<3 Amz

Follow your Dreams, they wont follow you

Last week was pretty rough.
 

It takes courage to push yourself to places you have never been before..

to test your limits..to break through barriers..

Tthis week i had someone tell me that i have choosen the wrong profession. It was really heart breaking for me. This is something i have always had in my heart. It has always been my escape from reality. If you pursue something with your heart, how is that wrong for you?

Yes I have not experienced or tried many things but i have not lived under a rock my whole life either. 
i havent been living my life.. it feels like i have been hibernating..
Im starting to be more adventurous, im starting to eat things that i normally would have never ate before.

Although I would not say that im the courageous one, i have been very courageous lately.  Im pushing myself out of my comfort zone. So the things im doing may be very normal to many people but to myself its a whole new world, and who are they to say how i should i feel?

I am far from what i once was, but not yet where im going to be. So everyday i have to remember to just breathe. Everything will be okay in the end, If it's not okay, it's not the end!
Life is all about choices. Even no choice is a choice.

Aim at the sun and you may not reach it; but your arrow will fly far higher than if you had aimed at an object on a level with yourself.

 Amz <3

End of Week 7

So i left out thursday and friday on the last post, i also had Wine class this saturday!

Thursday was cakes. We made a flourless chocolate, Pound cakes, Genoise, and Chiffon.
More Egg foam cakes.
I am not a fan. lol. they are so easy to do incorrectly, or just mess up and im not a huge fan of how they taste haha I didnt take any pics of the cakes i made. But i did take a picture of how chef kat explained them.

 Genoise is an egg foam cake which doesnt have any chemical leaveners so how does it rise?
Like a hot air balloon? Thats right! Well not excatly but when you heat air it expands which makes the hot air balloon rise so that same thing happens in the cake. the air bubbles created heat up and expand.  In the picture is Chef Kat as well Jessica :D


Friday was the exciting and nerve racking day!
We put together cakes!
We Masked and Decorated our Genoise with Italian Buttercream.
We had to split our cake into thirds, and i did it without cutting myself!  And then i tried doing a mosaic firework on the top (as that is something i have never done) But it doesnt look very much like a firework...
I should have make the distinct line the outside and then filled the inside with the colors, while i did the opposite.. I made the inside very distinct.. opps, at least now i know!

Next we did the Pasuwa, which is the cake of my school.  
the Pasuwa is named after the founders / co-founders,
PAtrice Suhner
SUe Singer
WAlter Messiah
It was an honor to be able to make this cake, Still does not seem real that im in Culinary school!
Maybe ill treat my family and friends at christmas and bring one home with me on the plane... 
This has chocolate mousse in it and you have to heat the chocolate correctly as well as temper it into your Whipped Cream and not make chocolate chips, and you only have a specific range of temperature to work in before it cools downs too much and then you cant make it smooth.
So Needless to say i was just happy that we finished it and that it worked out so i forgot to take a picture of it



We finished the day off with opera cake.
Which is  a layered cake. starting at the bottom it goes Chabloner, jaconde, buttercream, jaconde, ganache, jaconde, buttercream, jaconde, ganache and then a glaze all around the cake.  First time i glazed a cake! 

 

 So that was school this week.

Saturday was my last class for Wine and Spirit Education trust.

This class was bit more indepth, tried 12 more wines, talked about how to serve, present, what affects the wine and went into how to pair wines with the food.

Special glasses are made so they deposit the wine at certain spots in the mouth to bring out a specific aspect of the wine.  

This is a Pinot Noir Glass and i  :D

This is Rebecca (She is in PM Pastry with me) and a Chablis Wine Glass

You can see how they are designed differently.  I also got to open a bottle of wine! First time ever! And i did  it :D  I was proud of myself :)

Well Hope everyone is having an awesome weekend, (especially those who got snow :P tee hee)

<3 Amz

Week 7

So i usually post on the weekend of all the stuff we have done that week, but i have Wine Class at school on Saturday so 

This is Savoury week, and a little bit of setting up.
Monday we did Sausage rolls, Buttermilk crackers, Tortiere, and then Empanda and Samosa fillings.





Sausage rolls,they were so good! almost reminded me of the stuffing rolls i always got back home.

Buttermilk crackers were also delicious!  If i docked them more they would ahve stayed flat and not puffed up.















Tortiere would not be my favorite thing to eat in the world but nonetheless interesting to make.






Then tuesday we used two fillings we made on monday, so we are starting to learn how to time things and work as a bakeshop and not just doing one thing a day.
I forgot to take pictures this day so i these are taken at home the day after, just a fyi :)

Spanakopita!!!!
These are the best things i have ever put in my mouth!!
Taste so good, with the flaky crispy outer shell, and the cheesy spinach inside, it just equals yummyness and amazingness :D

We also made Empanadas, and Samosas.
Samosas are like party hats or tents, you make a cone and then put your filling in and then pinch the bottom and make flat and then you can sit them all up before cooking. I should have taken a picture but i  forgot :( oops lol

The empanadas reminded me of perogies,  its Just the way you put them together. 

Tomato Ricotta Tart.. Well i tried ricotta cheese for the first time.. and im not a fan, im such a picky eater, but this adventure is definitely making me try new things and expanding my palatte. Also not a huge onion lover so the onion tart my partner took home, so i dont have a picture of it, (remember  that i forgot to take pics so these were from at home the day after





Wednesday.
i enjoyed this day as it included a couple of things that i have always wanted to make but just never got around to it. Ladyfingers(this is used in Tiramisu!!!!)

the other thing we made that was very interesting to me is Pate Decor. It is very simple but i just never would have thought that was what made the design.

 For Pate Decor you can pipe out words or a design, as well as draggin a stencil through to create lines. Chef Kat made this one to demo to us. You have to pipe backwards so she was holding it up so we could read it. Once your design is piped out then you freeze it and spread Jaconde on top and back. During baking the desing and Jaconde become one and then you have one sheet of cake with a colorful design in it.

Chef Kat also did emulsion for the biology gal in my class

 
The only other thing i remembered to take a picture of is Progres, which is almost like a hazelnut meringue. We piped them in circles to use at the base and floaters for cakes (i think anyways lol, friday is when we are puttin all the cakes together! )

I didnt take any pictures today at school, so i will just explain thursday schooling on the next post as its getting late and it was a crappy day for me today.

Hope everyone had a good week,
Amz <3

Inspirations.

Everyone has role models. Some good and some bad. Some that have impacted your whole life, and some who have only impacted certain parts of your life.

My inspiration for baking was drawn from 3 major people.
-My Grandma
-Deb Lindquist
-Mrs. Pearson

My Grandma, used to let me help her bake all day at my great grandmas house. She taught me how to make noodles, and cookies, and Kucha, and just started my love for baking. She is an amazing, and i have looked up to her my whole life.

Deb Lindquist, was my best friend in high school mom. I remember going home from school with my friend and then Deb asked me if i wanted to help her make cookies. My friend, Ceanna went on and did other stuff while i stayed and helped her mom make around 300 cookies.  At that time in my life 300 seemed like a lot. Now not so much. She truly was an amazing role model in and out of the kitchen.

Having you pass away while im in culinary school is definitely hard for me but my heart is breaking for your family. May heaven be blessed with all the many amazing talents you have <3

Mrs. Pearson. She was one of my high school teachers. She was my mentor for Skills, and let me practice the second year even though they only had accepted one student from our school which was not me. Two months before the competition i was accepted to compete and that was the year i won Silver.

These 3 women have impacted my life in ways that they probably dont even understand.
<3 Amz

Week 6

monday.
Apple Strudel, Rum Babas, Pavlova, and Creme Anglaise

First off, Apple Studel

This is Chef Kat demonstrating how to stretch it without tearing it

Yes it should be thin enough to read through.

This is mine! look at how thin it is :D
And only the one little hole

The Finished Product
A real true apple studel!








Next is rum babas, which in my mind is buns that are then soaked in a rum mixture as soon as the come out of the oven. An odd concept to me.

 Pavlova :)







 We also made Creme Anglaise, I did not take a picture, but mine turned out :) This is one thing that is very easy to mess up as its eggs heated up but whipped to make a sauce, so you dont want your eggs to coagulate among other things.

Tuesday was the feild trip. Went through Granville Island and the Public Market, then to the Sheraton Wall center and finished with Gelato.











Bella Gelateria owned by James Coleridge (the guy handing out nouget) is where we went for Gelato.  If you are in the Vancouver Area or ever here visiting i would recommment everyone to try his gelato! He uses only the best ingredients he can find, even if that means to fly them in from Europe, and he makes it all from scratch! Which was so fascinating to me, as this day and age everyone is all about how fast can we make this or that not about quality.. and some people are trying to get a combination or middle ground but he hasnt. He is all about old fashioned quality.   Makes my heart yearn to learn how to do that in my life and to follow through with it.




Wednesday was Pie day.
Brown Butter Tart, Blackberry Ginger Pie, Cherry Clafoutis, and Cheesecake.

 Brown Butter Tart

BlackBerry Ginger Pie



i forgot to take a picture of the cherry clafoutis :(








Lastly was cheesecake! i made a flavorful one :)
White Chocolate Orange Cheesecake. It was Delicious!!  I usually dont like baked cheesecake (the real cheesecakes lol) But this one was so good!










Thursday was an overflow/practice day and out class decided we wanted to do a mini mock midterm. Wow. Im so not ready lol.
We used all class to do parisienne, profiteroles, pastry cream, tart chells, fondant topping for the profiteroles, and if you had extra time Creme Anglaise.
Usual midterm you have around 4 hours to do even more than that  :S

Parisienne, mine were a little underproofed but still turned out okay.
















Profiteroles,  filled with pastry cream and then we topped then with fondant.  And i took my fondant to the correct temperature! So it stayed shiny :)
Although i did mess up the profiteroles, i didnt use a fork in egg wash to push them down so that they all look uniform :(














Tart Shells. this is something i need to work on and practice.  I am never pleased with my outcome.

Creme Anglaise, Chef said she would have given mine a 9/10 :)

Finally Friday, Although this was not a good baking day for me haha


We did Creme Brulee, Pot au Creme and Creme Caramel.
Creme Caramel was the only one that actually turned out :(



I didnt torch sugar on top as mine were cooked in the middle and thought that would have been a waste. Although now i wish i would have just so i know i can do it haha.

Pot Au Creme
This is actually Nikki and Genie's as Mine didnt turn out at all!  i think it was a mis scale as it looked completely different :(

Then Creme Caramel, the only one that actually turned out!
Normally it is turned upside down and then served, so the caramel bottom acts as a sauce on top.













Well that was my week at school last week, 
<3 Amz