Thanksgiving! : )

this year for thanksgiving my family met in Illinois at Brock and Jashley's house! : ) it was a lot of fun! i am so glad that we were all able to get together!...we always have a good time and definately always have lots of laughs. : ) this year, for the first time, i made the rolls! i used the recipe i learned at school and we all had fun braiding and tying the dough.

 

this year we also had a pumpkin bake-off! there was going to be a winner but there were too many good things that we decided we were all winners! ha ha...

 

 

Brock and Jashley's entry: pumpkin crepes with cream cheese filling and a praline sauce. so good fo realz!

my entry: eclairs, cream puffs, and turkeys filled with pumpin pastry cream.

 

these are the turkey heads...they blew up WAY more than i thought they would in the oven



Brenton's entry: pumpkin mousse complete with whipped cream and gingersnap cookies. yummy!

 

 

mama's entry: chocolate cake with pumpkin filling frosted with chocolate ganache. also very delicious!

 



 

 

critter all bundled up in a queen size quilt!!! : ) AHHHHH he is the sweetest little baby! we all love him so much!

 

well, i know this only had a little bit to do with food but since i am posting about thanksgiving here are some of the things i am grateful for this year!...

my parents!!! without them i would have nothing. seriously, i have the most generous, encouraging parents on the planet and i love them so much. they sacrifice so much for me and my siblings and i am so thankful for them.

my siblings! i love each of them for different reasons but they are all so great! they are all such good examples to me and i am so glad we are all such good friends. i am especially grateful to have a buddy for life in my lil sis brai! : )

the crit! baby bryson makes my day everytime i see a picture of him! he is such a little sweetie and i am so happy to finally have a nephew. i am also thankful he is safe and healthy. he is quite the little angel O: )

my extended family! they are the best. i have the most supportive, entertaining, fun family in the world. i love my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all so much.

my friends! yes, i do have some...  : ) i think i have the greatest friends in the world. old friends that i don't see as often, friends that live super far away, friends that i talk to everyday, and new friends. my friends make life fun and interesting and bring so much laughter to my life! i am also thankful for the all the new people i have met here in boston who make me smile every single day. i am surrounded by such awesome people at school and have been totally blessed with amazing roommates!

my knowledge and talents. though sometimes these seem scarce i know they are there somewhere. i am grateful for the things that i am good at and for the things that i enjoy. i am also thankful for my education...and for the opportunity i have had to have gained one.

the gospel...which includes so many different things. a knowledge of my Heavenly Father's love for me, the Atonement of Jesus Christ, the knowledge of an eternal family, scriptures, a living prophet, perspective, service, protection, love, hope, motivation, peace, guidance, safety, and happiness.

my experiences! i have had SO MANY good ones this year! i can't express how thankful i am to all of those people who helped me get to Africa this summer. it was one of the coolest things i have ever done! i am grateful for the people i met there...they changed my life more than i could ever have hoped to change theirs! i am also grateful for all the members on my team in Tanzania. they inspired me everyday to work harder, have a positive attitude, and believe that anything is possible.

my health and safety! i am grateful for dr. muthaura who gave me an amazing surgery in kenya! she was super cute and made me feel (mostly) calm. i can't express how thankful i am for chanel, heather, and alexis for taking care of me in multiple hospitals, calling my parents, and making me feel safe. and also i apologize for the trauma i may have caused you guys! ha! oh also i am thankful for loth who was our team's ambulance driver. he saved so many lives this summer!!! i am also grateful for my family, who fasted and prayed for me and probably made all the difference in my recovery and in my attitude! : )

my hike up mt. kilimanjaro! oh my gosh. i don't even know how to describe how cool this was but it was and i am so glad i had the opportunity to do it! i am thankful my bro brenton could come out and share the experience with me and i am glad my phantom ovary didn't cause me problems. i am also thankful for our whole crew and the help and comfort they provided us on that mountain. oh and of course the rest of our team, who made the experience extra fun and enjoyable! i am so glad i made some new friends. : )

to live in America! i feel priviledged to live in a place where i can practice my religion freely, gain a good education, and live the life i want to live!

moving to Boston and attending Le Cordon Bleu! this has been my dream for a long time and it is weird to think that i am living it now! sometimes before school when i look in the mirror in my uniform i get the giggles because it doesn't feel real. i am so so so grateful i am at a place in my life right now where i can work towards achieving some of my goals and developing talents i want to have. i am also thankful to my parents, again, for everything they have done so i can gain an education...this includes my degree at BYU and being able to be here right now at culinary school.

jobs! i have always had one when i needed one and i am grateful for the things i have learned at each one of the jobs i have had. i love the one i have now where i basically get to experiment and bake anything i want!

laughter. where in the world would we be without it?

smiles. when i see happy people it makes me happy too. smiles are contagious. : ) : ) : )

people! without people the world would be such a boring place. i am very thankful for the random people i run into everyday who make me smile and laugh. the ones who bring good ideas to my head and those who make me realize important things about life.

the beauty that surrounds all of us. sounds cheesy i know...but i am amazed at how pretty this earth is every single day. i get to enjoy it every time i step outside. my favorite part of each day is driving to school because i get to drive along the charles river as the sun is reflecting off of it at the perfect angle and shining on the trees filled with yellow, red, and orange leaves! ahhhh

alright, i obviously could go on for a long time, but those are some of the things i think about every single day. we all have been blessed with a lot so remember to be grateful!

"We can lift ourselves and others as well when we refuse to remain in the realm of negative thought and cultivate within our hearts an attitude of gratitude. If ingratitude be numbered among the serious sins, then gratitude takes its place among the noblest of virtues."

—Thomas S. Monson

and on that note...go eat some cake or something!

Baking Principles and Viennoiserie: Week 1 and 2!

i started my new class two weeks ago and we have been baking breads like mad! i have had one practical so far, which was baguettes, and one written exam. i have a new production group, which was hard to get used to at first but is going good now. so far i like the breads class, but i can definately see myself being ready for it to be over in four more weeks. there isn't much creativity involved in breads and a lot of waiting around. anyway, here are the things my group has baked so far:

baguettes!

 



you may be thinking "the baguettes, hurry up!"...i know, that's what i think everytime i hear the word baguette! : )

 

milk bread rolls

 

 

white bread

 



 

soft rolls! these were fun to make because we got to roll them out and braid them and tie them : )

 

pizza

 



focaccia. holy cow, if you haven't ever had this kind of bread before go get some!

 



 

whole wheat with a red berry soaker

 

alright, that's that. we are going to be baking sourdoughs this week and then eventually rich doughs, which include croissants! : P so check back in a few weeks! : )

Intro to Pâtisserie and Baking: Week 5 and 6

the last two weeks of my first block were both pretty crazy! week 5 is when hurricane sandy hit so i didn't have school on that monday or tuesday. the week after that my block was ending so i had friday off and lots of exams. because there weren't very many actual production days we only made a few things.

 

 here is the creme brulee we made. i always thought creme brulee was super fancy, i had no idea how easy it was to make. the hardest part is carmelizing the sugar on the top with the blow torch. as you can see, i still could use some practice at getting it even. the class wasn't sure why, but all of us had problems getting it evenly browned like my teacher's. practice makes perfect i suppose!

 

 

 

this is a genoise sponge cake with chocolate ganache filling and frosted with italian buttercream icing. i must admit, i wasn't really in the mood to be creative this day so this is my decorated cake...

 

these are my petit fours!!! for those of you who don't know (i didn't know before i came here), petit fours are anything you can eat in one to two bites...so miniatures. : ) these particular ones are petit fours glaces, which means they are iced or decorated. some are covered in chocolate ganache and some are covered in fondant. i piped the decorations on with chocolate ganache and melted white chocolate. i had so much fun with these : )

 



the cake inside is almond sponge cake layered with apricot filling.

 

 

so, i am now done with my first block of classes! i passed my NEHA (national environmnetal health association) food safety certification exam. this means that i no longer have to sit through an hour of talking about washing your hands and how to keep rats out of your restaurant every morning! : ) also guess what my final grade in intro to patisserie and baking is? an A! : ) my next class is Baking Principles and Viennoiserie.

Intro to Pâtisserie and Baking: Week 3 and 4



I have been in school for 4 whole weeks now! : ) I can't even believe i have been here that long already. time is passing so quickly! anyway, i am loving school! here's what we've made in the past two weeks:

(note: do not look at on an empty stomach)

 

MUFFINS!

 

these ones are raspberry which i made with my group in class. guess what? they tasted NASTY! want to know why? the recipe in our booklet was wrong and called for too much salt and baking powder. ha ha ha. we get wrong recipes a lot in this class.......remember those blue macaroons from my last post? yeah. did you also wonder why they had holes all over them? the recipe was wrong. don't worry, i redid them and have pictures below.

 

these are chocolate chip muffins that i redid with some fellow classmates in the practice kitchen after the ones in class failed. yeah, see how some of them don't have many chocolate chips on top? well, one chef walked in while we were sprinkling chips on the top of our muffins and he grabbed handfuls of large chips and started piling them on!...so they sunk in. nothing irritates me more than when people interfere with projects i am working on. um, but that's ok, they tasted good anyway : )

 

this is a blueberry muffin loaf i made for my second practical. 

MACAROONS!...again.

 



i know these look like hamburgers but they aren't. they are macaroons. they are what macaroons are supposed to look like when you add the right amount of sugar. : )

 oh and these are orange flavored with chocolate ganache filling. delicious!

 

APPLE STREUSEL

i made two of these apple pies in the practice kitchen one day last week. some lucky girl got a whole pie to take home! anyway, the practice kitchen is awesome and i go in there usually about 3 times per week. it is fun to bake in a kitchen that isn't crowded and do whatever i want! : ) 

 i redid this apple pie because the one my group did in class didn't turn out because we were finishing right as class was ending and we ran out of struesel...so we piled cinnamon and sugar on the top...it wasn't very pretty...

 

FRUIT TARTS!

aren't these the cutest? they were so fun to make! and they just look so pretty! oh and i just had a thought, you should know what we make every element of every recipe ourselves. so, our group made these shells and the pastry cream inside. we did not, however, grow the fruit. : } but we did slice them and i decorated these four! 

 

 

 

 

 we also made a big one, but i don't have a picture of it quite yet. i will include it on another post when i get the pic from my teammate!

 

CHEESECAKE!

(heather, you would have died if you ate this. so good.)

this cheesecake involved lemon juice and lemon zest, but our group used orange instead. holy cow. orange cheesecake is the best cheesecake! 

PATE A CHOUX!

(what's pate a choux you ask?...)

 



swans filled with whipped cream and pastry cream! 

eclairs! my absolute favorite (next to croissants. once i learn them both i can drop out of culinary school because i will have no need for it anymore...just kidding of course.) 

cream puffs! 

pari brest. no this is not a giant doughnut, it is much much better. anyway, it was created and named for a bicycle race in paris in 1891. it is meant to represent a bike wheel. 

 

 

 

don't even try to tell me that these aren't the cutest eclairs and creams puffs you have ever seen! i actually made all of these delicious pastries in the practice kitchen on my own because the ones my group made were not picture worthy...not our fault though!...the oven temperature for the oven our pan was in in class was too low so ours didn't puff up. they didn't look as cute but they still tasted good. anyway, so i went in to the practice kitchen and remade these and the chef in there told me to make mini's...so we piped a few out and guess what? there is actually filling in them! SO CUTE! ahhh

 

 

APPLE STRUDEL!

mmmmmmm... 

oh and i just thought of one thing...you know how i said earlier we make everything ourselves? well, we did not make the dough we use to wrap these babies up with. it is called filo dough and is actually impossible to make by hand! it has to be made by machinese because it is so thin!...seriously, when we pick it up to layer it it looks just like tissue paper. so weird.

 

 

ok folks, that's that! my 3rd and 4th week. on friday we made creme brule but we still need to finish them off by burning the sugar on the top! i will add pictures up in my next post.

 

also i started a job this week! i now work at a place called Panificio's! it is fun so far, my boss lets me bake whatever i want to sale!...and i get paid to do that. i feel so lucky lately. i go to the funnest school and have the coolest job!

 

alright! shabbat shalom! if anyone wants to try any of my goodies come visit me in boston! : )  ...it will be worth it i swear.