pixelated form was more fun :-)

Day 73

I was able to finish my chocolate piece today and Mr. Goomba is drying nicely.  I'll take him out on Monday and see what he looks like!

In the mean time, I started on my sugar piece but that didn't work out so well (I tried twice before feeling like I was wasting my time and deciding to come back to it later).  Just to get something done, I decided to paint my pastillage with food coloring...

I will put them all together at the end of next week.

One of the pieces broke as I was sanding down the rough edges but I think I can get it back together without too much trouble. Cross your fingers!

Day 72

Now that my pastillage is drying, it was time to start my next project....Chocolate!

Since my theme is Super Mario, I chose to do a goomba for my chocolate piece.

Here he is before chocolating (my printer is running out of ink).  He's all reversed and taped down

I ran out of time before I could finish the white bit but here's most of it traced in chocolate. 

Keep in mind that what you're seeing will be covered up by a block of chocolate and the part that's actually facing the plastic will be the end result.

It's going to be a fun piece I think.  I am excited to see it done. :-)

Day 71

I got my pastillage done today!  Well, at least as done as I could today.  I have to wait on it to dry (possibly done by tomorrow) and then I have to paint it and put it all together but that's the easy part!

Here's what I've got so far:

These will be the background for my display, they're the hills from Super Mario!!  

The only thing is, I did run out of pastillage before I made the brace to make it stand up, so I will either have to make some more or use some of someone else's if they have extra.  In the mean time, I am going to do my chocolate piece tomorrow and hopefully start my sugar piece.  I would like to have all of my showpieces done this week so that I can spend all of next week making the food for the buffet.

Day 70

OMG I was completely useless today.  My brain is just fried after last night and the lack of sleep certainly hasn't helped!  I was supposed to start on my showpieces for my next project, the buffet project, which is due next Friday (the 13th) but since I really didn't have any idea what I wanted to do, I spent all day in the computer lab trying to plan out what exactly the food on the buffet would be.

The term "buffet" is a little misleading in this instance since it's really just a tray full of small items and 3 show pieces.  So here are the Terms and Conditions:

I have to have a minimum of 27 pieces of food on the buffet.  3 categories, 3 items from each and 3 pieces of each item. Confused yet?  So the first category is pastries, which encompasses a lot but the most important factor is that each item must be 3-6 bites.  This includes tartlets, cream puffs, puff pastry, etc.  The second is petit fours which need to be 2-3 bites and is also pretty well anything; cookies, small cakes, etc.  The last category should be 1-2 bites and is candies and accessories; filled chocolates, truffles, jellies, I could go on... I've pretty well designed my menu for it and, once again, it has a theme. Liquor! Because who doesn't like BOOZE??

The showpieces will be a bit more difficult.  There have to be 3 of them, one a minimum of 6"w x 10"t and the other two have to be at least 3"w x 5"t.  I have to make one of them out of pastillage, kind of like a clay that will dry hard, one out of chocolate and one out of sugar.  The sugar piece itself has to have 3 elements, a cast piece (pouring liquid sugar into a mold to set), a pulled sugar piece and a blown piece (kind of like blown glass).  I was becoming very frustrated because everything I came up with kept getting shot down by finding out more about the requirements for the pieces so tonight, when I got home, Vince helped me come up with a new plan.  MARIO! YAYYYY!  I am excited about it and will start on it tomorrow. :-D

Oh!  In all the excitement yesterday, I forgot to mention that I got a call from Pix and they offered me the position as an extern.  I haven't called back (I just haven't had time) but I am going to let her know that I appreciate it and I am definitely considering it but that I'd like to keep my options open for a little while longer.  I am still not a big fan of the idea of doing everything in the microwave.  I'm going to spend some time this weekend exploring other places and see what I can find.

Day 69--Menu Project Day!

Today was Cuh-raaaaaay-zeee.  I cannot tell you how glad I am that it's over!  I'm super exhausted and I've only had a few hours of sleep in the last few days.  That being said, things went very well.

We basically had 3 hours to prep in the kitchen today, an hour to get everything we needed together/finish things and then it was go time.  We had 15 minutes to plate 2 desserts (I know it doesn't sound like much but when you're super nervous and shaky and forgot to draw your stupid diagrams, the time goes FAST).  So at 6:45pm we started plating the plate going out for service (which was my pastry) and one of the other 3 of our choosing.  At 7:00pm, while Chef was evaluating the ones we'd finished, we started plating another of the service plates for our classmates to evaluate and one of the remaining two.  At 7:15pm, we plated the last dessert.  It was a nerve-wracking but somewhat enjoyable process and I feel pretty proud of what I did.

If you remember, my connecting element was ginger between all the plates but I challenged myself to introduce it in new ways each time.  First up was my custard.

Dream A Little Dream

Orange dreamsicle cheesecake topped with vanilla buttercream and a candied orange slice dipped in ginger sugar, garnished with ginger creme anglaise.

Next was my chocolate piece:

The Number 42

(because chocolate is the answer)

A layer of Devil's Food Cake, topped with ginger chocolate mousse, wrapped in a tempered chocolate band and garnished with white chocolate, chocolate sauce and raspberry coulis.

My fruit dish:

Princess Peach

White peach slices coated in ginger sugar lining a caramel batter bowl and filled with raspberry curd.  Garnished with ginger creme anglaise and raspberry coulis.

And last but certainly not least, my service plate and what I hope will be one of the signature dishes of *nom*:

The iTart

A triple ginger cookie crust filled with thinly-sliced apples and brandied cherries, topped with crumble topping and served with vanilla bean ice cream in a caramel bowl, garnished with caramel sauce and the cherry brandy juice cooked down into a sauce.

It was definitely a learning experience and there are a few things I would change but over all I am happy.  And glad it's done.  So very glad.  My scores on my plates were decent two 17's and two 18's out of 20.  I won't know my full project scores until Thursday since there are two more groups yet to go.  

The best part?  I have fabulous friends!  I had 8 people come out to support me and it was wonderful!  I could feel the love all the way in the kitchen. 

Up front is Liza, I've known her since we were little and it was her birthday!  <3

From the back left, Brandon (who I had not met in person, he's another hotel vampire like me), Chanelle in the back right, Victoria next to her, then Roy, then Gloria and Matt.  And of course, front left, my lovely friend Vincent, who I could not have done this without (at least not as sanely as I did).

Thank you again to everyone who came, it means so much to me and I am really happy I got to share this with all of you. <3 <3 <3!!!

Sunday-Prep Day

I have now basically spent every waking moment (that I'm not at work) at school since Thursday.  I did run some errands on Friday and Saturday morning but I'll say more about that later.  

I got a couple of pictures of my prep work today as I spent 10 hours in the kitchen trying to get ready for tomorrow.  I still am not where I'd like to be but I feel much better.  Poor Vince has had to bring me down a couple of times in the past couple of days when I got too agitated.  I pretty much had a panic attack last night before work.  <3's to him!

I made candied oranges dipped in ginger sugar....SO TASTY!  These are for my custard dessert

These are for my service plate. :-D

So here's some interesting news!  Friday I went to an interview at a restaurant for my externship, only to discover when I got there that the pastry chef that I talked to Wednesday to set up the interview had either been fired or quit the day before...so...yay.  I called the coordinator at school and left a message but I don't know what will happen with it.  Saturday, after getting up far too early to drive out to BFE to run an errand, I went to a working interview at Pix Patisserie.  They had me make caramel ganache and I think it came out ok.  I feel pretty good about it.  I had fun but I'm not sure it's the place for me.  They don't really have a real kitchen.  There's no stove, just a microwave and basically a two-burner hotplate. Also, they listen to NPR all day and I'm not sure I could take it (sorry Mom).  Anyway, we'll see.  Trying to keep my options open until I HAVE to make a decision.  I don't want to get stuck somewhere I won't be happy with. 

Wish me luck tomorrow.