My First "A"!

Hello all!

Guess what? I got my first "A" on my practical this past monday! Although, I am really happy with my grade, I think I am going to stop worrying so much about the grades and just enjoy my experience and learn from my mistakes. As long as I graduate and get my certificate, I will be happy.

This week went by pretty quickly. We had a practical on Monday and Part 1 to another practical yesterday (Friday). Here are my photos for the week. 

Monday 3.7.11

Practical #2. Biscuit and Muffin Method. I made Raspberry Scones and Blueberry Muffins. It was so funny, I really didn't like the way my scones looked at first. I thought my layers slid. I was done pretty early. I felt like I was one of the firsts done. That kind of made me nervous! Chef came by and asked if I was done, and I said, "yeaaaaaah". I was very hesitant. I told her I was nervous about my layers and she told me they were fine but just to make sure to press them down more to be sure the next time. She tried them and said they were a little undercooked. This made me really nervous because she wasn't actually grading yet. When she came by later when she was actually grading she told me everything looked good but just to make sure to scoop my muffins more evenly next time. You can see my little one on the top row there. Here is my "A" work! :) 

Tuesday 3.8.11

I have no pictures to share from this day. We pretty much did prep work for our Fruit Tart assembly for the next day. I worked with Rachel. We had to work with a different person again. We made Pate Sucree (used for our tart shell), Lemon Curd and Pastry Cream. Last time we made Pastry Cream our measurements were off or we forgot to add something so it came out very runny. This time, it came out better :) 

Wednesday 3.9.11

Fruit Tarts!

Today was so much fun! We made our fruit tarts. I walked in to class and one of the Chefs was helping our Chef separate assorted berries for each student in class. My mouth was watering and I wanted a photo so bad- so I did it!

Kinda cool, you can see my classroom a little bit. If you see that silver bowl in the back, that's the table that our Chef does her demos for us each day. I should take photos of our classroom soon so you can see were I spend everyday :) 

So we assembled our Fruit Tarts and we went WAY over our class time and ended up going home late. We have been working on group projects and we were supposed to present them but we didn't even get the time to do that! But our Fruit Tarts were gorgeous! However, Chef scolded me for placing a strawberry upside down. :( I don't even have to point it out, I'm sure you can see it. lol. Here is my large Fruit Tart:

Here are my minis:

Thursday 3.10.11

Today we made Baklava and Strudel.

They were really fun to make but I am not a big fan on the flavors of either of them. Strudel was fun to make. You have to stretch the dough really thin. Almost paper thin! It was amazing! I found this photo online of some Culinary Students stretching Strudel Dough. We worked in partners so it was only two of us working the dough. 

Here is our Baklava. Chef said it was pretty. She also said not to be afraid of letting it get darker. :) 

Here is our Strudel. Chef also said it looked good. I am not a fan of Strudel at all. It just didn't taste very good to me but it was very fun to make. :) 

Friday 3.11.11

Wow. Today was kind of a crazy day. First thing I woke up to was my boyfriend texting me about the tragedy in Japan. They were hit with a 9.0 Earthquake and massive tsunami. Hundreds are dad and/or missing. It's so sad. My heart goes out to them. The bay area was also on a Tsunami watch after hearing that Hawaii was hit with 7 foot waves. Santa Cruz was affected by the waves with several boats cap sizing. Very sad and very weird at the same time. Be thankful for every day you wake up.

Today we had Part 1 of a two-day Practical. Custards and Tarts was our Practical. We all had to make a fruit tarts and Creme Caramel or Creme Brulee. I made Creme Brulee. Yum! Since it's two-day practical, most of the work we did today was prep work again and the assembly will take place on Monday. Pictures will come next week. My Creme Brulee was taking FOREVER to bake! Hopefully they came out ok or else I'll be very sad. 

One of the Externship Advisors spoke to our class today about the importance of taking good photos of our Products. He said to take thought of the photos we take and really try to make them look nice because as a Baking and Pastry Student, it's a great asset to a resume. So you will be seeing a lot of nicer photos of my products now. He also advised that we take a self protrait so that should be coming soon. :) So, since he encouraged us to take nice photos... I jumped right on that. Jeffy has a nice camera and with some tips our awesome friends, Oui, Patrick and Ann taught us we were able to take some nice photos of my Baklava and Strudel.

Alrighty everyone! Thanks for anyone who reads this! I hope it is entertaining! :) 

I started feeling kind of icky yesterday and I'm trying to shake it off so I don't get worse and miss school. I am off to study and rest here at Jeffy's house! 

Happy Saturday night everyone.

With Love,

Adriana 

(originally posted 3.12.11)