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 :)