Hope you all had a happy Thanksgiving!! I always enjoy going home and being around my family, so mine was wonderful!

I realize I haven't given you the final update on how I did on the practical.... Well, I passed! Whoo! Day two went great! I had everything together, no major gliches, and my products came out great! Our chef was full of compliments, and gave some really helpful constructive criticisms. It was just the boost of confidence I needed to get me through the rest of this semester. As much as I am enjoying school, I am beginning to feel the hours wearing on me.

Here are the almond poppy seed muffins... my favorite!

Day one of the practical is complete and I'm still here....

Overall the day wasn't too bad. I definitely had my fill of screw ups, but I finished with plenty of time to spare, and prepped all of the ingredients for tomorrow. Today I mostly worked on my danish dough, and barely got all the folds in before time was up today. The culinary class was cleaning out the walk-in, so I had a hard time getting my dough to get cold enough.

The only thing I really wasn't happy with today was my chocolate filling. I used a recipe I have never worked with before (mistake #1) and did not like how it came out at all. The recipe calls for cake crumbs, so the texture is a bit rough; not the creamy filling I was looking for. I'm not sure if I can redo it tomorrow, but we'll see.

I feel like I've been pretty high strung all day, so I am really crashing right now. I am so tired, but tonight is our city group's Thanksgiving meal and I am so excited about it! I am bringing pumpkin bread pudding and broccoli cheese casserole. I'll post recipes on The Food Knows soon. Probably Wednesday night, but I'll be sure to let you all know when I do. Until then, happy baking!!

I have my first practical exam coming up this Tuesday and Wednesday. I must admit that I am a bit nervous. I don't doubt my ability to create a good product, I just tend to freak out under pressure. The items I have decided to make are not difficult, but they do take time... a lot of time. Our menu must consist of a yeast bread, a laminated dough, and a muffin (easy peasy). I have decided to make an herbed focaccia, caramel rolls and chocolate filled danishes, and almond poppy seed muffins. When I write it all out it seems so simple and nothing to worry about, but I can't help but feel anxious.

I know I haven't posted much about what we have been doing at school lately, and I plan on catching up, but until then here a just a few pics of what we have worked on.

The Culinary class made a really nice sushi spread

Puff Pastry (Cinnamon twists, cheese twists, cream horns)

Puff pastry pin wheels with vanilla cream filling

My first time to ever make a pie dough from scratch

Christmas cookies for the open house demo this past Friday

So I've finally managed to make some time to clean my apartment this weekend. Its pretty bad that I can't actually think of last time that I really cleaned it. I am usually pretty neat, so its not like its messy, its just filthy. Dust everywhere, dirt in the carpet, toothpaste on the mirror, and rabbit poop on the floor. Yup, that's right. Rabbit poop. I know it sounds disgusting, and it should because it is. Its not like its covering the floors, its more like they are nicely sprinkled around her cage, but its still none the less disgusting.



I hadn't cleaned Thumper Rabbit's cage in about a month so I figured it was about time. After I gave it a real good cleaning I decided that she hadn't had a bath since I'd moved so it was time for that as well. Giving her a bath is always a mess. She once tried to jump out of the sink and knocked the window plant into the water and covered herself in dirt. Nice. I've learned though. This time I cleared everything off of the counter, and laid out the towl and brush ready to dry her off as soon as she was out of the water. Overall it went pretty well. There was a lot of splashing and I was pretty wet after it was all over, but I thought it was successful. I had even cleared out the bathroom to let her hop around in there while she dried off since its gotten too cold outside.

Let's just say she was mad and got her revenge. I walked into the bathroom to check on her only to find a nice puddle of pee and poop everywhere. I'm not talking about the "no big deal" dry poop pebbles. It was like a baby had ripped off its diaper and flung it around in a circle. There was nasty wet rabbit poop all over the floors, door, drawers and walls. To top it all off as soon as I opened the door she darted out forcing me to spend the next 10 minutes chasing her around the apartment.

Never a dull moment...

I made gingerbread houses as a kid.... take a few graham crackers, glue them to the side of a little milk carton (probably left over from lunch), cover it with frosting, sprinkles, gummy candies, and a hodge podge of other cheap sweets. After a few days on display in the classroom we were all supposed to take them home to show our parents. I'm sure I showed my beautiful creation to my family, but I gurantee it didn't stay on display for too long. Not because my mother wasn't proud of it... I'm sure she was. She probably would have even packed it carefully away in a box to save for the rest of our lives if it would have lasted. But, as I said, it never stayed on display. Why? To be completely honest (and embarassed) I probably ate it. That's right. Glue and all. Of course I tried to peel as much glue off of the crackers as I could, but hey, don't judge. All 1st graders eat glue.... right?

Last Christmas I bought a gingerbread house kit from WalMart to put together with Paige and Nathan. To say the least, it was a gem. We probably built the best house any college students could build during the hight of final exams. I can't remember what courses I was even taking that semester, but I remember that the candy Christmas lights were aligned and patterned to perfection.

Just when I thought gingerbread couldn't get any better than last year (ha, yeah right) I am bombarded by the Food Network Queen of gingerbread architecture herself. Last Monday we took a field trip to a quaint little bakeshop to observe a gingerbread demo by the owner, Jennifer Bartos. Not only was her creation completely facinating, but she is partner in crime with Bronwen Weber, Food Network's "Incredible Edible Mansions" gold medalist and creator of several other crazy cake constructions. Jennifer's demo was fun to watch, and she made it all look so easy, so of course I knew it wouldn't be.



After we returned to school we learned that we would be making our own gingerbread pieces to donate to the Dell Children's Hospital to be put on diplay this December. I always get a bit nervous when I find out that we will be required to take our pieces of art somewhere for others to scrutinize, but I'm actually excited about this one. I know that constructing the house will be a challenge and take a lot of patience, but I think I'm ready. I also found out that there is a gingerbread competition in my hometown, but submissions are due in just a few weeks, and I don't think I'll have time to create something too spectacular. Maybe next year.

This past week we have been "studying" nutrition and baking science. I say "studying" because that basically means we flipped through the book for 30 minutes and then hurriedly moved on to punching bread and rolling dough. The biggest nutritional highlight of the week happened today when Carly, from Whole Foods came to talk to us. From her lecture I concluded that I'm really not that healthy of an eater. Rarely do I have time to eat at all and when I do its usually some sort of mexican food or a random assortment of foods that I've pulled from my mostly empty refrigerator.

To remedy this problem I have decided to set up a meeting with Carly and get my diet on track. The bakeshop has pretty much doomed me, but I am determined to discipline myself to becoming a more healthy and holistic eater. I don't really have a desire to lose weight (even though shedding a few pounds never hurts), I simply want to begin making better choices so I can have a more balanced lifestyle. Since I've started school things just haven't slowed down. I barely get enough sleep, and any sort of exercise regimen has gone completely out the window. I can pretty much guarantee that every winter I will get sick, and in my current state any sort of illness would probably be the death of me.



Whole Foods has this way of robbing me every time I go in there. I find a billion little things that I think I need, and walk out with a handful of ingredients and nothing to eat. My goal is not to become a Whole Foods junkie, but I definitely know that I will be spending more time shopping there than anywhere else. I'm actually pretty excited to meet with Carly and see what kind of recommendations she has and how she can help. We'll see how this all turns out!