Thursday, December 29, 2011

Tiramisu Drops

Christmas did not feel quite like Christmas. My brother wasn't here and that made me feel like it wasn't really Christmas because my family wasn't together, but I guess that is part of growing up and moving on with life. Not always having my family together for major holidays. However I did get some good gifts like a mini cupcake maker, a doughnut maker and a soda maker, so I know my family and friends love when I make things otherwise they wouldn't buy me makers. I also got three cookbooks, one as a joke, but still has recipes. I also got 1500 count sheets and a bed pad warmer which makes my bed warm before I even get into it, both of these combined make my bed awesome. And some other odds and ends that I got that I'm not going to ramble on about, but one of the things that I gave were these cookies that I made. I got the recipe out of the Denver Post or whatever the newspaper is called. And of course I had to change it some because that is just what I do. The cookies were a quite dry and could be changed so it is better. Like I had a hard time trying to make balls out of the dough so I added milk to them so that they would stick together better. I also added Kaluha to the filling so that I was a little bit closer to an actual tiramisu.


Tiramisu Drops
Ingredients
1 cup slivered blanched almonds, lightly toasted
½ cup sugar
¾ cup butter room temp
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons instant espresso or coffee powder
¼ tsp salt
1 ¾ cup ap flour
1 tub mascarpone cheese (8oz)
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 tbsp cocoa powder
Directions

Heat oven to 350 F, line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a food processor, pulse together the almonds and sugar until finely ground but not reduced to a paste. Add the butter and vanilla, then pulse to incorporate. Add the espresso or coffee, salt and flour, and pulse until a crumbly dough comes together. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls and place on the baking sheets. Using your finger, or the handle of a wooden spoon, press an indent into the top of each cookie. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until golden and firm. Allow to cool on the baking sheet. When the cookies are cool, in a medium bowl stir together the mascarpone and 2 tablespoons of the powdered sugar. Transfer the mixture to a pastry bag or a zip-close plastic bag with the corner snipped off. Pipe a dollop of the filling into the indent of each cookie. Sift the remaining tablespoon of powdered sugar with the cocoa powder. Sift over the tops of the cookies. Decorate with shave chocolate if desired.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Coconut Cupcakes

While every other blog that I read seems to be doing something very Christmasy I've decided to bring back one of my old favorite cupcakes. I haven't made these since high school, and while for most people that might be along time ago, but that the last time I made these was about five years ago I think. It might have been more recent. I finished my last required credit and should be getting my degree in the mail sometime after the end of the trimester. I'm excited. Except that all I face now are boring academics that some how always seem to be too much work. I did find a recipe that I want to try out soon, actually its more like five recipes, the only problem being that I don't want to have to eat them all. Like Tiramisu Drops, are cookies that are like Tiramisu but in a much simpler way. I might jazz up the recipe that they have, but that is just something I like to do sometimes. However I haven't really jazzed up this recipe because it is so delicious.

Coconut Cookies
3/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 extra large eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoon (1/2 tablespoon) vanilla extract
1/2 tablespoon almond extract
3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 ounces sweetened shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 325. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time with the mixer on low, scrap down the bowl after each egg. Add the extracts. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together. In three parts, alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk to the batter, starting and ending with the dry. Mix until just combined. Fold in half the coconut. Line a muffin pan with liners. Fill each cup to the top with batter. Bake for 25-35 minutes, until golden and toothpick comes out clean. Cool 15 minutes in the pan. Remove and cool completely. Frost with icing and sprinkle with remaining coconut.

Cream Cheese Frosting
3/4 pound butter, room temperature
1 pound cream cheese, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 pounds powdered sugar

Blend cream cheese, butter and extracts in mixer. Add the sugar and mix until smooth.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

Grilled Stuffed French Toast Waffle Cheeses

Or something like that. I have no idea what to call this delicious invention I thought of. Last night for dinner I could not decide on what I wanted to have for dinner. Some people have a go to dinner, like my mom, who eats eggs and toast whenever she doesn't know what else to make/eat. My typical go to dinner is french toast or calabasitas when we have zucchini from our garden. But last night I wanted french toast or waffles or pancakes. Earlier in the week we had chicken fried steaks and sweet potato fries. Since I'm the kind of person that likes to dip fries into some kind of sauce and the Utah fry sauce wouldn't be good on sweet potatoes I made my own kind of dipping sauce out of cinnamon, caramel and cream cheese. It was delicious. When I was trying to decide on what to eat last night and I had finally decided to have french toast, I wanted to have some of my caramel cinnamon cream cheese on my french toast. That is when my mom had the idea of putting the cream cheese in between two slices of bread, dipping that into an egg mixture and then putting that into a waffle iron. Delicious. Serve warm with maple syrup.
In other news I am almost done with my last lab class. This lab class has been one of the most difficult labs I've had to do. Mostly because of my schedule, but after Monday, there will not be anymore of the six to midnight class that made my life sleep deprived. It is also kind of sad for me, that I won't be able to get away from boring academics.
I'm going to be making coconut cupcakes tomorrow so I'll have that recipe for you then, and a picture of my favorite plated dessert from lab so far.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Turtle Pie AND Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I'm a horrible blogger/baker. I haven't been making much in terms of sweets and I certainly haven't been updating. School has been boring, like really boring. In psychology I seriously count how many times this one guy says the word like, it is a lot of times. (60 times in one class period(1 1/2 hours long)). It is quite distracting, but I'm easily distracted in that class because it is so boring, the prof has a quiet monotone voice not cool.
I feel guilty about not blogging and then I start feeling guilty because I'm not baking, and its a guilty spiral into shame. Its not like I don't have time to bake, its more like I don't really have anyone to bake for, because I start to feel guilty about making sweets and then eating them all. See just more quilt, I can't get away from it.
This weekend I was feeling sorta home sick, but I'm home so I don't know what to call it really. I was missing our good friends the Erickson family and I thought I'd make a turtle pie because it is Mr. Paul's favorite. I don't feel as guilty about not baking things, even though you don't bake a turtle pie, and it also means that I should blog, so I can stop feeling guilty about that.
I actually started writing this post about a week or so ago and haven't finished it, but it has given me a chance to do more so that I can write more. I have now made pineapple upside down cake as well. My brother and his fiancee came in for a visit this weekend and so I made cake because now there are more people to actually eat it. I have discovered that when Holly (my kitten) is purring he has an on and off switch. All you have to do is put your hand on his face and he stops purring, lift the hand off and he starts up again. It is almost finals week for me and of course all the teachers think that the projects need to be done this week before finals, so I have three papers to write, two posters to make and one test to actually study for. Its kind of a hectic weekend for me. It doesn't help that Holly's favorite place to nap is in my lap. I love that he naps on my lap but it is kind of hard to get things done when you don't want to move and disturb the adorable thing.
The first recipe is for pineapple upside down cake.

Ingredients
1 box of white cake mix
2 cans of pineapple rings
1 jar of maraschino cherries without stems or pits
1/3 cup of melted butter
1 cup of brown sugar

I followed the direction on the cake mix except I used the juice from the pineapples and cherries and instead of just the egg whites I used the whole egg(minus shell of course). And I know that I'm a pastry student and shouldn't be using cake mixes, but they are just so easy, and I'm kind of lazy. What you do first is you preheat the oven to whatever the cake mix tells you to. Then you want to mix the melted butter with the brown sugar, and make sure its nice and moist then spread it as evenly possible on the bottom of a 13x9 pan. Place the pineapple rings in the brown sugar mixture and place a cherry inside each ring. Mix the cake batter and pour over pineapple. Bake.Once the cake is fully baked, take it out of the oven and flip it over onto a cookie sheet and let cool. Once it has had time to cool enough that you can lift the pan up without gloves, then remove the pan. Serve and enjoy.

Now the Turtle Pie recipe might be a little tricky.

Ingredients
1 pre-made graham cracker crust, again I'm a little lazy and it is just convenient

Chocolate mouse
5 oz semi-sweet Bakers chocolate
2 egg whites
1 egg yolk
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp butter
2/3 cup heavy cream

Caramel Sauce
1/4 cup sugar
1 oz butter
1/4 cup warmed heavy cream
Pecans as needed

In a small heavy bottomed pan, caramelize the sugar. Put the sugar in the bottom of the pan and turn to high heat, make sure that there is not an area of the pan that is not covered by sugar. Once all the sugar has dissolved and is a nice caramel color, remove from heat and add the butter. It will bubble up, keep stirring, once the butter has dissolved add the warmed heavy cream, again it will bubble up, but keep stirring. In the bottom of you pie crust place pieces of pecans and then pour the caramel over the pecans.
Next make the chocolate mouse, place the chocolate and butter into a bowl and heat in the microwave slowly until the chocolate has melted. Make sure not to over heat the chocolate. While heating the chocolate whip the egg whites until they are foamy and white. Gradually add the sugar and continue to whip until medium to stiff peak. Then whip the heavy cream until it has a medium peak, in a separate bowl. Once the chocolate has melted and is a little warm add the egg yolk. And mix thoroughly. Then add the heavy cream 1/3 at a time and mix carefully. Do the same with the egg whites/meringue. Finally pour over caramel and pecans then refrigerate or freeze until needed.

Friday, September 2, 2011

Here Fishy Fishy

So I know that I have been pretty lax when it comes to blogging. I just feel that if I don't do much then there isn't much to put so why put anything? Anyways, as of the 15th of August I had quit my job. I loved quitting. I can't really express how much I hated that job. Since then I have been doing basically what I did last summer, which is basically being a lazy bum. I have been taking my dad and going fishing. On the days that we actually catch fish we can't catch more than three fish, and they aren't big enough to eat or keep. I caught a pretty decent size one today but still not a keeper. Dad didn't catch any, I caught the three for the day. I don't like eating fish, except the fish that is made by Gourmandise, The Bakery is Salt Lake City every Friday because its that days special. One of the things that I hate about fishing, is when you catch a fish and are taking your hook out you have to hold the fish and that makes your hands smell like fish. And then they stink up your car...We have been using worms as bait the last couple days and so to get the worm on the hook my dad bought a worm threader. Which is kind of like a needle but not sharp, its hollow and you shove it into the worm so that it doesn't wiggle as you are putting it on your hook. As you might imagine this is very disgusting. I'm a pretty squeamish person. I throw up because someone else throws up, or I watch Tosh.0 and he shows something disgusting. I don't like that this happens but its just part of who I am. Anyway, I was doing fine with the poking worms and what not because my dad was doing it for me. Until I decided that I didn't like fishing where he was so I went a little ways away from him. I kept catching fish and they would steal my worm or eat my entire hook, and so I would have to walk back to where he was and put on a worm. It was so disgusting, their guts were coming out and they were bleeding and crapping. I was trying not to puke while I was doing this. I'm going to try and get my dad to go fishing again tomorrow, because I enjoy catching the fish even if there are parts about fishing that I hate.
I start back to school soon. I'm sorta excited, I'm one of those people who want to go to school while they are out of school, but want out of school when they are in school. I have a pretty easy schedule, and I don't have any gaps between classes, so I'm more likely to stay in my classes. In the past I've had times where I've had a two hour gap between classes and being a commuter its not enough time to go home and come back, a lot of times I would just leave and not go to the classes after the break. Its also nice that I have most of the day free so I can still do things. On Mondays and Wednesdays I don't have to be to class until 4pm. While on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have to be to class at 2 pm.
I may have found a new job, that I would only have to work weekends and I would get paid more than BK paid me an hour. I kind of hope I get it because its nice to make money. But I would rather just win the lottery like just about everyone else would like to do, instead of working. Once I find exactly what I want to do, I'm sure that I will enjoy doing it and actually want to go to work. I know what degree I want, and I'm getting it, but I have no clue what I'm going to do with that degree once I get it. Its like a dog that is chasing a car, if it actually catches it, it wouldn't know what the hell to do with it.

And now I leave you with a picture of me and the biggest catch of the day...

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Baileys Irish Cream Cupcakes

The other night I was looking for a recipe to make for a BBQ that we were having for my cousins birthday.(I would have to explain why I didn't use the recipe at another time) I stumbled across this newish blog about cupcakes and found a recipe that looked really good. I had a day off from work today, and decided to make it. Since I'm under twenty-one, I couldn't just go to the store and buy the alcohol needed. I had to have a responsible adult purchase it. And before anybody gets mad or in trouble. I did not drink it. I used it in the cupcake and baked off the alcohol, but not the flavor. Anyway the whole reason I was making them was because we have new neighbors and to welcome them to the neighborhood I wanted to give them a little something and be friendly. So that we might actually start to get to know our neighbors. We've lived here almost two years now and we know two of our neighbors, and we are working on the third. Its pretty sad, when we use to live in a neighborhood where we knew everyone. Well the neighbors seemed to like the cupcakes, but for some reason we didn't like them that well. My dad was the only one that said that he really liked the cupcakes. I don't really know what was wrong with them, but they looked and sounded a lot better than they actually were. Maybe I'm just a screw up. Either way I'm not going to be making them again. I might use a different kind of cupcake, and keep the filling and icing. But I'm not making that cupcake again. If you would like to try it here is the recipe which I got from Oh, cupcake! and she got it from somewhere else. Here you go:

Ingredients
For the cupcakes:
1 cup Guinness stout beer
1cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa power
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1½ teaspoons baking soda
¾ teaspoons salt
2 eggs
2/3 cup sour cream
For the Ganache Filling:
8 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2/3 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
2 teaspoons Bailey's Irish Cream
For the Bailey's Frosting:
2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
5 cups powdered sugar
6 tablespoons Baileys Irish Cream
Directions
For the cupcakes:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line 24 cupcake cups with liners. Bring the Guinness and butter to a simmer in a heavy, medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the cocoa powder and whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda and salt in a large bowl to combine. Using an electric mixer, beat the eggs and sour cream on medium speed until combined. Add the Guinness-chocolate mixture to the egg mixture and beat just to combine. Reduce the speed to low, add the flour mixture and beat briefly. Using a rubber spatula, fold the batter until completely combined.
Divide the batter among the cupcake liners. Bake until a thin knife inserted into the center comes out clean, about 17 minutes. Cool the cupcakes on a rack.
For the ganache filling:
Finely chop the chocolate and transfer it to a heatproof bowl. Heat the cream until simmering and pour it over the chocolate. Let it sit for one minute and then, using a rubber spatula, stir it from the center outward until smooth. Add the butter and Irish cream and stir until combined. Let the ganache cool until thick but still soft enough to be piped.
For the Bailey's Frosting:
Using the whisk attachment of a stand mixer, whip the butter on medium-high speed for 5 minutes, scraping the sides of the bowl occasionally. Reduce the speed to medium-low and gradually add the powdered sugar until all of it is incorporated. Add the Baileys, increase the speed to medium-high and whip for another 2 to 3 minutes, until it is light and fluffy.
Using your favorite decorating tip, or an offset spatula, frost the cupcakes and decorate with sprinkles, if desired.  

Tuesday, July 26, 2011

August 15th!

On Thursday this week I'm putting in the paperwork to quit my job!!! I'm excited. I've hated working there, and I'm glad that I'm going back to school, but then I'll get a couple weeks in and want to be on vacation again. I have to continue to work at that hell hole until the 15th of August. That is only like nineteen days!! Its going to be a little sad going back this year because a lot of my friends graduated this last school year and aren't coming back, while some are like me, who "technically" graduated in May, and are coming back. (that sentence is a little long, but I never said that I was awesome at English or grammar. In fact I kind of suck at it...Those are the classes that I despise, and am glad I don't have to take anymore of!) There is one of my friends, that I know of, that is going to France to do an internship.

 On completely random news I went to the dentist the other day, and I didn't have any cavities. So to celebrate we went to 7-11 and got some cavities. The point that I'm trying to make is that my dentist said something funny and I would like to share with you. She asked me if I floss everyday. I'm not going to lie so I say no. She says that it doesn't matter too much since I have so much saliva that I'm basically self cleaning... Whatever doc, if I don't have to floss that is awesome news...

I went to see my foot doctor today. (can't spell the correct terminology for it/ I forgot what it was called). He told me that its good that I'm quitting work, because that will help my foot not hurt. He put tape on it and told me that I have a right foot of a person who is older than 40... He also told me that the tape is supposed to last 3-5 days, but knowing my feet, it will probably be coming off by tomorrow...

Oh and today is my cousins birthday. I miss hanging out with him and kind of want to go back to Utah...But I thought that I would put a picture up of me and my cousin hanging out, because its his birthday. 
Happy Birthday Cousin, lets go back to the festival next year.

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Money? What money?

So I've been working for BK for a couple weeks, okay maybe a month, I don't know how long I've been working there. The point is that I've been getting paid. And while it feels good to get money, I still really hate working there. I spent my last paycheck on a beautiful new kitchen aid. I haven't used it yet, but I already love it and the new recipes that can go with it. Like making bread. "But Sara, you don't need a kitchen aid to make bread."
I know that random person, but I now have a kitchen aid and it will make it that much easier. I haven't decided on which recipe to try out first in my kitchen aid. Any ideas? My cousin is having a birthday on the 31st, and he wants me to make something creative, something other than a plain old boring yellow cake. I was thinking maybe a pineapple upside down cake, because I think they are delicious, but I'm going to go on like a scavenger hunt to try and find a "creative, delicious, worthy of my kitchen aid" recipe. And I have no idea why I felt the need to say all this at 12:37 am... but I did, and now I must go off to dream-land so that I can go to work-hell in the morning.
Have I mentioned that I've worked every weekend since I started, except one, and I had to request that one off. But ended up working for my mom on that weekend, which was supposed to be spent relaxing, but we had a garage sale. With garage sales the WHOLE family needs to help out apparently... Also I'm putting my two week notice in on the 1st...

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Pastry Chef? Indeed!

I know I have been absent most of the time on this blog, and I'm not going to promise to try and do better about it. Because I know that I would break that promise. I really hate working at BK. But in a sense I'm glad that I'm working at BK. One I'm getting paid to work there, two it only confirms more that I want to be a baker. For awhile there I was just saying that that is what I wanted to do, because people told me that that is what I should be. But for me, it only hit me more recently. After doing my internship and having very few days where I just wanted to be lazy and lounge around and not go to work. Versus not wanting to go to work at all. I think that I have told my mom almost every time I have to work that I don't want to go to work.
On other news we had a garage sale this weekend, and we got rid of quite a bit of the pile that had been gathering in our basement. We still have some stuff that didn't sell. Things like clothing that we were trying to sell is going to be donated so we feel good about ourselves. Other things like my X-Box is going to be put on craigslist. So if you know anyone that wants an X-box 360 elite, its hardly been used, let me know.
There really isn't much else that has been going on in my life recently. I'm going to try to go to the Ren Faire on the 16th. And hopefully I'll get to see one of my good friends the weekend of the 23rd. Hopefully I'll be back to post more before almost a month has gone by...if not I'll be back eventually. Haha.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Coffee

Recently I got a job working at BK. I've only worked four days. Well today I was out front working the cash register, and this lady(I'm calling her Ms. Coffee) comes into and asks for a cup of coffee. I was more than willing to give it to her. She gives me a credit card and it gets declined. So she gives me a second card and it gets declined as well. Ms. Coffee starts digging around in her purse for some money to pay me, the coffee was only a $1.30. She ended up being 20 cents short. I asked my manager(Mr. Boss) if I could give her the coffee and forget about the money that she owed us. He said that it was fine, and he poured the coffee for Ms. Coffee. Mr. Boss left enough room for cream and sugar for Ms. Coffee. Well a little bit later she came back and wanted to have the coffee filled up the rest of the way. I was happily obliging. when she asks me if it is decaf. The conversation went a little bit like this.

Ms. Coffee(MC): Is this decaf?
Me: I don't know, nor can I guarantee that it is right now.
MC: What do you mean you don't know or that you can't guarantee it?
Me: I didn't make the coffee, I didn't put the coffee here, I don't know for 100% that it is decaf.
MC: Well this is for my mother, and she has a heart condition and high blood pressure, she can't have caffeine.

She got very angry at me and was not letting me try to explain or ask someone who could guarantee it. As she was walking away she finally said that I should go ask somebody or something like that. I might have said something a little bit louder that I meant to, and that I shouldn't have said. I don't really remember exactly how the conversation went but I think that you will get the general idea of it.  Oh and the whole point of me telling you this story about Ms. Coffee is that she is filing a complaint against me. On my fourth day of work. Over coffee. I understand that her mom could die or have complications from caffeine, but at least give me a chance to explain or ask someone that does know.

That;s my side and I'm sticking to it.

And since this is a supposed to be a pastry blog I will update you on a recipe I made recently. I got it from another blog and the pictures look really good and makes me want some. So I thought I would try out the S'more Pie. I won't lie, it was okay. It was not my favorite dessert, I probably won't make it ever again. When it was fresh out of the oven was probably the best time to eat it. Which I did, but there seemed to be a taste that I did not care for. I even tried it while it was cold and it still had the taste that I did not care for. I believe that it was the marshmallow fluff that was used.  It did sort of taste like s'mores, but I would prefer burning the marshmallows over an open flame and making s'mores that way.
Try it, don't try. You have my opinion and I don't care what you do with it.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Summer Break

I finished my internship on my 20th birthday. I am now back at my parents house and so far haven't really done anything exciting. I'm no longer a teenager though, so that's exciting. I really enjoyed my last day of internship and my birthday. I am kind of starting to miss everyone in Utah. I didn't think that I would really be upset by coming back home. but I made some friends and I miss them. As for my summer break I am trying to find a job doing anything I can, so far not so good.
The other day we got a letter from some of our good friends who live in Alaska. The had a cookbook enclosed and there is a recipe that I want to try out. Its a five minute chocolate cake recipe, and it literally should take five minutes to make and cook. I'll test it out and then pass it on to whoever might read this.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Hairs Cut

Today I got my hairs cut, yes I know it sounds weird or strange to say hairs cut, but its the truth. I didn't have A hair cut, but I had them all cut. I haven't had them cut in almost two years. I got about five-ish inches off in some areas and even more in the bangs area. Now some might ask why now, or why that much? Well I finally got tired of my hair and didn't feel like changing the color again or this soon after just coloring it.
I am also feeling like I haven't been sick in the last couple weeks, so that's good news.
I am also excited to report that I have two weeks left of my internship and that also means that it is two weeks to my birthday. I do not know what I want for my birthday. I am thinking that I want a party with the family that is in Utah, but I don't think I will get one. We'll see.
This weekend is Mothers day, and I can't be there to celebrate it with my mother, but I hope that the gifts I picked out for her will get there on time and that she will love them. I am however going to visit some family friends and celebrate Mothers day with them.

Now here are before and after pictures.

See how long it is?
Now its all short and cute

Monday, April 18, 2011

Sickness

Lets see, what has been going on with me. I haven't posted in awhile, and that's because nothing really exciting has been going on with me so there really isn't anything to blog about. The bad news is that I'm sick again. And its bad news because I'm supposed to be work. Now someone might ask why don't you just suck it up and go to work? Well I would suck it up and go to work if I wasn't contagious. But since I'm contagious I shouldn't really be working with food and making other people sick. Also someone might ask what do you have? Well the doctor told me that it is either copycat strep or mono... With copycat strep there really isn't anything that they can do for me. With mono they can't find out if I have it until I've had it for awhile. Either way I'm out of work until Thursday and I'm pretty sure I have to make up the days that I've missed. My best friend right now is a Popsicle or maybe the gargle that the doctor gave me. Both make my throat hurt a little less for a little while.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Festival of Colors

This weekend was pretty freaking great.
Lets start with after work on Friday. I got half a cake for free from work. I loved it, it was delicious.
Then on the way home from work I stopped to get gas, and got a dollar off every gallon because of a glitch in the system. Then on Saturday, I was really lazy and just hung out at my Grandparents house while they went to Idaho to get lottery tickets. Then around 5 pm I went over to see my cousin Jesse, and we were going to try and go to the Festival of Colors. Well we drove about an hour to Spanish Forks, when we got there almost everyone was leaving. We decided that we wouldn't stay and that we would try again tomorrow. We started headed back to his house, and he took me sight seeing basically. We went up a mountain/hill thing to try and see the whole valley. That was a bust because of snow. We then went driving around looking at houses. While looking at those houses, they were beautiful, but I couldn't help thinking "who the hell needs two guest houses?" That was basically all we did, nothing too exciting, but it was still fun because it was time I got to spend with my cousin. Sunday morning rolls around, I head out at about 10:30 am, pick up my cousin and head back down to Spanish Forks. We got parking that was not too far away from the festival, and there weren't as many people as there were on Saturday. It was estimated that 40,000 people attended on Saturday. We bought bags of colors to throw at each other. Jesse's friend Brittany and her brother Trent joined us and we had a good time throwing colors at each other. I don't know how it happened but I ended up with colored toes even though I had sock and shoes on the whole time. I also don't know how I ended up with the only stains on one of my shirts being armpit stains of purple color. On top of all this not knowing how things happened, I got color where I wouldn't think I could get color, which was the inside of my bra. My car maybe permanently colored in a couple areas, because of getting in the car (I do know how I did this one, with my hair. I hit it on the door frame inside). I had to wash my hair twice to get the color out, and there are still spots where its colored. I believe that this weekend was pretty great, you may have other opinions, but I don't care. I enjoyed it and that is what matters. We shall see what next weekend brings.




Not really an after shot but somewhere in the middle


Before any color

  
 

  



After getting pelted in the face with green





During the mass color throwing


The four of us as we were leaving and going to KFC


Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Homework

As long as I can remember I have disliked homework. Its the fact that you have to do work in your free time, when they should just teach you everything you need to know in the hours of schooling and not make you work on it out of school. I know that this will never happen but I like complaining and I like procrastinating. Procrastination is really an art form, because you have to know how long you can put something off without failing to complete the task before the time limit is up. Even though I'm basically working full time, you would think that I would not have to deal with the boring old homework assignments from school. Well you would be wrong. I had actually gotten them complete according to the specifications I was first told. That was yesterday, however, today I have an email in my inbox telling me that this is really the way that I have to do them and that I now have to re-do them sort of. I could copy and paste most of it, which I am going to do, but I still have to work on it to make it the way that they want it to be. My point being is that I thought I was done with this week's assignment. Oh well.

On other news I went to Walmart, got caught up in the movie aisle and ended up buying movies. That's just how I am. Also while at Walmart I bought a web cam so that I could Skype with my mother, and see my kitten, or cat I should say, seems how he is no longer kitten sized.

Internship news, I am making chocolate mousse by myself everyday, without a written recipe. I love making the chocolate mousse, I literally am elbow deep in it at times. I don't remember if I posted about the cocoa powder, but I'll post about it now anyways. The other day while at work I was going around a corner and knocked over a bucket of cocoa powder and it spilled onto the floor making quite a mess. Well I have not had an actual tour or anything telling me where to locate things, so I didn't know where to find a broom. The boss's son was yelling at me telling me to clean it up, I was confused because I didn't know what to clean it up with because I didn't know where to find a broom. I was asking him where to find a broom and he basically told me to ask someone else (to me, that means he didn't know where it was at either). Anyways a co-worker cleaned it up for me and I thanked him for doing so. I am still not good at cutting straight lines, or equal portions. I do believe however that I am better than I have been in the past. I also think that I need to work on speed, because when Alberto (the person that I work with the most) does things, he can do them so well and fast, (he has been doing it for nine years at least though). Often times I feel like I move slowly, which I probably do, but it's to try and make things more precise, because otherwise I get a speech about how one piece is too small and that another piece is too large.

Off to bed I go. I'm exhausted, work is exhausting. I very much dislike getting up before 8 am. I have two more work days this week and then the weekend. Going to see a movie on Friday with my Grandma Jo and my cousin Tab, maybe my cousin Chas as well. Besides relaxing, that's all I got planned this weekend.

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Internship...

I started my internship last week Monday, and I'm really enjoying it so far. I did have a few screw ups the first week, but hey, 1. I'm a student and 2. it was my first week and 3. Its hard to understand my coworkers. The person I work with the most is a Mexican man and so he has an accent and on top of that he talks very quiet and mumbles. I seem to be the only one that doesn't have an accent from another country. I work with a couple Mexicans, a French guy, an Iraqi, an Iranian, and some other middle eastern man. I am also one of the only girls that works there, at least in the kitchen its self.

I got to go up to visit some awesome people this weekend. They were a neighbors in Germany for a few years and they are close family friends. I had an amazing time with them. Marrissa is like a little sister to me, and we went min golfing and laser tagging on Saturday. I hit myself in the ankle with the putter, it gave me a welt and a bruise. It hurt and still hurts when I poke it and move my foot in a certain way. Marrissa thought I was faking it. Then today we just hung out and colored with chalk on the driveway. I made a monster sheep and a floating cow. Marrissa made flowers, ice cream and a sun in clouds. We had a lot of fun.

The next couple months are going to be the longest period of time that I will go, so far, without seeing either of my parents. I really miss my mom, and I miss Holly and Lexi a lot because my Grandma's cat doesn't like me.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Banana Bread

I hate cleaning. One time I was helping my mom vacuum the house and I started getting hives, so I believe that I'm allergic to cleaning. The reason I bring up cleaning is because I leave on Friday and I need to clean my room, otherwise my mom will be very angry with me. I don't mind packing though, I've done it enough times to be use to it. I made banana bread yesterday for my mom to take to the last day of work for her. I think I might put up a recipe for banana bread, not necessarily the one that my mom uses which is the best one, but one of them that I have. I'm pretty sure that Lexi knows that I'm leaving soon because she has been hanging around me since I brought suitcases up into my room. This is unusual because she runs away from me normally. As I sit here typing, she is actually purring(she doesn't purr much), and rubbing all up against me. I don't think that Holly knows whats going on, he just thinks that the suitcases are things to play with, like everything else in my room. There was a comment posted on my last posting asking where I was interning at, so I would like to anwser that question. I will be interning at Gourmandise, The Bakery at 250 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, Utah. So if you live in Utah, then stop by and get some delicious treats. 

Banana Bread
3 each Eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
½ cup Oil
¼ cup Milk
1 tsp Vanilla
3 cups AP Flour
1 ½ tsp Baking powder
½ tsp Baking soda
½ tsp Salt
½ tsp Cinnamon
¼ tsp Nutmeg
½ cup Walnuts (optional)
2 cups mashed or pureed bananas (very ripe)
Method of Prep
Preheat oven to 350*F Grease bottom of 2 loaf pans. In a large bowl mix eggs, sugar, oil, milk and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on medium speed until smooth.  Stir in flour, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon, baking soda and powder. Pour batter into pans and bake until toothpick comes out clean about an hour.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Spring Break and Chocolate Mousse

So I completed my winter trimester of labs, I do have to make up one because I got bronchitis. I did get my internship figured out finally. I'm going to Utah and I'm driving there starting on the 4th. On other news I don't know what to do for the next like week or so.  But I have a reciepe for you:

Chocolate Mousse
12 oz Dark courverture
2 oz Butter melted
3 oz Egg yolks
1# Heavy cream
5 oz Egg whites
1 oz Granulated sugar
Place chocolate in a bowl and melt over simmering water. Blend in butter. Lightly stir in egg yolks. Whip cream to a soft peak and fold into the chocolate mixture. Whip egg whites and sugar to a medium peak and fold into the chocolate mixture. Fold sugar into chocolate mixture in two stages.

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Updated

I keep checking for the blogs I follow to see if they have updated anything, and then today I realized there might be some people checking to see if I updated anything. SO here I am updating it. Haha. Breads class is done and I'm in Entremets and Petit Gatuexs. Which is small cakes and  "between meals" is entremets. I really dislike cakes classes. I still haven't found an internship yet, which sucks because there are two weeks left in the trimester and I need to have one before the 8th of March because that is when the next trimester starts. I've been trying to contact this place in Utah to see if they want me, and so far I haven't heard much from them. I sent them my resume and they sounded interested in having an intern, I just don't know if they are interested in having me. Oh well, I'll get a place one way or another, the school has to find me a place. That is all that I have to update people on. Nothing too exciting going on in my life.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

He/She or Shim?

So not much is going on in the baking and pastry world that I am aware of right now, or at least that I'm doing. It has been snowing and freezing and making my life difficult. My car sucks in the snow... I can't go around a turn without fishtailing it. At least I'm becoming a pro at driving in snow with a crappy car, I'm pretty confident that I will be able to drive any other car in the snow after this winter. In totally unrelated news we now have to decide whether or not to change our kitten's name. We found out today that Holly is not a female. She went in to get spayed and the vets figured out that she is a he. But that he not only has a small penis that he also doesn't have testicles. So they opened him up anyways to look and see if the testicles were inside, but didn't find any. So we think that he was already neutered when he was like less than 8 weeks old and was already healed from that. We don't know what happened but we have to figure out if we want to change his name from Holly which he sometimes responds to. I think his name should be Oreo Jack, and O.J. for short. Dad thinks his name should be M.T. Wallet (so it sounds like empty wallet because he empties our wallets).

Monday, January 31, 2011

Amber ran into a pole

Amber ran into a pole, this saying is from even before I was born. It came from my Auntie M at the dinner table when she was little. The reason I say Amber ran into a pole is because we have a new saying. Sara ran into a kid. Today my mom and I went up to Loveland ski resort. (it was actually on Saturday.) It was awesome. I'm learning to go on toe side which usually I can't do without catching an edge and falling. Well today I was doing awesome and going down the mountain and was going on toe side in this narrow area when I got cut off. Well I tried to avoid it, but I ended up hitting this little girl full on with my board. Luckily I didn't hurt her, I just scared her. I felt and still feel really bad.

I also feel bad for my kitten, Holly, because she is teething. In the last like two days she has lost almost all of her fangs. She has one more and its really stuck in there good. Also she is going in to the vet in February to get spade. Poor thing, will have to wear a cone. Oh but it will be so cute, like her. Lexi had blood on her face from when Holly bit her and she was missing a tooth and the gum bled onto Lexi.

On other news, more of what this blog is supposed to be, I made truffles. Its not something new that I do, the new thing is that I now have molds and this makes it easier, sorta. If you have some chocolate that is not tempered right then it makes it really difficult. Only nine of them came out right, half of them broke in half in the mold. Also next trimester I have my internship, that is if I can find a place that is willing to take me. That part is proving to be quite difficult, so if anyone wants to help me out, that would be awesome. I need a confirmed site before Feb. 11. Its kind of stressing me out. Which probably explains why I've had more heartburn recently, also I hate calling and being rejected.

Monday, January 24, 2011

Specialty Cakes

So the segment that I am currently in is Specialty cakes. That can be best described as fancy cakes or like wedding cakes. So my homework for this class is to design a wedding cake and to write a contract up for it.
I'm starting a flickr account to upload my pictures of all the pretty things that I make in class and such. I haven't decided where to put the slide show yet but look for it. I can't seem to make it a gadget or even embed it, but here is a link to it. It should work. Hopefully. Slide show. I'll try to figure out something more permanent. Maybe someone will have some suggestions? That's all for now. I'll post pictures of my design and my actual cake I have to do later.

Friday, January 21, 2011

Oops!

I know I haven't posted in a while. I don't really have that good of an excuse really. I finished with doubles and I'm back to just the one class from 6 pm to midnight. I am now in specialty cakes, which includes like wedding cakes and stuff like that. I'll put up pictures of my sugar showpiece when I can get my camera. It is a good thing that I got pictures of it while it was still whole, because today all of a sudden my fish kind of exploded and fell apart. I think it turned out pretty awesome, but looking back there were somethings that I think I could have done better.

I went snowboarding on Friday and loved it. I'm really getting better at it. I am finally starting to learn how to go on the front side of the board. The only bad fall that I took was while on a green run or "easy" run. The only reason it was a bad fall was because I hit my head and it still hurts. Usually I fall quite a few times that I consider bad falls. I even went down part of a black run, by accident. I fell trying to get onto the the blue run and could only go down on the black. I didn't do as badly as I would have thought. The best run was probably when we went all the way up the mountain and then we went through the woods, and it was an actual trail. It was awesome and really pretty. I didn't get any pictures though because I was afraid that I would ruin my camera. I fall a lot while boarding. I would like to go boarding next weekend but its only a two day weekend and I prefer to go on Fridays or during the week because it is less busy.

In other news my brother got engaged on New Years Eve. I'm really happy for him, and I'm glad that I'm going to be gaining Angie and Cari as sisters-in-laws. I've never actually met their mom but their dad is awesome. The last two years he has gone to Water World with us "kids".

The kitten is growing and adapting well into the family. She has doubled in size and I think she is going to at least triple her size now. Right now she is chewing on the pull strings to my pajama pants and playing with her own foot.

Earlier today I was in the middle of cleaning my room and packing things up to go into storage when the power went out. It came back on for a bit then went out again. It was out for a couple hours. What sucked about it most was that it came right around the time that sunset and so trying to clean my room wasn't working out so well because I could barely see. We looked for flashlights but only found one regular sized,  that worked. I had a couple small little key chain ones that worked pretty well. But not good enough to light up my room. We got out candles and brought in our solar powered lights from outside and turned on our fire place. We didn't want to put candles out in the main room because of the cats. I took the candles in my room and had them lit. It took ten candles to light up my little whole of a room. I got almost everything finished before the lights came back on. I'm quite happy with the work that I got done. Even if it is not done yet.

So this post has actually taken me a good couple days to write and finish so there will be even more than usual. I got my room most of the way finished there are just a few small things that need to be done but it will take me a couple more days to finish. On Monday I went up to Boulder to visit one of my best friends, Rissa. Her sister had gotten a ride up to my house and then we went up to Boulder. We went to watch the movie Little Fockers. I enjoyed it and found it funny, the storyline however was a little stupid. We then went and walked around until Kendra had to pee. We went into Ben and Jerry and had to buy ice cream since the bathroom was for paying customers only. We had a good time. It was just like the old days in Germany.

As promised here is a recipe:
Trailer Trash Bread
A loaf of garlic french bread. (like the frozen kind in a package.)
Scallions
Salt
Shredded Cheese
Mayo
Garlic if you want more of a garlic taste than the bread.
Preheat oven to 350 or broil if you want crunchier bread. In a bowl mix everything together. There aren't measurements because its all to taste, you decide how much of each you want. When its all mixed together spread on to the bread. Bake.