Hey Everyone!!  So i havent put up a post in so long!!

So first off im sorry! but now i will catch you up :D

I moved back to Saskatchewan when i finished school, and currently working at Smiley's Buffet and Catering. 
So my typical week there involves making 800 cookies, chocolate chip and ginger molasses. about 100 pie shells, and 8-16 double crust pies. 8 large trays of squares, 16 pans of  desserts (so trifles, cheesecakes,  broken glass) and then 40 creme pies.  Although every morning is a set menu for a residence so you have to make 140 regular, 30 diabetic and 4 Celiac Desserts. And then any cater outs or pick ups that are booked for that day, which are generally strawberry shortcake, or black forest cake.  So thats my typical work week. 

Its interesting learning how life is different than school, and just the interactions made within employees vs fellow classmates.

I cant believe i have been graduated for 3 months, it does not feel like that long. Hope all the PICA Grads of June 2012 all the best!

<3 Amz

Bittersweet

Well the end is here.
i cant believe how fast the last 6 months have went by.

Finished my final practical today, and wow im i ever glad that is over!

we had 5 1/2 hours to do Brioche, Mango mousse cake,eclairs filled with coffee pastry cream and caramel on top,  Creme Anglaise, two chocolate genoise, one turned into a sacher, hazelnut tuilles, truffles, plate writing and fans. My body feels like a steam roller ran over it! i finished half an hour early and then did all my clean up! I think i did pretty well. there was some stuff that i have done better but being rushed i feel happy with what i produced :)

I also got my class valedictorian :) so i made a little video this past week and will do a little speech at the grad ceremony (i will post the video after grad! so that its a surprise for everyone in my class :P)


I guess the next post will be about life! and all the adventures it takes me one :)

till then
<3 Amz

Last Event

Hey all my followers! There is a special event going on at my school this saturday! Last time you will be able to come visit me at school!  i will be serving but my classmates are making the food! You should defitinetly come check it out! 

 https://dinnerinoldmontreal.eventbrite.ca/?nomo=1

<3 Amz

Oh my word! its been like a month since i have updated! Sorry guys!

Well i will try to do a quick update ! Life and school has went by so fast! And i only have 3 days left till the final!

So this was a creamsicle Charlotte, So there is ladyfingers around the outside,white chocolate mousse, a orange curd floater, Garnished with white chocolate cigarette, candied orange slices, and orange granita

This was a Bombe Alaska, So i it was vanilla bean ice cream covered with  pistachio ice cream then covered in Italian Meringue on a almond pound pound cake, toasted and then candied Pistachios garnished around as well as a Cigerette butterfly

My last plated dessert was my version of a snow egg, i found the idea from a restaurant in australia, and loved it, so i tried to recreate it but not excatly.

 It was a baked italian meringue dome, filled with chocolate mousse, a caramel center and a coconut tuille base garnished with a sparkling strawberry wine granita

In this picture you can see how gooey the surprise center was :)

One day i also made a tonne of truffles for Chef Tim, There was dark chocolate orange, milk chocolate strawberry, and white chocolate peach

A few students in my class also got to play around with sugar sculpting, So we all got a demo on it :)

Although when we came back the next day it had broke but the finished product still looked awesome!













Well thats all for now as i should prob study for the final thats in 3 days! Eeek!!

<3 Amz

Life. Thoughts.

 Last weekend my sister and her husbands famlily were out here visiting, and they had mentioned that i have taken on the hippy mentality. That comment got me pondering about how much my thinking has changed. 
-I no longer just eat whatever (although a few of classmates will disagree with this! )
-I cant see a dessert or any kind of treat without thinking about what techniques they used
-I can justify spending more money on better quality food or tools 
-I actually drank a glass of wine and enjoyed it
Sure these are little things, but isnt it the little things that make the big picture. 
I am changing. I am growing. I am maturing. 

 Being here has been a fairy tale for me in a way. I had always wanted to go to pastry school. Also dreamt and talked about moving to vancouver. So having both of those come true was so awesome. 

 Im also learning about life in general. Dealing with people you like and dont like. How to be the person i want to be. 

Everyone has their days, But im hoping that i can learn to stay postive, and dont stress over those things that you cant control. 

Life is life. C'est La Vie.

 

And in the end, some of your greatest pains become your greatest strengths. Be thankful for the difficult times. During those times you 
grow. We have to deal with pain to find happiness. We have to deal with pain to find us. We become stronger with each bad day, bad relationship, bad past, just everything bad. We can make it all better in the end just by learning from it all. Challenges are what makes us who we are
 

<3 Amz

i have a long post for you guys! i should prob have updated a few times this week but i have been slacking :P

So one day of school was a bakery/pastry tour!  We started off looking at a few places in the granville island market, then went to Edible Flours, Thierry, Thomas Haas, and Cadeux, and then ended at the Public Library and watched Kings Of Pastry.

This is at Edible Flours, You can see in this picture how much space he has in the back to make all of his products !  They had pastries that were gluten free, Dairy Free, and nut free!  I loved thier Banana Bread!

This is at Thomas Haas, and their wide selection of truffles !

Thierry Macarons! Are gorgeous! and taste wonderful!

 We were special and got our own little room!

 This is the loot we had at the end from all the places !









Then on the weekend my class went on a walking tour of the city with Chef Tim and then ended at the Vancouver Convention Center for a food expo.

In the walking tour we learnt about the city, about certain buildings, a little bit of vancouvers heritage, and also just looked at the food service that was available.

This building entrance is beautifully crafted, and on the side of the building has a bunch of different boats, all depicting the story of vancouvers harbour. 

A law in vancouver is that when you want to build for the city to give you permission you also have to create an art peice. So this is a representation of the elevators in the buidling, and the blocks move in correspondance.

The Vancouver Public Library, built like the colosseum, interesting fact about this place is that some tiles are still not set. 

Grafitti :)








The food expo was very interesting, there was booths set up from people selling water, dishes, take out containers, equipment, uniforms, food, pretty much anything that you would use in a food & beverage industry was there represented by at least one booth! Also got to watch a competition that 4 students from my school had entered.

The school is participating in Dine Out Vancouver, So for dessert we have 3 categories, Chocolate Trio, Nuts and Brittle, and Deep Freeze

I was on Chocolate trio first, And well this day was kinda a disaster lol. nothing was working for me. I made tart shells but then they werent coming out without breaking, and then i tried a differnt way and it was still not working, but with Chef Tanya's help i did get a dessert to serve!






Chocolate Shortbread base, with a white chocolate mousse, and milk chocolate sorbet on the side

The other choc trio dessert i made was a chocolate torte that had a chocolate almond base and then white chocolate ice cream.








Then i was supposed to have 2 days off of plated desserts but someone in our class was sick so i got to do an extra day of plated dessert! So i did the nuts and caramel one this time.

So i did a caramel Swirl cheesecake with a walnut/pecan base, some brittle, and a gooey caramel truffle as the garnish :)
















This is just showing that my truffle was a liquid inside :P










Then when it was my turn on plated desserts i was assigned deep freeze.

So my first day i did a modern Banana Split.


I made tuille cups, and filled them with chocolate ice cream, strawberry granita and coconut ice cream, and then i saute bananas and grilled some coconut

My second day i did PB & J

It was a chocolate peanut butter semi-freddo, strawberry granita, and i made a suger nest for the garnish.












Other things i have done in school this week..




I made mini apple pies for Chef Tims wine clsss! and well i dont like making pies, i suck at it. lol. but these ones turned out beautifully!

There was a cupcake competition!
I entered with a Tiramisu Cupcake.
The winner from my class was an Olive Oil Cupcake, so she will be competiting in the middle of february!

I also did my Major Final Assignment, which is a 15 min presentation. Mine was on Peter Reinhart, so i made Struan :)












Well i believe that is all for now, hope everyone is doing well!
<3 Amz

Hey everyone! Sorry that i havent updated for awhile!

Life has been busy, and now school is going to be busier with Dine Out!

I have kinda been slackin with taking pictures at school as were not learning new things, as i was just doing the stuff we did in basic but without our partner.  Although i was in the chocolate room! And well if you remember myself and chocolate didnt get along very well in basic, although i think i did pretty well this time!

Those were some of the chocolate curls i made :) Which we didnt learn in basic













A new thing for the school is for the baking and pastry students to also learn and gain experience how to serve.  So as a class we are making a variety of breads and presenting the customers with a bread basket.

 

Starting this week is everyones major final assignment! Which includes a 15 minute presentation. I have mine  on Peter Reinhart :)
This week is also a cupcake throwdown challenge! You enter by making one cupcake and the school is picking one person to represent the school. I have two options for mine, hoping to get a bit of extra time at school this week to try the one out and see if it works! ill keep you guys updated on that!

<3 Amz

Well i have now finished week 2 of advanced! And i must say it is gettin easier and better as we are all learning where everything is in the new kitchen, as well as learning our new Chef Instructor, and just getting adjusted to the rotations.

Since we moved to advanced the school gets new classes for basic training, so there is new students in the school! i have only talked to a few of them but they seem pretty cool and the breads they are developing are amazing!

I was on production, Plated Dessert and then Bakeshop this week. And at the beginning of the week i completely forgot to take pictures! oops!

But When i was in production i made Pralines & Cream and Marjoline.  So that means i had to make 6 sheet pans of Hazelnut Sponge, and then also 4 different kinds of mousse to finish the assembly of those 2 items.

Then i moved onto Plated Dessert!
First day i made a Macaron Sampler plate.

 So it had 3 different flavors. On the left is A Red Velvet Macaron with cream cheese filling, Middle is a Smores, So a Cinnamon Macaron, topped with a Chocolate Ganache and then finished with Marshmellow, On the right is a strawberry sauce, then a strawberry macaron that i crumpled up, topped with a vanilla SemiFreddo (which is sort of like ice cream base mixed with whipped cream and then churned)

 That day i also had to made Ricotta Cheese for my dessert the next day! This was such a cool thing to do and learn! But i totally forgot to take pictures until i was done!

 So this is the cheese at the end! The process was boiling salted milk, and then once boiling add lemon juice and stir gently and it will eventually seperate and then you take out the solid parts and strain through cheese cloth.

I used this cheese to make Cannoli's which i have never made or even had tasted before but one girl in my class loves them so i figured why not.
I googled it the night before and discovered that Candied Orange is usually a component in it So i Made Orange Curd for my sauce :P

 Onto Bakeshop! So this station you are finishing desserts or cakes to be sold.

 So a Sacher Torte is sacher chocolate cake layered with raspberry jam and ganache in a swirl

These are Mango mousse and Cherry Mousse Pyramids

Pasuwa is a chocolate cake with chocolate mousse with cheesecake and chocolate chips in it.

These next two are Pumpkin Spice cake layered with Pumpkin Mousse and then finished with Italian Buttercream.  I then added praline grains on the side for finishing touch but it also added a crunch. This cake was delicious!

 Another Pumpkin Cake just different decorations on the top :)











Saturday i had a Food & Berevage Operations Management Class With Chef Tim, He also taught us the WSET. It was a very fun and enjoyable class :)



This is him with the wine cupboards he is installing in the Schools Restaurant!






 Hope your week was good!
<3 Amz

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow.

Happy New Year! Hope Everyone had a wonderful 2011 and an even more amazing 2012!!

<3 Amz