Pumpkin Oat n' Fruit Bread

I almost forgot! Here are the pictures of the creative baking project I did: Pumkin Oat n' Fruit Bread:

Exam Week

Today was my Bakery Skills practical final exam. I've never taken a practical final... so it was a bit awkward for an essay test-taker pro like myself. But, it wasn't too horrible. We had to draw a random sheet of paper and make whatever was on it. I ended up with Whole Wheat Soft Rolls and Standard Pie Crust. Luckily, I had made both before (except for the whole wheat... which was the tricky part). So, first, we had to convert each formula into the yield amount that Chef gave us. This would have been easy except my roll formula did not have any percentages. So, I had to convert the original weights into percentages, and then do the baker's percentage formula. Not the easiest feat. Especially, since we had never done that before. But, luckily, I studied quite a bit and knew how to do it. If you haven't ever done this before, this part of the post probably makes no sense, but just think of it as weird science/algebra - baking style.

The pie crusts came out great. I was excited about that. I got darn good at making the things the other day when Chef had Megan and I make 20 lbs. of dough... and all the pie crusts that come with it. But, we learned it, dangit! The directions were to blind bake one pie crust and not bake the other at all. And that was exactly what I did.

My rolls, however, were another story. They were just beautiful to behold (as you can see in the above picture), but weighed as much as a darn baseball. When I handed it to Chef Hallman her arm dropped. It was hilarious... at my expense, of course. Hah. I didn't let them proof enough before I baked them, sadly. With whole wheat flour, it takes longer for the dough to rise & proof because the whole grains react with the glutenin and gliadin... causing it not to rise as well. But, you live and you learn. And now I know: whole wheat flour = longer proofing time. Simple, really.

Tomorrow I have two written exams, so I won't be taking pictures (for obvious boring reasons). Wednesday I have my Culinary I written & practical exam. I shan't be taking any pictures, though, since I have to focus all of my energy on my knife cuts, veloute sauce, bechamel sauce, chicken fabrication, and chicken cooking. Sigh... lots to do in only 2 hours!

I'll blog about that later. Right now, I need to try my very hardes to motivate myself into studying. Yeah. We'll see how that goes...

Nearing the End

I cannot believe that my first semester of culinary school is almost over. It has flown by! Definitely a different experience than I expected. At first, I was very discouraged. Going from university-college to technical college was a larger, more difficult task than I expected. Then, things started getting excited. Instead of making stocks and soups, we were making real food. Then I started making good friends... and realizing what a gem the Rel Maples Culinary Institute really is.

All I have left is one week of school, and my exams. It shouldn't be too bad. In Culinary I we have a written exam and a practical exam, in Bakery Skills we have a practical exam, in Dining Room Management we have a written and practical exam, and in Human Resource Management we have a written exam. Luckily, I already completed my ServSafe Certification exam and passted! That was very exciting.

I will update later at the end of the semester. I need to post my photos of the Holiday Pumkin Oat n' Fruit bread I made for my baking creative project. All in good time...

Something Fishy...

Today was fish day in Culinary I class. I can't believe how many people don't like fish! It blows my mind. I wonder how many of them have ever had good fish, though. We are in a land-locked state, so it sorta makes sense.

We learned to filet a flat fish and a round fish. My group (Lanna, Mindy, and I) also got to tackle some mussels. The recipe was just for mussels, but we made a pasta dish with marinara for 1/2 of the mussels (top picture) and a garlic white wine cream sauce for the other portion (middle picture). Delicious.

Our other assignment was Flounder Patouille (the third picture down). Basically, that is just a fancy way of saying: seared flounder with red bell peppers, red onion, celariac, and terragon - wrapped in butter-coated parchment paper, and tossed in the oven for about 10 minutes.

Everything went pretty well today and I'm feeling quite good about my new cooking abilities! Today was our LAST culinary I class in the kitchen. Sadness! But, next semester will be fantastic! Good times...

Double Chocolate Chip

When Chef Hallman told us we could make any cookies (from the list) that we wanted... we went for the double chocolate chip ones. I mean... who wouldn't? They were DELICIOUS. Just so everyone knows.

We also made three peach pies (with double crusts - meaning there is a crust on the bottom and one on the top) in our group. We didn't get to try them, but ours looked amazing... as opposed to the other groups' pies that looked...well...sad. Haha. A trick that we learned is this:

- If you brush your pie crust with egg wash, it will brown & bubble

- If you brush your pie crust with heavy cream, it will look rich and shiny

We went with rich and shiny for something different. And, as I said before, it went over quite well. I hope that whoever gets to eat those pies appreciates them! (Granted, it could be me... tomorrow... in culinary cafe)

We also made Parker House dinner rolls - which were sorta fun, but not nearly as fun as making 2 lbs. of chocolate cookie dough. ;)

No pictures today - but, I'll try to take some on Wednesday. It will be our first production class. We will actually be serving real live people food that we made. Eeek! And... I'll be "chef of the day." Great. Haha. I'm sure I'll have some stories... and hopefully some photos to add to the blog as well.

My, Oh My, Sweet Potato Pie

How thrilled were we to be making pie in Bakery Skills? Quite. We were to make two flaky pie crusts, one graham cracker crust, one sweet potato pie, and one key lime pie.

Have you ever tried to make flaky pie crust from scratch? It is not an easy feat. It's quite hard to keep it from being too crumbly... which causes it to fall apart while trying to put it in the pie pan (not that that happened to me...). I definitely over-mixed my shortening into the flour. If you mix it slightly you'll get a flaky crust and if you mix it as much as I did, you get a mealy crust. A mealy crust might be desirable for a custard, but not so much for a sweet potato pie.

The pie filling came out quite well, though. Lots of brown sugar and evaporated milk (makes a more rich pie than whole milk). Yum. Mine might have gotten a little overcooked, but nothing too bad. You want the middle to be very jiggly when it comes out of the oven. Mine was only slightly jiggly. Fail. :)

The key lime pie came out pretty good... looking, that is. We didn't get to try either pie in class, but I got to taste the sweet potato pie today in Culinary Cafe. It was divine. I always thought pumpkin pie was the perfect fall pie... I was wrong. Sweet potato pie is amazing (especially with REAL whipped cream).

So, I am quite excited about the upcoming weeks. I have to make a ginerbread house or a specialty bread for the final baking project. I'll definitely put some pictures up of that. I'm also choosing my classes for next semester. Ace of Cakes... here I come (I'm taking cake decorating)!

Off to watch the most important election.... ever. I hope I won't have to stay up too late, considering I have to be in class at 8:00 am tomorrow. ;)

Offaly Good

Last Wednesday I had one of those moments when I knew I was doing the right thing - what I was supposed to be doing.

Las Wednesday was meat and poultry fabrication. Yep. We cut up raw meat and poultry. Most of the girls in the class were grossed out... and let everyone know about it. Not me! Lanna and I dove into that little chicken carcass like there was no tomorrow. I now know how to take a whole raw chicken and turn it into pieces that people might want to eat.

Justin and I made a whole roasted chicken and some smoked chicken breasts. They were delicious. One trick we learned, was that you don't have to roast an entire chicken on a rack. You can make your own rack from large-cut mirepoix (2 parts onion, 1 part celery, 1 part carrots). Just put a pile underneath the chicken, and let it cook. That way, it gets all that flavor, and air can still get up into the chicken. I thought it was quite fascinating.

Why is this post "Offaly Good," you might ask? Well, offal are all of the little bits and pieces that are a little, well, awful. Offal refers to the hearts, kidneys, sweetbreads, intestines, etc. from animals. The halloween Iron Chef was on the other night and it was "Battle Offal" in kitchen stadium. I thought it was pretty cool. One guy even made calf liver truffles. Yummmm.... We didn't get to do anything with offal in class, but we did get to talk about it a bit. In the end, it might have been better the way it was...

Sadly, no pictures today. I would have taken pictures of our beautifully roasted chicken, but my camera was dead. I'll do better next time. We'll be doing sandwiches and salads this coming Wednesday, so that should allow for some pretty pictures.

Carb-tastic!

Today was a day o' carbs (not that I'm complaining...). My group was assigned Tuscan Roasted Potatoes, Glazed Sweet Potatoes, Polenta, and Rice Pilaf. It was quite hectic at times, but (as you can see in the photo), we pulled through and came out with some very tasty, starchy foods.


We did make a few mistakes, though...

1. We over-boiled the Russet potatoes before roasting them, so they kinda fell apart in the oven. That's what happens when you are trying to worry about the three other dishes you are working on.
2. Before making the sweet potato dish, we had to bake them. I completely forgot to poke holes in the little devils and they exploded in the oven. Not very pretty. That didn't affect the taste or what the finished product looked like, but we sure felt stupid.
3. The rice pilaf actually went pretty well. We almost burned it, but ALMOST doesn't count.
4. Ahhhh the polenta... polenta, in case you didn't know, is basically yellow grits. You can serve it like grits, or you can spread it in a sheet pan, chill it, cut it into shapes, and grill/saute it. We wanted to do the latter. So, we made the polenta, added some reconstituted sundried tomatoes, rosemary, and garlic, and spread it into the sheet pan. Our sheet pan, however, was too large. So, when we pulled our polenta out of the fridge, we noticed it was about as even as the Smoky Mountains. Drat. We also ran out of time, so I cut them into uneven squares... not the most attractive polenta shape out there, I might add. But, they tasted great and had the right consistency. If only they weren't square...

So, all-in-all it was a sucessful day. We made the four dishes we were assigned, they tasted delicious, and we got to eat LOTS of carbs at the end of class. What could be better?

"I Would Buy One!"

Our assignment (after making literally tons of gingerbread sheets) was to make cookies... any cookies from a formula in our text book. My group (Megan, Jeff, and I) had trouble choosing between peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies. So, we made both.

They were quite easy to make... and were delicious. One woman in our class took a bite and said, "Oh... I would definitely buy these cookies." I thought that was a good compliment.

Did I mention they were HUGE? We use ice cream scoops to scoop out the batter onto the sheet pans... and I think we got the big scoops today. Either that or we were making them the size of our hunger. Never make cookies on an empty stomach.

So, it was an enjoyable day in the bakery. Good cookies, good times.

From Scratch

I though, how better to study for a baking exam, than to bake? So, that is what I did. I decided to make a yellow layer cake... from scratch.

So that's why cake mixes are so fantasmical.

I must say, though, I had a real sense of accomplishment when I put the first delicious bite of cake in my mouth.

Problems:

1. The cake is... umm... not yellow. It's white. I had to use rice milk mixed with evaporated milk instead of milk. Hah. Yes... I'm an odd one. I know this. But, it's all I had! I cannot imagine how that would have affected the cake color, though. Hmmm...

2. It was mighty dense. I figured it wouldn't be the same consistency as a cake mix cake, but it was pretty dense. It tasted wonderful, though. So, should I really complain? The one we made in school had a similar texture. Maybe it's supposed to be like that?

3. It took all bloody day! First you cream the butter & sugar, then you add a little flour, mix, then add a little milk, mix, then add a little flour... etc. It was intense. But, good things take a little effort. And it was definitely good.

I found the icing on the food network. Can't remember who's recipe it was, but it was GOOD. Pumpkin cream cheese frosting. Nice.

So, that was my messy, floury adventure in the kitchen for today. I also studied... a lot. I have to study some more tomorrow. I also have an exam tomorrow. On Suday. Yep. Good times.

Off to "Notting Hill." One of my favorites. :)

~ Mari ~

Growing on me like mold on blue cheese...

I wasn't convinced about this whole culinary school thing. It's rough, let me tell ya. I have one class that is honestly just learning to wait tables and serve people properly. NOT what I want to be doing with my life. But, we have made some better tasting food now:

Baking:

- Challah Bread

- Cinnamon Rolls (good god.... they were amazing)

- Banana Nut Muffins

- Yellow Cake

- Hi-Ratio Cake (sorta tasted like corn bread... weird)

- Kaiser Rolls

- Sandwich Cookies

- Hazelnut Cookies

- Orange Cranberry Biscotti

Culinary I:

- Brown Veal Stock

- Hollandaise Sauce

- Brown Chicken Sauce

- Consomme (very weird process on this one)

- Beef Bourguignon (yummy on mashed potatoes)

We've also learned some neato and not-so-neato knife cuts in the process. We practice our cuts on the mirepoix (onions, carrots, & celery added to stocks, soups, and braises) and many many MANY potatoes. This past Wednesday we all tried to cut potatoes into the "tourne" shape. UGH. I ended up cutting my thumb and my friends made letters out of the potato pieces instead. It was quite amusing. Chef Cairns had a chuckle at our expense.

So, it's growing on me... although some of the people in my classes are just downright mean! I don't understand it. So far I've had some pretty OK partners, though one or two have made me want to HIT them on the nose with a poorly-tourned potato or two. I have made some friends, though. Although, I'm in a weird spot - since I went to college, I am four years older than all of the high school kids and younger than the "adult" college students. I'm still trying to find my niche.

Get excited- my next culinary one class will be making Pasta Fresca (fresh pasta). I am QUITE excited. That I can get into.

I will try to be better about posting - I've been in a rut lately. I do apologize.

Spider con Babies

** Baby Spiders **

** Here the spider is eating a ladybug **

Culinary Adventures

I've always loved food. I can look through cookbooks for hours upon hours. I also always loved to eat. Well, that's not entirely true. If you know me, you know that my gastrointestinal system has always been a bit out of whack (and if you really know me, you know that is putting it lightly). I loved the taste of food, but was not a big fan of how food made me feel. So, I (along with the help of a surgeon) remedied that by having the old gallbladder removed. Good times.

Now that I am sans gallbladder, I am also sans tummy problems (for the most part). So, I thought about what I could do now that I am finished with UT. Mom, Dad, and I toured the WSCC kitchen and were blown away. What an incredible facility they have! And now, ladies and gents, I am a part of that place. I am in their culinary arts program and plan on getting an associates degree in both hot foods and baking.

I thought that I could use this blog to log all of my various culinary adventures for others to read, and as a way to look back on these two years to see how I will grow as a cook and as a person. So, prepare for some culinary adventures, folks... it's going to be a spicy ride.

Italian Adventures

Emilia Romagna

Castel'Arquarto Porticoes

Downtown Knoxville Alley

Downtown Knoxville, TN

Market Square Alley

Rescue

*Bullfrog in my front yard*

(I scared it back into the pond)

Stuck

Photoshopped photograph

Bubbles in the Grass

Spider in the Iris

- jumping spider in iris -

Bluebird Photographs

- the bluebirds -

Bluebird Egg Photographs

- 5 bluebird eggs -