What a shit day.

Blurg. 

 My goodness today was a rough day. It must be because it's Halloween - oh! Happy Halloween! I hope all those going Trick-or-Treating have a wonderful time! And those who are too old, enjoy stealing your childs candy while they are sleeping. 

As I was saying, today.was.rough. Remember how I said I was getting sick of making the same cakes and mousses? And I wanted to do something new? ...... I'm stupid. I take it back. 

 Today he gave us Vanilla caramels. We had to make caramel that would need to be piped in to moulds. I needed help with my dry caramelization because the sugar browned before it was even dissolved. Take it off the heat and stir it. Any time it gets dark to quick just take it off the heat. Seems logical enough, I still needed Chef to tell me that though. Then we added our hot cream. I told sara to add it to quickly and then the caramel seized. Chef tried to fix it, but we couldn't get it to remelt. So we ran what we could through the chinois and managed to save the majority of it. 

 Then came time for making the chocolate moulds. We saw a brand new lip mould and thought it was very cool! We are going to do that and rock it! Oh we rocked it, we hit rock fucking bottom. Melt chocolate, temper it by hand, pour over moulds, tap tap tap, dump out, scrape. Done! 

 Now, I should mention the last time I did this I was in the chocolate room which is air conditioned. This time we were working in the lab (the chocolate room was full)  It was much warmer in there. Last time I did these in the chocolate room I was not quick enough and it set very quickly and I had no space to put any caramel and had to start over. This time I was working too fast and it didn't set enough and we  had shells that were thinner than tissue paper. Chef said to start again. No biggy. I was mad, but willing to try again. 

 So we get all the chocolate out and melt it down again and temper it by hand. This time Sara trys the mould. She gets it done and we put it in the fridge. We got it! We left it in the fridge a little to long and Chef calls us on it. The chocolate is way to cold. We screwed it up - again. Then he looks it over  again and says "why is there so much crap on the top of this?" - Blank stare. We didn't fully scrape the top of the mould. He attempts to save it but when he scrapes the top the inside of the moulds break. CHRIST! Start over. AGAIN! Chef said "okay, try three we are going to do it together." Thank god. Chef to the rescue. 

 We scrape all the chocolate back in to the bowl and I start to melt it down. Apparently the flames were to large and I ended up scorching the chocolate. DONE! Can't hold back the tears and frustration anymore. I just walk out of class and to the bathroom to cry. Reading this, it might not sound likes its a big deal..or very time consuming. At this point it was 9:30 and we had been doing this and accomplishing nothing for 2 hours. 

 The girls bathroom is always a good place to meet nice women who have also cried in there and can sympathize. I had a lovely girl that was in welding or automotive ask if I was okay and chat with me for a bit. Then a girl from the boulanger program that I have come to like, gave me a hug and talked me through it.  Sometimes you just need to cry, let it out and go back to work. So I went back to class to help Sara with the chocolate. 

 At this point I have lost all my confidence in doing chocolate moulds. Chef saw my red eyes and asked if I was okay. I said "Yeah, I just had a moment..I'm okay." he replied with "Its okay ashley, you are still learning. no big deal."  What a relief. He has yet to yell at me, which I'm okay with. 

 In the end Chef ended up doing our mould for us. We just filled them and put it in the fridge. Pathetic. He said "I think we are going to put the chocolate away for now and you two can work on some pulled sugar." "*sigh* Thank you." It is now 10:05 and we have done one chocolate mould. 2.5 hours....

 Break time. Where I learned EVERYONE in the class was having a rough day. No ones day was smooth sailing. Dropping cakes, burning, spilling, chocolate disasters. You could see it on Chef face as well. He was going to blow his lid. I find it worse when he just walks away with this pissed off look and his face in his hands. Him yelling is scary, but I find the quiet worse. Bad bad day. 

 Back to class where Sara and I were given the task of pulling sugar and making leaves! We used isomalt and melted it down to 158 degrees - EXACTLY. Then we poured it out on our silpats and worked the edges in to the middle until it was "cool" enough to pull. By "cool" I mean just slightly warmer than lava. My hands looks like they are sun burnt and feel like it too. So, you stretch it out and wave it up and down to get air in to it, then pull it down on itself and repeat. Once its nice and glossy and beautiful you cut it in two and grab a heat lamp. This was my first time working under one of these and they are no joke. Very very hot. I absolutely loved doing this. Possible candy maker? hmmmm. Definitely not a chocolatier. 

 We made leaves and vines and I really want to do more! It hurt - a lot - but I want to do it again! I might just have to wait a few days until my hands heal. Very excited about this stuff though! 

 Chef called it a day and I was so ready to just split and come home. I had a horrible headache. Luckily Davin is home tonight and making me some dinner right now. So lucky. 

Tomorrow will be a better day. It has to be, right? Please god let it be. 

 OH! hehe on our way out of the kitchen area we walked past the Boulanger lab and heard them yell at us. They filled our bellies with wonderful goodness. God love them. I got a cream puff swan! mmm. The good thing about working with pretty well all women, when upset, someone is always there with cake or chocolate to make you feel better! lol. 

 

haha LIPS! first failed attempt. 

success. finally. 

Once we cover these with red shimmer powder they will look amazing! 

Dark green is mine, bright green is Sara. 

Time to pull some sugar! 

Our leaves and spiral vines

I love them. Not bad for my first attempt! 

My "feel better" swan. 

Delish!! 

Never.ending.chocolate

HELLO!!

 Today was more chocolate! For this week all sara and I have been doing is making cakes and mousse. I'm ready to try making something new. Some people were pulling sugar today - I was so jealous. This is something I have been looking forward to forever! I think Chef saw my sad puppy dog eyes staring at him and he said "You guys will do it tomorrow.." YIPPIE!
 I will be reminding him multiple times tomorrow of his promise.

 Today we finished our tia maria cake, well we put it together in the ring mould. We also made these long meringue tubes that we will be putting on to the cake. I think its going to look really neat!

 Every time we made a mousse or cream Chef would walk by and taste it (How he's skinny, I will never know. I look at it and my ass grows.) He asked us if we have tried it and I say "..nooo" "What!? why? whats wrong with you?" "Well, Its called 'I'm getting fat'" "I see. But its so worth it." He's right. It is. So I tried my cream. I really should be trying everything I make, thats the name of the game. When its 830 in the morning and you're eating chocolate or mousse or cake it feels wrong lol.

 We did get to make some chocolate rings that we filled with mousse. You cut these strips of acetate paper that has cocoa butter designs on it, then spread tempered chocolate on to it and shape it, let it dry, then peel off the paper and the design is transferred on to your chocolate. So we put these in to little tubes, cut chocolate bases and filled them with mousse. When we are ready for them we will be filling the rest with fruit. They will look beautiful!

 I am so excited for this event. I hope we raise enough money for the north wood nursing home. Its for such a good cause.

 That was pretty much my day. Came home and napped. I fell asleep sitting up in my chair until my friend texted me and I woke up.. I can seriously fall asleep anywhere at anytime. Its a gift. I will never be sleepy!

No pictures today. Things are to busy and we have yet to fully finish a product. Its all parts and components right now. I see lots of pictures this weekend!

Have a great evening you beautiful people.

chocolate affaire week!

I love chicken salad.

I mean, HI!

 So! This week is very exciting! We are preparing for Chocolate Affaire. We met Chef in the lecture theatre where he gave us "handouts" - I would call it a small book. The recipes alone are 24 pages. The class is split up in to two teams of 12 and then within those teams we get grouped in teams of 2. I'm working with Sara! If she doesn't kill me before the end of the week I will be surprised. I tend to take over and boss people around lol. I'm a natural born "leader"...or a control freak. Lets go with leader. Sounds better.

 I got very upset today. I left my chef hat in the Lab while we were in the lecture hall, and when I came back it was gone. Who in the hell steals someones hat? I am still very bitter about it. I'm going to start tying strings to all my stuff, people can't be trusted. I finally got my spatula back today that went missing a month and a half ago. Even though my name is carved into my tools someone still took it and marked it as their own. Drives me absolutely crazy. If something doesn't have my name on it, I don't take it. What a concept eh?

 Every time I look through my booklet of recipes my Christmas baking list gets longer! So exciting to have so many things to practice. The only things that are annoying is when you have a recipe within a recipe. When you need to make for example a Chocolate Tia Maria Cream. You need anglaise to go in to the cream. So before you can even make the cream you need to make an anglaise. Doable, but adds some time on to something that is other wise pretty straight forward.

 We made Chocolate Tia Maria. Which includes a sachet sponge and chocolate Tia Maria cream. Can't wait to put that one together tomorrow!

 We also made a Rougeur! I looooooooove this thing. First we made a dacquoise. Its essentially ground almonds mixed with meringue and piped in a spiral circle and baked. It comes out nice and golden brown and chewy. amazing. To get a chewy meringue you need to have equal parts sugar to egg whites. To get a crispy meringue you need more sugar than egg whites. Learning is fun! :P

 Then we made the "Glacage." Now I don't know if this is a typo..or if its French. But its a glaze. Its an amazing raspberry thingy that we will be pouring on the top of this little Rougeur creation.
 Next we made a white chocolate and raspberry mousse! Hells yes! Then we piped that in between the layers of the dacquoise. I think I could make this one at home. I might be able to pull it off.

 We had to put this in the blast freezer to cool down, but the cooks had been in our kitchen to cool down their smoked salmon and the freezer stunk! I didn't want my mousse tasting like smoked salmon, so Chef told us to take it down to the shipping and receiving freezer. Its a huge walk in freezer that is..well..freezing..We walked in and the only words that came out of my mouth were "oh my god! my nerperls!" hahaha. funny. You could cut glass with your girly chest parts! chilly!

Unfortunately those are the only two things we made today. Each thing has 3 different components to it so it all takes a while. This is going to be a stressful week for Chef because we are all doing something new and we all need help - all the time. He is running around like a mad man! Lets hope I don't mess up to badly.

 Take Care my lovely readers!

OH! Chef also showed us the World Chocolate Masters Competition thats going on in France right now. Absolutely amazing stuff! Please check it out!

http://www.worldchocolatemasters.com/en/

Sara piping our mousse on to the dacquoise.

My little seat thief! I got up to get my phone and when I came back, My seat was taken. The nerve. This is why it takes me an hour to write a blog post. 

Halloween cookies!

Hello Blog world!

 I am going to be combining last friday in to today. Come friday things get nuts and unfortunately for me the last few weeks my blog has been suffering because of it. I am trying my best to keep up with this, and I usually do - It might just take me a few days to catch up!

So friday. We finished our kitchen lab testing. We iced and decorated our cookies (so much fun! Can't wait for christmas time!) Chef also pulled each of us aside for our one on ones. He said he is impressed with how I'm doing and has nothing bad to say. I'm neat and clean and I make a great product. He would just like me to get a little faster. That's fair. I'm not the fastest in the class but I am by no means the slowest either. I explained to him that I need to take my time and go slow when I'm trying something new because I really need to have time to think every step through and to make sure that I understand the whole process. I unfortunately second guess myself sometimes which makes me stop what I'm doing... I need to stop second guessing myself. Mistakes are going to happen and its best to just be confident in myself and push forward.
 My marks are good, I'm averaging an 85-90% in all my marks (classroom and lab.) Very proud of myself! I told him I'm very happy with my decision to take this course, I can't imagine being anywhere else and I am so exited for whats next. He asked if I had any ideas on where I wanted to do my work term..I don't yet. I can not pin point that one thing that I want to focus on. I am loving plating desserts though, so maybe a hotel or restaurant? I am also passionate about local ingredients so possibly a place like 'edible matters'? I need to start figuring this out.

 On friday we had to do some chocolate work that we would use for our cakes today (monday) unfortunately for me by the end of the day I was absolutely exhausted and drained. I was so sick of tempering chocolate by hand (and I wasn't the only one doing it, my other group members were) and If I had to roll another conay (parchment cone)  I was going to throw a fit. I was trying to pipe some trees (they looked more like distorted angry lobsters) and out of frustration I tossed my conay (which was leaking and falling apart, so i was covered in melted chocolate) on to the table and let out an "ahhooooo!!" Chef came over and did a tree for me and told me to make mine thicker - I glared at him with my super angry eyes. haha. I was in such a pissy mood I was ready to go all hulk and destroy the kitchen. "A little cranky there are we ashley?..." "YES!" haha. I managed to get more trees done and finished my chocolate work. Thank god.

 Then I came home and napped. Napping is essential to my life...and sometimes other peoples. I will take you out when I am tired and cranky. Ask Davin..

 Then the weekend came and I worked. On Sunday however Davin and I got to go see a movie together! He wanted to see gravity so we did. It was good - Davin LOVED it. I won't go in to detail about it for you folks that have yet to see it. But It was good, I think i would watch it again.

 Monday: I slept through my alarm (surprise! I mean who wouldn't when your alarm goes off at 5:30 on a monday morning..)
 Oh! Today when we got to the lab all our cookies were laid out. Chef had a tray with a bunch of ones he liked the most out of the whole classes...I had two of mine picked! hells yes! Super pumped!
 
Today we were suppose to be in class but we needed to finish our cakes so we spent two hours putting those together. Icing the cake was easy. A messy top (to look like ground) and a combed side. Then came my nightmare. Sticking chocolate on to other pieces of chocolate without everything breaking or melting on you. I had both happen to me. I broke pieces and I melted other pieces with my fingers. I snapped my house right in half so I rushed to make another one. Got that done and in the fridge to set. Then I had to put my trees on...snapped a few limbs off (I wasn't to concerned about the trees)
 I somehow eventually got it all put together with only a few stompings of my feet and swearing. Chocolatiers have my respect. This is very hard, technical work. Unreal.
 In the end It looks good, My cake looks good! The pictures don't do it justice, Its a little hard to see all the parts because its dark chocolate.

 After that we rushed up to communications class. Interesting as always.

 Now I'm eating a vegetable sandwich, doing laundry and my blog and am about to go get some quick shut eye before I have to go to work. No rest for the wicked!

 This week is going to be a challenge, the chocolate affair is this weekend!! So excited! Here is some info about it :)

Have a great night!

Chocolate affair

My halloween cookies! 

Very proud of my work! 

My finished halloween cake.Fences, tomb stones, ghosts, bats, house, moon, grass, cat, trees. Its hard to see it all..

KITCHEN TEST! EEP!

Greetings!

 I'm very happy right now because I'm in my sweat pants, typing my blog and eating cake. Seriously awesome.

 Today was an interesting day at school. Today was "test" day in the kitchen. We did not know this was happening. I guess it wouldn't be school without tests. Chef did a demo of some chocolate piping we will have to do for halloween cakes on friday. Then he said come get your sheets. Looking at them I was confused. It had the rest of the days of the week and then a list of things we were suppose to do each day.
He starts reading the list "you will all be doing individual work today. This is a test!" *PANIC!!* "You need to each make, 6 bird cages out of sugar.." *JUMP FOR JOY!*
"You will need to make chocolate chip cookies using 2 eggs, figure out the recipe.." *gulp*
"You will need to make white rolls using 500g of flour, figure out the recipe.." *GULP*
"You will need to do a sponge cake as well before Friday.." *Sigh of relief*
"And you will also need to make shortbread dough for the cookies tomorrow."
My biggest concern was just getting the math right. And It was really not that difficult (Thank god for calculators!) For the bread our original recipe called for 3kg of flour and we only needed 500g. So we just had to divide everything by 6. Easy. Then for the cookies we had to use 2 eggs which was 2/3 of the original recipe..This one I had to ask for help. I asked him what the math was behind this one and he said "I don't know. I don't do math.." *Blank stare at chef* "..You divide it by 3 and times it by two." "okay! Thanks chef" - I can do that.

 I find it so funny. Growing up math was a huge hurdle and I struggled with it from the time I entered school to the time I graduated. I swore to never enter a profession where I had to do math, and now I'm in pastry school doing math more than I ever thought I would. My skills are definitely getting better as my confidence grows. :)

 Luckily we started with the sugar cages. Cranked those out in no time. Then we did our bread (by hand) because that needed time to proof. The thing I love about making bread by hand is when you get to slap it down nice and hard on that table to get the gluten to form - what a stress reliever! And when you follow it with an evil laugh it makes it even more enjoyable. Try it some time.

 Next came the cookies. I love me some chocolate chunk cookies! Then we made the shortbread dough. They both got wrapped up and put in the fridge and will be baked tomorrow.

 We got our rolls rolled out and in the proofer. Then we finally got a break. I love break time. I get to eat and I love to eat. I got to try some of my friends lebanese food that her mom made. Delish! I've never had lebanese food, I'd love to now. mmm mm. Then back to the kitchen!

 Chef showed us how to use the ice cream maker. Very exciting. And our homemade ice-cream (we made the base last week..we just ran out of time to finish it, so we did it today) was SUPER yummy. Very smooth and nice.
 Funny story: Chef overheard me telling Sara that when I went to the bathroom I wasn't paying attention and I almost completely missed the toilet seat and ended up landing on my thigh haha. He shakes his head and walks with us to show us how to use the ice cream maker. I take a piece out to clean it and drop it on the floor. I go and wash it off and try again. I drop it on the floor again. I go and wash it. Drop it again, but I caught it this time! I glance up and see chef looking at me and he says "jesus ashley, first you miss the can now you can't hold on to anything.." haha. Totally true. He doesn't miss a beat.

 CHRISTMAS IDEA: SOMEONE BUY ME AN ICE CREAM MAKER!..please :) AND thanks!

 Then we made our sponge cake. I almost goofed that up by forgetting to add my sugar to my eggs (I would not of been the first person to do so today..) BUUUTT luckily I caught it in time. High five brain! While those were baking we had customers in the restaurant which means we had orders coming in for service. Luckily Chef had our cakes that we made set aside and we just sliced those up and sprinkled them with icing sugar for service. The testing was more important. I love putting food out to the pass and tickets and the whole nine yards! Love love love.

 Chef said we could bring some cake home with us. YIPPIE! so I sliced a piece and brought it to Davin at work for his dinner. He texted me saying it was "amazing." yay! I couldn't finish my piece so Its in the fridge, I'm sure he will finish it when he gets home. How he stays so skinny I'll never know. Lucky bastard.

 I need to go finish my laundry and work on my new marzipan figurines.

ps. I didn't take any pictures of our work today, So enjoy this picture of me eating my cake.

Yeah. It was that good. 

Last day of Round 1!

Tuesday. God I'm tired.

 Today was the last day of our first round of rotations. Decor, Bread, Vienossiorie, Pastry and Restaurant. Out of all of them I really enjoyed V, Pastry and Restaurant most.

 We got to make two plated desserts today (only orders that came in from the restaurant..booo) But either way I was excited! I was really looking forward to working on some plated desserts. Hopefully next rotation there will be a big group. We made Creme Caramel with caramelized apples. Chef encouraged us to try it - I really didn't want to. The texture of creme caramel is not for me. Its a very jiggly custard. But I tried and after three bites I ended up gagging it back out in my hand. lol. Nice. It tasted amazing, but that texture...

 Tomorrow we are going to be getting our new groups and working on Halloween stuff for the rest of the week. Cookies and cakes and stuff. Then on Friday we get to have one on one meetings with Chef to find out what we need to work on and how things are going. Looking forward to getting some feedback.

 Today we finished our pumpkin milk chocolate cake. Its very fancy! I was going to buy it and bring it in for my coworkers to eat but it was 20$..I don't have 20$. It was a great price, I can only imagine a cake like that in a bakery would sell for 60 bucks easily. Then we got our other cakes that we made in the cake rings and we got to enrobe them in white chocolate and fill the top with fruit. This was a challenge but I really liked it! We had to work on a marble slab that was in the freezer so the chocolate cooled really quickly and then you could pick it up and bend it around, I loved it. Looks pretty. Hope it tastes just as good.

 Then we did some more bird cages for the plated desserts. I love bird cages! I'm very excited to start working on pulled sugar! So many new exciting things coming!

 I also finished my Marzipan figurings and brought them in to chef so he could look them over and give me some pointers. He liked my penguin. My seal needs some work, I knew it did. Something wasn't right when I made him. So I'm going to try again, I know I can do better. My seal had more of a face of a dog and I need to stretch out his body, I also need to turn his present in to a fish. Chef asked "whats that?" "...umm a present.." I wanted to cry. haha. Not just because of that but because I'm just so tired and girl stuff and tired some more. I'm pretty sure If I put my shoes on the wrong feet I would cry right now. Nothing a good sleep and tea wont fix.

 I'm off to listen to Davin scream at the tv (leafs fan...) and I have to reorganize a million recipes. Wish me luck.

 Have a wonderful evening.

Another Monday!

It's Monday again!!  

Happy beginning of the week!  

 Today was Monday, which means...test day! As I have said before, we have a test every Monday based on the lesson from the previous week. Today was fats, oils and shortening. The notes weren't that bad to study. But when I was handed that test, and saw that it was 7 pages - I crapped my pants. And the kicker? Most of the questions had nothing to do with the test notes! I mean what the hell? No one felt confidant with this test. It's unfortunate. At one point I just started making things up haha. 


 We all did get a giggle though. One of our questions was "you get unsalted butter by feeding a cow a salt free diet" buahahaha. I'm confidant I got that question right.Chef might give us hard tests but at least he throws us a bone every now and then.  

 Then we had communication class where we had...can you guess?...a test! This one was not as difficult. Thank goodness. Let's hope I passed that one. Then we started working on resumes and building our brand.The material is a little dry, but the teacher is great at keeping things light and interesting. I'm sort of excited to see how my new resume turns out and what comes of "building my brand." 


 Now, because I have passed my computer challenges I didn't have to go to computer class which means we were done classes at 11. Sweet eh? So my friend Sara and I decided to go swimming at the YMCA at the college. That was fun! I always love swimming. I'm part fishy.  

 What I was not impressed with, was the life guard. He spent the whole time on his phone! A life guard on his phone? I can count on one hand how many times he looked up from his phone the whole time I was there. He even left while everyone was swimming to go get himself a drink. So unprofessional and unsafe. There might of been good swimmers there but it's so easy to get a cramp, or to take in water and choke. This bothered me so much I got the managers email and the lifeguards name. I will be dealing with this myself. I understand not liking your job, but having a job with the title "LIFE guard" - that's not something you can ignore. Don't be there to get a pay cheque, you're going to kill someone. Rant over. 

 Now I'm sitting at the car dealership waiting for Ruby to get an oil change. Fun times. I'm going to try and color my marzipan figurines tonight and present them to chef tomorrow. I hope I get in to skills! I need my little penguin and seal to come through for me! 

Also another peeve of mine. Spell check. When you spell something wrong by one letter and it changes it to a completely different word and it still comes up that it's spelt wrong! Stupid technology! It's a complaining kind of day. Rant two over! 


Oh! This weekend I made a bunch of goodies for my church auction. Two fruit tarts for the pot luck and some chocolate truffles and homemade caramel sauce. Very pleased with myself :)

Have a wonderful evening you beautiful people! 


oh! My dad also got me a present from his trip to Norway. A Lovely toque and some chocolate! mm

Homemade truffles and caramel for my church auction! 

My tarts! 

Chocolate bar from Norway my dad got for me! 

Catching up on Friday

I'm late doing this...again.

My apologies.

 Friday DAY was good. We are working on a Pumpkin milk chocolate cake. I loth pumpkin, BUUUT this cake is so good. You would never know its pumpkin. Now, Friday was 4 days ago...so this is a challenge for me to remember.

...oh! I signed up for a chocolate event so chef was showing us some of the chocolate he got for it. I mean this isn't Hershey's crap (no offence to anyone who likes hersheys) This is chocolate from all over the world. Amazing stuff. God help the first person to burn this chocolate or screw it up in anyway. Please god let it not be me!
 So, after I was done being giddy and cuddling all the bags of expensive chocolate, chef put something in my hand. It didn't feel real. It felt like a plastic piece of fruit. But, with my amazing brain power I was able to figure out that It was real.
 I was holding it and trying to think what It could be and when someone asked chef what it was my brain clicked and I yelled "OH MY GOD! ITS A COCOA POD!!" - very exciting. Good job brain.
 I've neer seen a cocoa pod before (and yes I have a picture for you!) I can not wait to crack that shit open!

 Then the day ended with no fuss or muss and we all went home. I hurried home because I had a to-do list longer than my grandfathers long underwear (IF that doesn't make sense just roll your eyes and keep reading, Its all I have for material right now..) So I sat down at the computer and started typing up all my notes and recipes.

    Side note: If any of my classmates have no started typing their recipes I seriously pity them...It takes FOREVER!

 Anywho...I have the attention span of a gold fish and I just type whatever comes in to my brain..cripes! back on track ashley..

 Take two..I started typing up all my notes and for the last few days I have been smelling this funky smell and even after cleaning and emptying an already empty litter box and the garbages - It was still there. I asked Davin if he noticed it. Of course he said he didn't smell anything...no help what so ever.
 It may not have been bothering him, but it was driving me crazy! So I closed the lap top and did some more investigating in to the source of the smell. It was not the hall way, or the bathroom...It was definitely in the second bedroom. So then I got down on my hands and knees and started sniffing like a dog (smells drive me crazy! I have an amazing nose. Its a curse more than a gift) I made my way over to a bookshelf and stuck my nose underneath it. WHOA! I think I found it. I muster all my strength and lift this thing and slide it out. I get a waft of what smells like ammonia and propane, really nasty. I look down and its kinda dark. I see toy mouse, toy mouse, toy mouse...what in the fuck is that black thing?....toy mouse...

 I think I know exactly what it is. A mouse. I still can't really see but I'm hoping its a piece of cat shit (I'm making it sound like my apartment is dirty, its not. At all. I would just rather a piece of kitty poo than a mouse is all..) I so badly don't want it to be a mouse that I am praying my cat took a poop, and somehow lifted it out of her litter box and rolled it under the bookshelf. Pathetic eh? That, that is the best scenario I can come up with..

 I of course can't find a flash light, so I grab my phone. Ah! yes, If I take a picture the flash will come on and I can see what it is. I'm brilliant! soooo *flash* AHHH!! HOLY MOTHER OF SHIT! IT'S A FUCKING MOUSE!! I SCREAM. Throw my phone (you know, attack of the mouse picture..) and spin in circles while still screaming and shaking my hands. Do I know how to say calm in a situation or what?

 I RUN out of my apartment..then run back in and throw patches in the bathroom. I could just picture her picking this dead stinky mouse up and dragging it around the apartment. Then I would have to move and burn my furniture. Easier to put her in the bathroom. Then I RUN out of the apartment again and down to the landlord. His wife answers the door and I'm running on the spot and still waving my hands and said "oh my god! mouse! dead! please come get it! It stinks!" He grabs some gloves and a garbage can and comes and takes it away. I was not going to touch it. So It's little physical body is gone, but the smell is still there.

 So I call my dad and ask him how to get dead mouse smell out of carpet. Baking soda. Baking soda and water to make a paste, rub that in. Then I sprinkled half a box of dry on top of that. Took the smell out. Impressive.  Helpful tip for the day! I hope your cat doesn't like to hide dead animal caucuses under your furniture like mine does.

 I called Davin at work to tell him how I almost died. Okay, that MIGHT be an over exaggeration. But i COULD of and thats whats important here. If it was alive and I moved that bookshelf and It jumped on my neck and chewed on me, then I could of died. But I survived. He owed me a present for dealing with that. I got cheesecake :) He's a good husband.

 When he got home from work we pulled out the fridge and stuff to make sure none of its family members were chilling out. It's all clear. This better be my first and LAST mouse where I'm living.

 Then I light some candles and go to bed. 11:30 and the smoke alarm goes off. We run out of the bedroom (I need to say, I was going to bed, davin was in the bedroom for a bit then coming back out to watch tv...thats why the candles were still going.) And the whole place is full of black smoke! From one little candle. I almost died TWICE!

 It was a rough day. Holy crappers.

 I know this is a blog about my journey through pastry school, but I needed to share this story with the world. And to let any other mice know that I will not tolerate them coming in to my house to get warm! Go visit my neighbour!

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

Beautiful amazing cocoa pods! 

My cats collection of mice. Both real and fake. Commence shrieking in..3...2...1..

Sugar play

Salutations!

 I am LOVING restaurant! We got to play with sugar today!

 First thing we did was make caramel to put in the bottom of the creme caramels. After it was made we had to add a tablespoon of water at a time until we got to the soft ball stage. Worked out great. Then we made the creme part. Its essentially just adding hot milk to an egg and sugar mixture and stirring then passing it through a chinois to make sure that if you got a few little scrambled eggs they don't go in to the mixture. Then you add that to the cup with the caramel and bake it for an hour in a water bath. ta da!

 Next we got to play with our tulip paste. I love tulip paste! You can make anything with it.  Its so bendable (for about 30 seconds right out of the oven.) so we made some rings (which we will use in a dessert) Then we got to play around with some colours and make some leaves! Looking at the picture of my leaves I realized I completely forgot about the colour yellow! So they look much darker than my group mates leaves. Oh well, they are "rustic."
 I'm excited to play with this at home (if my oven ever works properly again) I want to make lots of different designs. What you do is place a stencil over some parchment and spread the paste over the stencil. peel the stencil off and then cut it out. You place the parchment in the oven on top of an upside down baking sheet (easier to grab it off there the the flat bottom of an oven.) You bake it for 7-10 minutes until the edges are golden brown. Now this is when your fingers start screaming in pain..You need to work with this stuff right away to shape it, it hardens quickly. You flip it over and roll it, or lay it over something and then let it set. If you do them too thin they will snap as soon as you try to pick them up - on the plus side when this happens you get a tasty snack!

Then we made decoration syrup which lead to us making bird cages! I'll say it again, I love sugar work.

 You needed to make a light coloured caramel and then cool it down quickly in a water bath and then mix it with your spoon a little until it cooled some more. Then you take a lightly greased ladle and slowly work back and forth and around until you get a birdcage! I was pretty good at these, not much issue at all.

 The kitchen was so hot today! The fans that pump fresh air in aren't working...again..so when I tried to get dressed after class I couldn't put my jeans on. Gross. My hair was wet and stuck to my head. Just all around not a good look. It's called "kitchen look"

 I have to go colour my marzipan figurines I made for the competition. Once they are coloured chef will look at them and help me tweak them to make them even better. I made a penguin with a scarf and ear muffs and a seal with a scarf and ear muffs holding a present. I think they are adorable!

Have a wonderful evening.

 I have a movie of me doing a bird cages but My friend is having trouble sending it to me. I'll try to get it at a later time.

Caramel!

Before the oven. Creme Caramels

A tulip paste ring

My broken leaf that I ate..om nom nom

Cooked creme caramels

All my beautiful leaves

Some of my classmates work

Birdcages! 

I LOVED making these. 

First day in restaurant AND we almost killed Chef!

My little blog helper. Patches <3. She's not as mean as she looks in this picture lol

Happy hump day!

 ...Yeah I don't know why I said "hump day" I hate that saying. Everyone at school says it and its slowly seeping in to my brain.

 I hope you are all having a wonderful day so far.

 Today was the first day of our restaurant rotation. Unfortunately for our group the restaurant is closed this week so we won't be getting any orders in and get to put plates together for customers. I was really looking forward to that. poo.
 Today we did a lot of prep for the week. We made Poaching syrup and we poached some pears. I dipped my finger in the pot while they were poaching to check the firmness of the pears and I (of course) tasted some poaching liquid - holy crap. so good! This is another thing I could "accidentally" fall face first in to and be okay with (once it has cooled down that is..)

 Then we made...bo...bou...some french filling with pastry cream and ground almonds. I have no idea what its called, nor can I pronounce it properly. Chef kept saying it over and over and all I could repeat back to him was "bobo?" So I just stopped trying.
 We also made more sweet dough because we were going to be making pear tarts! And we filled them with that B something or other cream.

 Funny story of the day! We had tart rings and you have to grease the rings (for obvious reasons) so we were using cooking spray. I finish with mine and I hand it to my friend Sara. She is spraying hers on the side of the table, so the spray is falling to the floor. I walk by and say "be careful with getting that stuff on the floor, its super slippery." she replies "I'm catching most of it with my hand, it will be okay." Then we move on to other things and don't think about it again. UNTIL chef walks by, slips on the cooking spray and literally lands on our table! hahahaha. His eyes bug out of his head and he yells "holy shit!!" (you have to say it in a thick french accent - Its more funny!)  hahahaha I'm going over this scenario in my head and I have tears in my eyes from laughing. He stands back up and says "Jesus! is that from the cooking spray?" Then he touches his butt and says "I saw my life flash before my eyes, I think I need to go change my pants."
 LOL. Oh god. If Sara isn't catching herself on fire and taking herself down, she's attempting to kill someone else. Absolutely hilarious. She needs to start a blog I think. Although I can see it back firing on her. If she does kill someone and documents how funny it was - Might not end so well for her. So I'll stick to telling you about all the funny moments so she has more time to speak with her lawyer.

 I think that sums up my school day in a nut shell.

 I also have a picture today of my little blog helper! She doesn't look very pleased because I moved her from my lap. The world needs to see my special kitty :)

Poached pears

My pear tarts! 

So pretty :)

Thanksgiving and last day of pastry

Gobble!

 I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving! We did :)

 I got all my hair chopped off this weekend. Lost over 6 inches! Long hair and kitchen work do not mix.

 I was so excited to do some baking for thanksgiving! Time to practice what I have learned. My plan was to make a pecan pie, an apple crisp, a fruit tart and some biscuits. I made three out of four.

 On Saturday night I made my sweet dough and pastry cream. I made the pastry cream with real vanilla bean. It was my first time using it and it was so good! That went off without a hitch, easy! Then Sunday night it was time to bake my tart shell and biscuits. I got this..

 No. I don't got this. What I have is a piece of shit apartment rental oven that is 50 degrees to hot and the top element is broken! So I burnt my first tart shell. Fine....
 Then I burnt my biscuits and they were also raw. It was 8 at night, I had worked all day, I was getting very tired and to put it in simple terms - I lost my shit. I threw my wash cloth across the kitchen, I started cry and I proceeded to kick the shit out of the oven. haha. I got this mad because this is NOT the first time this oven has let me down. I went in my room and cried.
 My very calm and logical husband came in and said "Now Ashley, we just need to think this through and come up with a way to fix it. There is no point to get upset. As a pastry chef you are part scientist so come up with a solution." I wish I could be this calm, I really do. I know how to fix it, throw the fucking oven off the balcony. Fixed.

 So I go out to the kitchen again and seeing my burnt product makes me more mad then before. So I kicked the oven again and threatened to kill it if it doesn't stop being an asshole. So for the rest of the night we spent playing with a thermometer and seeing how hot the oven actually is.

 I tried my biscuits again Sunday morning and they didn't burn but they were a little doughy. I'll take it. And my tart shell did turn out after I put the temp down 50 degrees. Everyone got dessert (delish!) and everyone got a biscuit. That much drama for those two things..seriously?!

  We had a wonderful meal with my inlaws. A great thanksgiving over all.

Now, back to school.

 5:30 am comes way to quickly after a long weekend. Holy crap. Brutal.

 Today was our last day in the pastry rotation, moving on to restaurant tomorrow!

 Today we made diplomate cream to go in our vanilla sponge cakes. These will be delicious. Then we made little lemon tarts with meringue on top!
 Then we used left over sweet dough to make cookies! Love.

 It was a good day. Chef was singing Eminem - You should hear a french chef singing rap lol. hilarious.

 I have to go help davin with supper. There are not enough hours in the day for me to nap and get shit done around here. This is a problem.

This is a cake that Chef made. Amazing huh?

Pecan pie, pre cooked!

Cake. Can you find the four chef did?

Choco flowers

Meringue pre baked

All done!

mmm