this is it

well..

i made it

my first year of college is just about complete

a few more exams to go

but other than that

i'm done!

it's crazy to think back on the year

and even the year before that

living on my own

having a lot more responsibility

and just growing quite a bit

a lot has changed since the beginning of the year

going from knowing no one

to having a core group of amazing friends

going from knowing a very minimal amount of things about cooking

to being able to succeed in most things i make!

there were definite times of struggle

in wondering if this is really for me

and the thought is still in the back of my mind

but i'm very much looking forward to this summer

it'll get my toes wet in the industry

and see if my heart is actually into this

i know next year

is going to be another adventure all on it's own

living in a house with a bunch of guys

it will be a challenge

but they're all my good friends

so i'm not too worried about it

the work load will be a lot harder

but i know if i put myself to it

i will be able to succeed!

i ate the easter bunny

i have decided

i'm probably not going to continue with this much longer

i know it's probably a disappointment

but you're more than welcome to send me emails

and i will definitely reply to those!

as for what's be going on

there's been quite a bit

or so i think

i can't remember all that's gone on!

this past weekend was easter [obviously]

on friday i got together with a few of my friends

and we had a crazy seafood night

shrimp, scallops, lots of salmon and others

it was such a nice day that we spent the whole thing outside

barbecuing, throwing a football around

and just having an all around great day

tons of laughs and awesome talks

sunday we had our easter dinner

this is when you did a sinful thing

and ate the easter bunny!

which was actually super good

we marinated the hind legs in

orange juice and zest, olive oil,

thyme, sage and rosemary

and rubbed the excess of it on the core

which we also stuffed with a stuffing

this didn't turn out so well

but we learn from our mistakes!

as for school

it's getting down to the nitty gritty

only a couple more weeks until exams

which i'm really not looking forward to!

i will hopefully be exempt from at least one exam

maybe we can bump it up to two with a good test!

today i found out

that my exams go until april 30th

this means i won't be able to come home at all

i will move straight to my place in huntsville

to start work the next week

kinda sucks because there's no break at all

school straight to work

booerns

production is going very well

i'm really enjoying it

haven't had anything too difficult yet

hopefully it's not the last week

when we're not allowed to use our recipes!

pastry i still hate

too artsy fartsy and precise for me

i know for a fact i will not be doing it for a job!

i'm not too worried about my exam

as long as my genoise turns out good!

1 month and counting

that's how long it's been since i last wrote

i'm really sorry about that by the way!

i just got bored/lazy and didn't know what to say!

not going to update a lot

just had our reading week which was a great break

we also got our midterm marks back

and i was very happy with mine

B in accounting

AH in food serving

A in kitchen management

A+ in healthy living

A in wines

B+ in law

AH in math

overall with a 3.89 GPA (it's out of 4)

in pastry class our chef switched up the groups

it was slightly a hard thing to handle

steve and i have worked together

in baking since the beginning of the year

and now we're not!

but i think i'm going to like me group

this past week we made a bunch of pastry things

but didn't have to make the actual pastry

so there was not a lot of work to it

which was pretty boring

but overall we did very well getting an 85

as for today

it was our very first day

working in the production kitchen

this is were we actually work the line

and get to make food for the public

i was definitely scared for it

but it was an easy day today

i made steak and boursin paninis

which actually turned out pretty dang good!

also got to help on the line plating the veg and starch

it definitely gets stressful on the life

with orders being yelled at you

and trying to keep on top of things

and then running out of stuff!

it was pretty sweet to have that adrenaline

and rush to keep things on time and push forward

tomorrow i'm the sous chef

and get to help at the app station

in making sure each table gets what is needed

definitely looking forward to that

i think that's all my updating for now

i need some sleep

long day today

and a busy morning tomorrow!

overwhelmed

so much homework

so little time

oh how i wish the weekend

was a week long!

we have a bunch of tests this week

one in accounting, law,

nutrition and kitchen management

only really worried about nutrition...

we also have multiple projects due!

a stress one in nutrition

a 30sec elevator pitch for student success

and a menu for kitchen management

AND our midterm for dining room is this week

and i'm actually pretty pumped about it

i think we'll do just a fabulous job

i was [thankfully] voted into bar/cash

that means i get to hide out most of the time

and not have to deal with any customers!

it's a complete group mark for this

so we all have to really work together

in making sure things go smoothly

it's our day to run things

so we can make the tables look the way we want

and add any other special additions to it

i'm looking forward to having this week over with

it just means one more week closer to reading week

which means one more week closer to being home!

steamwhistle

well ladies and gentlemen

the competition was today

and all in all

it went very well

our product looked fabulous

and tasted pretty dang good too

everyones dishes looked very appetizing

unfortunately we did not win

jeremy and dan's dish did

but we came close behind

we were able to receive feedback from the chef

and all loved our presentation

and beer battered shrimp

some didn't like the size of the sushi rolls

and a lot thought the rice was undercooked

one of our chefs

said it was very brave of us to try this dish

because it was so different from the others

and definitely had a few mess ups

but overall were extremely proud of ourselves!

last week

since i'm so bad at this

i have to recap!

pastry last week

was not difficult at all

we made strawberry ice cream

espresso parfaits and a genoise sponge

we were not marked

because most things have to be put in the freezer

so the final products will be marked this week

along with all the things we are making on wednesday

as for serving on thursday and friday

i was on bar and cash for thursday

and i was slightly nervous about it

because normally all the bills come in at the same time

but i was able to stay organized

and worked through things very well

all on my own!

friday on the other hand

holy poop!

i was captain working with alex

and we happened to have 3 tables of 6

all at 1130!

they were all old church people

so very extremely nice and understanding

to make things a little trickier

i had two ladies with celiac disease

and a man who was on a low sodium and potassium diet

we are able to cater to the celiacs

but it was a pain trying to deal with the other man

everything in the end worked out ok

i messed up a few things

and freaked out slightly

but once it was ok, i was good!

enjoyed the long weekend

but was fortunate enough

to catch a head cold!

it's not too serious

so i can still go on with life!

this thursday

is our steamwhistle competition

and i'm pretty dang scared!

i'm sure it will go just fine

but it's still a weird feeling

being in a competition with friends

AND the fact that it's going to be filmed

weird man

i'll be sure to post a link on here

once it's all finished

must head out to class now

accounting and law

woohoo

what a way to end the day!

horrible habit

so yet again

it's been over a week

and i haven't written anything

i don't even know where i left off last!

i'll just recap this past week i spose..

we had a bunch of tests

but all ended up being super easy

so we stressed for no reason

bleh

pastry on wednesday

sucked a lot

i have decided i really dislike that class

steve and i always get frustrated

and just end up in bad moods after

but this week we made

charlotte royal, charlotte rouse,

chocolate mouse, vanilla bavarian cream

a sponge jelly roll and a sabayon

both charlottes looked hideous

our chocolate mouse was slightly lumpy

but our sabayon was just perfect

unfortunately we only ended up with a 75%

it was a shock and a big drop from last week

but i spose it what we deserved...

serving this week went very well

thursday i was a runner for alex

we had 3 tables

and everything went smoothly

i was running around a bit

but it ended up completely fine

friday on the other hand

was pretty crazy and frantic!

i was a runner for angela

and we have 3 tables of 6

oh boy oh boy

two of these tables arrived at 1130 too

so all the orders were at the same time

and there were so many of them

OH and there was this stupid photographer in the kitchen

right in the middle over everything

i almost took him out with a tray of apps!

he then had me stand there

with a tray filled with 6 mains on it

as he took like 12 pictures of me!

i was right pissed with him

he then proceeded to follow me into the dining room

to tell me how great the picture turned out

good for you, get out of my way!

not impressed!

after all the craziness

things turned out well

only a few mix ups

but it happens

saturday night

i got together with angela

and we worked on our steamwhistle recipe

we completely changed it from last time

but it's waayyy better

we decided to make sushi so..

we wrapped rice, avocado, cucumber and carrots

all soaked in beer, into a seaweed paper

then we deep fried shrimp in a beer batter

and topped all this off with a soy sauce diluted with beer

along with a wasabi and beer sauce!

we pulled this all together in one night

and it actually tasted really good

we were pretty dang impressed with ourselves!

i was told today by our chef

that all the groups who submitted recipes

are actually in the competition

we assume this is because he didn't want to choose four

but it's still cool that we are all able to compete

i'm sure hoping this week is better than the last

fingers crossed!

it's been awhile

since i've written anything!

boy do i suck

sorry guys

i'll recap as best as possible

but i honestly don't even know what has gone on!

baking last week

we made a whole bunch of stuff

it was a good pressured class

to make sure everything was done on time

steve and i worked well as a team

splitting up the jobs

we made a linzer torte, brandy snaps,

lady fingers and biscotti

everything turned out great

but our torte took an extremely long time

because something was up with our oven

we ended up with an 85%

which we figure we didn't deserve

but i don't think it's pity/favoritism either

last time i wrote about serving

it was only going to be our first day

we are two weeks into things and it's starting to get easier

i started off the first week being the maitre'd

and the maitre'ds assistant

both of these positions helped to see

how each other job worked

i was able to be a runner without struggling too much

[even with carrying giant trays full of dishes!]

and was given 3 tables of 6 when i was a runner

which went very smooth, no confusions on who got what meal

i'm pretty impressed with myself

because i have never done this before

but it almost come naturally

i am a runner for both days this week

and i'm alright with that because it keeps me busy

i'm never just standing there

i;m clearing tables, or putting orders in the computer

or back in the kitchen grabbing peoples meals

it's a fun and busy atmosphere to be in

tomorrow in baking

we'll be taking what we made last week

and incorporating it into other things

we're making chocolate mousse to add to the brandy snaps

and we're making the lady fingers into charlotte royals

[look it up, i don't know how to explain it!]

today my friend angela and i

got together to start planning out a recipe

for a steam whistle competition we're entering

this contest consists of incorporating this beer into your meal

i'm not going to give any details on here right now

because we haven't tried anything out yet

but we is progresses i'll update

we only have a very short time to perfect it

because the recipe is due on feb 10

[ps that's my birthday, don't forget! ;)]

so there's a bunch of experimenting we need to get at!

chocolate

i'm really getting into a horrible habit

of not writing on this thing

and i'm not even wanting to anymore

but i will do it for the sake of you! :)

well monday was our first wines class

and i think i'm going to quite enjoy it

don't think it's going to be easy

but definitely really interesting

i learned how to properly open a wine bottle

don't let the cork pop!

tuesday a chocolatier came in

and he completely blew my mind!

the things he did with chocolate

and how easy everything looked was incredible

he showed us how to table, pour moulds

and how to make multiple chocolates with couverture

he finished off the session by making a chocolate center piece

my mouth was open the whole time this was happening

i had never seen anything sooo cool

he made the most incredible flower

all out of chocolate all melted together

wow, i want to do that now!

so for our pastry arts class

we were working with chocolate

and made our own chocolate box

it was a pretty tedious process

but nothing too difficult

and i was very happy with my product

and an 80% as a final mark

today was our first day serving in the dining room

everyone was freaking out hardcore at the beginning

but once stuff started rolling we calmed down

fortunately i wasn't actually serving today

i was the maitre d's assistant

so watched over everything

and made sure all went well

and took charge of delegating

over all everything went excellently for our first day

i was very impressed

tomorrow i'm the actually maitre d

and i'm sure things will go just as fine

but with a lot more tables!

stressss!

it has only been one week

and we are already feeling the stress

this semester is definitely a lot harder than last

there is a whole bunch more reading to do

and the work is just so different from last

accounting, law and math

they all speak for themselves

in saying that the are extremely boring

this semester our class is working in the dinning room

and i am terrified for it and so is everyone else

we had 2 days to go through everything we need to know

which is A LOT!

how to carry a tray, how to serve, which utensils are needed for what

how to do cash, how to set up and take down the dinning room

it is a completely overwhelming feeling

to know we are in business on thursday

and me and dan are the maitre'ds

which means we have to oversee everything that goes on

make sure customers get their food on time

that everyone is satisfied

to keep in contact with people in the kitchen and the servers

please wish us all luck

because we're freaking out!

the other classes aren't too horrible

we only have one cooking class until march

which is pastry arts so basically baking

except stuff is a little more fancy

i'm pretty excited for that

it'll be strange if steve and i aren't working together

because we were together most of last semester

a pretty boring chill weekend

kelsey and i hit up the wall for the first time in ever

and it happened to be 90's night so that was fun

we went grocery shopping on saturday

which was lovely cause i was really lacking food

and today [sunday] has been laundry and homework!

tomorrow should be a reasonably chill day

we have an hour break between almost every class

and we get to start wines which i'm super excited for

our teacher kim is apparently super crazy and awesome

that's it for now

i have a feeling i won't be writing as much

because it won't be as interesting!

bienvenido

so i'm back in the cold north

and boy is it ever cold!

my winter break was well spent

with time with the family

and a sweet adventure to ottawa and montreal

but now it's back to the grind

one in which i'm not really looking forward to

i was just able to check my schedule today

and boy does it ever suck!

starting class everyday around 8/830

and go till at least 430 every night

boy am i going to be tired all the time!

production and pastry arts will be good classes

along with wine [obviously!]

but there's a lot of boring ones this semester

law, accounting and math don't seem too fun..

it's going to be pretty different on res this semester too

a couple of my good friends from across the street

aren't coming back to canadore for different reasons

i'm not really sure what i'm going to do now!

i was there are a bit in my spare time

maybe i'll be able to get more work done now!