influenza pandemic

so it has been a crazy week here

soo many people are sick it's ridiculous

the hospital has stopped writing notes

for students who have exams/tests

they are just exempt because it's so hectic

my housemate has a few people in her program

with confirmed H1N1 cases

luckily [for me] she's at a different campus

there hasn't been anything big here yet

so monday morning

we all arrive at our early 745 time

suit up and wait for the door to be opened

when it is opened we find we have no class

chef is super sick and won't be in for either days

tuesday we had chef cynthia for our lab

she's a nice and crazy person but it felt very disorganized

i don't know whether it was because i was sick

but i just had no idea what to do next!

that was a pasta and starches lab

so we made pasta from scratch

it was a pretty cool thing to do

rolling the pasta through

and watching it come out as fettuccine!

people say that cynthia marks hard

but we got an 85 and that seems pretty high

so we were very happy with it

thursday was our normal baking lab

last lab, which was before midterm, we made pastry dough

this week we whipped it out and made some sweet things

there were open faced fresh fruit tarts

turnovers, pinwheels, volevants, cheese sticks ect.

chef said our pastry turned out very well

it puffed up and showed all it's layers

he gave us a good mark of 78%

i brought a box of pastry home

and a bag of cheese sticks

i got a couple pastries and one cheese stick

and the rest was eaten by friends!

pastry is such a cool thing to make

how you have to fold it and let it sit so many times

creating a total of 144 layers!

when it's ready to be used

you cut it into quarters and can freeze them

for multiple time use

once the pastry is made

there's so many super easy desserts to make from it

done done done

so i guess it's been awhile since i last wrote

so there's gunna be some catching up!

i don't even know where to start...

monday and tuesday are cooking labs

and this week we made sauces

so bechamel, veloute, mornay,

tomato, hunter, supreme,

bernaise ect...

both days we did pretty dang good

89 and 85 which i'm happy with

there were some written tests

and midterms throughout the week

that i was not very happy with

but that just tells me i need to study more

thursday was our baking practical

i was pretty dang nervous for it

i didn't remember the procedures

and i was quite sure i screwed everything up

my final product i thought looked pretty good

but chef only gave me a 74%

i guess this tells me that i meant for cooking!

so midterms are over which is a relief

but i don't expect the work will lighten up at all

there will still be at least one test a week if not more

and multiple projects for classes

i received my midterm marks

and they were all over the place

i am happy with some

but definitely need to work on others

the grades also tell me i'm meant for cooking

and not baking or theory really!

here comes me learning curve...

midterms

so now that it's after thanksgiving

it's midterm time!

not a super fun thing

but i spose it has to be done!

on the tuesday right when i got back

i had a practical for cooking

it was at 730 so that was killer!

i had to make a veggie soup,

julienne some carrots,

turn potatoes and 50% cook them

and bread mushrooms

during the whole thing

i wasn't very confident in my work

i knew my juliennes were more like alumettes

my cuts for the soup didn't seem very uniform

and chef commented on the sizes of my potatoes

apparently everything went quite well

i succeeded with an 84%

baking was a pretty decent class

we used our skills in making

applie pie and an open faced apple tart

both of them turned out very nice

which pleased me and steve

but chef thought the tart was over cooked

so we only received a 78%

we weren't very pleased with it

but that's still a decent grade!

a couple more midterms to go

and then it's bad to class!

happy thanksgiving

not a whole lot exciting for this blog

just an update of my recent labs

on tuesday we had another soup lab

this time we made specialty soups so;

shrimp bisque, french onion,

vichyssoise, clam chowder

and hot & sour thai chicken

all of these actually turned out very well!

chef thought the thai one was a little salty

and shelly thought the french onion was salty

but overall we got 88% which we are very pleased with!

tonight was our baking lab

it was not a stressful class

with only 3 recipes to complete

there was scones aka tea biscuits

muffins and apple fritters

steve and i spiced up our muffins a bit

by adding some rum and raisins

we thought everything turned out well

but chef said they were slightly overcooked

and not as soft as they could have been

we still received 79% which is decent

but not what we were hoping for this time

tomorrow is 3hr theory which i'm not looking forward to

but then i get to head home and see my family!

and eat home cooked food that i will looove!

happy thanksgiving friends :)

anything but clothes

so apparently i suck at blogging

but it is a lot different being at school

i don't always have exciting things to say

it's usually about things i've learned in school

or crazy weekends, like this past one!

friday night was the abc party

anything but clothes...

so kels and i decided to make

garbage bag dresses and they looked awesome!

some people were pretty dang sketchy though

there were a lot of guys wearing almost nothing!

over all it was a very fun night

back tracking to thursday

this is my baking night and it went very well!

i worked with steve who is an awesome partner

and we owned at making choux pastry and pastry cream

we made delicious swans, eclairs and profiterols

though we thought we got in the 80s chef gave us a 79

today in cooking we actually started to make practical things

so we started our soup labs

we made; pureed carrot soup, cream of mushroom

beef consomme and veggie soup

overall it was a job well done with a 78

our beef consomme tasted very good but a bit more grease could have been removed

our mushroom soup was good but needed more seasoning

our cream of carrot had great taste bur was cold [oops]

and our veggie soup also had great taste but the veg was undercooked

i was the chef du partie today so i feel like i could have stepped up a bit more

i knew that the veg wasn't cooked all the way but didn't say anything

i don't like mushroom soup so don't know what is tastes like

i was surprised that the carrot soup was cold, it was on the stove the whole time

and the consomme seemed pretty degreased to me, chef's just picky!

tomorrow we're starting specialty soups so;

clam chowder, french onion soup

some chicken thai stuff, shrimp bisque

and one other that i can't remember

i feel like these ones are going to be trickier

so i'm going to have to step up my game

and voice what i think of each one

because i really want to do well on these ones

the tuesday after thanksgiving we have our practical exam

this consists of julienne carrots, turned potatoes, breaded mushrooms

and a liter of veggie soup, nothing too tricky

the only thing that worries me

is that i have to do this all on my own!

i will definitely be practicing at home this weekend!

i'm pumped for this weekend

it's weird being away from home

cause it doesn't even feel like it

minus the fact of not seeing my parents constantly!

i will no longer take home cook meals for granted

i am so excited for a turkey dinner and pumpkin pie!