It sounds ridiculously complicated. I am a decent cook but I don't do precise stuff well. This seems like something that requires a lot of attention--not my forte' when cooking.

I can't even begin to tell you how many meals, pots, pans I've ruined because I've forgotten to monitor something....

quote:

Originally posted by Nina:

MS is a teacher's pet.... MS is a teacher's pet...

So funny, Nina!

and who would not want her to be his pet? huh huh huh? she is fantastic!

Congratulations sweetie!

What's next?

Thanks LL!

My next class is advanced patisserie, a LOT of plated desserts and competency exams (drop of the hat practicals on things we've learned in other classes, no notes, no recipes, yes I'm scared ). Sounds like most/all of our practicals will be "market baskets" where we are given a basket of stuff and told go, then we'll be graded on whatever we produce.

That tempering procedure puts me in mind of the phase diagrams we studied in materials science, a class which I might have enjoyed better if we had used chocolate in the lab, instead of less palatable things. And now you're going to try to tell these people that you're bad at science, but your work in the food lab has exposed the truth.

I just ate one of your chocolates that you sent Mamaw for her birthday. Caramel. YUM!

I think your catering business should be called the Well-Tempered Chocolatier!

Wait...I have an even better idea. Doesn't "fornaria" mean "baker" in Italian? Or is it "baker's daughter"? I'm remembering the painting (is it by Raphael?) called La Fornaria, but I'm too worthless to google it up. So your bakery could be called...wait for it...

The Well-Tempered Fornaria!

You get the excellent acronym and everything!!!!

Now Matt or somebody is going to burst my bubble and tell me that "fornaria" means something awful...

quote:

Originally posted by Mary Anna:


The Well-Tempered Fornaria!

You get the excellent acronym and everything!!!!

Now Matt or somebody is going to burst my bubble and tell me that "fornaria" means something awful...

According to this, it's "La Fornarina" (name of the painting) and means loosely "little bakeress":

La Fornarina

Oh, cooooooollll!!!! Little Bakeress!!!!!

That's my baby...the Well-Tempered Fornarina!

Congrats. Even blurry, that's a pretty cake.
Especially congrats on working the tempering into extra credit. You so smart!

That looks amazing!

You must be soooo relieved it's over. Sounds like you learned tons and that it was money and time well spent.

When's our piano cake coming?

Thanks everyone I officially got an A in the class! I start my next class tonight, looking over the syllabus right now. There's a lot of chocolate . The class is 6:15 to 10:40, good news is SM Sr will probably be able to drive home in time for me to drive up so I don't have to bring SM and switch off in the parking lot (doesn't help that we only have one car seat) but now I'll be getting home really late.

EH - I'll make a piano cake at some point, I really want to be a) not much time and b) no one to eat it! Not going to carve out the time to make it if no one is going to eat it .

I had a few Vday orders, made some chocolates and a cake over the weekend too bad it's all going to medical bills. Sigh. and I'm making a small Star Wars cake for a friend's son's birthday on Tuesday. I've officially decided I'm not making a cake for my birthday. but I know if SM Sr makes the cake the kitchen is in a lot of trouble....can't decide if we should get a supermarket cake (too bad we don't have Publix out here!) just to have a cake or skip it.

Would you like me to see if I can order one remotely, as part of your birthday gift? If so, and if you have suggestions as to where, I'm all ears.

Otherwise, I'm going to see if there's a cake equivalent of 1-800-FLOWERS.

Thanks mom but it's okay maybe I can convince SM Sr to take us out for ice cream or something instead.

quote:

Originally posted by Muffin's sister:

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:
For heavy-duty hand treatment, I'm a big fan of Crabtree & Evelyn's Gardeners Hand Therapy. It smells a little unusual (a little like camphor with lavender), but it does wonders for the kind of abuse that people who work with their hands heap upon them. It's really great for chapped skin and self-destructing cuticles. If the skin on your hands is flaky and calloused, their Gardeners Hand Recovery will do an unbelievable job of getting your hands back to normal.

Thanks Cousin! I'll have to find some.

They have a store in Scottsdale, not far from your school. There's another one in Chandler.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt G.:
They have a store in Scottsdale, not far from your school. There's another one in Chandler.

Thanks! I'll be up in Scottsdale early before class tomorrow to go to the library, I'll try to find the place then! SO much homework and only day one.

This class is all done individually which takes some getting used to since we've done everything in pairs since the start of class. Tonight we made/baked creme brulee and made tuille paste and brandy snap cookies. We're going to be doing plated desserts every to every other day from now on so I'm going to keep my camera in my backpack (hopefully if not...more horrible cell phone pictures!)

This Chef is VERY intimidating. She's extremely famous nationally and internationally for sugar and chocolate work which we will do some in this class and then we will do sugar and chocolate huge showpieces in our next class with her. She's nice but very very very particular about everything. Her way or the highway, 2 people (out of 6 or 1/3 of the darn class) were kicked out of class today for not following directions. They're simple but there are a ton of them (change out sani buckets every hour aka every 45 minutes, reverse apron when switching tasks (like between production and cleaning), extremely detailed labeling for everything (class, shift, name, birth/make date and death/throw out date, name of product and what it is to be used for IE tuille paste for creme brulee plating) etc even if it's going to be used almost immediately (I scaled out all of the recipes at one time, so I had to label them all like that. It would probably save time to just scale out one recipe at a time and skip the labeling).

Tomorrow we're going to do MORE math, learn to make various shapes in tuille paste and snap cookies and hopefully do our first plated dessert. If we do the plate tomorrow instead of Wednesday then we'll be a little ahead schedule which is always nice.

quote:

She's extremely famous nationally and internationally

That means she is good and - so will all of you be!

Nothing like learning from the best!!!

Wow.
I get being tough early, so folks dont blow her off, but still - wow.

Good luck!

The "death date" made me LOL.
Shortest abbreviation for that I know is "exp".