Helloooooooo! 

Wow it's been almost two weeks, I didn't realize that I waited so long to make another post! A ton has happened since then. Let's start with the goodies ;D Each day that I have Bakeshop Fundamentals, which is two days a week, we bake something new. Four bakeshop classes have passed since then so we'll start with March 20th.

The corn muffins were the best I have ever tasted. Now I know the banana bread looks burned but I promise you it's not :] 

March 21st

Apricot and raspberry coffee cake, Yum!

 Aaaaand blueberry muffins. A few are attacking each other. This happened because the fans in the convection oven kept blowing air around because people kept opening and closing the oven door.

March 24th I went to Niagara Falls! :D It rained the whole time -__-

March 27th we baked biscuits. I never really liked biscuits because they're usually dry, flavorless and just yucky. But let me tell you, these were the best freaking biscuits I've ever tasted. 

March 28th Pies and Scones!

Blueberry, Apple, and Cherry :D

Pecan

Chocolate and hazelnut scones

So yup, that's what I've been up to besides tests and lots of reading and homework.

I'll update again soon!

Short & Sweet

This post is a little later than I would have liked but oh well :] I had a few classes but my favorite was my Baking and Pastry Techniques class where we started with a basic chocolate chip cookie and a sugar cookie. I didn't take any pictures of the sugar because I like chocolate chip better ;P Thanks to my partner Lauren ours turned out awesome!

Before baking.

3/15/2012

 After baking. They were so yummy!

So I bet you are wondering what my uniform looks like. This is what my chef whites(the white chef coats) look like. The Gold embroidery indicates a Baking and Pastry major. The Culinary majors have green embroidery, lucky :P

I don't have pictures of the rest but I'm sure some pictures will surface of me in my full uniform, maybe even in my toque(that tall white hat that chefs wear).

This is me and my roommate, Nursu. She is from Turkey and is pretty awesome. In this picture we're eating Rita's Gelati, Italian Ice with custard ice cream. We both got coconut cream ice with chocolate custard. Soooooo good! And it was beautiful outside too :]

3/17/2012

And tonight Nursu and her friend Reyyan made some yummy Turkish dinner! 

Acem(Ah-jem) Pilaf is the rice dish on the right and Tas(Toss) Kebab is the on the left.

This last week went by so quickly with all the homework and classes. Before I know it I'll be leaving on my extern! I'm having a great time getting to know new people and learn new things but I miss home a lot too. I miss all of you a lot. This week in my kitchen class we're going to bake muffins and I'm really looking forward to it! Mmmmmmm, blueberry muffins! Okay, time for me to get back to studying. 

Short & Sweet

Okay, so first full bakeshop day, 1:45pm-8:30pm, and I'm still alive! Yay! We had chocolate chip cookie demo done by Chef, then started our own dough which we get to bake tomorrow :] We're also going to do sugar cookies tomorrow, yum! We did a bunch of other stuff today too but it all kind of melded together since I really only wanted to make some friggin' chocolate chip cookie dough, haha! So you know how when you watch someone demonstrate something like how to cook steak or decorate cupcakes and it goes a little something like this?

Yeeeeaaaahhhhh, pretty much how I felt today when I was trying to make a mini pastry bag to practice my piping...and when I was practicing my piping homework. That's what practicing is for though, right? So after practicing and redoing it and doing some laundry and getting distracted by the Ben and Jerry's in my freezer(which was pretty much a milkshake because my "freezer" is a poop face and doesn't want me to enjoy real ice cream) and then practicing again, I came out with something pretty decent, yay! ^__^

The white butter-cream is supposed to be rosettes, supposed to be :P

The brown is a loop filigree

Anyway, that's all I have for today.

Goodnight!

Short & Sweet

No classes today so not much going on. But here is a picture of my tools!

And here is my lunch:

Mushroom and sausage risotto appetizer

Breaded salmon with I think a raspberry balsamic sauce then some horseradish mashed potatoes and cooked spinach. It was very yummy :]

Sadly I forgot to take a picture of dessert which was a mini cheesecake with a raspberry sauce and a dollop of whipped cream. Mmmmmmmm!

I'm not sure that any of you really find what I'm eating for lunch to be that interesting, so give me some feedback on what you would like to see :] Also, I'm going to just be starting official classes tomorrow and will hopefully have more pictures of what that is like. So yeah, feedback, do it.

Short and Sweet 

Hello again!


Today was last day, day four, of orientation type stuff. We're gonna actually do something in the kitchen next week, yay! Also, I got my tool kit today! Yessssssss! Knives, spatulas and all sorts of neato baking tools :D I'll take a picture when I get it all arranged nicely. I'm going to make this post  mostly pictures, enjoy!

This is the main building, Roth Hall. I took this right outside of my dorm building, Pick/Herndon.

Front view

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Extension of Roth Hall

View of the Hudson River from the front of Roth Hall. Hudson Hall Dorms on the left.

The Colavita Center for Italian Food and Wine. Also has the Ristorante Caterina de' Medici.

Conrad N. Hilton Library which is the second largest library of culinary works, 

the first is the Library Congress.

Inside the library are over a hundred of famous chef's hand-prints who have visited the CIA. These particular hand-prints belong to Julia Child :]

Today's lunch = YUM! Especially the mini chorizo quiche.

Inside my main classroom for the next 15 weeks, Bakeshop II

Dinner today: Oxtail with cooked spinach and I believe it was a chickpea puree. So freaking good *drools*

Well that's it for today!

Short & Sweet

Sweet Beginnings

Hello everyone!


  What a trip this has been so far and it's just getting started! So to get everyone up to speed let's start with where I am at. I'm in Hyde Park, NY. Where's that you ask? Right here. It's kind of in the middle of nowhere but, I'm sure you're wondering why on earth I'm here. Hyde Park is home to the Harvard of culinary institutes, the Culinary Institute of America, and this is where I'm attending school for Baking and Pastry Arts. Okay, so it's a little cheesy that the initials are CIA, but I'm not joking here when I say this place is the freakin' CIA of culinary schools. You must be in a professional uniform, such as chef whites, restaurant service uniform or business casual, to be in any educational building or dining room.


We've been bombarded with information the last couple days and still have more to come. Classes are going to be intense and a challenge but all I have to say is BRING IT ON! I found out yesterday that they only accept 41% of applicants. Now, that's not a super small number but, it also isn't a big number either. It started to make me really think, how on earth did I get here? There has to be a reason why things have just fallen into place. The more time I spend here(and it's only been three days!) the more I know this is where I'm supposed to be, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. God, I'm not sure what you're up to but I know I'm in for a heck of a ride. Thank you to everyone who has supported, and even not supported, me through this crazy thing called life to get me where I am today. My time is here, my time is now, now it's time to make the most of it!


Short & Sweet