I got a 49/50 on my exam on Tuesday

And I didn't have to go to jury duty today! So I spent the day on the couch with my boys catching up on our DVR .

The registrar did her job and I have a class, time, and place for my next class! This class ends next Thursday. It's Advanced Patisserie M-Th again, pretty close to the same hours. It starts a little later (15 minutes) so SM Sr might be able to drive home and still have time for me to get up to campus in traffic without having to haul SM around and switch him off.

Can't believe that after the Advanced P class we have spring break (sandy eggo trip) and then a class on showpieces (wedding cakes, chocolate and sugar showpieces, etc) and then I'm off to my externship! Crazy!!

I can't wait to see pictures for the showpieces.

And I'm glad you had a day on the couch.

Congratulations on the great score!
What a fun way to spend a spare day.

Couch days are the greatest--when they're a rare commodity. Every day a couch day? not so much.

Congrats on your grade! I'm sure you're counting the days until spring break. I don't know how you manage your schedule--but at least you have a bright red date on a calendar when it will end and you can move to your externship.

Do you know where you will be yet? Be sure to tell me--I can come in and order something you made and make a big fuss over its fabulosity!

Me too! I want to go eat MS's pastries with Nina!

Even better, Nina and I can keep going back for more desserts, demanding to see the chief chef so we can emphasize MS's fabulosity. Ooh...we can get disguises and do accents, so that no one will know that those two crazy ladies women with discriminating palates are back for more pastries.

This is going to be fun. And fattening...

Yes! It will be like Ruth Reichl's memoir of her life as a food critic.

I need to buy more hats.

Good idea. You get hats. I'll get a bunch of different glasses--horn rims, aviators, hippy-dippy little John Lennon glasses.

We can write a book, too!

Grand Marnier Obsession?
Chateaubriand Obsession?
Prandial Obsession?

Hmm...we might have to work on that title...

Offal Obsession!

You guys are too much! Right now my options are: a) Sanctuary (my therapist is against it because of stress level)
b) The Farmhouse in Gilbert (small, adorable, only open 7-2pm and I'd be in charge of all of their baking)
c) I have interviews with Disney, Enchantment resort in Sedona, and a few other small places coming up.

I'm torn between going big or staying small and learning more for the future. I don't want a "career" in the big industry. I'd really like to work in small places and eventually own my own small place. BUT just having Sanctuary etc on my resume would be impressive and I would learn a lot...about one specific thing (only making rolls, or just making roses, etc). It would be impressive to be the main baker at The Farmhouse too, it's a very very well known family place (one of the airlines has them as one of the top things to do while in the Valley in their little onboard magazine )

I've been to Enchantment, maybe 15-20 years ago. What a wonderful location, and a marvelous facility. I'm sure they have a world-class kitchen, and I would think it would be a very valuable thing to have on your resume. Not exactly close to Phoenix, though, is it?

Not close at all, considering we live way SE of Phoenix it's probably 3 hours or so from here. But I have a good friend that owns a house up there so at least my room would be free .

It has been a lot of fun watching you grow as you follow your dream.

Without a doubt you will do well no matter where you extern...

My vote of the 3 would be the Farmhouse - YOU in charge, and your type of atmosphere for the future.

Just to put on your resume that you had the option of attending the others would be good, but didn't your final goal was to open your own bakery?

Oooh, the Farmhouse is such a great place! That would get my vote. There's always time for The Sanctuary, but the FH is close to you, hours are reasonable, and SM is small.

I was googling it to see if it was the place I remembered and I was reading the comments some folks had left. This was my fave:

"This was definitely one of the better breakfast spots I've been to in Arizona. The decor was like country sheik and the wait staff was very friendly and attentive."

Nina,

I really can't believe this class is almost over! It's been really hard. We have had piping homework almost every night that I really just can't do around SM so I generally have to do it at school before class, which usually led to unsatisfactory results. Tonight is our final written exam (first cumulative exam since starting school!) , and then Wed and Thurs are taken over by our final practical. Really nervous. I need to get 90s on both to keep an A in the class.

Last night we finished two amazing cakes. Sadly I didn't bring my camera and I wasn't going to attempt to bring them home (I forgot my cake carrier don't want cream cheese icing all over my car!). We made a fabulous carrot cake, did a basketweave around the sides and made marzipan (ground up almonds, sugar, and glucose or corn syrup) carrots for each piece.

We also finished a chocolate flourless torte (it's really a baked custard). Chef called it "the mother in law cake". We made the flourless torte and stirred in a little hazelnut liquor and chopped toasted hazelnuts. Since it's a baked custard you can't unmold it right away. You just wrap it up in the pan and fridge it overnight. We spread melted (untempered) chocolate on the back on warm sheet pans and put them in the fridge to set. Then we used putty knives () to scrape the chocolate off in strips, we created the most gorgeous bow with them.

I tried to find a picture of what we did on Google but I couldn't figure out the right words to pop up what I want . We didn't get to take those home, they were for the student restaurant. It kind of looked like when you gather all of the wrapping paper up at the top of a gift, lots of ruffles and curls. Just gorgeous. and a huge pain to do. my mother in law will never ever be getting one

Our written exam was grueling. Every single question was an evil trick question. When I handed it in I asked Chef if there was a single straight forward non-math question on the exam. He laughed. Hopefully we'll have the results tomorrow!

After the exam we scaled out our ingredients for our practical that starts tomorrow and then since we're not supposed to be leaving early we made some modeling chocolate (chocolate + corn syrup) and played with that for awhile. It's really difficult. I wore 2 pairs of gloves and the chocolate was still melting in my hands

I did manage to get one rose done, not too bad for having no idea what I'm doing (Chef didn't demo anything just told us in general how many petals to make, etc). You can also see how red and abused my hands are getting I have seemingly permanent bruises in certain areas that I use/hit on something every day, my hands are always very tense and red now. Oh well!