holy moly, what a day...

 Good Saturday Morning!

 I've worked the last few nights so this morning is catch up.

 Thursday was a day. For me it was a horrible day. I was in such a funk and I just couldn't do anything right. I wasn't able to focus, I was messing up at every corner.

 We finished our opera cakes. I was in love with this. Very happy with how this turned out. While we were building it I was worried that my layers wouldn't be straight. Sometimes its hard to tell if you have an even amount of buttercream. So I did a little prayer to the butter cream gods.
 We put those together on wednesday, then glazed them with mirroir (shiny chocolate glaze..reflects light and such. hence the name mirroir) on Thursday. Then we needed to trim them so they were nice and even.
 We then got to do some sort of decoration on top. Chef piped one and I followed suit and copied his design for mine. They looked so pretty!! The first few I did looked okay, sometimes it takes a few turns to get a good feeling for what you are piping.

opera, just trimmed.

Let me explain what the layers are. On the bottom we have a jaconde sponge, coffee italian butter cream, another sponge, ganache, sponge, buttercream, sponge and ganache, then we covered it with the dark chocolate mirroir.

 I'm not a fan of coffee anything, but this cake is absolutely amazing. See that silver bowl in the background? It's full of opera scraps. Really really amazing. I hope when I get out of school I will drop some of the weight that I've put on. haha. My goodness, tasting all this stuff is dangerous.

 So we cut them up and then piped them and sent them down to the cafeteria for sale. Here is some pics of my piping.

 I'm so proud of them :) And my layers were not to shabby in the thickness or straightness department. *pat on the back*

 Next we finished our acadian cake. This one was a sponge cake, with a maple mousse and a caramel and milk chocolate mirroir. I had to cover mine several times because my mirroir was thinner than it should of been. By this point in the day after many many mistakes Chef was beside me helping me finish up. He's good at knowing when someone feels beaten and deflated and he was trying his best to build me back up.

 Building this cake we just broke some pieces of tempered chocolate and staggered them on to the cake. I couldn't get mine to stick, they kept falling over, my chocolate drizzle kept breaking. I just tossed my chocolate pieces down and walked away. Sometimes you just need to walk away. I did.
 I went back after a few minutes and finished it up. Not overly happy with my end product, but I finished it and the day was over. Thank goodness.

Acadian cake with caramel mirroir

 We also built another cake and that went in to the freezer and we would finish it on Friday.

 I left school and went to work where my horrible day continued. I was at work an hour and a half later than I should of been finishing cakes and orders.

 Then I went home and cried. People think "oh god..went home and cried." Sometimes you just need a good cry to release frustration, and I was so over tired I was just not functioning anymore. I'm a very self aware person and I know when I've reached my limit and I needed a break, I needed a big long time out.

 I am so close to the end of the school year ( minus my 5 week work placement) and I had for gotten how hard it is to be a student and work. As well as moving. When you're in the work force and you hear students complain about how tired they are, you kind of roll your eyes and say "god, I wish I could be back in school. easy life right there."
 It's not easy, its far from easy. It's not just going to school, its going to school, dealing with your fellow classmates (good or bad), doing assignments, studying for tests, on top of the daily kitchen work. We have night time events. Working 20 hours a week and for myself, packing up our apartment for a move in a week.

 I have a lot of respect for students, high school, college and university. This is not easy stuff but the reward at the end is completely worth it. I have been saying that to myself over and over again the last few weeks. I got this. I got this.

 I missed class on Friday because I am so behind in my class work. So I stayed home to work on all my assignments. I'm pretty well caught up and it feels good.


 I try to keep my posts light and fun, because most of the time this is a lot of fun. This was how my last few days have been and I wanted to share it with you. Life is not always rainbows and sunshine and thats okay.
 This week will be a better one! I can feel it.

 Have a wonderful weekend!

Opera...fa fa fa faaaa yum!

Hello gang,

 We FINALLY have a nice day here, sunshine, blue sky and 2 degrees! Spring is on its way!..and now that I've said that out loud (which I did..) Next week it will snow. Lets hope not. We need nice moving weather. So everyone pray for a nice sunny day on the 29th!

 Today was a good day in school. (Sorry I missed yesterday! I had to work. This is what we did yesterday. Made sponge cake. the end. Seriously) We made opera cake, and we sort of made our cappuccino cake. The opera cake we made italian buttercream, and ganache and we layered all this goodness with the thin little jaconde sponges we made yesterday. It doesn't look very good right now because we aren't completely done yet. Once they are all trimmed and fully covered with mirrior they will be delish (and beautiful!) - I only got a picture of my coffee buttercream. It's nothing special, I was just itching to test out a food picture with my new phone!

Coffe italian buttercream, melts in your mouth! ..I just wish it wasn't coffee...

Picture is pretty decent. muuuuch better than the old blackberry. Sorry RIM..

 Next we put together our cappicano cake with coffee mousse and creme brûlée. We made it upside down in a ring, and thats in the freezer so we can flip it over and such. You make things upside down when you want a super smooth top using a mousse. My brain has trouble figuring this process out because when you are done assembling it, you are looking at a piece of uncovered cake. I have the hardest time understanding what I'm looking at and I have an over whelming urge to cover it with something to make it look finished, but if Chef says to make it upside down..you make it upside down.

 We also made dequoise - meringue with ground almonds and icing sugar and it gets piped and baked. I loooooove this stuff. It chewy and yummy. It's yet another component to another cake we will make tomorrow.

 I got to play with a little bit of sugar today, we had to do a dry caramelization to make a caramel and milk chocolate mirrior. It didn't have enough of a caramel taste for me, tasted more like chocolate. Anything covered in a mirrior is amazing so I'm sure i won't be disappointed in anyway shape or form.

 Chef scared me twice today, once by accident, once on purpose. You need to be on your toes when you're around him, thats for sure lol. He walked up behind me when I was washing my hands and said "boooo." and I SCREAMED...more like a shriek. Happens every time someone comes up behind me.
The second time I was taking a pile of dishes down the hall to the dish pit. I was rounding the corner and I saw someone looking at someone...So I knew someone was on the other side of that corner. I continue to walk around and Chef jumped out and scared me again. I only jumped a little because luckily that person gave way that he was there. If he completely succeeded in his scare there would of been pots and bowls flying everywhere. haha he's so bad but so much fun, so you can't ever get mad.

 Another fun day at school! Only 23 more school days left. Unreal.

 On the way home today I was in pure bliss (minus the pounding headache I had) the window was open (ah! fresh air!), there wasn't a cloud in the sky, I got a car wash so my car is now red again - not salt white with spots of red. Then I got to have a nap with my kitty. It's the little things in life that when I take the time to appreciate really make me happy.

 The hubby is making dinner (I'm so lucky he likes to cook or else I would starve and live off cereal) and then I think a walk is in order before I start on my excel project.

 Have a wonderful night!

 Here is a picture of my car wash experience! I love coloured soap!

:) 

Happy Green Drinks Day!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

 I did nothing for this holiday. lol. No green, no drinking...yet. Other people were in the irish spirit today - It looked like fun.

 I have a look going on today. My look is called Tornado. I look like I went through a tornado. haha. Seriously.

 I was so on the ball last night, got all my stuff ready for school set my alarm. All ready.

 On a normal day I am up by 5:45 and out the door by 6:45. Today went a little differently. I rolled over and cracked an eye open to see my clock staring back at me saying 6:40. It took me much longer than It should of to realize how very late I was. But I was so stunned and tired I just laid there looking at my clock.
 My thought process : "what time do I usually leave for school?...I don't know. Don't I usually get up around this time? My alarm clock hasn't gone off yet, I can't be late. Wait..Doesn't class start at 7:30? yes..yes it does. *I sit up* I usually leave at 6:40 to get to underground parking at 6:45. Yes...yes I do. And its 6:43.....SHIT!!!!!!!"

 I scream. Which makes Davin sit up and notice that I'm super late. He just rolls over and goes back to sleep. helpful.
  No time for a shower, but thats okay! I had a lot of hair spray in my hair yesterday for work and I can rock this greasy madousa look I have going on right now...rockin.  6:45 my alarm goes off - shut up you bastard! I needed to be up an hour ago!!

I throw my clothes on, run around while brushing my teeth grabbing fruit and granola bars for breakfast. Putting on my shoes while gargling my mouthwash. I am running through my building, and through under ground parking. A guy who was about to leave pulled over to let me out first. I think It was my manic state and madousa hair that gave away that I needed him to get out of my way.

 Luckily traffic wasn't to bad. I think everyone else was running late on this monday morning as well. Thank goodness.

 I was so grateful today was a classroom day so I could just sit there with my hoodie on and wait for class to be over. I also lucked out because we had no computer class in the afternoon. Which was good, my apple and granola bar would not hold me until 4 in the afternoon.

 Theory with Chef was amusing. He asked us if we did anything fun over March break. Most of us just stared at him with a blank emotionless look. haha. We were dead.
 He said that he went to Mexico...someone said "no you didn't!" and he stopped and looked at her and said "why? why would you ruin that for me? I could of gone..." So we played along and told him he had a nice tan. haha.

 Today we went over mousses and creams. We also had to come up with a french pastry for the Chefs for unicef event thats coming up next week. I'm going to do the french pastry that I was going to do for skills. I'm excited! I'm still kicking myself for dropping out of skills, but life happens and I have to just roll with the punches. I honestly couldn't imagine practicing for skills, working 20 hours a week, pack for the move in 2 weeks with assignments and school. It's just to much for me. So I'll settle for doing my pastry for an event.

 We also learned a lesson today. Sharpies and dry erase markers look a like. Chef was explaining things and with his accent we always ask him to write things down so we know what he's saying. He reached in to his sleeve and pulled out a marker. After drawing all over the board he tried to erase something. Nothing. He gets a little more frantic and we lose it laughing. "Oh shit!" - I think thats all that needed to be said. hahaha. Don't worry though, he wrote "Boulanger" and then drew arrows to his drawings. Pastry was never there. ;)

 There is always a reason to laugh in that class.

 I have spent my night packing. This apartment is stressing me out. I don't do very well in clutter and there is stuff everywhere. It's over whelming for me. But we will soon be moved, and I will be living out of my suitcase for the month of april until school is over at my dads house. Should be a blast!

 Alrighty. I just realized I was suppose to have supper in the slow cooker and hour and half ago. Man, I'm scatter brained.

 I hope you all have a wonderful rest of the day! Enjoy a cold one for the irish people.

Ashley.

March Break

Hello world!

 This week is my March break. Such a needed break. Holy smokes.
I was completely shutting down in school. My drive was going away, I was absolutely exhausted. My mind was focused on our up coming move.

 Luckily on Friday we were only in class for a few hours. We finished up some of our baking we had started the day before. We scrubbed the kitchen down and we went over what is expected of us for our end of the year buffet.

 We are doing a buffet called 'Touch of Class.' The theme is the 1920's. Research here I come! We are in teams of two and we have a list of things that need to be included in the buffet. We are NOT allowed to ask Chef for any help or any recipes. The most help we will be getting from him is when he is looking at something and saying "thats crap. throw it out and start over." - helpful.

 This week for far has been wonderful. Even though I am absolutely drowning in boxes and lists I can feel myself decompressing. I brought all my baking tools home thinking I would get some baking done. *snort* yeah right.

 Last week was the last rotation in V and I'm very sad. That was by far my favourite rotation. Cakes, cookies, danishes, croissants, muffins. Love it. We finished the week off by making some more croissants (butter) and an upside down apple cake, and some muffins with a crumble on top....and probably some other things that have skipped my mind.

 My croissants this time around were better. I was starting to figure out the size of the triangles that I needed. Working with croissants is something that needs practice. Flavour wise, I didn't find these as good as the almond ones, but they were good none the less.

See, getting better! 

Flakey Goodness

 OH! We also made angel food cake (with a hint of lemon) and devils food cake (with apples) LOVED both of them.

 When I saw the devils food cake recipe I stopped in my tracks. Looked at Chef and said "zucchini? seriously? why in the hell is there this devil vegetable in everything!? I'm using apples.."

 I.HATE.ZUCCHINI! You wouldn't of been able to taste it, but I still don't want to use it. We used apples instead. You could of used pretty much anything because the point of the fruit or vegetable is to add moisture, not flavour. Sweet potatoes, pumpkin, apples, pears etc.
 In the end the cake was super super good. A nice dense chocolate cake.

 The angle food cake was so good. So light and perfect. Another favourite. I need to get me an upside down pan so I can make one.

 We also made an upside down apple cake. Which tasted better than it looked. I'll admit it doesn't look that great, but it was an okay cake. I think some apples baked in to the cake would of made it a little more moist.

 We made blueberry muffins with a sugar crumble on top. So good! Those I absolutely loved and want to make again.

 Thats my week in a nutshell. Nap. Pack. Eat. Watch tv. Pack. and repeat.

 We are getting new phones soon, so I'm excited to see if the quality of my pictures get better! Stay tuned to find out.

 If you are on your March break, enjoy the rest of it. If you are not....Have fun at work? :S

Ashley out. xx

Laminated dough *love*

Happy Wednesday! ..It is Wednesday, right?


 Today we did more laminated dough! We did danishes last rotation, and now we are learning about croissants. We made Pain au chocolat yesterday. *drool* SO.GOOD! I could easily eat these every day, but don't do that. Bad for the heart.

 We made our dough (which is super sticky) then we chilled it down. And we made our butter. We take 500g of butter and blend it with 50g flour and 5ml lemon juice (I knew that from memory, impressed?) Then we shape it in to a square and put that in the fridge to harden.

 I'm not going to get in to the rolling and technical stuff - I don't think I could explain and describe it in a way that would make any kind of sense to you. The important thing to know is that ALL that butter gets put in to the dough and we roll and fold and roll and fold until there are beautiful layers of butter everywhere.

 Yesterday the rolling procedure for the pain au chocolat was quite simple. And I aced it. So proud of myself. Chef said they looked exactly like what he use to get in France and they were perfect. *pat on the back* He took two home, one for him and one for his wife. I found out today he ate both and gave none to his wife. lol. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her!" haha.

Pain au chocolat. 

So beautiful

Seriously. Look at those layers.

Today we made almond croissants. The rolling procedure was different. It was hard. We had to cut triangles (sounds easy) but we had to use the width of our fist as a measurement. So While I have my fist on my dough, I'm also sliding my sharp knife around attempting to make a stupid triangle.  "Don't cut off your fingers...Don't cut off your fingers..."

 We have talked about my inability to make a simple shape. This was no exception.

 I got a few done. Then we had to make a 1 inch slit in the top and pipe some of our almond cream on to it, just under the slit. We then pulled the "wings" out to the side, covering the cream and then pull on the bottom and roll it up. The first few I made sort of looked like bats that had broken wings...not pretty.
 My next few looked awesome! or I thought they did. Nice and big and even. Chef started laughing about how its something that you would find in a buffet. "If you can eat the whole thing you get it for free!" lol. My next few I attempted to make them "normal" size. They turned out mini. *sigh*

 The ones we did yesterday were such a success. I was getting frustrated that these weren't as easy to do. In the end the fact of the matter is, I'm learning. This was my first ever attempt at them and in the end I was proud of what I made.

 Chef looked at my dough before we had started rolling them out and he said it looked bad. I told him I flipped it over like he told me to yesterday. He looked at the back and said "yeah thats bad too.." and I looked at him with a smile on my face and said "well, at least I'm consistent!" lol. Got to make something good out of something negative. And when I say negative, its not. I never feel like I'm horrible in class. Chef has a way of insulting you while making you smile and laugh. Its an impressive talent he has. Really is.

I think these were my two best ones.

What else did we do today that I wanted to tell you about? Oh, I burnt myself. Grrr. I just barely touched the edge of the deck oven when I was putting some muffins in (oh yeah! we made muffins today! Apple Cinnamon) I just ignored the burn at first. Holy crap the pain. The redness went half way down my arm and just wouldn't stop burning. Burn Gel is the best thing ever invented. Man alive. When it finally let up a few hours later the burn was a lot bigger than I thought it was. Good news? I will survive! haha. Just a little wrist burn.

ouch

 So yes, we made apple cinnamon muffins, and we also made these carrot cake cookies with cream cheese filling. SO GOOD! I don't believe I got a picture of these. Trust me, they were so good.

 I spent the rest of my afternoon running around gathering tax information and packing materials.

 My husband has been offered a job, so we are moving out at the end of the month. I actually love to pack - maybe not right away, but once I get going I love it. So my life is turning in to a sea of boxes.

I almost died this morning when I stumbled around the dark apartment at 5:30am and crashed in to AND OVER a big pile of boxes that I forgot to move out of the hallway. On a positive note though, I found out where the cat vomited when I fell. So I was able to clean that up. *eye roll*

 Thats my day in a nut shell.

 Here are some pictures of the bread rotation and some random cakes. I only did 1 day in bread because I was out sick.

 Enjoy and have a great night!

Jelly roll thats been cut and lined in a ring

Now its filled with raspberry mousse..

Mocha cake!

German bread. Don't even ask me the name of it...

Bagels. That look like little assholes. 

Italian easter bread

I'm not dead!

Well hello my friends!

 I'm back! I'm not dead, my fingers didn't get chopped off in class. Things just so so so busy. I think the last time I wrote we were about to go to the casino for the decadence event. (holy cripes I'm behind..) 

 The decadence event was a blast. You get to get all prettied up (normally make up and a kitchen don't go so well together. At least not for me. I end up looking like Alice Cooper.)

All prettied up! 

Then when we arrived we went down the HUGE - and when I say huge I mean...MASSIVE. The pastry section was quite small compared to the cooks section. It will still fun to be in a commercial kitchen, especially the casino. Chef had our names where we would be working. We tried to get settled and get organized but it was difficult. Working in a different kitchen is like walking in to a strangers home and hearing "go find me my pearls.." - no idea where anything is. 

  The most tense part was dealing with Jean-Luc. He was a tad stressed and winded from running up and down the different floors making sure were were on track. People didn't know what was happening and were getting confused. I looked at him and said "We are confused, but to scared to re ask what we need do...you seem...stressed." haha. He got us back on track. 

 The cooks were on first. We were each paired with a wine (pastry was also paired with a chocolate to go with that wine). We had Northern compass iced apple wine from the valley. Absolutely delicious. I'm a HUGE fan of ice wine. So when the cooks were done presenting their food, they cleared out and we were brought in. 

 Our dessert was sooooo cute! I absolutely loved it. It looked like a mini apple. It was a sable breton (cakey short bread) with a white chocolate bavarian cream with apple compote, covered in a sour apple glaze. Tasted really really good as well. People said they loved them. *So proud*

#2 was our chocolate. It was an organic white chocolate called "just us" and its more brown in colour because they use brown sugar in it. Really tasty. 

Kitchen work with Chef on the run..

 I turned in to the runner for our table. We ran out so quickly! I ran (and by ran I mean had to take the clunky scary service elevator) Then set them up on our slab, finish them all off with the chocolate and sugar pieces then run them back up and across the floor. They had cameras there, I dodged those. lol. Chef showed us the news feed for the event and It was just a me blur screaming past the camera..no thanks. 

  While I was down in the kitchen prepping our dessert Chef comes down and starts jokingly screaming "FASTER! LETS GO! LETS GO!" - my hands are shaking, my face is red so I start screaming back "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! I'M GOING!" ... This is not my kind of baking I want to do. Hotel work for placement? no. 

 All in all it was a fun night, people drank and laughed. It was a good experience for me. I really enjoyed myself. 

 Since the event we have had lots of school. Made lots of yummy treats. I am sick right now. I have a cold that just won't let go. I missed two days of my bread rotation last week..poopies. Davin just called and said he was going to bring me carrot and dill soup from Petes! mmm. That should help me feel better. 

 There is so much going on here right now, So I hope I can keep this thing going again! I miss writing and telling you all about my day and showing off all my goodies I can make :) 

My valentines cake. 

Some raspberry goodness.

 We are in to our 4th and final round of rotations. We have events and projects coming up! Looking forward to finishing this year with a bang!

 Stay tuned for more exciting news!

OH! I'm not done yet apparently...

 Flipping through my pictures I forgot to tell you about the dinner my brother put on before he and his girlfriend left for London.

 It was so damn good. The end. ;) - Seriously though, I'm very impressed with what Matthew can do with food. He's quite a little talent. I made some dessert, a chocolate cake, and a lemon european cheesecake. I was disappointed with the chocolate cake. Didn't turn out how I had wanted - but live and learn.

My brother and I in our whites, ready for the evening. 

My chocolate cake 

...Alright. Now I think I'm done.

Ashleyxoxox