August 17, 2007

I have another day off. don't get too excited...I have school on saturday! Anyway...my day started off CRAPPY! Let's begin with at 8:30 there was construction going on outside my house which forced me to wake up (THAT EARLY ON MY DAY OFF!!!) I then proceeded to put my recharged batteries back into my camera and it STILL is broken. So, I get dressed write down the address for the place I plan to get my legs waxed at and walk to fnac to get my camera fixed. They tell me they will send it in to see if it's covered in warranty and it will take atleast 3 weeks! GREAT...the post office lost my old one, and my new one is broken...cameraless again!! SO i then proceed to walk to the wax place. Well there is rue grenelle and blvd de grenelle. I mixed the streets up...so i wound up not going. Instead I went to monoprix to pick up my groceries for my cooking today! Well...they had most of it except for the two most imp things...poivrade artichokes and shrimp! ARGH! So i went home dropped that stuff off and went to Grand Epicerie where I spent and arm and a leg on 4 shrimp and artichokes! WASTE OF MONEY! I came home and Liz and i cooked my meal. In the process of it, I tried to catch a knife...almost cutting myself. But i did cut myself showing liz how one of the chefs taught me to sharpen my knives...atleast i know it works! Anyway...we started that process around 1ish and finished around 5ish and the kitchen smelled horrible! Well...the fish scent smelled bad after everything was cleaned....the food i made smelled delish! I did better this time. However, I still don't have most of the machines so I have to wait til my practice run. After that I started feeling sick again because once again I ate WAY too much of what i made...it's so good! SO i layed down for a bit, because I didn't have to be out til 10. BUT as usual, my phone rang. So i got up, showered, and got dressed. Left my house at 9:15 to wait for my friends at 10 who were LATE! Rodolfo and Manuel arrived first so we started to drink. Then Will and his friends Bobby and Adam came. Will looks great! It was WONDERFUL to see him! sadly, my camera was broken...but he took pictures so eventually when I get them I'll post them! Adam i didn't talk to much...but bobby...I'm in love! I could go into why....but I don't like to gossip about famous people :) Anyway...we had a great time. At around 1:15ish...i decided...time to go home because I have sugar practice tomorrow! Manuel got me into a cab safely. I went to bed around 2ish. I had a BLAST! Always great seeing old friends :) and meeting new ones!

August 16, 2007

Back to school! Today was the last demo in cuisine that i have to cook. I have three more demos next week but we don't have to cook them :) So today we learned tuna carpaccio, lamb stuffed with some yummy goodness and a bacon and potato cake, and a pear souffle with pear sorbet. All of it was tasty. The chef was running SOOOO late today that I had like 15 min to run down the street and get some food before my next class started. At 12:30 I had another 6 hour class of pulling sugar. I was speaking with my dad in the afternoon and he asked what pulling sugar was, so I thought i might explain a little. You boil water, granulated sugar, glucose (a form of sugar that keeps the sugar malleable for a longer pd of time and keeps it from crystallizing), and tartaric acid til it gets to a certain temp. You then cool it by pulling it til it becomes shiny and a texture that is a thick gum and it's still pretty hot and that's why i have blisters! Anyway...from 12:30 til 3 we pour sugar and pulled. At 3 we took a 30 min break and then from 3:30 til 5:30 we did more pulling. We finished class and cleaned up completely by 6. I'm really upset because my camera died. I did manage to take a few pictures of my work, but not as many as I had hoped. And today chef made us put them all in the center of the room, so I would have taken them of everyones to show you what the class is doing. Today chef said my work was great. He told me I am working much better than last time. the hard thing is, we keep switching chefs...so it's very annoying! Anyway...they've all seen my work at one time or another...so I know I have gotten better. Plus they all know what's good and what's not...so it doesn't really matter which chef tells me!





After class I ran errands to get NEW headphones for the 4th time!!! ARGH! Then I came home, ate dinner, chatted a bit online. Since i don't have school tomorrow...I'm deciding what i should do tonite! and i keep forgetting to mention...my roomie bought me a Remy stuffed animal from the disney store from the movie Ratatouille!!!! I love him! i've been sleeping with him! She knew i wanted one! It's great! Anyway...i'm outtie for tonite :) peace

August 15, 2007

I had today off. It was pretty nice...but I didn't cook. Not because I didn't want to, but because nothing was open and I didn't have time yesterday to go to the store to pick up my groceries to cook with. So what I did do was relax :) well, for the most part! I woke up at 10 and realized I couldn't cook, so I did major research. I gave up doing that after a while and decided I was annoyed and tired. So in the middle of the afternoon I took an 1.5 hr nap. It was then 3ish and I decided to do more research. I once again got very frustrated so I did what everyone does when they get frustrated...they clean!!! Ok...so maybe I am the only person who does that! but I need everything in my room to be spic and span for my parents who come SOOOO soon! So i cleaned my shelved and my desk! It's pretty now. Eventually I made dinner and tried to do more research, but I was just too annoyed! So i decided to watch a few episodes of Coupling. That put me at ease and calmed my nerves! Then I talked to a friend online and then at 9:30 my roomate came home and I told her my research dilemnas! Well...she whipped out one of her cookbooks and low and behold we found 2 recipes for me to use! So i am going to practice them on friday and see if they turn out! I went to bed with a little more comfort!

Aug 14, 2007

Today was a long and fun day! I woke up at 6 (earlier than normal!) and I got dressed really quickly, and left really quickly! I made a stop at the bakery, picked up breakfast, and went to a coffee shop by school, plopped down, got a coffee and began my studies yet again. I then went to school at 7:45 to get changed. At 8:30 I had more sugar pulling. Almost every blog is going to be about sugar pulling from now on :) Anyway...I already had broken blisters on my fingers, and my gloves broke two times (i bought new ones that sorta fit my fingers and were disposable and cheap!) But my pulling was getting better according to the chef. And I actually managed to make a rose today to take a picture for my readers :) Chef showed me yet another technique to strengthen my rose making ability. So i think I may be able to master this by the time we are done with sugar. I still have 12 more hours to go before my exam :) But I didn't do horrible...but my fingers are in a horrible state!!!



After class I decided to skip out on my NASTY practical and go to the gym then come home and study some more. I went to the post office on my way to school, then studied some more at school. At 3:30 we had our exam. It wasn't horrible. I blanked on the word redcurrants and put raspberries instead. And i missed some other things on that section...but that's only worth 1% of the whole exam. So oh well. And my favorite question on the exam was this...and I KNOW you can all answer this correctly (you are NOT allowed to do research...do process of elimination and I PROMISE you will get the answer right): Who invented cocoa powder?
a) Nestle b) Cadburry c) Johannes Van Houton d) Pouilane (which happens to be a bread company out here)
Ok go...EASY...it's not nestle or cadburry...those are chocolate companies. and it's not the bread company. SO you pick the one guy you've never heard of. DUH! so i reaseached the answer when i got home and it was right. I just laughed at that question on the test...it was so easy!!!! Anyway, I came home after school and I organized myself, read a magazine to relax, and then at 6 pm I left my house and walked to Dzintra's (pronounced Zentra). We were having movie night and dim sum with some people from LCB. It was SOOO much fun! I was with people who i don't normally go out with and it was a BLAST!!!! The dim sum was the spiciest thing i've EVER eaten!!!! it was amazing! And we watched the movie Deux Freres (two brothers) which has to be one of the most gorgeous movies ever....about two tigers who seperate and then find each other again! And they used real tigers! It was great! I left around 12 with the rest of the folk. I went to bed at 1. GREAT day!!! And I am pretty much done with school. Now I just need to make some cuisine dish, and some sugar sculpture and I'm done!!!!

August 13, 2007

Today was supposed to be exam day but it got moved to tomorrow which was SO nice :) At 8:30 we had our LAST pastry demo. It was on blown sugar and was SUPER boring. The coffee machine was broken so I couldn't even stay awake! During the lunch hour Manuel, Rodolfo, Kaitlin and I went for chinese food. It was a nice lunch hour. At 12:30 we had a cuisine demo. We learned Salmon tartare, Tuna burgundy, and creamy basmati rice with sangria jelly. I have ALWAYS finished everything in demo. Even if i am not in love with it...i finish it. I couldn't even finish chewing my tuna it was SOOO bad! NASTY. So tomorrow I am skipping my practical to study :) Much more important! After school Rodolfo and I went to the cooking stores to spend money...uh i mean get important things for our exam which inturn meant spending money! I then came home, packed my comforter amongst other things and went to the laundry mat where i believed I could get some better studying done (plus my comforter needed washing!) And I was right...i did study well...except for the cute boy who told me I left a euro in the machine disruption ;) But besides that...I studied a lot. I then came home...ate dinner and studied more. I am going to nail this exam!!!! I talked online, studied more, and then went to bed at 10 like i always do :)

Practique

I woke up at 10 am and got on the ball. Ate breakfast, threw in my laundry and began to fillet my fish :) From then on until 1 pm I was a cooking machine! I wont ruin the surprise of what I'm making for the exam until it's perfect :) But it turned out ok...with some tweaking it should be great! As I was finishing, I broke a bottle of wine in the fridge. So from 1 to 2 I was cleaning the entire kitchen and mopping the floor. It still smells like fish no matter how much bleach I used! I then showered and did my hair. All of a sudden i started to feel icky like i ate too much fish. So i took a short nap. Before i knew it, my phone rang and it was Rodolpho and Manuel asking if I was joining them for dinner. I had no clue what was going on because I was so out of it. So i got dressed real cute...then all of a sudden it started to downpour. So i changed my outfit for a rainy day and left. I got to Manuel, Rodolfo and a few of their friends and still wasn't very hungry so I ate their leftover salad and we went for ice cream and I NEVER pass that up :) Then at 8:15 Manuel and I left for a 9 pm showing of one of my favorite movies...SHORTBUS! manuel had never seen it so I HAD to take him to it :) He LOVED it as much as I do!!! I mean who wouldn't! ahhhhh memories! Anyway, I then came home and went to bed!

productif

Today my goal was to be productive...and i was just that! I woke up at 9 and went to my market! I bought almost everything I needed for my exam! After that I came home and got my knifes and went to the kitchen store and dropped them off. They were being sharpened while I went out dress shopping! And i actually got a graduation dress! I then walked back to the kitchen store to pick up my knives and they were free because i go to LCB! It was great! I then came home to drop off my stuff and Liz and I went to the Grand Epicerie to pick up the stuff I was missing for my exam practice. I then came home and did some research for my practice! Then Kaitlin asked what I was doing so we decided to go see a movie. I refolded all of my clothes and cleaned my room and at 8 pm we went to see Dreamland which was GREAT! It was a beautiful story. I got home at 11 and went to bed shortly after. It was truely a great day!