Just Little Old Me

Hello all!

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post. Things are going well, I'm feeling tons better. As I started to think about what to write for this post I realized that I have almost no profile or description of who I am an individual. Mostly, I think, the reason for that is because many of you are friends, family, and acquaintances who already know me to some degree. But then again, there are probably things you may not know about me (besides my ridiculous fondness for quotes with arts designs and pretty graphics and there's that whole pastry student bit).

So I found some questions to answer that might just give you more information than you ever needed to know about me.

Basics
Name: Rachel
Location: Chicago
Age: 25
Gender: Female
Main interests: baking, geeky things (Marvel comics, Doctor Who, Firefly, among others), cake decorating, some video games (PS3), Science (mostly astronomy, Astrobiology, and such), history
Education thus far: one bachelor of science, one certificate in baking and pastry, and Im in the process of acquiring another certificate in L'art de Patisserie.


LIVING ARRANGEMENT?
Apartment, two-bedroom, one roommate, one well-stocked kitchen, and one Full-sized Legolas cardboard cut-out.

WHAT BOOK ARE YOU READING NOW?

By The Sword by Mercedes Lackey, a favorite fantasy writer who has the ability to make her characters very real. I usually cry near the end of her books because I've grown so attached to the characters.


FAVORITE BOARD GAME?

Apples to Apples, Dix-it, or Pass the Pigs

FAVORITE MAGAZINE?

National Geographic, Cook's Illustrated, and Smithsonian are my top choices.

FAVORITE SMELLS?

Fresh or dried vanilla beans. None of that fake vanilla hogwash, thank you very much.

LEAST FAVORITE SMELLS?

Cigarettes breath is way up there.

FAVORITE SOUND?

This is oddly hard to decide... I don't really know.

WORST FEELING IN THE WORLD?

Being betrayed.

WHAT IS THE FIRST THING YOU THINK OF WHEN YOU WAKE UP IN THE MORNING?

Usually: no, no, you can't make me get up!! Oh, wait, there's coffee.....

FAVORITE COLOR?

Green, in most shades but currently favoring spring green, basil green, and sage green

WHAT IS MOST IMPORTANT IN LIFE?

Enjoying what you have and understanding that to live is a verb. I haven't quite fully grasped this concept yet.

FAVORITE FOODS?

No. I just.... This will turn into a post within a post. In the futures I'll do a favorite foods survey, but no here.

CHOCOLATE OR VANILLA?

Both have their place! As long as the vanilla is real and not artificial.

STORMS – COOL OR SCARY?

Neither. They are awesome, as in awe-inspiring, as the word was intended to be used. See the Eddie Izzard sketch:

http://youtu.be/SarfTyngMCE (as soon as I figure out how to embed videos I will, until then.... Just click the link, 'tis safe.)

WHAT WAS YOUR FIRST CAR?

2001 Honda Civic, and it's still going.

MEET ONE PERSON DEAD OR ALIVE?

Terry Pratchett

FAVORITE ALCOHOLIC DRINK?

Beer: Hopslam
Cider: Ginger Apple from Angry Orchards
Wine: a good Pinot noir or the Semi-dry Riesling from Shady Lane Cellars, Leelanau, MI
Cocktail: a Sidecar usually hits the spot

WHAT IS YOUR ZODIAC SIGN?

Gemini. *shrugs*

DO YOU EAT THE STEMS OF BROCCOLI?

Hell YES. Mmmm, broccoli.

IF YOU COULD HAVE ANY JOB YOU WANTED WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I don't know what job I want, and this is a current predicament.

IF YOU COULD DYE YOUR HAIR ANY COLOR WHAT WOULD IT BE?

I think dark green would be cool, but not practical in any way.

HAVE YOU EVER BEEN IN LOVE?

Yes.

IS THE GLASS HALF EMPTY OR HALF FULL?

It's always full, it's full of air and water!

FAVORITE MOVIES:

Not again. No. Don't make me chooooose! Oh, alright:

When Harry Met Sally
The avengers
Iron Man 1 & 2
The Waitress

DO YOU TYPE WITH YOUR FINGERS ON THE RIGHT KEYS? Somewhat, my pinkies don't reach some keys well (tiny haaaands *jazz fingers*), so my ring fingers pull double time.

WHAT’S UNDER YOUR BED?

Things that will not fit in my teeny closet and out of season clothing.

FAVORITE SPORT TO WATCH?

Baseball? I mean, if you go to a live game there's usually beer and hot dogs and that's a win in my book. Golf is also very zen.


IF YOU COULD BE ONE FRUIT, ONE ANIMAL, AND ONE POSSESSION OF YOURS, WHAT

WOULD YOU BE ? What the hell?

CURRENT FAVORITE QUOTE:

I Guess I'm a Zebra?

I got to experience spring break this year! Although, it really wasn't what I was hoping. Or planned. Actually. It was the worst spring break ever. Let me explain.

Thursday I started having gastro-intestinal discomfort which turned into gastro-intestinal pain Friday morning, which led to a trip to the ER on Friday evening. It was located in my lower right side so I was pretty sure, as was every doctor I spoke with, that it was appendicitis.

Finally, at last, after years of worrying that a pulled muscle or some mysterious pain in that general area was appendicitis... it was finally going to be appendicitis!

So, I'm admitted to the hospital, have an IV put in and have blood drawn for the first time since I can remember (one fear off the list, check) and they start giving me fluids and some pain meds. Blessed, blessed pain meds. It was a bit like being drunk, honestly. And on a cloud. I remember having a distinct feeling of being on a cloud. Or wrapped in a cloud.

Anyways.

I got to the ER at around 7:30 and was admitted close to 10 PM. By midnight I was wheeled into the ER hallway (so they could open up the room) to wait to have a CT scan so they could get a better idea of just what was going on in my abdomen. Thankfully I was not alone, when I called on my friends they were there for me in spades. One drove me to the hospital, and another sat with me through most of the night. Also, my BF was there and he was able to go back to my apartment and get things I hadn't thought to grab at the time (the pain was a little distracting).

Around 1 PM I think I was wheeled to get my CT scan, but it's a little fuzzy at this point due to pain meds and being incredibly tired.

When I was being checked up on by one of the admitting ER doctors (an awesome one by the name of Dr. M, she was personable, had a great attitude, and made me feel very comfortable) I mentioned that diverticulitis runs in my family. She noted it but didn't think it was likely due to my age.

Back to the CT scan, I was wheeled down (I did have to drink the barium and it's really not that bad, kind of like a sweet chalky smoothie, in my opinion there are worse things) to the scanner and they explained that they would be running iodine to contrast with the barium. Let me be the one to tell you that iodine is...weird. It's warm as it runs through your veins, almost in a scary way, but not unpleasant. I did have to pee at the time and the iodine didn't help. Luckily I was able to hold it until I could get to a bathroom.

Sometime between 1 PM and later Dr. M stopped by to tell me the results of the CT scan. I'll do my best to script the conversation, but, I was deep in the grip of pain meds and kind of out of it.

"So when the radiologist told me what she saw on your scans I nearly laughed," said Dr. M.

I don't know if I said anything or if I just blinked blearily at her but she continued:

"She told me it looks like diverticulitis!"

"Will I need surgery?"

"Most likely not, but a few members of the surgical team are going to come talk to you," finished Dr. M.

Two guys from the surgical team stopped by later. They prodded my stomach, checked where the pain was, and kept giving me strange looks and telling me how rare my case was. They also said that if they had to operate (they didn't think they would) they would have to take out half my colon. I let them know their expressions and tones were scaring me.

And they explained: "Well, you have to understand, we were expecting a horse, and we got a zebra."

Around 5:30 they finally admitted me into the regular hospital. I got a room to myself! Apparently that's standard practice at the hospital I went to. It was on the 13 floor and we had a great view of the new children's hospital across the way. BF went to explore later and it is sweet. Kind of wished I was a kid so I could have been admitted over there. Kind of.

I stayed in the hospital until Sunday afternoon. I was informed I did indeed have diverticulitis and will likely have to have an elective surgery in the near future. First I get the joy of an intimate procedure that I'm not sure is appropriate to mention on this blog. Let's just say that adults after the age of 50 should be having one on a regular basis. The good news is I recovered fairly quickly and only missed four days of classes. It's a lot but my body decided to pick slightly easier days to miss. Slightly. I still need to borrow notes and read through the recipes (and probably try them) before exams during the first week of April.

To end this long post, I'd like to end with this quote:

"Man plans and God laughs."

PS Can the weather please get it's rear in gear and make with the warm and the sun already??

She Believed She Could So She Did

I survived my first exams at FPS!

Not that I was overly concerned, but of course I was stressed and worried. Especially after the first day. For some reason, I'm just slow. And half way through the exam time I get really slow as I got hungry and find it hard to concentrate. I would walk to the sink and then wonder why I'm there. Oh right, to wash my hands. >.< I knew it was time to take a break, even if it was for only five minutes to gobble down something.

It's strange, we had made everything in class that we had to make on the exam, yet the stuff on the exam came out abut ten times worse for most people. One person was so confused she put a large amount of salt in her chocolate hazelnut cake. I heated my chocolate mirror glaze too hot (the recipe has it at the wrong temp and I forgot to write down the adjustment).

This meant that my glaze didn't properly cover my cake on the sides. See photo for evidence. The gouge on the side is from the trip home.

My buttercream cake came out freaking perfect! I was very happy with it and I have my experience at The Market and my past teachers to thank for that. And just look at that buttercream to cake ratio! I didn't measure or anything, I just put it on with a mini offset. Yay! I mean the buttercream cake and the gum paste flowers were essentially put together in the last hour of exam. I turned in my final stuff on time, on the dot. Which had our intern freaking out.

But we survived.

The rest of this weekend was spent volunteering and recuperating. On Saturday the FPS held their annual For The Love of Chocolate gala (8th annual). Many students from the school were recruited to work the gala, we had to be available from 1 pm until 1 am. It was fun at times, and of course some was tedious. But it was held in the gorgeous Union League Club. the Union League Club is 24 stories tall, each floor sports beautiful paintings and works of art. There was a rumor there was even a Monet, but I didn't have a chance to see it to prove its existence.

The gala took up several floors of the club and had a 1940s Hollywood Glamour theme. There was a fashion show with dresses made out of candy and napkins and other cooking items. Did I gt any pictures or take any? No, I only had my phone and the camera on that isn't very good. I took two photos and posted them to Instagram. One was of the dessert I helped a chef plate, the other was a rose I was given by a fellow volunteer at the end of the night. I did take a few photos with my camera, and when I get a chance, I'll post them.

I got home around 1:30 am. And I took it easy the next day.

Today we started our module on bread and breakfast pasties, which is being taught by Chef Patrice. Everyone loves him as an instructor so far - he's quiet, patient, and attentive. He's always ready to answer our questions.

But the only problem with this module is the amount of product we bring home. I was discussing this with Roomie and how there's the first world problems meme, but then there are French Pastry School Problems. I'll see about putting some meme photos together. :D

So it begins, the Dawn of the Bread!!

She Turned Her Can'ts into Cans and Her Dreams into Plans

I don't usually update so soon, but I just finished preparing for the first day of exams at FPS.

Gosh darnit this is going to be something else. Class today was spent doing nothing but planning for the next three days. We received our list of products that we must make (the chocolate hazelnut mousse cake, a pithivier, gum paste flowers, and a buttercream decorated cake (chocolate biscuit this time)). I've probably forgotten one BUT I have it all written down and I'm about to pack it all in my back pack. No way am I leaving without that tomorrow.

I guess I needed to write to get the nerves out of my system. A glass of wine only does so much, haha.

To help ease my nerves I got on Pinterest and checked out the quotes section. I love quotes, silly, inspirational, tongue-in-cheek, thoughtful, any kind really. Except overly religious, I don't mind them so much as I feel that religions isn't something I need to be shouting at the world. It's personal.

Anyways.

It took a while, lots of lovey dovey quotes right now for some reason, but I found two or three that really hit home. The title of this post is one, I loved the graphics for it as well:

A nice refresher about why I'm here, I'm turning those thoughts of "I can't do anything right" into "I sure can bake" and my dreams of doing something worthwhile that I don't find boring that will make me money (eventually) into my plans of finishing FPS and hopefully getting a job that pays (as a cake decorator or food stylist or food photographer, who knows, I'm not sure yet).

And it's all well and good to be thinking about what I can get out of this, but it doesn't help when I start to think about what I must finish over the next three days. That's when this quote popped up:

If I don't accept these challenges that FPS has placed in front of me, how I can change into a more accomplished individual?

Which lead me to this quote:

I know I want this more than anything. So, I'm going to rise to the challenge, take on this three day exam, come out with my head held high (no matter what), and know that in the end, it is worth it.

It's all worth it.

"I got the impression that you've made a lot of buttercream...."

So I just finished the two weeks wedding cakes module! Ah! So much fun! I love cake decorating, even though I could still use a lot of work and practice.

The first four days we spent making nothing but gum paste flowers. However, the end result was worth it. I remember back in November when I was apartment hunting I ran into a current student of the FPS program, and she said you wouldn't believe what you would make out of gum paste. I acknowledge that it would probably be cool (thinking "I've already done some cool stuff with gum paste" </jaded>). Can I just apologize now? I had no idea.

Chef Mark is amazing at gum paste flowers and if I could spend the next 20 weeks learning from him, I would. Because, thanks to his tutelage I made these:

!!!!! 

We also made a lily and two orchids. The lily was just for practice since it has a lot of components: a center, separate petals, and stamen. It gave us a chance to get used to building gum paste flowers.

As part of the module we built a three tier dummy cake and covered it in fondant. Then we bake genoise and make Italian buttercream and assemble a buttercream cake. The last component is a croquembouche. They say croquembouche is French for "crunch in mouth" referring to the caramel that crunches as you bite into the choux pastry puffs. However, I actually think it translates to "French torture for pastry chefs" due to its complicated and time-sensitive components.

Chef Kelly, this is a shot out to you and thanks for the previous instruction on applying fondant to a cake form. I'm very satisfied with how my cake turned out and I think a little bit of experience definitely helped! As you can see in the photos below, the fondant looks nice and smooth and nearly perfect (well, for a beginner):

Full cake with the gum paste lily.

Posey on the top tier.

Close-up of the lily.

And another close-up of the top tier with 

drop string royal icing decorations and the gum paste posey.

The buttercream cake had me facing my old nemesis Italian Buttercream. For those who don't know, it took me four attempts before I was able to successfully make Italian Buttercream. That's because the method I was using was potentially not the best. FPS has got buttercream down! I want to share the secret, but I paid a lot of money for this school, so I won't. Not on this blog. But I don't think I'll be making anything but Italian Buttercream from now on. When Chef Mark first demo'ed the FPS recipe I was just.... The mind was boggled. I even said something to him about how this recipe made so much more sense. The next day he commented to me "I got the impression that you've made a lot of buttercream before" and I explained my adventures with buttercream.

Anyways, yeah, I'll probably still have a little buttercream PTSD, but I'm slowly working through it.

The final part of the module was croquembouche. Oh. My. God. The French, I love them, I love their pastry (especially chocolate croissants), but their traditional wedding cake is mad. Nougatine base (kind of like almond brittle), royal icing decorations, gum paste flowers, and caramel dipped cream puffs built into a pyramid shape. Our croquembouches had isomalt (a sugar derivative) decorations on top.

I have pictures from my phone, but only my phone. The croquembouche did not make it home. It broke when I lifted the box. I was not overly upset, I was not exactly looking forward to taking this on the 'L or the bus (or potentially walking it a half mile down the street if the bus would take longer to get to the station than it would to walk it). I was a little sad to dump it in the dumpster since I had spent two days working on it, but I had documented my experience in photographs so all is good.

That's all for now, but this week is exams. Hopefully I will have the energy/time to make a post about that experience. The exams at FPS include one written exam (that consists of multiple choice and short answer) and three days of practical exams. Meep!

Wish me luck.

You Are Not Shanking the Pithivier

[Updated 2/12/2013 with photos.]

So, it's been nearly three weeks since my last post. For that I apologize profusely. Class in the kitchen is intense most of the time. We're on our fourth week of class, third in the kitchen. First week in the kitchen was basic skills. First day was the worst, since it was just standing around listening to kitchen procedures, cleaning procedure, where things were located, who would clean what when, etc. I really questioned why I was there, I was so bored. Things began changing the next day.

That first week in the kitchen we made all sorts of things from meringue to pastry cream (pastry cream!!) to pâté sucree to pâté a choux. We piped basic shapes, spread meringues using offsets, and made cookies out of sweet dough. We also cleaned a lot of dishes and will continue to do so since we wash all of our dishes by hand. Yeah, all you Owens students, you have it cushy good. The cleaning we do is incredible, the kitchens are maintained by the students and interns. Not to say the chefs don't clean or don't help, but they've earned their relaxation, the chefs have all done what were doing somewhere, somehow, and usually with longer hours with not as nice equipment. And that's the point. They have us clean to teach us the importance of hard work and a clean kitchen.

The second week in the kitchen we started with entremets. Probably one of the more difficult things to start out with, and also on a four day week thanks to MLK day. We got pit late most of that week and our chef (Chef Dimitri) and our intern were yelling at us to hurry up. As they should, it's to be expected. But we were also new and dealing with a lot. It's a toss up, I can understand what the chef and intern were expecting ( a lot because they know that we can do a lot) but I had to sympathize with my stream, it was rough. We are showing improvement, though. We got out early three times this week! And we're still on entremets, but I feel only Monday counts since that was the only day we had a lot to to do.

I promise, I'll post pictures soon!

Oh, and the title was a direct quote from Chef Dimitri as he explained how we would use a lame to cut the top of our Pithivier to make a daisy design.

"This is not a shank. You are not shanking the Pithivier." Which meant we shouldn't stab the dough, but deftly and lightly slash it.

Entremets!

White Chocolate Silk: White chocolate mousse, raspberry gelee, almond dacquoise, and hazlenut crunch (think nutella krispie treats, best thing EVER).

My favorite entremet, Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse: From bottom up, hazelnut dacquoise layered with caramelized hazelnuts, hazelnut mousse, chocolate biscuit (say "bis-KWEE"), and chocolate mousse. Finished in chocolate mirror glaze.

Nougat mousse cake, from bottom up includes: almond dacqouise, apricot-passionfruit gelee, pistachio dacqouise, and nougat mousse layered with dried chcrries, dried apricots, pistachios, and pecans. 

Life Begins at the End of Your Comfort Zone

Today was the last day of lecture for the week. We learned mostly about food science/technology. A lot of it had been covered at Owens, but I think review is always good. And the instructors (Chef Scott and Chef Josh) have a lot of great stories that do (and sometimes do not) go along with the lecture. Let's be clear, though, the tangential stories were usually about the industry. Or about food somehow. Let's face it, everyone sitting in that room is slightly obsessed with food. Mostly pastry. And baking.

One cool thing I learned this week that I think I can share is how Scoville units are calculated for hot sauce and peppers. Turns out it was just some dude named Scoville had people eat peppers and used a spray bottle filled with sugar water to spray on their tongue. The number of sprays it took to relieve the heat and pain was the number of units the pepper would receive. Or so says Chef Scott.

Tomorrow Roomie and I will be heading back to the school to volunteer for the French Pastry Experience. We have to be ready by 8:15. That's practically late considering how "early" I've had to be at school all of this week. Although it's really late compared to when classes start for Roomie. She has to be ready to go, standing in front of the kitchen at 6:40 AM.

Although, to be honest, as soon as I find a job, I'll probably be operating on similar hours.

I'm excited, and nervous, and ready to start learning. I'm trying to put everything I learned at Owens at the back of my mind. It doesn't matter how I've been taught to do sugar or cake decorating or breads in the past, the information the instructors will provide will be from many different perspectives. That's unique and to make the most of it I need to be as receptive as possible to all the different methods I will be shown.

The title of my post is something that came to mind while Chef Josh was lecturing. He was trying to stress the importance of being nervous for something, so he spoke about the first time he went sky-diving. To him, being nervous was a good thing because it meant that whatever you were about to try doing was important, in one way or another.

I couldn't help but think of a quote I ran across on Pinterest (where else?) that is the title of this post. It was comfort to me when I was freaking out over moving to Chicago. I knew I was tired of Suburbia and living with my parents and wondering what life would be like in a large city. Even though I was terrified of going to an area with a higher crime rate, more chances to really crash and burn, I knew that if I didn't take that chance I would question it forever.

Next week classes start in the kitchen. I get to learn how to use a knife, make pastry cream, and all sorts of things all over again.

Yay, pastry cream!

I really love pastry cream. 

Parting is such sweet sorrow

[Edit 1/7/2013: this post was left in drafts unbeknownst to me. AKA I just forgot to publish it, it was written 12/19/2012.]

Today was my last day on campus at Owens Community College. I finished finals last week, classes the week before. I'm happy to report that I finished the program with a 4.0. Woo!

I also finished my job as an Owens Civic Ambassador. I didn't start as an Ambassador, the job had a different title back then. However, I think the title of Civic Ambassador fits the job description a lot better. I worked as a mentor and tutor for students in developmental education classes. In addition to that I was introduced to the concept of service learning and had the opportunity to volunteer at both the Family House and the Toledo Seagate Foodbank. Both are great organizations in Toledo that constantly need help. Did you know that one volunteer hour is worth about $21 to the community? I didn't. If you only put in two hours a week for the year you are giving time that is worth $1,092! I'll put links at the bottom for Family House and The Foodbank.

I really encourage you to look up these organizations and see if you can help them in some way.

In other news, it's the holidays and that means holiday baking! My boyfriend and I attempted caramels over the weekend. One batch turned out too soft, the other too hard. One didn't fit the pan we put it in, the other actually did fit (but it's the hard batch). All will get covered in chocolate, both taste too good to toss.

I also have been decorating and I made Cranberry Orange Cornmeal cookies. So tasty. Everyone approves. But my personal favorite are Peanut Blossoms. Our secret? Really good quality peanut butter, it makes all the difference.

"We Are Here to Learn Pastry"

Today was orientation at The French Pastry School. I've been in Chicago for about a week. Moving went pretty smoothly. My roommate and I have, as predicted, an overstocked kitchen. Although we're missing some odd things like a broom and dustpan and ramekins. But we have a bundt cake pan, a brotform, and two (two!) mini Cuisinart food processors. The exact same model. I just.... We need help. And more shelves.

So far living in the city has been stressful. First, there's the walking. So much walking. However, I've been told I'll go down a pant size. I remind myself this when I still have two blocks to get to my apartment, which is the top floor of a three story walk-up.

There's also the noise and the light. I've lived most of my life in suburbia in a relatively quiet, wooded subdivision. And now my window faces N. Western Ave, one of the busier streets in the area. I'm getting used to it, though. I really want curtains, though, the light is annoying. We are literally next door to a neon sign shop. It's so cliche, I kind of love it.

On to today's orientation. Let's just say that The French Pastry School (oh, right, I found out I can write about my experience) is invigorating and intimidating. The dress code is strict, and okay, really that's the only thing I found intimidating. We're also supposed to stage and volunteer as part of our experience. It seems intimidating but as Chef Joe pointed out, there's a direct correlation between staging, volunteering and a future promising career. I love volunteering so I can't wait to help out with the For the Love of Chocolate gala and with French Pastry Production. I even showed interest in washing dishes for the continuing education courses. I don't mind, I might even get to watch!

The students ranged from all over the world (the furthest I could remember was Singapore) and all ages, although most were in the 17-30 range.

Oh, and as a final note, the title of this post comes from Chef Jacquy, as he pointed out in orientation, we have paid them to teach us pastry and to help us secure promising futures in the pastry industry. The staging, the volunteering, the recipes, the classes, everything we've paid for is so we can learn pastry and excel in the field. Chef Jacquy recommended that we make a big poster for our apartment and write on it "We Are Here to Learn Pastry" to remind us of our purpose as we attend school.

Guys, I'm so excited!! I just hope I can keep up with the laundry.