We're Still Around!

It's been so long since I've updated the blog...apologies!! No new pics this time around but we'll have some good ones really soon, I promise. We're settled into the new house, and Mom came up yesterday to help organize a bit, since I was stumped on how to fit all of our furniture into what has become a smaller space than I thought. I'm such a packrat, so I really need to get rid of a lot! We've already donated 15 boxes of items to Goodwill, and I'm sorting through everything again, trying to find more to let go of. It's just so hard! I find sentimental value in everything. My sister and Luke can detach themselves from anything (except shoes and electronics, respectively), so they really don't suffer from the paper-pile-up syndrome. I'm hoping to surprise Luke with a whole new load of things to take to Goodwill tonight when he gets home from work.

We decided to find a house closer into town this time, and we absolutely love the area. It's a very quick trip to downtown (yay!) and it's an easy drive back up north if we want to head that way, and Luke can pick up the bus and take it most of the way to work, where he can get a 3 mile bike ride in from there, which he's attempting for the first time today. I made him wear his helmet, as much as he hates the way it looks!

Exciting news...I just got a job with the Four Seasons Hotel! I start next week, with orientation, but not sure what my schedule will be like beyond that. I'm very excited about it!

Denning Family Reunion

My parents' new house

Our 100 foot slip-n-slide. I have an enormous bruise on my hip and I feel like I cracked my ribs.

4th of July celebration

My lemon meringue pie - delicious!

Funny shots of Molly - Luke always manages to catch the best moments.

The reunion was tons of fun - we slipped and slided (or slid, whatever....), ate tons of food, and set off fireworks. We had to hose one off of the roof but managed to not have any accidents. Remarkable, since the guys love to aim them at the trees and each other.

Also - Luke and I found a house! We're just renting for now, until we decide what area of town we want to buy in. The house is just so darn cute! We'll post pics once we get moved in.

Back in Texas

We made it back to Texas safely - no major delays, and Molly did well on the flight, as far as we know. She wasn't too freaked out when we picked her up upon landing, so I'm guessing it wasn't too frightening for her. We stayed with Luke's parents for a night, then my parents, and then off to Austin for...an interview!

I go back for more interviews next week, so I'll post details after I hear back about the job. But - I'm very excited about this one and I hope it works out! It's strange, because it's not quite what I thought I'd be doing. I mean, I'd always hoped for this one particular company, but it always seemed so out-of-reach for me. Not sure why...just one of those jobs that are hard to come by. And, I imagine some people might be confused because I've always talked about working in a small bakery or opening my own bakery. That's definitely the end goal, but before I get to that point, I really want to challenge myself and see what I can do. This job would definitely push me, and push me hard. I'm entirely capable of doing well at it, but it's a much larger scale than I've done before. Then, a few years from now, I'll explore opening my own business. Unless, of course, I'm totally rocking at this type of job. We shall see!

It's Hot

If you look at the time stamp you'll see that it's about 4:00 am. It's hot in this apartment! I can't sleep, so I decided to develop a new blog. A food blog. Yes - those are all over the place these days, but it's more for me, and if you're interested you can read it. I'm working out some kinks and making it pretty, but when it's ready I'll post a link to it.

Did I mention it's HOT in here? Holy geez. How do people live like this? I should be asleep, since I have a full day of errands and cleaning before we fly back tomorrow evening (or tonight, really).

Coney Island!

For those of you who don't know yet, we're moving back to Texas. We'll be there in a week, where we will spend time with family in Houston for the month of July, and then back to Austin for good.

We are now trying to do as much as possible in the next week, so that we get the full experience before we go back home. Our first adventure was to Coney Island...which is way at the other end of Brooklyn. The Mermaid Parade was being held on this particular Saturday, and I felt like I was back in Austin, except with a beach in the background. We had a ton of fun, ate an original Nathan's hot dog, watched crazies in their mermaid get-up, and rode the Cyclone. Yes, I rode a roller coaster. I still hate them, but it was fun.

Waiting in line at Nathan's for legendary hotdogs, trying to decide between the regular, the chilidog, the chili-cheese dog, or the corn dog.

Before getting onto the Cyclone, when I still thought it was a good idea. Click here to see how the ride went.

Graduation

I managed to make it through my torturous (at times) 4 day final, finishing on time and with pleasing results. It was stressful, many a student had a nervous breakdown, but we all made it through. We had guest judges come in...these are various pastry chefs in the industry who volunteered their time to critique our final products. My experience was not nearly as nerve-racking as I thought it would be, because, after the disaster with my genoise (it deflated too much before I got it in the oven, and that was the second time to make it as well), the judge said it was "Perfect", and "light and fluffy...great flavor"...etc. I was floored. In utter shock. I positively hate this cake more than anything else in the program, and I managed to impress the judge. Yay! My chocolate bon-bons were well-tempered and delicious, my bourbon pecan cookies were "crispy, buttery, not greasy" and worthy of being put into his shop. I was so pleased with myself! Apparently he gave me the highest mark out of my group of 4 or 5 students that he was responsible for.

So, at the end of it all, I managed to graduate with honors. It was so fun to learn that, and to stand up there with Katie and Teresa as well. My friend Corn also graduated with honors and she got a perfect attendance award as well. We all did so well and I'm proud of everyone.

Mom and Dave flew up for graduation, and I'm so thankful that they could be here for it. It's been hard not being able to share my triumphs with the family, so to have them here for a few days was a treat.

Chef Jurgen passing out toques for us to try on and resize.

I've just received my toque from Chef Dianne, and I am receiving my diploma.

Some of the honors graduates, with the Chef-Instructors behind us.

With Chef Kir

The gang with our pal Steven

So, now I have to find a job. And decide what city we want to be in. I'll still post pictures of food once in awhile, especially when I come up with new creations. If anyone ever wants to order food, just let me know! I'd be happy to cater for you.

Thanks for keeping up with me the past 6 months and praying for me and encouraging me along the way!

Out to the West of Chester

Katie and I spent some of last weekend out in Westchester County with Teresa, visiting her cutie little hometown. It was so nice to get out of the city for the day, and we ended up staying the night due to the huge storm that blew through. We had a blast exploring the neighboring area. Here are some highlight from our trip:

Stone Barns - a huge, fully functional farm out on the Rockefeller property (or what was part of it). Beautiful greenhouses, animals everywhere, and a phenomenal restaurant that uses what the farm produces for its meals.

Inside the greenhouses

Katie in front of the pigpen
The poppa pig - he was almost twice the size of the other pigs.

We drove all around the area, looking at the homes, which are massive and gorgeous. We also saw the Clinton's house, Vanessa Williams' house, and a whole street with homes built by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Sweating and Stressing in NYC

So...3 more days of class. Holy. Smokes. I can't believe it. Let me catch you up with the last of the plated desserts unit, and then I'll move into the wedding cake nightmare.

Warm Chocolate FondantHazelnut Cake
Ligurian Lemon Cake
Beaumes-de-Venise cakeTropical Tasting Plate

The wedding cake...the nightmare of the past 3 days. I hate it. It was a dumb theme - Japanese garden theme between an American journalist and a geisha. My diagram was phenomenal, and I had these grand plans to make this huge pagoda. But - architect I am not, and my scaling was off, not to mention my timing. Notice the roofs on the bottom - Chef Laurie helped me rig that up at the last second. They were supposed to go on the cake. I was on the verge of tears, or maybe more than on the verge, and all of a sudden Chef Laurie came over...I thought I was doing such a great job hiding it! It's over, and that's all I have to say about it.

How I looked post-wedding cake. My hair had fallen out of the hat, I was sweating up a storm, and I was mad. :) The three days were the longest of my life...it was 97 degrees outside, and the AC wasn't working in the school. We had a terrible storm the other night, and Molly clawed her way into this tiny corner in the closet. This pic was taken after I had removed shoes and an ironing board so that she could stay and hide in there.

Look at these cuties! I saw them as I was entering the subway after class today, and I snapped their picture. Precious.

Duh-lish!

So, we've gone through our last two units - sugar and the last plated desserts. I hated sugar - it was boring and it hurts your fingers. Most of the class walked away from that week with major burns and blisters. I managed to stay out of harm's way for the most part, but it was still painful. I just have reflexes like a mongoose, I guess. From there we moved into plated desserts again, which is always fun, but this is where you gain the most weight in culinary school, because you are sampling (or consuming entirely) 2-3 desserts everyday.

I also celebrated my 25th birthday last week - Luke and I went to a movie for the first time in months...it was nice to get out of the apartment and not think about school for one night. We have a big picnic planned for this Saturday with my friends, as a joint birthday celebration. We're having a birthday cake baking party tomorrow after class at our apartment.

Our class also hosted our last Afternoon of Desserts, and this time we created the menu from start to finish, and then served it to our guests. Last time, the menu was simply desserts that we had made in class that week, but this time it was all of our own recipes. We were a hit! Chef Jurgen said we did a fabulous job, and that all of the desserts were "duh-lish", which can't always be said of every group. Overall, we're quite a talented bunch. I wish I had thought to take pictures of those desserts! But, to satisfy your curiosity of what I've been doing the past few weeks, take a peek below:

For the sugar unit, we had one individual project and then two team projects. The first picture is our individual project...making an owl out of poured sugar. The next pictures are of our depiction of famous art - this was a piece that one of my teammates picked...we think it's supposed to be fruit in snow, but not sure about that. Then we also had to make a cake stand with the theme of "traffic". Terrible theme. But our planes are cute. Our air traffic control tower was supposed to be silver/gray, not purple.

The owl - first, one of his wings fell off, then the other. So, you can see my little sign, with the correction made after the second wing fell off.

But wait - I was able to repair him, with the help of someone's leftover orange wing. But - as the chef was moving him to be put on display with his fellow owls, the orange wing fell off. He just wasn't meant to be a whole owl. Poor guy.

Fish made out of blown sugar.

Our art piece.

I'm not sure that I'll remember all of the names for the plated desserts off the top of my head, but I'll try. We have to do diagrams of everything we plate up in class, so this weekend will be quite busy with that.

Pear Spring Rolls

Mango Beggar's Purses

Strudel Day!!! That sheet of dough started as a small round of dough, and it stretched across that whole table. It's tissue paper thin - you can read through it. Chef Jurgen rolling the strudel up.

What was inside the strudel. Our strudel, ready to go in the oven. Finished strudel - 3 different flavors. Yum!
Frying bomboloni - brioche dough, deep fried, rolled in sugar, and then later filled with pastry cream or jam.

Bomboloni
Deep-fried apple crepes

Tropical Fruit Beignets - perfectly good fruit rolled in beignet batter, then fried, to clog your arteries. They weren't good at all.

Cheese, spinach, and onion souffle.
Chef Kir's chocolate souffle.
The deliciously soft and gooey center of my souffle.
Mango souffle
Souffles aren't hard at all - I'm not sure what the big fuss is about them. I guess that if I were to make a larger version of these, then they might be more susceptible to collapsing, but they aren't nearly as intimidating as people try to make you believe.

Mystery basket dessert - we were given two items, coconut and dark chocolate, and had to create a dessert in 1 hour with those ingredients and whatever else we could find in class. I did citrus crepes with a coconut creme/chocolate ganache filling, topped with an orange and raspberry salad and garnished with raspberry coulis.

Lemon Souffle Pancakes - I ate about 10 of these.
Pistachio souffle pancake
Cream Cheese Souffle in a baked apple
Pavlova with Lemon Verbena Scented Blueberries - courtesy of Chef Michael Gabriel from the Rockefeller Center Group
Another of Chef Michael's dessert - his version of PB and J. Peanut butter bars with raspberry gelee.

We also handed in our menu projects this week, which was a huge relief. Luke built a website for me, which is fabulous, and it will be the jumping off point for the real site in the future when I open up my own place. Brittany designed the logo - she drew it all by hand, and it's phenomenal. I think she should start a stationery line. We have the practical for this project next week, where we have to make all of the components of two of our desserts from our menus, chef's choice. I'm going to practice the recipes this weekend so that I can have them perfected before next Wednesday.

After this practical, we jump right into final review/wedding cake project. The theme picked for our cakes, chosen by Pastry 2, is a Japanese garden wedding, between a Japanese-American journalist and a geisha. Hmmm.... Haven't yet figured out how I'm going to design the cake. It has to be three tiers, and the flavor has to be a ginger American milk sponge with plum curd and sake. Need to start practicing that as well and get my recipes figured out.

Luke and I are also needing to find a new apartment before we go down to Texas for the summer, so if anyone knows of a place, call or email me! Also - jobs - if you know of any of those, please send them my way.