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!