Almost there!

So every time that I go more than a day without blogging I truly feel horrible! I'm sorry readers and I know I'm behind on the American Regional recipes but I will sit down and write them all out for you! Heck school will be ending soon then what will I have to share besides the recipes I create at home. It has just been so busy around here, from school to work and straight to sleep. I picked up a shift Saturday then had a movie night and started my homework, it's almost done. I got a little side tracked tonight I watched "You Again" such a great movie! I recommend this one, pretty darn good chick flick, I think you guys could handle it too.

Well the birthday is quickly approaching, Tuesday the 1st! Holy moly I can't believe I'm finally turning 21! Almost there. I don't know if I'm more nervous or excited. I think I'm excited for it but I'm nervous it's just going to wind up another disaster, hopefully not. And I'm not trying to think it will, trying to think positive and just stay happy and enjoy myself. Also Tuesday is payday and that will be real nice to have on the birthday day uuuuntil I pay bills, all well. Just remember "Work to live, don't live to work." And just me I don't want to!

Well now that it's a little later and Criminal Minds has me even MORE sidetracked from my journal homework I'm going to say Goodnight to all. Enjoy your night.

I don't have a good quote for the day nothing I found really fit. If you can find one let me know it.

Streaks.

Well just 5 more WONDERFUL days until my birthday! The big 21! So today I did the first step to party preparations - Hair color! I didn't change my color just added some low lights, blonde! WOW! It's blonde! She said it would fade which is good but I love the cut and the color and it was just $57! You aren't misreading that! Love my new streaks.

I also did a little shopping before the appointment, trying to find a birthday outfit for the Zoo and bar Tuesday. Then Beerfest & the bar strip Saturday night. AND Virginia! I'm found some super cute shoes that if I don't get for the bday I'll be buying with my student loan, that needs to really get here! Ohh and something for St. Patrick's day! Ohh man March is PACKED of fun fun fun activities! So back to the shopping - I found two really cute shirts and I broke down and bought both because I couldn't decide and they were both on sale for like $12 well I got one for a PENNY and the other for $12 all together I spent $14 it was a GREAT deal. I'm still looking for some things but I figure I'll go drive around this big town on Saturday and find somethings.

Other than a wonderful ending to my day, I cleaned my apartment - minus the dishes and my room but the rest looks Great. I did however miss my Choir class with my little Bumblebees :( I was really sad about that and I feel like a Jerk for missing it. I hope they forgive me when I see them next week!

"You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own.
And you know what you know.
And YOU are the one who'll decide where to go."

-Dr. Seuss

If you haven't discovered it already he is my favorite author to quote! (:

Flights

And now it's Tuesday! I have a few recipes for you from the Woodblock [pastry lab] but we will get to those soon.

Monday.

Class was great I was in charge of making the plated dessert, Angel Food Cake with stewed berries, crispy, chocolate decor & chantilly cream. I also got to take the left overs home and it's still super good! My friend even agreed it was good! We had it with blueberry sauce in class and raspberry sauce at home. Sadly I only have one left so I'm debating on when to eat it, ha! Also made a Nobilis Torte and Puff Pastry Dough, wasn't a very full day but it was good.

After class short 45 minute nap then work. Wasn't too bad got done an hour early went home and watched a movie [& ate that angel food cake] We watched Red, if you haven't seen it I don't recommend it. If you have, did you like it? So Monday wasn't the most eventful just long hours standing on my feet. But here are Day One recipes.

Monday Recipes:

Angel Food Cake: Cocoa powder 1oz, water-warm 2 fl oz, vanilla extract 2 tsp, sugar 12 oz, cake flour-sifted 3.5 oz, salt 1/4 tsp, egg whites 12, cream of tartar 2 tsp.

It's recommended to cut the recipe in half.

Puff Pastry: salt 0.5 oz, water-chilled 10.5 fl oz, AP flour 20.5 oz, butter-soft 4.5 oz, butter-cold 1 lb, AP flour 1 oz

You do not have to proof this dough so you can make it at home. It is the dough used for the Apple Strudels too.

Nobilis Torte:

Hazelnut & Cherry Meringue Cake: Cake flour-sifted 4oz, hazelnuts-toasted/chopped 8oz, hazelnut flour 3 oz, powdered sugar 7 oz, dried cherries-chopped 5 oz, egg whites 16 oz, sugar 1/2lb

Hazelnut Cream: Traditional french buttercream 1lb [if you need the recipe again let me know], hazelnut paste-creamed 6oz, sheet gelatin-softened 11 grams, heavy cream-soft peaks 2 cups

Cover with an apricot glaze & toasted almonds.

[Plated dessert and the Nobilis Torte. The Nobilis wasn't finished until Day Two though.]

Now it's Tuesday.

We had a lot to do in class so we weren't able to plate any desserts, we were preparing desserts for the Chinese travelers coming tomorrow, they may be ambassadors, not sure what Chef said, just that they were important and we had to make sweets. We finished the Puff Pastry dough to make a Napoleon, scrapes made Palimer cookies [so good], finished the Nobilis Torte & boxed it. Financiar, Blueberry Muffins I got to make them YUM with streusel, which is what starbucks does so HA! I don't need to buy my favorite muffins anymore. And a Petite Apple Tart. I'm also posting a picture of a boxed portion of the Sacher Torte from last week.

So I made the muffins and holy crap they looked so good! It's making me hungry thinking about them. We couldn't take any because they were made for the visitors as was everything else except the Nobilis Torte. The Palimer cookies were really good, they are supposed to be cooked so that they caramelize which makes them look burnt, the darker the better. Chef's favorite is the burnt burnt ones.

Once again after class, nap time it was about an hour this time, then off to work and as an added bonus I got to be there an hour longer than scheduled. Now I'm home! And tomorrow is Wonderful -HumpDay- Wednesday! No work, no school & birthday preparations! I'm getting my haircut [finally!] then getting a couple new clothes, probably not much never find what I really want but I do know what I want, so wish me luck! And now Day Two recipes!

Tuesday's Recipes:

Cream Filled Napoleons: Puff pastry 1lb 14oz, grand marnier or rum 1.5 fl oz, pastry cream 2 lb, sugar -as needed, powdered sugar -as needed

If you need the pastry cream recipe again let me know.

Palimer cookies: Puff pastry and sugar

Financiar: Powdered sugar 12.5 oz, almond flour 4.5 oz, AP flour 4.75 oz, baking powder 2/3 tsp, vanilla extract 2 tsp, brown butter [burne noisette] 6.75 oz, egg whites 12

Petite Apple Tart: Puff pastry, apples-thin sliced, ground cinnamon

BlueBerry Muffins! AP flour 8 oz, sugar 5oz, baking powder 2 tsp, salt 1/4 tsp, eggs 2, milk 8 fl oz, butter-melted [substitute Oil] 2 fl oz, vanilla extract 1 tsp, blueberries 5 oz, lemon zest 1/2 Tbsp

Streusel: AP flour 1lb, cinnamon-ground 1 tsp, salt 1 tsp, brown sugar 5.5 oz, sugar 4 oz, butter-cold 12 oz.

The streusel is topped on the blueberry muffins before baking. It's just like though $4.00 Starbucks muffins, but home made and DELICIOUS! And cost less to make and you get MORE!

[Napoleon, Palimer Cookies, Financiar]

[Petite Apple Tart, Blueberry Muffins with Streusel & Boxed Sacher Torte]

Ohh and the title Flights comes from the excitement I have to be taking my first plane ride by myself! I'm going to Virginia to see a very old friend of mine. We haven't seen each other for more than a day in more than nine years. It's going to be a blast! I fly into Baltimore then hopefully Day Two I'll be making my way to Charm City Cakes! Cross you fingers! That's all for now.

Buona Notte

Family

So I haven't posted since Wednesday but I had a lot to do before my family got here Friday afternoon. My mom came up from El Paso on a long 11 hour drive and my dad brought my brother up so he could spend time with us too. As well as the family dog and my cat, so there was quiet an apartment full this weekend! But it was great to be surrounded by the ones you love and love you back. We didn't do a whole lot of going out. Friday my mom came up to work and we ate there then I had to work a little. My brother got here about 730 so we went and rented movies and picked up some pizza and sat down as a family. It was really nice since that hasn't happened in a long time with my mom being stationed so far out. Saturday I made Eclairs for a friends party and brought my mom and little brother. They were worried because most of the people were going to be mid twenties but they fit in well and seemed to have a lot of fun. Plus as an added bonus my Eclairs were a HIT! Both of which made me really happy. Now we are just relaxing, they are starting to pack up, I have to finish my journal before heading to work, then movie night back at the neighbors. It was a great weekend too short when you spend it with family but I'm glad I got to! Definitely what I needed after the last month I had and all the happenings in that.

Just eight more days until my birthday and I'm getting more and more excited as I count them down. And another bonus! I have been talking to an old friend from middle school who I've remained friends with through the years and with his family, and the end of March I'm hopefully! flying out to Virginia to spend the weekend there! And I fly into Baltimore so hopefully Friday morning I can swing by Charm City Cakes and meet those wonderful people and maybe talk about an internship! I'm probably going to order a small cake too if I can pull it off.

I know you're probably wondering where the recipes are for American Regional but I don't have them but when I get them, you'll get them.

"The family. We were a strange little band of characters trudging through life sharing diseases and toothpaste, coveting one another's desserts, hiding shampoo, borrowing money, locking each other out of our rooms, inflicting pain and kissing to heal it in the same instant, loving, laughing, defending, and trying to figure out the common thread that bound us all together." ~Erma Bombeck

Yogurt!

I've discovered that ending Church nights with frozen yogurt is the way to go! I was in the music room tonight singing with the kids which really makes me happy. Love my little BumbleBees. Today was just church, chores and homework, pretty lazy day but I really enjoyed sleeping in until 12:30, that felt so good!

I know I didn't write Monday or Tuesday but in class we only did preparing on Monday and finishing on Tuesday so I was going to post Tuesday but I didn't get to it. Kind of had a rough night after work. I went to pick up my pan and bowl from his house and I thought I could handle it but turns out I wasn't yet ready. Found out the tears were only hiding but in time it will get easier and I'm okay with that. So back to talking about school and not the "love" life.

Monday was a prep day for Tuesday when the pastries would be completed. I figured it'd be easier to combine both the days recipes for everyone. I brought my A game both days and knocked my danish dough out of the park! We made the dough on day one then made the danish pastries on day two, cream cheese and raspberry filled, Chef got pulled away from the oven so my snail spun danishs sadly burnt he felt really bad because they were really good looking. We had to roll then out and twist them then spin them into snails, eyeglasses and "S" mine were coming out really good too! We also did a Sacher Torte, which was more experience working with chocolate. And our plated dessert this week was a delicious Apple Strudel with caramel sauce, ice cream and a crispy. There was supposed to be a sugar decor with it but Chef wasn't able to make it because too many people kept calling him away. The plate still came out good, I did two just for fun!

Danish Dough

Ingredients: Instant yeast 1 oz, Water 14 fl oz, All purpose flour 2lb, sugar 4 oz, dry milk powder 1.25 oz, vanilla extract 0.5 fl oz, eggs 2, butter-soft 3 oz, salt 0.6 oz, butter-cold 1lb 6 oz

Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients: Cream cheese 12 oz, sugar 2 oz, eggs 2, vanilla extract 0.25 fl oz, lemon zest-grated fine ½ tsp, pastry flour 1.5 oz

French Ice Cream base

Ingredients: Whole milk 10 fl oz, heavy cream 7 fl oz, egg yolks 3, sugar 3.5 oz, corn syrup 0.5 oz, ice cream stabilizer 1 tsp

Apple Strudel (filling only)

Ingredients: Apples 1lb 8 oz, lemon juice 0.5 fl oz, sugar 8 oz, cinnamon-ground 1 tsp, butter-melted 4 fl oz

Sacher Torte

Ingredients: All purpose flour 10 oz, cocoa powder 3 oz, butter-soft 12.5 oz, sugar 18oz, egg yolks 14, hazelnuts-toasted/ground 3 oz, egg whites 14. Filled with apricot jam, topped with apricot glaze then Ganache

[Left to right: Snail Croissant, "S" Croissant, Eyeglass Croissant]

[Plated Dessert]

Not a whole lot going on right now, just going to school early in the morning, taking a nap for about an hour, then off to work till about 8. Then sleep and repeat. Mom is coming this weekend and my little brother too so I can't wait for that! I could really use some hugs from my mommy! They give the best hugs and I really need that right now. Friend are wonderful but they can't always give you what your family can. Making Eclairs for the dinner party on Saturday at a friends apartment, also a neighbor of ours, should be a good time! Well tomorrow is the Texas Region in American Regional. Ohh and just TWELVE more days until my birthday! That is less than two weeks! So looking forward to a bottle of champagne, the zoo then the bar that night with wonderful people!

Until we speak again, have a wonderful night and day!

Cupcake War & Pictures

So they are a day late but here are the pictures from class on Monday & Tuesday. I made the Mousseline Torte & the Classic Chocolate Truffles. The Croissants were absolutely DElicious! And so was the White Chocolate Buttercream, white chocolate is my absolute FAVorite thing!

[left to right: Mousseline Torte, Mousseline Torte, Classic Chocolate Truffles]

[left to right: Croissants, Chocolate Croissants, Chiffon Cake with White Chocolate Buttercream]

Next are the posted pictures from my Midterm in American Regional. Where not only did I pass, but I plated my main dish with a burned hand. Yup! I got my second injury of this quarter. I was frustrated with the amount of room we had to cook, twelve people on five stoves! I had two burners & maybe five pots to work with. I just wasn't thinking clearly and went to turn the handle on the table and burned my left hand, from my thumb up my index finger along with the second and third. I was pretty proud of myself for still continuing and plating, it's amazing what drive does.

Now TODAY! What a GREAT day! I went to CoupleCake Wars with three friends! CoupleCake Wars is a new annual event that donates to the Food Bank here in town. They donated $10,000 to it and 100% of the profits on one of their cupcakes went to the Food Bank as well! It was such a great cause. Seven couples competed for the title Cupcake Couple 2011! They had to write letters on how they met, come up with a valentine's day theme & a display. Also, they earned points playing the "Newlywed Game" it was adorable. After the long 15 minutes of decorating the judges did the judging and the couples explained the story behind their theme, some stories brought a warm feeling to my heart. I thought a theme I would have done if had the chance, it's a pretty cute one too. But I got to meet Candice Nelson, the founder of Sprinkles Cupcakes & the judge on Cupcake Wars. Well now I'm watching Cupcake Wars with my roommate & after meeting her it's pretty crazy to watch her! She is really tall by the way! So we had a great time, the "Rascal Flatts" couple one, they met on Match.com, so their theme was a box of matches, that said the perfect match. They had some really awesome cupcakes, CHICKEN & WAFFLES! It was topped with a ChickfilA nugget, so cool but I didn't get a chance to try it, sounded tasty though.

Pictures will be posted when my roommate post them, because the one I want to show it Aggie Cute! LOVE IT! Just went to work after that and now it's journal writing time.

Updated

Let's get updated once more! I have the recipes from Monday/Tuesday and it was MIDTERM week! We took a written midterm on Monday morning & there was a math portion! EEK! Luckily I had some previous help doing the conversions from the Guy, so I would like to Thank him! I did miss 5 on the question portion of the test, I think I passed all the math part but not sure yet, I'll know tomorrow or Monday! *Cross your fingers* The AWESOME thing that has happened this week has to do with the once again EBOOKS! [ahhhh] Well I walked in to the bookstore to get a Red Bull and there on the counter sat the On Baking book I want to own not in Ebook form. It was being sold back by a dad whose son had dropped out! His loss, my gain! I just feel bad for the dad because he was really nice and our books cost quite a pretty penny. So I asked if he may have the American Regional book too - and WHAM! He sold it to me for $20! And the lady in the bookstore was able to take the $20 off my account! Holy Crap! Thank God I wanted a Red Bull! -it was delicious by the way.

And Wednesday night was great too! It was the first night of volunteering at the Church! I'm with the PreK choir/music kids right now and they are cute. It's the BumbleBee group so all these little ones were dressed up, so adorable! Not much other than a little excitement here and there. I did fight with a friend and I apologized because I was in the wrong & I jumped the gun before I should have. Hopefully it's all worked out and we are back to before then.

Tomorrow I will post the pictures of the desserts from Monday & Tuesday because the camera is still in the car. And I'll post them with the dishes I make tomorrow for my American Regional Midterm. Today was awesome by the way because since we didn't have to cook we went to a different lab and made breakfast! It was so awesome I LOVE SCHOOL! And I perfected my biscuits! They were MUCH better this time! And now your recipes from Day One & Two!

Day One:

-cut the Mousseline Torte from Week 4 platted and boxed.

-cut the Cheesecake

Classic Chocolate Truffles (this is really easy & really good!)

Dark chocolate 1lb

Butter 1/2lb

Heavy Cream 1 cup

Brandy/bourbon/liqueur 2fl oz

Pipe the truffles and refrigerate until Day Two.

Croissant Dough- this is a laminated dough and pretty tough but the result is all the worth!

Sugar 4 oz

Salt 1 oz

Dry milk powder 1 oz

Egg 1

Water, ice cold 18 fl oz

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Instant yeast 1 oz

Bread flour 2 lb

Butter, soft 2 lb

Day Two:

-Rolled out and cut the croissant dough and rolled in

-Plain

-Chocolate

-Ham & Cheese

-Finished Truffles

-Rolled into balls

-Tempered chocolate, then coated truffles in two coasts

-Made a Chiffon Cake (Orange Zest Chiffon from a previous week)

-with White Chocolate Buttercream

Granulated sugar 1lb 14 oz

Water 8fl oz

Egg whites 9

Butter, soft 2 lb 6 oz

White creme de cacao 3 fl oz

White chocolate, melted 8 oz

There wasn't much these two days due to the Midterm! But still a great week for playing with chocolate! But again cross those fingers, I need to get this "B" back to my "A." Also got my classes for next quarter! Chocolate confection & centerpieces AND Artisan Breads.

Feeling Better

So Friday wasn't the greatest day there could have been, but it happened and now it's over time to dust it all off and start a new trail. The weekend was rough so I was glad to get to school this morning. Although it's midterm week! AH! I was up until 230AM working on my homework and trying to study but there was no use my brain was fried. We did some pretty cool things in class this morning but I'll have to give them to you tomorrow, they are in the car again! Sorry readers. Other things today work was long and boring!

But the end of the night was fun, a friend came over we watched Breakfast Club, LOVE IT! And he did a couple magic card tricks, they were really cool! BUUUT they startle me so much! But now it's time to go to bed because I have to get up early again and do the same thing tomorrow, up early, school, nap [maybe], work, SLEEP! Can't wait for Wednesday relaxing half the day then Church Choir for kids! Finally getting plugged into the church!

Ohh & Betty White is on TV, I hope she lives forever! LOVE HER!

Goodnight.

Mend.

No school today. No snow today. No ice today. Why was school cancelled? LAME! Surprised that someone is actually upset over missing school? Well it's my favorite thing. Umm nothing really to say, did my homework except one journal. Rented movies with the Roomie & now I'm a Glee fan, sorry haters! It's an art thing.

As for everything else. The Question has been answered, & a heart will mend in due time. I had the best times and times I will never forget! Thanks for showing me things and being here for me.

This may confuse some but that's okay I just needed to write it so it's not beating on my chest.

"There may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning"

Snow...?

I WAS PROMISED SNOW! AND REALLY WANT TO BUILD A SNOWMAN!!! It could be a pretend White Christmas!

So we had classes this morning unlike a lot of the schools surrounding us. Did it snow? No. Did it even sleet [aka Texas Snow]? NO! Was it cold? Yes! That's it! Luckily work got cancelled for me, so I have THREE days off! Which I need, I still have a pile of homework sitting on the table and plenty of relaxing to catch up on. Just hoping to get that Student Loan check in [aka monopoly money] so I don't have to worry about rent too much. And I'm also looking into Study Abroad, choices are Summer - Beijing, China or Orvieto, Italy in the Fall. If I take the Fall I will either not walk at Graduation since I'll be coming back from Italy or I will have to push my graduation back one quarter... I will take either of those two options because I would absolutely LOVE the chance to see Italy! The only downfall I wouldn't be able to make a wedding cake from a friend of mine but she told me she would rather I go to Italy. So cross your fingers!

As for school today we have reached the Central Plains, that's all you readers from Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nebraska, & a few others. We made a whole lot but I don't have the recipes for many of them because the menu that was set for today we didn't do since there is a chance of not having class tomorrow. Here is the list of what we DID make today and if you want the recipes just comment and let me know that you want it. I will however give you the recipe for Brownie Pudding Cake that I made and everyone really liked! So the things we made were: Corn & Wild Rice Cakes, Kansas city Style Ribs w/ Steak Fries, Brussel Sprouts & Mushrooms & Macaroni, Deep Dish Pizza, Beef & Barley Soup & the DEEELICIOUS Brownie Pudding Cake. However I do have a pictures of the Soup and Cakes. It was a wild random day in class today! Chef just wanted to get as many things cooked as we could today AND bonus he bought everyone a drink from the Deli to go with our meal! Super awesome Chef - I think so! Just wait till you see the picture of him at the end! He wore the coolest hat but took it off because of haters in the hall!

No work today because there is a chance we won't be open tomorrow so I would be prepping for nothing and just wasting food. So I got to take a really long nap then watched the telly, absolutely nothing seemed to be on today and I didn't do any homework HA! I will knock it all out tomorrow, it's my next day off. Hopefully I can just stay focused long enough. I did however make my famous Cookie Cake! YUM. Tomorrow night finally talking about the past three weeks & making the next move. Not sure how the night will go but I will take whatever happens as a lesson and hold my head high and stay positive. I trust God and His plan for me, my faith is in His hands. Until then enjoy the recipe [I highly recommend this cake too it was SO GOOD!] & the pictures!

Brownie Pudding Cake:

All-purpose flour 1 cup

Cocoa powder 2/3 cup

Baking powder 3/4 tsp

Salt 3/4 tsp

Sugar 1 cup

Butter, melted 6 Tbsp

Heavy cream 1/2 cup

Eggs 2

Vanilla extract 1 tsp

Water, boiling 1 1/3 cup

Brown sugar 3/4 cup

[Beef & Barley Soup. And Corn & Wild Rice Cakes - they look nasty but if made correctly aren't too bad]

& this is our Chef in his AWESOME hat! If you're hating you should probably stop drinking your Haterade and recognize! ;)

Recipes from last week!

Happy Groundhog Day! Hope you aren't suffering from the rolling power outages or cold winds! Glad it's my day off, I'll only be leaving to get a few groceries and some aspirin, if I decide to face the wind! So you know I haven't been able to get you the recipes from my American Regional class last week due to EBooks being one of the worst things invented! But now I have the new version updated and the books back so NOW you CAN have the recipes from Week 3, Cajun & Creole week! This was such a DEEEELICIOUS week too! You'll get the recipes and right under a picture of it so that there is no confusion! Enjoy!

DAY ONE

Chicken & Andouille Gumbo:

Seasoning:

Salt & pepper 1/2 tsp each

Cayenne 1/2 tsp

White pepper 1/2 tsp

Paprika 1/2 tsp

Garlic powder 1/2 tsp

Gumbo:

Chicken thigh meat (1in dice) 2 cups

Onion (1/4in dice) 1 cup

Green bell pepper (1/4in dice) 1 cup

Celery (1/4in dice) 3/4 cup

All-purpose flour 1 1/4 cup

Vegetable oil - as needed

Chicken stock 7 cups

Andouille (1/4in dice) 1 1/2 cups

Garlic, minced 1 tsp

Salt & pepper - to taste

Fried fish in Pearly Meal Remoulade:

White fish fillets 4

Cold milk 1 cup

Deep frying vegetable oil - As needed

Yellow corn flour 1 cup

Yellow corn Meal 1 cup

Salt 1 1/2 tsp

Black pepper 1/4 tsp

Cayenne - Pinch

Romaine lettuce 1 cup

Remoulade Sauce 1 cup [recipe to follow]

Remoulade Sauce:

Green onion 4-5

Celery 1/2 cup

Parsley spring 2

Creole mustard 3 Tbsp

Paprika 1 Tbsp

Salt 1 tsp

Black pepper 1/2 tsp

White wine vinegar 1/3 cup

Lemon juice 1 1/2 Tbsp

Basil, chopped 1 tsp

Olive oil 3/4 cup

Green onion (1/4in dice) 1

Celery (1/4in dice) 2 Tbsp

Parsley, find chopped 1 Tbsp

Basic Boiled Rice:

Long grain rice 1 cup

cold water 2 cups

Salt 1 tsp

Butter 1 tsp

This is the center of the Crawfish Etouffee'

Crawfish Etouffee':

Butter 6 Tbsp

All-purpose flour 1/4 cup

Onion (1/2in dice) 1 cup

Green bell pepper (1/2in dice) 1/2 cup

Celery (1/2in dice) 1/2 cup

Garlic, minced 1 Tbsp

Crawfish tale 1 1/2 cup

Crawfish fat/butter 6 Tbsp

Salt 1 tsp

Black pepper 1/4 tsp

Cayenne 1/4 tsp

Lemon juice 1/4 tsp

Green onion tops (thin sliced) 1/3 cup

Parsley, minced 1 Tbsp

Fish stock 3 cups

You can also make Okra to top off the entire plate

Bread Pudding with Whiskey Sauce:

Bread Pudding:

Milke 1 cup 6Tbsp

French bread 2 cups (needs to be set out for a day, 1 1/2in dice)

Egg, beaten 1

Sugar 1/3 cup

Vanilla extract 1 1/2 tsp

Cinnamon 1 tsp

Nutmeg 1/4 tsp

Brown Sugar 2 Tbsp

Butter 1 1/2 Tbsp

Whiskey Sauce:

Butter 1/4 cup

Confectioner sugar 1/4 cup

Egg, beaten 1

Bourbon 1/4 cup (we added double that)

DAY TWO:

Red Beans & Rice:

Red beans 2 cups

Onion (1/4in dice) 1 cup

Green onion, chop 1/4 cup

Green bell pepper (1/4in dice) 1/4 cup

Parsley, minced 1 Tbsp

Ham (1/2in cubes) 1 cup

Bacon (1/2 in cubes) 3/4 cup

Ham hock 1

Salt 1/2 Tbsp

Black pepper 1/2 tsp

Garlic, minced 1/2 Tbsp

Cayenne - Pinch

Red pepper flakes - Pinch

Bay leaf 1

thyme 1/2 tsp

Basil - Pinch

Water or Stock 1 1/4 qts

[photo not of our teams]

Creole Jambalaya:

Vegetable oil 2 Tbsp

Chicken 1

Onions (1/2in dice) 4 cups

Green bell peppers (1/2in dice) 2/3 cup

Green onions, thin slice 3/4 cup

Garlic, minced 1 Tbsp

Parsley, minced 2 Tbsp

Baked ham (1/2in dice) 3/4 cup

Lean pork (1/2in cubes) 1 1/2 cup

Smoked sausage (1/2in slices) 3 cups

Salt 2 tsp

Black pepper 1/2 tsp

Cayenne 1/4 tsp

Chili powder 1/2 tsp

Bay leaves, crushed 2

Thyme 1/4 tsp

Mace 1/8 tsp

Rice 1 1/2 cup

Chicken stock 3 cups

Fried Oyster Po'Boy

Oysters, shucked 24

Salt & Black pepper - To taste

All purpose flour - As needed

Egg wash - As needed

Bread crumbs - As needed

French bread (6 inch sections) 4

Iceberg lettuce, shredded 2 cups

Tomato, sliced 2

Lemons 2

Vegetable oil - As needed

Remoulade Sauce - From Day One - As desired

We also made Pecan Pralines and since one of our girls on the team is from Louisiana we decided to use her recipe not the books because Chef said the books really wasn't all that grand. And I also found some Peach & Blueberry Cobbler in the class fridge so I made Country Biscuits from scratch, they were SOOOO GOOD! I love that we are allowed to cook whatever we want sometimes! I love school and my team and my Chefs and my classes! So I know this was a lot of information for one blog but we are now officially all up to date on recipes! If you have any to share with me please go ahead and let me know I love trying new things, whether it's food or dessert! And the last picture is of my car remember how I said it got post-it note attacked, well it wasn't a full on attack or anything but it sure got hit.

Have a wonderful day everyone! I'm going to finish some homework, just THREE journals left! I'm almost caught up! Then it's movie/game night with some friends.

Bon Appetit!

Frost

Finally the end of Tuesday! And it's FREEZING [at least for Texas] Yesterday was a GORGEOUS Monday, few clouds, bright sun, warm breeze! Today COLD! Strong wind, FREEZE warning and this morning in 20 minutes the temperature dropped 20 degrees! Holy Cow! Texas why are you so bi-polar?! Luckily living in the city part of town we don't get that huge drop so fast "luckily," it's still cold! I came home from work to find on my door the apartment complex gave us guidelines to Freeze Warning Safety. Thankfully I don't have to work tomorrow or go to school so I don't have to be on the road with the crazy drivers around here who have never drove in weather conditions such as these. But I hope if it does snow, it snows Thursday so I can have three days in a row off, that'd be cool!

Well let's start tune to a different note though, class time and I've got new recipes & photos. We finished the L'Operas today to be boxed up and sold, assembled the Classic Genoise & did our 4th plated dessert! I liked this one and it tasted great too! We also got to temper white chocolate for the L'Opera which was really cool since white chocolate is my FAVORITE! And I got to take a slice home - YUM! Just ate half of it actually. As for actually baking today it went well I assembled the Classic Genoise and the smaller ones that were to be used as the platings. The only thing that really went wrong with what I did was they weren't frozen by the time it came to plate, so make sure you let them freeze LONGER than an hour, aim more for 2! The reason behind our delay was how long it took for the Raspberry Mousseline to be made. The clear caramel sauce was a rough patch too but it was saved and in the end it was sooo good! It had an orange and lime zest added to it, much better than just a caramel sauce. And lastly we made a Cheesecake, which I have never done and I didn't make it today but I got to see how it's made, quite interesting. And now, here are your recipes.

Raspberry Mousseline:

Raspberry puree 1 1/2 lb

Granulated sugar 9 oz

Water 3 fl oz

Egg whites 5

Sheet gelatin 15 grams

Heavy cream 1 pt (soft peaks)

To fill the Classic Genoise you make a Raspberry Mousseline & the simple syrup flavored with half a lime juice. To assemble the cake you need 3 layers of cake and 2 THICK layers of Mousseline, Cake, simple syrup, mousseline (repeat) the top layer of cake does NOT have anything on top of it. Assemble in a ring if you have one.

To make the plated dessert use a flex pan mold fill with the Mousseline add and cover a small ring of the classic genoise cake. Freeze for two hours then plate with Clear Caramel Sauce

Clear Caramel Sauce:

Granulated sugar 8 oz

Corn syrup 1.5 fl oz

Water 9.5 fl oz

Orange juice 1 fl oz

Vanilla Bean 1/2 tsp

Orange zest 1-2

Lime zest 1-2

Cheesecake (*Variations)

Crust:

Graham crackers, crushed 8 oz

Butter, melted 3 oz

Batter:

Cream cheese, room temp 1.5 lb 3 oz

Granulated sugar 7 oz

Eggs 4

Corn starch 1 oz

Vanilla extract 1/2 tsp

Flavor

Heavy cream 7 fl oz

Other than school, just work and that was super easy got off TWO HOURS early! That was wonderful! Took a coworker home so he didn't have to walk 4 miles in the cold weather! Then started my homework, just need to finish one journal and I'm done for the night. I will just have 3 to do tomorrow before Movie Night takes off (7PM, plenty of time). Now I realize I haven't left a good quote in a while so I've got one for y'all now.

Enjoy! & Bon Appetit

The trouble with weather forecasting is that it's right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it. ~Patrick Young

I was just thinking, if it is really religion with these nudist colonies, they sure must turn atheists in the wintertime. ~Will Rogers