Oh my gosh! I just had the best morning! I spent 5 hours baking fresh croissants and danishes with the fabulous David Chow – he taught me a secret croissant recipe and will be teaching me a secret danish recipe that only 6 people in the world know. I have been sworn to secrecy, so the only way to experience it will be to have me bake them for you! I got to work with huge industrial mixers and bake food for the other Art Institute campus – SO MUCH FUN!!!!! I love my life as a pastry chef in training – life is just grand, friends!!
Apart from my amazing morning, this has been quite the eventful week! I had 4 midterms last week (gulp), all of which I did very well on – phew. Will I ever want to move into a new place and write 4 midterms in the same week again? No! But here I am – alive, no cuts, only a few bruises, a little smarter, and smiling – no harm done 🙂
This week was all about potatoes and starches in class. One of the unfortunate (or fortunate, depending on how you look at it) things about my fundamentals 5-hour-long cooking class every Monday and Tuesday is that I tend to eat my weight in whatever we are making for the day – so Monday, I stuffed myself with potatoes and inadvertently felt as though I myself had become a potato. Nice. Yesterday, I’m not sure I could have shoved any more rice or pasta in my mouth at one time. A very attractive sight, let me tell you.
Thankfully, next week is all about meat, and as a non-meat eater, it’s safe to say I will finally leave a fundamentals class with an empty stomach! Or maybe I will eat all the accompanying sauces with a straw and keep up with my track record. Who knows? All I know is I’m growing some nice extra padding on the BE-hind – it will keep me warm for my first Canadian winter since 2007 – perfect!
I must make mention of my dearest friend Coco, who innocently called me on Monday night, not knowing that I was carrying a 40 pound backpack, a 20 pound knife kit, a chef’s coat on a hanger, and a 30 pound Kitchen aid mixer in a giant box not fit for carrying, desperately trying to make my way home…on foot. I had to go one block at a time, because my forearms kept giving out from the weight, causing my fingers to undo themselves from their death grip on the bottom of the box! I explained this sight to Coco, who immediately changed her course in her car to get me. Apparently, I looked like some sort of new aged homeless person when she saw me with all my stuff. She immediately burst out laughing at the sight of me. I feel I would have done the same in her position. I was a hot mess!
The important thing is that the Kitchen aid mixer, my beloved and most prized kitchen toy (shh, don’t tell my other kitchen toys), has made it home to me! Check it out!
I leave with a final “Did you Know?” thought, one of the many I’ve learned thus far:
3 things to remember about poached eggs:
1. ALWAYS use cold eggs. Why? Because you want the egg to stick together as much as possible so it doesn’t fall apart in the simmering water
2. NEVER cook poached eggs in boiling water – the water should be simmering, which means slightly moving. Why? Because if the water moves around too much, your eggs will break up and be a hot mess!
3. ALWAYS crack your egg into a ramican and then gradually slide it in from the ramican to the water. Why? Because then you don’t risk getting egg shell in the water, and it’s much easier to boot!
Word.
