And Here We Go!

One of the things I have been wanting to do since I became an adult was a cross-country road trip. There was something exciting to me about driving from one end of the country to another and "seeing it all". When I was younger, we took quite a few roadtrips as a family - the more memorable ones being to Oregon and also Colorado. Kids these days may see being trapped in a car without their favorite video game system or internet readily available as a fate worse than death. In those days I think we loved it and loved seeing the scenery change. Yes, we did have our Gameboys, but those 4-doubleA batteries would only last so long!

Now I have the chance to do such a trip and am taking full advantage! I may never have this opportunity or time again! My mom is coming with me and I am so excited to see it all.

We left NY, cut quickly through the Dirty Jersey (as my school friends refer to it!) and into Pennsylvania - a new state to check off for me! It was exactly as I pictured it - two lane highways and LOTS of farms. Unfortunately this time of year is not that picturesque.

Here's a few pictures of the sights we took in when we stopped:

The Crayola Factory in Easton, PA

Gettysburg National Military Park

one of the thousands of monuments there

Pennsylvania Sunset

Tastings 1 & 2

Hello again! I've been busy here, getting packed and resting up. This class has got me tired out at the end of the day! Last week I rotated from the morning shift to the afternoon shift and it makes the day seem a little bit longer.

In addition to working the afternoon shift, I also have to attend a lecture given by our instructor for an hour before class. She explained that we would be tasting different items every day. At first I thought that it was going to be a lot of useless information. Yes, I know about tea, coffee, wine, etc. But it has proven to be interesting!

On Thursday, we had a coffee tasting. I am in no way a fan of coffee, unless it is paired with milk and laced with tons of chocolate... aka: mocha! It was hard for me to keep a straight face while tasting the cafe's coffees. She also had us describe the smells and tastes of each cup... "Hmm... tastes like... coffee?" wouldn't pass for an answer. Darn!

First we learned about the decaffeination process - something I had never considered. This happens during the "green" state of the beans - beofre they have been washed and roasted. There are three ways to do this. The first is by the use of chemicals, which is damaging. It is the least expensive and also the least efficient, as 5-15% of the caffeine can remain on the bean. The second way to decaffeinate is by the "natural" process - the beans are steamed to remove the outer shell. It is the most cost effective method and removes 95-97% of caffeine. The third method is the CO2 method which is patented. Basically, the caffeine molecules are removed and replaced with CO2. It is the most expensive, but also the most effective.

We also learned about roasting. Roasting = flavor, and each batch of coffee beans can be roasted to an individual level and blend to get different intensities. We briefly touched on grinding and brewing and then had our tasting. We tasted automatic drip regular and decaff, which I found to have a smoky flavor. The brand our cafe uses is Green Mountain Coffee, which has coffees from many pricepoints available and is a great quality, mainstream company.

Then we tasted press pot regular and decaff. I had never seen press pot coffee before this class and was interested to see how it worked. This coffee tends to have a smoother flavor because the natural oils of the beans remain in the coffee instead of being filtered out through a paper filter. The beans we use for this come from Counter Culture, an artisan company based on the East Coast that is committed to organic and sustainable coffee. The regular press pot coffee came from Sidamo, Ethiopia and the decaff came from Jagong, Sumatra. So cool! I also got to try my first espresso. I cannot see how people drink that stuff straight up! We had to take it like a shot and it was just not pleasant at all.

On Friday we had a tea tasting, and I was very much looking forward to this because I am becoming a bigger fan of tea as I get older. Our cafe also has a really good selection of teas from Harney & Sons. We tasted:

-White Vanilla Grapefruit

-Sencha Green

-Jasmine Green

-Pomegranate Oolong

-English Breakfast

-Earl Grey

-Black Current

-African Autumn Red

-Chamomile Tisane

-Valentines Tea (black)

All teas come from the same tea plant, they just differ based on the harvest time and processing. The four types of tea are white, green, black, and oolong. White is made from the bud of the tea leaf and is packed with antioxidants. Green comes from the mature green tea leaf and it is believed that if you drink it regularly, it will help stave off plaque from your teeth! Too bad green tea is not one of my favorites! Oolong comes from the fully mature green tea leaf that goes through partial fermentation, allowing some tannins to develop but rendering it still palatable. Black tea is made from the fully mature green tea leaf that has been fully fermented. The tannins in black tea are extremely high, making it very astringent. The British soften these tannins with fat (milk) and Americans tend to brew it strong and cut the tannins with an acid (lemon wedges).

We learned about tisanes as well - this is not tea, but is a botanical infusion made without tea leaves. It can come from dried flowers, fruit rinds, spices, herbs, etc and is typically caffeine free.

Of the ones we tasted, my favorite by far was the Jasmine Green. I was surprised because I typically stay away from green tea, but this one smelled soooooo good!!! It smelled like jasmine but not too perfume-y and tasted clean and sweet. I like teas that are sweet enough to not need any sugar or milk added. I believe that they should be enjoyed in their purest form. This jasmine green took me straight back to the summers of my youth - when the air was permeated with jasmine that would waft through my bedroom windows at night. So lovely!

Leftover Confections

I finished this class almost two weeks ago... Here's some items I made during the last few days. Lots of fun!

Nougat Montelimar:

It's like an Italian meringue on steroids - whipped egg whites, cooked sugar and honey and gelatin, and lots of inclusions - all kinds of dried fruits and toasted nuts!

Lunas:

We made Port Marzipan. American marzipan is pretty much disgusting, so a lot of people think "ewww" when they hear the word. It's too sweet and bitter almond oil is often used. It's commercial. Homemade marzipan is AMAZING! These were so subtle in flavor; it would be very hard to guess the interior was marzipan! The marzipan was rolled out to a certain thickness, and then we cut out moon shapes using a petit four cutter, dipped and piped them!
Agar agar orange jellies:

These were really fun to make! Agar agar is derived from seaweed commonly found in Asia. It comes in many forms (dried, powdered, strips, etc) and is a great option for people who don't like gelatin, are vegan, or want something Kosher. However, agar agar melts at a higher temperature than gelatin, so when you put it in your mouth, it doesn't melt the same way. Plus the texture is kind of weird. It works as a stabilizing agent though!

For these delectable jellies, we made the outer, lighter-colored layer first by pouring it out flat. When it set (very quickly!), we cut it to size and then placed it into these half-pipe molds. It was bendy but stable! Then we made the filling and poured it in and let it set.

These were pulled out then brushed with some coloring, then we cut them in neat little slices on the guitar.
Rolled in some sugar and citric acid... and done!

I asked Chef G if he knew how to make Molasses Chips - he'd never heard of them! What a travesty! These are a huge hit in my family. My grandparents used to give us kids our own boxes at Christmas... yum! A whole box of dark chocolate molasses chips just for me! :) They came from See's Candies and would quickly disappear within a day (or two) of receiving them. Ahh!!!

Chef G had heard of See's, but I never knew that they didn't exist on the East Coast! They are missing out! There's nothing to take the place of them either. I asked my friend from Jersey where people go to get chocolates for holidays, and he said just mom-and-pop type places. Interesting! Chef G was up for the challenge, and we created a recipe that we tested and manipulated to come up with a formula for something extremely similar to Molasses Chips! And it only took us two tries! How cool is that?!

The molasses...

And dipped in the chip form!

My final test was to give one to someone from California without telling them what it was, and see if it reminded them of anything. The person said "These are like those toffee chips from See's!" Right on Aubs! Right on!

I'm hoping to do some re-creations at home!

Throwdown!

It is currently 49 degrees outside, so I'm snuggled up with a blanket and listening to some Gwen :)

As much as I like Chef W, I am so over mousse cakes!!!!

I remember how much I used to loooove mousse, of the chocolate variety. When I was younger, my parents would take us out to Sizzler for dinner. We loved it because we got to choose whatever we wanted to eat from the salad bar. I know for a fact that my mom ended up hating this because we wouldn't choose very well-rounded meals. I liked it because you could really load up on dessert! They always had a big bowl of chocolate mousse out and I'd stick it underneath my softserve ice cream. Yum!!! okay, I guess I could go for some of that now, as long as I didn't have to make it myself!

Here's another sampling of what I did last week:

This is a passion, pineapple, coconut entremet that I made. Here it is, freshly popped out of the metal mold (with a blowtorch) awaiting glazing on a wire rack. It was fun to have the pineapple slice "inclusions", but also difficult to keep them in place while we poured the mousse. Looks like the center ones moved a litttttttle bit. Oops. The ones on the bottom were cut in half and lined up against the mold.

Post-glazing and cutting shot. Since this is a "contemporary" (or "contompory" as Chef W says) cakes class, all our decor is asymmetrical and very modern. Off-center, off-balance, minimal.

And the cake components! From top to bottom - passion fruit mirror glaze, coconut lime mousse, passionfruit mousse with pineapple chunk inclusions, and coconut dacquoise. This one is my favorite! So good!

On Thursday, we had: "The Last Entremet: Throwdown Edition!" Haha! We came to class with no clue what we were going to be making. Chef W set molds out on our stations, and when we all came together for lecture, he doled out what we would make, some with formulas and some with things we had to figure out. My partner and I had a fairly easy one.

From top to bottom: Whipped cream quenelle, chocolate shiny glaze, chocolate mousse, chocolate flourless cake, pistachio creméux, pistachio crunchy base, and chocolate flourless cake again. The chocolate mousse was difficult to work with due to temperature issues, but everything else was okay. We made a basic creméux and flavored it with pistachio paste until it tasted how we liked. The crispy base looks really gross (think: baby poop) but tasted good!

In addition to our successful Throwdown! we worked on a side project for Chef W: an example of a crepe cake. Most people think of having crepes for breakfast or served hot, so it can be daunting to think of them eaten cold. On the contrary, it was quite delicious! The crepes were pretty plain, and then I made a mascarpone, whipped cream and anisette flavoring to stack between them. I didn't care for the anisette, but the whole thing was good regardless!

Many layers of crepes!

Last Friday I also had a little conference with Chef W to get his feedback on my class performance and what I could do for improvement. It was all positive stuff and I need to work on little things like not working too too fast and being more efficient. But he did say that he can definitely see me owning my own place someday, that I have the drive, I'm firm and I work hard and I can anticipate well. He also said I have a talent for watching and replicating well. Cool! I guess I never really realized that about myself.

I can't wait for this week to be over already! It is going to be very challenging! Tomorrow we start work on preparations for the Grand Buffet on Thursday. My partner and I are making a small type of doughnut as well as fruit tarts and assisting other groups. Wednesday is the BIG day: we are all making our own Entremet projects. From scratch. Out of our own noggins! Last week we submitted our ideas and drawings to Chef W. I am doing a twist on the crepe cake with Christmas-type flavors. I hope it come out like it looks in my head, or better!

Wordless Wednesday #21!

Mindless Eating

Book Review: Mindless Eating: Why We Eat More Than We Think by Brian Wansink, Ph.D.

I sped through this book on Sunday! It was really interesting and I would highly recommend it to everyone. Mr. Wansink did a great job of relating to the reader on a personal level, unlike Michael Pollan's scientific tone in his book, In Defense of Food.

The book starts and ends with the sentence "The best diet is the one you don't know you're on." So true! Mr. Wansink goes through the whole book convincing us that we need to switch from mindlessly eating unhealthy foods to healthier ones. In this way, we will eventually be on a diet we don't know we're on.

Here are some of the finer points I enjoyed in this book:

-Think 20%, more or less: Eat like the Okinawans - eat until you're 80% full. Everyone should know that it takes our stomachs 20 minutes to tell our brains we are full. Don't wolf down your food (I actually had a dream about this last night) and eat less than you think you will need. In 20 minutes you should feel good anyways. Eat 20% more vegetables and fruits.

- See everything you eat: leave out the "waste" like chicken bones, wrappers, etc. Out of sight is out of mind, and you WILL eat more than you think if you can't see the "evidence".

- Put things in smaller containers or on smaller plates: I liked this point a lot. When did we get such HUGE dinner plates? Food looks small, so we pile more on (moron!). Grab a smaller plate instead and fill it with more vegetables than meats. Take smaller amounts to start off with - all practical "mom" advice.

- Make overeating a hassle: When you have to cross the room to get that piece of chocolate, it makes you think about it...I can say that this definitely works for me. When something takes a lot more work to get, I am less likely to actually get it! Willpower can also be built up this way and it makes you question yourself (Do I REALLY need that?).

- Distract yourself from snacking, don't eat straight from the box or bag, keep eating in the kitchen or dining room, and stay away from those areas if you're tempted to snack.

- Be a good "gatekeeper", parents: I also liked this point and totally agree with it. I think that my parents did a great job of being a gatekeeper of the food... almost too good because I hated it at the time! Our lunches were packed with healthy items that no one would trade for. My brothers and I always had to ask first when we wanted food. Most of the time if we were hungry, we could have a piece of fruit. If we were thirsty, there was water. Our after-school-snacks were either healthy or 1-2 cookies. One time my mom let us have as many Oreo Cookies as we wanted. That was . . . weird. Of course, we would totally abuse our babysitters by telling them we were allowed to eat whatever we wanted. My Grandma Mac was our favorite! She would make us anything we wanted for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Chocolate milk and ice cream galore! My mom started hiding the Hershey's Chocolate Syrup because we'd go overboard on it! All in good fun. So, good job Mom and Dad, for keeping us healthy, 95% of the time :) I'm planning on doing the same with our kids.

My favorite parts of the book were where Mr. Wansink described the amazing experiments he did to get to his conclusions. His Lab was based at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and he and his assistants came up with all kinds of crazy experiments. It was shocking to me to find that people would flat out deny that they had eaten so much. They were completely oblivious and mindless. He did such experiments as serving stale popcorn (which people would still eat!), self-refilling soup bowls (one man ate 1 QT of soup and denied he was full because his bowl wasn't empty yet), and chocolate in covered, uncovered, and "far away" bowls. So interesting and cool!

I know that I myself have participated in some mindless eating. I'm hoping to change my habits and make them mindlessly healthy. What a great diet, the one I don't even have to think about!

Tea Time!

Thursday brought an expert tea sommelier to our school for a tea tasting. Tea Sommelier?! Yes, I never knew that there was such a thing! Technically, there is no official certification, so I'm not quite sure how one can call herself a Tea Sommelier, but whatever.

We were seated and received two glasses for tasting and one plate of cured salmon, pork, and various cheeses to share with the person sitting next to us.

Cynthia Gold is a Tea Sommelier and was our speaker for the day. She currently is working at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers. I found her to be extremely knowledgeable and so willing to share her passion for tea. She was a bit unorganized and I could see that it was going to be hard to keep our attention with a subject as engaging as tea. Most of the attendees were culinary students in the restaurant portion of their classes.

Ms. Gold's main purpose was to show us how to use tea in culinary applications. This brought to mind many things I hadn't thought of before. She described how you can grind tea leaves and use it for rubs (like on the pork we received). You can also add it in powdered form to baked goods. It can be infused into any sort of liquid as well. I can see myself using it in heavy cream for tea-flavored whipped creams and in truffles. Could be good!

We got to sample a few teas that she steeped for us. One was Chinese Dragonwell Green Tea also called Lung Ching I think. She wanted us to taste it and have it with the gruyere cheese. Previous to this lecture, I would never have dreamed of pairing tea with cheese! The tea was very clean and grassy tasting and went very well with the cheese, amazing!

We also tried a Darjeeling tea, grown in the mountainous regions of Northern India. We tried it with triple creme cheese (very rich) but I did not like the flavor of the tea. The third tea we tried was Lapsang Souchong. The best way I can describe it is that it tasted like I was drinking a BBQ! It was smoky and we tasted it with bleu cheese. Very interesting.

Ms. Gold introduced us to Tea Cocktails as well. I had never heard of these before and found the concept very unique. As mentioned before, tea can be steeped in any medium. Ms. Gold showed us how to steep tea and various ingredients in separate bags to control the amount of flavor for each ingredient. She made us two blends of tea cocktails:

-White port, black tea, lychee and ginger.

-White port, black tea, lavender, and rose petals.

It was interesting but I'm not sure I'd be able to drink a whole serving. Maybe it was the port, maybe it was the flavors. But I would like to try other combinations to see what is possible!

She gave a few pointers for organizing pairing:

-Why are you pairing?

-How can you better the taste? Bring out something interesting and subtle.

-Add contrast between two different textures. Use astringency to cut richness and cleanse the palate while eating.

-Pair by regionality.

I thought the whole presentation was great. She was rushed for time and a lot of students left halfway through. My friend Ian and I stayed all the way through to the end, and then stuck around afterwards to ask her some questions. Out of the 100+ students that were there, only he and I and another girl showed enough interest to request more information. Ms. Gold told us that having a good tea background can add something to our skill set when applying for a job. It will be another thing that can make us more valuable to our employers. Good point!

Ms. Gold shared with us an "aged" tea - I never knew there was such a thing! Here is a picture - aged 12 years! I can't remember what kind of tea it was, but it tasted very earthy.

She gave us a packet about tea that was twenty-five pages long! It was chock-full of valuable information. I got her contact information and she said she'd be interested in "talking tea" anytime through e-mail! I also got a few recommendations about good books. Sometimes I forget that in the past, I worked for a tea company. I wish that at the time, I would have taken more initiative in tasting the teas and asking questions. Good thing I am still in regular contact with my boss :) and we are great friends!

When I was younger, my mom and I used to have tea sometimes. I know my mom really liked tea and wanted to spend time with me. I could only stand the tea with lots of sugar and I very much enjoyed the snacks! Tea snacks are the best :) Since then, my tea tastes have changed a lot. I am a lot more adventurous in what I will try. If the tea is fruity enough (passion tea!) I can have it straight with no sugar. When I lived in New Orleans, I even started to get into iced tea. I especially appreciate a good tea time with sandwiches these days.

Tea is something that is very versatile and I am so glad I attended this presentation. It really opened my eyes to the possibility of cooking with tea. I'm looking forward to experimenting with it in the future!

Real Music

I love YouTube. It has to be one of the greatest things about the Internet. Today I was bored and had some free time, so I did a little music video watching. As a kid, VH1 and MTV were just coming out, and once they both got rolling, my parents wouldn't let us watch it. I "missed" a lot of music videos that my friends all saw on TRL. Obviously I am fine, I am alive, and I didn't die from not seeing them. But they are SUPER interesting now!

Today my music videos of choice were from 1976. Random and before I was born, yes! But after watching a few, I started to get nostalgic and miss "real" music.

Modern times brought about the "music artist". Most of these I wouldn't even call that. What happened to writing and playing your own original music?! Having a real band? Tambourines, pianos, a horn section, and imagine someone playing a guitar and harmonica at once! That is true talent.

I think people today are lazy. They want to get by just on their voice, and sometimes that isn't even good. They get someone else to write the "hit", if you can even call it that! Sometimes I can't stand pop music, and other times it just fills an annoying gap in my head.

With that said, I hope younger generations pick up instruments and get some real talent. Give us the real music!

Here's some fun videos to help you get through your Monday. Love the hair!

Beets Me

Our work schedule for the week is posted on Sunday nights. I sauntered over and checked it out. "Whaaaaat?!" I said to myself. Wednesday I was scheduled to work the Garde Manger station. Fortunately, I had been working the "wall" station a lot lately, so I knew how to plate all the dishes. The only thing I was really worried about was being on it alone and having to do all the prep work.

Wednesday came: the day of reckoning. I realized that here I had clearly crossed over into the culinary realm, away from my sugary goods. :( I barely got everything set up by 5:30pm and then the mad rush began. It wasn't a particularly busy night, but it felt like it to me. Somehow, time zipped by and it was already 8pm (yeah!). 

I ended up making it through the whole service without crying, dying, or having a heart attack . . . not like I thought that was going to happen! But I got by with a little help from my friends/co-workers.

Ahh the insurmountable beet salad, in all it's beety glory, took the cake for my night. It actually was NOT that bad, although I got a lot of orders, and I rather enjoyed adding the beautiful/magical beet foam.

doesn't it look so fun?!

I realized that I am also on a different planet from my co-workers when it comes to what's running through my head at work. I pointed to the unfinished beet salad and asked one of the chefs, "Do you know why the diced beets are so happy?" He shook his head.

I answered, "Look, they're getting barreled!" 

He looked at me like I was an alien... "Especially the ones in the back, they're in it pretty deep." Haha. Finally he got what I was talking about and walked away laughing.

So my mind is always on surfing/the ocean. Not bad. But I'd think I'm one of the few who looks at this salad and thinks of something completely different than the beets.

Then again... beets always make me think of a time when my older brother grabbed up a bunch of beets at the salad bar at Souplantation, tasted them thinking they were sliced/canned cranberry sauce and then spit them back out into the salad bar. It was HILARIOUS (you had to be there). I seriously thought we might get kicked out for that.

Totally true: beets remind me of surfing and my bro. Awesome.

My Mom Always Said . . .

. . . It's not going to jump up and say, "Here I am!"

Happy Mothers Day Momma! :)