Life gets in the way of blogging.

Tuesday and today. What happened? Hm, let me think.

I do not know if I have mentioned or discussed my externship, which falls between January 2011 and June 2011. After the first year, each CIA student, in baking and culinary, is expected to complete an 18-21 week externship, and it is the responsibility of the student to obtain an externship position. There was a Career Fair held on campus yesterday, giving me the opportunity to talk to several places where I might like to extern. I know I want to work back South (hello, it will be winter here), but I am fairly open to many different places (New Orleans, Charleston, the beach :)). After talking to several chefs and giving them my resume, I am feeling hopeful about finding a great extern site, where I can learn and become a better baker.

At 2, I had BIET, until 6. We began class by working with our scales, using a pre-weighed amount of dried beans, to make sure that our scales that we were issued work correctly. Ms. Migoya lectured on stabilizers and liquefiers; most recipes/formulas are a balance of stabilizers (flour, eggs) and liquefiers (water, fats, sugar). We discussed specific formulas that we are expected to know in the bake shops, such as the 3, 2, 1 pie dough. In Food Science, specifically Food Chem, I learned about Maillard Browning and Caramelization. Here, at the CIA, I am learning more about temperatures and flavor in terms of these chemical processes, though we do touch on the chemistry a fair bit. Proteins, starch, denaturation, coagulation were our next topics to cover.

We spent a large majority of our time yesterday talking about bread, gluten, and flour. We even watched a short video on flour milling and sampled six different types of bread (with rye being my new fav). What is the difference between cake and pastry flour? How can you tell which is which by simply looking at the colors of both flours? We mixed six different doughs together, and we learned how to distinguish each by the type of flour used. Crazy stuff, right? This is all in a days work in the life of a baker. It is all about the gluten network, people.

To end class, we talked about gelling agents, agar, pectin, and gelatin. (I cannot even begin to try and reproduce how Ms. Migoya says "agar.") We took sheet gelatin and powdered gelatin and melted/dissolved each to see the differences, specifically in clarity. Ms. Migoya also gave a demonstration on cornstarch and tapioca, being thickening agents. Cornstarch and tapioca respond very differently to water and heat, with cornstarch having a shortening texture and tapioca having a sticky quality.

I met Danielle for dinner. It was Japan day in the Asia kitchen, and I ordered the Udon Noodle Bowl with Miso Soup and Ginger Salad. It was not the greatest, but I ate it anyway.

Last night, I procrastinated and went to Target to get a few things, mostly snacks. I did not really need anything really from Target except for batteries, but I always manage to find a few other things I "need," such as sour gummy worms and pretty duct tape. While I was coming back to campus from Target, I talked to Fallon about what quite possibly could be the greatest day of her life (and that is purely my opinion). Law and Order: SVU, one of my all-time favorite shows and one of many things Fallon and I share as far as obsessions go, is filming in NYC, duh. Well, it is filming right near where Fallon works. She saw Mariska (Olivia Benson, but yes, I call her Mariska because I spend a lot of time with her) and Jennifer Love Hewitt. I threatened Fallon about ending our friendship because I was so jealous. Then I remembered what awesome seats she found for the Yankees-Red Sox game, and I am trying to get over it. Fizzy, why did you not ask Jennifer, all bloody with clothes torn, if she was okay?

I did finish my stencil last night, but I had to wake up this morning and finish my total contrast project. This total contrast project proved to be my least favorite thing we have done in Design. I understood the concept but I just could not come up with anything I wanted to do really. I figured something out that I thought was awesome, but after getting my grade today, I guess it was not. (My grade was not terrible, just not what I was expecting.)

I went to lunch with Danielle, where I had burnt paella from the Mediterranean kitchen. Boo. Then, I came back to the room to watch a little Bachelor Pad, my new guilty pleasure, before I had to be back at Roth at 1. I picked up my graded BIET homework and my ServSafe certificate before walking to Design.

In Design today, we spent the entire class, before and after dinner, creating four different pieces with our stencil. (My stencil theme was Georgia, complete with Olympic torch, a state outline, a Coke bottle, and a peach.) The four pieces were place mat, random, system/anomaly, and gravity designs. My favorite at the end of the day was gravity, with peaches flowing from the Coke bottle. Totally bril. (I will try and post some pictures tomorrow or Friday.)

Now, I am doing a whole lot of nothing. I do have a quiz tomorrow, but I am not worried about it at all. I should do some laundry. Maybe, I should think about weekend plans. Or, maybe I should just sit in my bed and watch TV. (Cut me some slack. I went to bed around 2. :))

I AM OFFICIALLY COMING HOME TO WATCH MY DAWGS KILL SOME VOLUNTEERS (hopefully)

Hay Reh