Plated Desserts, Berliners and Line-O-Rama

So today I pulled into the parking lot at school and was sitting in my car when one of my classmates pulled up next to me.  As I'm getting out of the car she says, "Do you know why I'm late today? It's your fault..." Now granted, she does usually get there a few minutes before me, but there's still 15 minutes until class starts so I'll bite, "What did I do?"  "I got distracted reading your blog."  Well look at that, I'm officially contributing to the delinquency of my classmates.  Score one for the dark side.

A little while ago we learned out to make truffles and molded chocolates (bon bons!), which I'm sure you'll remember as the incident with my 3rd broken chocolate thermometer *mumble mumble*...
Anyway, before my ridiculous mishap, Julie and I actually made some pretty cool looking chocolates.  These ones make me think of Superman's fortress of solitude.  You know, if it was made out of chocolate and had a white chocolate praline filling...obviously.

More recently we've started learning how to put together plated desserts - what flavors go together, presentation style, etc.  We also have to hand in a menu project by Monday, June 7th, which is essentially us creating our own dessert menu without worrying about cost or product availability.  There has to be at least 5 items on the menu, and each one has to have 4 elements: main, frozen, sauce and garnish.  I have a few ideas so far, but I'm having trouble coming up with a solid theme other than "pirates" - any ideas from the masses?  And by masses, I of course mean the 5 people that read this blog (hi guys!).

So yes, last week we worked on a lot of elements that wound up going into massive plated dessert turnouts for us to serve to the rest of the school.  During the first part of last week, Julie and I wound up making a vanilla bean ice cream, pineapple upside down cake, chocolate doughnuts and decorative tuille cookies.  It was really a lot of fun, and we had a great time playing with everything - especially the cookies.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Those are our chocolate glazed doughnuts on the right.  The Chef even told us that they were the best chocolate doughnuts she'd had made by a student team - score for us!  It was especially funny because later that night I was casually mentioning to Dave that we'd made chocolate doughnuts in class and I have to tell you, I've never seen his head swivel so fast!  When he found out that I didn't bring any home he started giving me the lip and the sad face and it was all I could do not to giggle.  I tried explaining that we were supposed to put everything we'd made on the buffet, etc. and how the Chef had said how good they were and he looked at me with a completely straight face and said, "Oh, so Chef Katie gets to try them, huh?  Maybe you should marry her instead!"  Seriously folks - nothing but comedy gold over at the Kelly household.

One of the team made actual "berliners" which if you're either a fan of Eddie Izzard or of German, you'll know it means doughnuts.  I was a little disappointed that Chef Katie didn't tell us a story (knowing how much of a history nut she is) about how when President Kennedy said "Ich bin ein Berliner" he meant to say "I am a Berliner", but what he actually said was, "I am a doughnut."  (Watch the video link from Eddie Izzard's name, you won't be disappointed)

Angry moose cookie

Instructional spoons

This is what you're supposed to say while eating my desserts!

Also, you should be a fan of these guys

Examples of some of the awesome plated desserts

Kiwi sorbet with crepes, a tuille and raspberry sauce

The second half of last week was a bit tumultuous.  A ton of people were out on Thursday, and then about 30 minutes into our class, Chef Katie wound up having to leave because they were readmitting her father to the hospital (p.s. I've heard that they just released him today - hooray for medicine + positive thinking!).  So needless to say, things were a bit nutso at the beginning.  She actually had Julie & I scheduled to work in tandem with another group, making a bunch of petit fours for a platter and individual plates.  This wound up being kind of a funny pairing because as luck would have it, both Julie and one of the girls from the other pairing wound up being 2 of the 5 people out that day.  It all turned out okay in the end though, because Val, the other team member who was there, and I wound up working really well together.  It was actually kind of fun, because there were just two of us and we had two big tables at our disposal so we wound up getting a lot done and had the opportunity to get a little ambitious.  Over the two days (our partners were both there for the second day) we wound up making financiers, mini milano cookies, almond slices, brownie bites, marshmallows and little lemon curd tartlets that were freaking out of this world!  In an effort to not be wasteful, we also took the leftover short dough that we used to make the tart shells, rolled it into logs which we then rolled in cinnamon sugar and then sliced them for more delicious cookies. 

Petit Four Platter

We also wanted to take advantage of our chance to be really creative and decided that I should make some actual plates for our petit fours out of meringue.  These wound up being really cute and we got a lot of compliments from the other students in the school.  Here's a picture of one of our plates with a marshmallow, financier, milano cookies and a tartlet on it:

Who doesn't love an edible plate?

Unfortunately I didn't get a lot of pictures of the other plates, but here's one of some awesome apple strudel with ice cream, caramel decorations and I believe apple chips:

 Another thing that's kind of funny is that it seems as though a lot of my classmates are so sick of dealing with BB that they're actively revolting against her.  Even her new partner, ML, is trying to make nice with everyone else because she finally sees how hard she is to handle now that she's stuck working with her everyday.  I'm convinced that she missed class on Friday for the sole purpose of not having to work with her for one day.  BB somehow managed to convince our substitute teacher on Thursday to let her make chiffon cupcakes.  We kept asking her why she was making them and she just said, "for the class" so we're like uh, they're for us?  Unlikely.  She didn't wind up finishing them until we were finished cleaning up the rest of the kitchen and they didn't look all that appetizing either.  So there we are...everyone else wants to go home, and she just puts them right on the rack along with her dirty pans and walks out of the kitchen!  I'm standing there checking off the end of the day jobs that everyone is responsible for and our sub comes in and is like, "someone has got to clean these pans, where did these cupcakes come from?"  So maybe she didn't really ask if she could make them?  I guess it doesn't matter in the end, I sure as hell wasn't going to clean those pans for her.  I told him whose they were and I guess she must have eventually gone back in and cleaned them up, but I swear I saw her walk back into the building with a cupcake carrier as I was getting ready to leave.  Ridiculous.  It's completely obvious what she was doing...she wanted to make cupcakes for someone else but didn't want to use her own money to buy ingredients so she made them at school, even though she had a lot of other actual assigned work to do, which is evident by the fact that she finished up so late!   Arghh!!!  I just keep reminding myself that in two weeks I won't have to deal with her anymore, and hope that will carry me through till internship time.

Now as promised, here are some classic Mark to BB lines for the end of the day:

- As she's sweeping up the kitchen floor at the end of the day, "Don't mess up that broom, remember it's your ride home."
- As she's unleashing her crazy loud, scary laugh, "BB (actual name removed to protect the insane)! Use your inside cackle!"

Short Post

If I ever told you that I wasn't concerned about finding an internship when school ends....well, I lied.  I'm a liar.  A big, crazy, knitting liar.  I'm terrified!  I don't think I fully realized that school is ending in two weeks.  Two weeks!  Can you believe that?  I've been so preoccupied with other things that it didn't even occur to me that June 10th (my last day of classes) was so quickly approaching.  None of the places that I've applied to have either gotten back to me in the first place, or if they have, it's only been to tell me that they don't take interns.  Who's going to say no to free labor?  Hopefully I'll find something soon, it's just scary not knowing when the end date is in sight.

I got my final grade for breads - 98!  That's just crazy talk.  Anyone who knew me in high school is scratching their heads in disbelief right now.  That's probably also because, as of now, I have perfect attendance (what??) for the first time in my life.  Seriously, I've never once cared about not missing classes until now, which is funny because I think I only have one other classmate who hasn't missed any either. 

Unfortunately I can't post much right now, but I promised to put up a much more detailed post tonight with lots of pictures.  Here are some previews to hold you over till then:
- Ice Cream & Doughnuts
- The revolt against BB, complete with line-o-rama courtesy of Mark
- Cookie spoons
- A new Mario Brothers cake
- Petit fours with edible plates

That's all for now, but I would like to make a request.  My instructor's Dad has become very sick, very quickly.  He has a incredibly aggressive form of lung cancer that has now spread to his bone marrow.  We're all trying to keep it together for our Chef so that she can take her mind off of things every once in a while, but I'd like to ask for your help.  If you can please keep Big Mike in your thoughts and prayers, I know it would really mean a lot to his whole family.  Thank you, so much.

Love,

Brooke 

Death to all Thermometers

Seriously guys, you can't take me anywhere!!  I just broke the third chocolate thermometer that I've had in my possesion.  Third!!!!  The first broke, as you know, right after I opened my toolbox for the first time in February.  The second one I didn't actually break, but I ordered it online and came pre-broken (thanks?).  And this is what just happened with the third...

We were making molded chocolates today, and I was determined to make my mother proud.  After all, she is queen of the chocolate molds.  So I tempered my chocolate and Julie and I made a praline mixture to fill the chocolates with.  I wound up picking this cool, conical looking mold (pictures to come later) and started making the shell for my chocolates.  After they were firm enough, I filled them with the praline, capped them off with the rest of the chocolate and stuck them in the fridge to harden completely.  Now, as I was trying to unmold them, the Chef was showing me how to whack the mold on the table to relase the chocolates.  So there I was, whacking away (dirty) and all of the sudden I notice this splatter pattern on my now empty mold and on part of my table.  It looked kind of like thinned out raspberry jam and I couldn't for the life of me figure out what it was.  So I asked one of the other girls - "what is that?"  And all of the sudden the Chef is like, "You must be bleeding!"  I yell out, "I am??!!" and start searching my hands, expecting to have somehow accidentally cut off one of my fingers without even feeling it.  But no...what did I actually do?  I accidentally whacked the chocolate mold down on top of the chocolate thermometer that the Chef has lent me (because as you know, I'd already had 2 broken ones...) and shattered it.  That reddish-pink substance?  Oh that would be mercury...

Mercury!!!!

Lock me up, I am a menace to everyone!  Even the Chef made a joke about me not practicing Brooke safety...

I am so mortified.  I managed to clean it up and swore to Chef that I would buy her a new thermometer but she brushed it off and told me not to worry about it at all, that extras like that she's not worried about.  Luckily it didn't seem to get on any of my chocolates, I inspected them thoroughly and even Chef said that they would be fine.  *sigh*  Just another day when I thought about taking the day off to rest up....one of these days I'm actually going to listen to myself and just stay home.

Attack of the Ribs

Have I got a story for you.

Last Friday was an epically strange day, and please believe me when I tell you that the whole time this was going on, I kept feeling like I was trapped in this movie.

But I'm not even supposed to be here today!

When I woke up that morning I was feeling the extreme pull to just stay in bed and hide under my covers until work that afternoon.  I even rolled over and asked Dave what he would think if I stayed home from school that day and he just said, "It's up to you."  And he's a guy, so there's no weird subtext hidden under there, he really meant that it was up to me, but I just couldn't handle the guilt of staying home when I wasn't deathly ill, so I trudged into the shower and headed off to school.  It was our first day in the kitchen after breads, and unfortunately Chef Katie wasn't with us because she had to be with her father in the hospital.  We wound up having the same substitute as we did from this post, but I wasn't that worried.  I knew we weren't doing anything too crazy, plus, there was an ace in the hole that I would've punched myself in the face had I learned later that I'd stayed home and missed it...BB wasn't there!!  I can't remember her ever missing class before, but apparently she was out of town over the weekend so she didn't come in on Friday.  This was the best thing ever, especially because she has a little crush (and by crush, I of course mean that she's a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen) on our substitute Chef.  So really, I was happy for him because it meant that he wouldn't have that scared squirrely look on his face, or have to back out of the room so as not to have to show any weakness.

But I digress...

We found out that for that day we'd be making challah (holla!) solely for the purposes of turning it into bread pudding later on in the course, peanut brittle and marshmallows.  We'd made the dough for the challah already, and our Chef wanted us to start the morning with that, but it needed to rise/come to room temperature after being in the fridge, so we all started getting everything ready for the peanut brittle.  So far so good, Julie and I were placed at the work table at far end of the kitchen, right in front of the first oven, so we took it upon ourselves to turn on the ovens to get them ready for the challah baking later in the morning.  However, we noticed pretty quickly that one of the culinary chefs had commandeered the oven directly behind us for ribs...pans full to the brim of ribs and meat juice...trust me, this will be relevant later on.

The Chef showed us how to make a 6-braid on the challah, because even though we'll eventually just be cutting them up to make the bread pudding, it doesn't mean that we can't still make them look pretty - right?  This will definitely be something that I have to keep practicing to get perfect because trust me, the first time you do it it's mind-bending!  I think it came out pretty well for our first try though, so I'm pretty happy with our little experimental trial.

By now the smell of the ribs was wafting through the kitchen, not that it mattered how far it got since they were cooking 6 inches from my face.  It was getting worse too as everyone kept opening the oven, not realizing that it had been overtaken by enemy forces, eventually we had to make an announcement just to keep people from trying to barbecue their breads.  It's too bad Dave wasn't there...he probably would've just stood there the entire time, staring at the oven waiting for the ribs to be done.

The peanut brittle came out really well too.  I love peanut brittle...it's salty and sweet deliciousness, and it had the perfect crunch to it.  After I brought it home, Dave and I kept having to wrap it back up because we couldn't stop eating pieces of it.  I'm thinking about possibly adding it as an item for sale on my etsy site, what do you think?  By the way, did I mention that I had my first official etsy sale??  Someone bought one of my jars of hot fudge!  And the best part?  I don't even know her!  A complete stranger felt compelled enough to try something that I made!  

 Deliciousity

Around this time the rib smell was really starting to get to me.  I'm not a vegetarian, but I'm also not a huge carnivore either.  Maybe it was the fact that it was that it was that kind of smell at such an early morning time coupled with the fact that I was already feeling kind of out of it?  Who knows...all I can tell you is that I was not feeling so happy.  We made our marshmallows, but were having a hell of a time trying to get them off the silpats.  We kept trying to suggest that we douse them with powdered sugar, but the Chef kept insisting that we should have to need it because we had the silpat.  *sigh*  I'm hoping to get a different recipe from one of my classmates that she makes in a pan as opposed to piping out - I would definitely like to try making that one.  S'mores anyone?

So the main event...The evil rib Chef came back into our kitchen to collect his meat, and so Julie and I had to inch off to the side, but we were still blocked in by some of our other classmates, so there wasn't really anywhere to go.  So there he is, sheet pans full of ribs and meat juice and he had to do something to get rid of the juice before transferring them...so what would you do?  If you answered, "pour the juice on the floor in a cascading river of meaty flavor" then you are apparently on the same wavelength as him - because that's exactly what he did.  It got everywhere!  He was pouring it in an attempt to have it go into one of the grates in the floor (mind you, one that were never supposed to pour anything in to because it'll stink up the kitchen to high hell), but it still got all over the floor and splashed up onto Julie's and my stuff.  Julie's cookbook is now essentially a book of smelly meat - not fun.  So this is the point where I just couldn't take it anymore.  The smell, the sight of the meat juice and it getting everywhere just sent me over the edge.  I clamped my hand over my mouth and made a break for the kitchen door, bowling over the rest of my classmates as I went.  Luckily, I managed to make it to the bathroom in time before anything truly disgusting happened, and let me tell you, it's pretty embarrasing to be a grown adult hunced over the toilet of your school's bathroom.

Everyone was really sweet to me though.  My partner Julie was waiting for me in the lobby of the bathroom, glass of water in one hand and cool damp paper towel in the other.  I managed to pull myself together okay and made it back to the classroom.  Some of my classmates were even so kind as to start washing my entire toolbox and tool set while I was in the bathroom, just in case any lingering meat juice was on it - isn't that nice?  I couldn't stop laughing/crying, and the following snippet is part of a real conversation with my classmate Mark (if you aren't a fan of amusing, innuendo filled conversations, you may want to skip ahead):

Brooke:  You guys, that's so sweet...you didn't have to do that

Mark: Well, it was really just an excuse to see what you keep in here

Brooke:  You know Mark...you move really fast!  I told you earlier that I like your aftershave, and now you've got your hands all over my box!

Mark: Well, I'd never touched one before, I wanted to see what it was like!

Ha!  Plus, the best part was that the Chef was literally standing 1 foot away, shaking his head and laughing the entire time.  Then I tried to help my friend Michele put some of the rest of my tools away and she grabbed the box away and said, "First you try to steal my friend Monica, and now you won't let me have your toolbox?!  Geeze!!"  You win Michele, I am happy to share Monica's friendship with you.  We can work out the details of the custody agreement later. :)

Eventually I wound up going home a little early.  I didn't want to, but there wasn't a lot left for us to do that day.  As I mentioned before, the prospective students had kind of taken over the school by that point and were being served the evil ribs and other barbecue foods by the culinary students by that point.  Our substitute Chef was really nice to me too...he told me that he spoke to the rib Chef and told him that he can't do stuff like that anymore.  And seriously, who doesn't want to be known as the pastry student who got one of the teacher's kicked out of one of the kitchens.  You can't buy that kind of notoriety!  Ha ha. 

And on that note, I think I'm going to go needlepoint myself a pillow that says, "Real Friends Will Clean Meat Juice Off Your Tools."  No explanation needed...right?  Later that night I turned to Dave and said, "The next time I mention that I'm thinking about staying home from school, I want you to look me right in the eye and say, 'Well...you could wind up being attacked by meat juice.'"

And that would be the end of it.

Missing Home

This past weekend was an especially hard one to be stuck in Queens, when so many of the people that I love were on the other side of the state.  My incredibly bright sister-in-law graduated this past Saturday with a masters degree in mental health counseling, so my hubby dropped me off at school on Friday and then drove the 6 or so hours to Rochester so that he could be there for the ceremony, as well as Mother's Day.  I hated not being able to be there, but I would've had to miss my last day of breads before our practical began on Monday, and I would've had to miss two days of work.  Sadly, since Saturdays are the one day a week where I get the bulk of my hours from, it makes it both financially and responsibly unreasonable of me to try and take that day off from work.  My mom and my own sister also had some fun this weekend, taking the day on Saturday to drive to Toronto for an afternoon of shopping (I heard some nice vodka was purchased at the duty-free shop...haha) and a matinee of the show Mama Mia, which my mom is particularly fond of.  It seems so long since I had a real day off aside from Sundays (the one day a week where I don't work or go to school).  Sometimes I worry that I'm spreading myself too thin, but it is a means to an end.  To think...at one point I actually made a case for continuing to work full-time while going to school either all day on the weekends or at night during the week!  Now, just thinking about that makes me want to faint.

So, yes...breads are coming to a close.  Dave and I actually considered having me stay home from class on Friday so that a. he wouldn't have to worry about getting stuck in crazy LIE traffic on his way to Rochester after dropping me off and b. so that I wouldn't have to worry about getting to work late after finding another way home that afternoon.  However, as soon as I told him that we were supposed to make pumpernickel, rye and sourdough breads on Friday, he immediately told me that not only did I have to go to class, but that as soon as I got home I had to wrap the breads at once in saran wrap and aluminum foil and stick them in the freezer so that they would be there when he got back on Sunday night.  Word to the wise - never try to come between Dave and his rye bread.  By the way, did you know that the translation for pumpernickel is "devil's fart"?  No, seriously...it comes from the German word "pumpen", meaning flatulence, and "nickel" was a common term for demon at it's time of inception.  Also, when it was first being made, it was incredibly hard to digest, probably causing a lot of gassy grief.  Plus, it's dark color undoubtedly made the demon association all to easy to conjure up.  I just find it hilarious - devil's fart, devil's fart, devil's fart!  No need to tell me, I already know I'm like a 5 year old...

Last week we made boules of 7 grain bread, but I'm still having trouble rounding them so that they don't mushroom while baking.  I had to take a picture of this one though, because it looks so much like a butt...plus, to determine when a bread is done baking, you have to take it's temperature...I think the picture says it all:

On Friday we picked out of a cup the items we would have to make for our practical - 2 breads and 1 laminated dough.  I wound up with the fougasse, corn muffins and fruit swirl danishes.  We also found out that there would be a "surprise" bread that we wouldn't find out we had to make until Tuesday morning, the second day of our practical.  Nothing sends 19 pastry students into a panic quite like finding out that you're going to have to make something on the spot that you'll be graded on that day.  I refused to let myself freak out too much though, and luckily had taken a good amount of notes on the two breads that I had to make on Monday.  I made myself little recipe cards with all the info I need on them so that I could carry them around with me without having to look at my books and set to work.  On practical days, the general rule is that you can start presenting your products to the Chef at 11:30 and that you have to have presented by no later than 12:30 or you'll risk losing points.  Imagine my surprise when I actually wound up being the first to present that morning!  I had slight trepidation about it because do you really want to be the very first one to go?  What if the curve goes up after you've already shown?  There are a lot of ifs involved, but I'd already finished and cooled my two breads and finished 2 of the fold and turns on my danish dough, so it was time to just get it over with.  It turns out, I had nothing to worry about.  Chef Katie said that both of my breads were perfect and that my danish dough looked very good.  What a relief!  I'm loving this bread practical!  I finished folding and turning my danish dough and was ready to start moving right away at 8:30 this morning.  The day before, Chef Katie had mentioned that the surprise bread would be more difficult, but that since we'd already made our laminated doughs that we'd have plenty of time.  At that point I guessed that we were either going to have to make babka or stollen (which both come from the same dough base) and I was right, we had to make babka.  This wasn't so bad, and was actually kind of convenient since I just made 3 babkas last week for family members who like to complain that they never get enough baked goods to eat (that's right, I'm looking at you! ;) )  I started the babka, finished my danish and then eventually finished the babka...man, does it take a long time to bake!!  The Chef said that my danish were perfect (hooray!) and that if she had to say anything bad about it, that she couldn't think of anything to say!  That's my best compliment from her yet.  She said that my babka was very good, but that if anything, I could've put more filling (cinnamon/sugar, streusel & chocolate) in.  All in all though, I think it was a pretty successful practical.  I was actually one of the last people to present to her today because she wound up leaving class early (with some of the other teacher's pitching in to grade any leftover products) because her Dad is in the hospital.  If you're someone who likes to pray, or just keep people in your thoughts, please think of them over the next couple of days.  We could all use a little more positive energy in our lives.

 raspberry danishes

singular danish

Mihwa doing the big reveal with some of Julie's danish

On a more upbeat note, I busted out the personalize notebook and pen set that my friend Monica had made for me that say my name followed by, "Dessert Extraordinaire."  I was showing them off to some of my classmates, who were extremely jealous.  One even tried to steal it claiming that "her" friend Monica made it for her and who was "I" to steal it!  To which I retorted, "Oh yeah?  If she's your friend Monica, then what happened to her after eating Mighty Taco on a trip to Canada?!"  Unfortunately that story is a little too obvious and she guessed it on the first try, so then I said, "Okay, so what's her nickname?"  That's a much harder one to guess, so I triumphed.  The best part though, was when I revealed the nickname and one of the guys from the culinary class was standing behind me at the time - catching them off guard is especially amusing. 

I don't know if this happens to anyone else, but the longer I spend in the kitchen at school, the more I find myself using diner nicknames to refer to the rest of my classmates.  You know the type - sweetie, honey, sweetheart, sweetpea, darling, etc.  I always catch myself after the fact and always think it's a little strange, but no one else seems to mind, and in fact it's kind of catching - a lot of people are using these kind of silly terms of endearment towards each other.  Hey, as long as they're not calling each other terrible names, all the while beating each other with rolling pins - it's fine by me.

If you remember my post from May 6th, you'll remember that it was a somewhat arduous day concerning a certain pair from my class.  I tried to post these pictures then, but for some reason blogger wouldn't let me (but now will, go figure...).  So just in case you were wondering, this is what it looks like when bakers need to blow off steam.  Goodnight everyone!

Knitted Fruit, Bagels and the attack of Team Crazy

I'm sorry faithful blog readers! I know it's been awhile since I last posted, but I've been distracted making ridiculous things like this:

 Killer Banana - Half Zombie, Half Banana

Killer Orange - Disfigured by a Bendy Straw

Weird, I know, but I think they're fun.  Plus, I've decided to start trying to sell some of my stuff on etsy again, so if you're interested - visit my etsy site! 

So let's start with Friday.  We'd made the dough for our bagels, shaped and panned them and stuck them in the refrigerator so that we could bake them off first thing Friday morning.  The Chef decided to demo with Julie's and my bagels which was awesome because it meant that we were all set-up and ready to go while everyone else was still getting ready - awesome for us!  What we did was boil the bagels for about a minute in a rapidly boiling solution of water and molasses (or malt syrup), which will give it a classic blistered look on the outside, as well as start the cooking process.  Then we dunked them into an ice water bath before patting them dry, sprinkling with toppings and sticking them in the oven.

I

LOVE

BAGELS

!

They were so tasty.  here are some pictures:

Deliciousness!

The rest of the day was spent making quick breads.  Just like on our advanced cookie day, Chef Katie had each team make different items.  Julie and I were assigned carrot walnut bread and morning glory muffins.  I guess that the only quick bread I'm used to making is banana bread, but I just wasn't that excited about these breads, they both had a lot going on with them.  There was orange juice, grated carrots and apples as well as coconut (yuck) and nuts.  Just too much stuff for me.  It was also frustrating, because 2 of the ovens in our kitchen weren't working, so we had to use some of the ones in the kitchen next door.  The one problem with everyone making different recipes, is that all of the ovens have to be set to different temperatures, making it hard to get your products in and to keep track of everything, which leads to my and Julie's run-in with BB and ML.

Scandalous, I know - why would we wind up getting into any crazy dramatic-situations with them?  I'm still kind of surprised at what happened that day.  Julie and I turned one of the ovens closest to us to 375 degrees so that we could put the loaf of carrot walnut bread in, because it was going to take a long time to bake.  So the day went on, and we prepped our muffins and put them into an oven in the other kitchen.  Because we were working on different things and at our own speed, there was a lot of downtime in between recipes, so Julie and I took a break.  After awhile we went to check on the muffins in the other kitchen and came back in to see what was going on with the rest of the class.  That's when I noticed that the oven we'd put our loaf pan into now had a sticker on it that said 400 degrees, and it had been turned up.  Now I know that 25 degrees probably doesn't seem like a lot, but it makes a big difference and can throw a whole recipe off.  I asked my classmates nearby who had changed it and they didn't know, so I opened it up and saw that the only other people with a pan in there now were BB and ML - surprise, surprise....I should give them a team name...team evil?  Team crazy pants?  But I digress...anyway, I got a little mad and turned it back down, but it didn't really matter as our bread was now done, and in fact, a little crispy on the edges and burnt on the bottom.  Like I said before, I wasn't that fussed about this bread, but you still want your product to turn out well.  That's when the ladies in question walked in, Julie and some of the other girls told them what happened, and instead of apologizing (heaven forbid) they got super defensive and claimed that our bread had never been in there and that they had checked and we were wrong.  Seriously?  We told them they were wrong and that they should check a little more thoroughly next time and left.

That should have been the end of it, but out of the corner of my eye I saw them going over to the Chef and I knew that they were complaining about us.  This is ridiculous!!  They were complaining about us when they were the ones doing something wrong?  I honestly just don't know about them...they are by far the oldest people in the class, and yet they're the first to run to the Chef and whine about somebody else, as if they were 5 years old.  Anyway, it's not as if the Chef really thinks badly of us, or even spoke to us about it for that matter.  Later, ML even came over and apologized to me!  I couldn't believe it myself.  I popped my head into the Chef's office at one point and asked her if they had come to her about Julie and I, and without missing a beat she said, "Of course they did, why would you think any differently?"  I couldn't help but laugh - even she knows how crazy they are.

That's all for tonight...Dave is leaving in the morning for Rochester, which means that we have to get up extra early so that he can drop me off at school before leaving for the weekend.  I promise to post more tomorrow, which will also be our last day of breads before our next practical and exam!

p.s. I got my final grade for cakes - a 95!  Yay me!
p.p.s. I need to find a place to do my internship - do you know anyone?
p.p.p.s. Does anyone need a cake?  I need to practice to keep myself in top decorating shape :)