75th Post in Honor of the 84th.

This is my 75th blog post, and I do not have much to report except that I attended the 84th Annual Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday. I had an excellent spot, and the company (Fallon, Nate, Kanye West, Gladys Knight, Jessica Simpson, Santa) was unbeatable. Below are some highlights of the parade. (I had to narrow down my over 100 pictures to just a few. So, when I say highlights, I mean a few snapshots from the day. These photos are not in any sort of order, but ENJOY!)

I just have to start out by saying that "I'm sorry, Kanye, but Joan Rivers had a better float than you." Okay, bad joke!? You get the point. Here's Mr. West himself, and Joan Rivers below. (Wowsers, look at that face!!)

I was a little excited when this was the first thing we saw of the parade, the University of Southern Mississippi Marching Band. (My grandmother and mom attended Southern Miss.) I screamed, "yay, y'all" to them as they "joined the parade."
This is where we stood for the parade, after running a mile through Central Park and losing Nate for a good twenty minutes. The parade begins at 77th and Central Park West. We saw the very beginning of the parade, heard the announcer read a blurb about what was coming next, and watched them "join the parade," as the announcer said.
Cute little Smurfy, Smurf, Smurf. Smurfs are usually three apples tall, but this one was a few more apples tall than that!
This is not the best picture of the Pillsbury Doughboy, but this was my favorite balloon. (Y'all should not be surprised... it's the baker in me?!)
Oh, hey, Spidey. This was Nate's favorite balloon. I like how the strings make him look like he is actually "webbing" and saving the world.
Oh, hey, Buzz Lightyear, from the Toy Story series. This was Fallon's favorite balloon.
This is for the K Swanns, Kellee, Kristy, and Karen. It's Dora, blowing y'all a kiss!
I wanted to take a picture of the parade drums. I did not even notice, until I put the pictures on my computer, the AU Drumline guy. This drummer is a member of the Macy's All Star Parade, with members from all 50 states. Hmm. Auburn representative?
This is Virginia, from "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus!" I took this in honor of my mother, whose real name is Virginia (sorry to tell the world, Mom, your given name you hate), but I think about my Mizzom every time Virginia is mentioned, referring to the name, of course.
And the man of the hour (or three hours), SANTA. Seeing him (and Mrs. Claus) IN the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade made me think of my favorite holiday movie, Miracle on 34th Street. Santa, my hero. Come visit me in Thomasville. (I've been practically perfect AGAIN this year.) Your annual note, cookies, and carrots for the reindeer will be waiting as usual. :)
I believe, Macy's, I believe. Thank you for a wonderful parade and a check on my bucket list to experience this parade in person one day!
After the parade, Nate, Fallon, and I went to Whole Foods to shop for our Thanksgiving feast. Remind me to NEVER go food shopping with Nate every again. :) We snacked on cranberry cheese and hard apple cider, while Nate fixed the turkey, mac n cheese, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, and arugula and radicchio salad. I contributed by re-heating my chocolate pecan pie. :) We ate while watching football. It was glorious. And then, we watched The Santa Clause (get the "clause" versus "claus?") to end the night. Best. Day. Ever.

On Friday, Nate and I slept in at Fallon's apartment, while she worked. We shopped a bit, and then joined Fallon to watch the Iron Bowl (blah). Nate wanted to go to Barnes and Noble before heading back to Hyde Park; there was a line to enter the store on Fifth, however, because Justin Bieber was there signing his book. Seriously? He is like 12 and has a BOOK? And people want him to sign it, meaning people are buying this book and READING it?!

Yesterday involved watching football and ordering in, Chinese for lunch and Pizza for dinner. Ha. I also did a little Christmas shopping online.

Today, I have done five loads of laundry, cleaned my room, and I am about to buy my plane ticket for January. I think I have been productive. What are your thoughts on my productiveness level? :)

ALL THE WORLD LOVES A PARADE... AND A BLOG ABOUT A PARADE

Haley

*Happy 29th Birthday to my favorite uncle, my Ger. I know that win on Friday was the best gift you received this birthday. :) And don't you worry, I am keeping my hands in my pockets and my mouth closed here in NY. See you in a few weeks. Love!

*Praying for Wyatt and Abby Mitchell.

Smart Cookie!

*NEWSFLASH: I HAVE AN EXTERNSHIP, which is kind of a big deal. I was offered a position in the Baking and Pastry Department at The Sanctuary at Kiawah Island Golf Resort on Kiawah Island, South Carolina, about 45 minutes from Charleston, where I will be living between February 1 and June 10, 2011! I AM VERY EXCITED. Come visit me people! "Carolina on My Mind" (even though James Taylor is really talking about North Carolina... nbd).

Cookies, Tarts, and Mignardises class. Where to begin? Cookie class is fun but can be a little tedious. I can scoop cookies for hours and hours. By the third sheet tray, however, I want to be done, with that particular cookie anyway. Each day, each team (Christie is my partner from WA this block) makes one or two new cookies. Once those are finished, we make additional cookies, or fondant petit fours (petit fours translates to "small oven"), or bake off cookies we have frozen, etc. As with breads when we made the bread for most of the restaurants, in this class, we fill cookie orders for the restaurants and other functions on campus. For example, we have been making tons of pie dough for a Continuing Education class on how to make holiday pies. I have learned a lot about bit-sized desserts (which is what a mignardise is), but I am excited to explore more next week about tarts, other desserts, and savory creations.

*All the starred items are products that Team 2, my team, made.

Monday, November 15 (Day 1)
*Peanut Butter Cookies
**Most nights we take cookies home to either evaluate (for homework) or to just enjoy. Check out my homework from the first day below.
**Piping happens every night, just like last block.
Tuesday, November 16 (Day 2)
*Shortbread
*Checkerboard Cookies

Wednesday, November 17 (Day 3)
*French Macaroon (Coffee)
*Coconut Macaroon (see below)
Thursday, November 18 (Day 4)
*Almond (Anise Biscotti)
*Snickerdoodle

Friday, November 19 (Day 5)
*Frangipan (for Petit Fours)
*Pate a Choux (for Eclairs)

Saturday, November 20 (Day 6)
We had class on Saturday to make up for one of the two days we get off for Thanksgiving break. Six days of classes is NOT an ideal week situation for me.
*Petit Fours
*Eclairs

Monday, November 22 (Day 7)
*Pecan Diamonds
*Cake Brownies

Tuesday, November 23 (Day 8)
*Sable Cookies (Sabl-a not sable... it's French!)
*Snickerdoodles

Wednesday, November 24 (Day 9)
*Pecan Pie (or pie/tart of choice to take home for Thanksgiving! See below. I will enjoy this with Nate and Fallon tomorrow.)
My sister came to visit this past weekend, the first weekend of her Thanksgiving week off from teaching. (Go Panthers.) I had class on Saturday, as mentioned, and I did not see her until Sunday. We made up for the lack of time together by packing in a full, chilly Sunday in New York City. Our day began, as usual, with Jessica not answering my calls or my texts. It is a good thing I miss her, or I would have been angry the whole day for her making me literally sit on some front steps in Harlem.

I did not make it to Harlem until about 11:20, but I was starving by this point. Jess and I walked to Dinosaur BBQ on 125th Street, near the Hudson. The BBQ was not the best BBQ I have ever tasted, but the fried green tomatoes were the best fried green tomatoes. Who knew? NYC could beat the South on fried green tomatoes. (I bet the chef in the kitchen is Southern.)

Jess and I enjoyed walking around Rockefeller Center (the tree will be lit next Tuesday) and seeing the Christmas spectacular-ness on Fifth Avenue. We ate dinner with Fallon, Morgan, and Kevin at the Eatery before Morgan, Jess, and I went to see Wintuk, the Cirque du Soleil show about winter. It was whimsical, as I had imagined it would be, and I experienced my first New York snow, tissue paper falling from the sky. (I hope I enjoy the real stuff just as much. :)) Jess and I then said our goodbyes. See you at Christmas, best friend.

Below: The tree getting all pretty-ified. I cannot wait to see it all sparkly and lit up.
Below: Jess and I in front of the star replica. Yes, we know we look like twins. To be fair, she is wearing my boots I gave her, and I bought the jacket first. (Sorry to call you out, Jess, but this is my blog. :))
Tonight, I am headed to the City with Nate to spend Thanksgiving with Fallon. Tomorrow, being Thanksgiving, is the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, and we fully intend to be one in the crowd to experience possibly our one-and-only Macy's Parade. I am fairly excited about it. Then, our plan is to cook Thanksgiving dinner (this is Nate's job really) at Fallon's apartment. Maybe do a little Black Friday shopping on guess, Friday, and then Nate and I will head back to Hyde Park to enjoy a few days before class begins again on Monday. I will try to blog on these "few days" back in Hyde Park (when I am not watching UGA beat GA Tech, hopefully). This will be a different Thanksgiving holiday weekend for me, but I am looking to the positive of something new (without forgetting the old, however, Mom :):):)).

WELL, HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE "ANISE" AND "SYRUP?"

Thankful Hay Reh

*HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I am most thankful for my irreplaceable family and friends. Barrett family, enjoy the Linzertart (pictured on the last post) and the Hudson Valley caramel apple from the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe. If I could have fit in Jessica's suitcase instead of these treats, I would be enjoying the day and my stomach would be enjoying the day with you. Though y'all do not believe me, tomorrow I will be a little homesick for our Thanksgiving traditions; I have never spent a Thanksgiving in 23 years away from y'all. Living my dream in New York does not make me miss y'all any less. I am thankful for y'all each and every day but especially tomorrow, from the Big City. Love you, family. (What is the count on how many times I used "y'all" in this paragraph?)

Busy as a Bee-aker.

I know, I know. It has almost been two weeks since I last blogged. "Haley, you blogged almost every day for months and months. What is happening? We are basing our realism that you will blog often on historic facts. I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU BAKED TODAY." Well, now, I am literally moving down the hall of bakeshops and diving deeper into the baking world. (My baking practical, which is two days long and I must pass to go on extern, is in ONE MONTH!!!!!) My Dad and Shirley were here for a good amount of time. (Thanks for coming to explore my new home and for treating me and the bf to amazing food.) I have a job now, working as a tour guide on campus. (I am almost done with training. Yay.) Last week, there was a Career Fair on Tuesday, and an Interview Day on Wednesday. (That was crazy exciting, trying to talk to people about externship possibilities.) Last week was the final week of the block. (I know, crazy right? I am done with another class here at the Culinary.) Thanksgiving is right around the corner (meaning I have class this coming Saturday, or for SIX days straight.) And, as a true Georgia peach, I should also mention that it takes quite a bit of energy to survive the cold, and it is not even snowing yet. (My chef a few weeks ago told me to go to the nurse because my lip split so bad that it would not stop bleeding. My lip split again a few days ago for the second time. Nate suggests lotion on my hands also to prevent them from doing the same, splitting and bleeding. The cold and flour are not the ideal combo for my hands.)

Wednesday, November 3 (Day 7)
*Linzertart (with linzerdough from Day 6. See below.)
*Tart shells (from 1,2,3 pie dough from Day 6)
*Six or seven different types of sorbets (Sorbets are made with fruit puree and have no dairy, while sherbets have fruit puree and dairy.)
*Used the ice cream machine to freeze our ice cream (from Day 6)
I picked up Dad and Shirley from the Poughkeepsie train station after class. I drove them to campus for their first glimpse at the CIA. They were both starving (and cold) from a whirlwind of a day, and therefore, I took them to the Hyde Park hot spot, Eveready Diner (featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives). The nachos are my new favorite staple there.

Thursday, November 4 (Day 8)
*Roulade
Team 2 made apricot roulade.
*Fruit Tarts (with shells from Day 7. See below.)
I woke up early enough to go pick up Dad and Shirley from the hotel. I gave them a brief tour of the Culinary, before we ate lunch at the Apple Pie Bakery Cafe. I scheduled a public tour for the two of them at 4. At around 5:30, I saw them outside my kitchen classroom, my dad waving like a fool (embarrassing... my face turned bright red). Chef Schorner let me take them fresh fruit tarts, and he also called my dad, in his German accent, a "peach." "No, Chef, I am the GA peach; he is the peanut." Chef also commented on Dad's mustache. Awesome.

Dad and Shirley ate at the E Room, the French restaurant on campus. After class, Nate, Dad, Shirley, and I went to the Hyde Park Brewery to sample some local beers. I was bummed to find out, when we got there, that we had missed the start of trivia (League of Nations, anyone?).

Friday, November 5 (Day 9)
*Tempered chocolate coins
*Chocolate Mousse

Saturday, November 6
At around 10 on Saturday, the four musketeers (Nate, Dad, Shirley, and I) headed to the Big (Freezing) City. We checked in to the hotel at Times Square before making reservations at JoJo, one of Jean-Georges restaurants in the City. Our waitress graduated from UGA. Dad was sold from that point forward. The food was amazing, and it was a culinary memory I will never forget. (It was a religious experience for Nate.) The molten chocolate cake that Jean-Georges is known for did not disappoint. Our special dessert that Angelia (our waitress) brought us on the house of passion fruit sorbet in a dried meringue shell was the hit, however.

We had to walk off our meal, because naturally our next reservation was in less than three hours, and we explored the outskirts of Central Park and the Plaza Hotel. We walked down Fifth Avenue, stopped to watch the skaters at the ice rink at Rockefeller Center, and made our way to Zengo, our dinner spot. Besides the edamame almost killing me (spicy), my sushi, Dad's fish, and Nate's ceviche were unbelievable. Unfortunately for Zengo, we compared it to our lunch at JoJo, but all-in-all, it was an excellent dinner choice.
From dinner, we walked to the hotel to grab our tickets to West Side Story. It was Shirley and Nate's first official Broadway show, at the theater literally in the middle of Times Square. I do love a good show!

From the show, we walked back to the hotel. Nate and I said our goodbyes to Dad and Shirley, grabbed some pizza from a random hole-in-the-wall place, and caught the S Train to Grand Central. We had to wait about an hour for our train from GCT to Poughkeepsie, but we did not mind with pizza in hand. The time changed, and instead of getting back to the CIA at 2:30, it was actually, really, 1:30. Love that.

Sunday, November 7
I woke up on Sunday to head back to the City to spend my last day with Dad and Shirley. The NYC Marathon took place on Sunday, and Dad and Shirley were able to see some of the festivities surrounding this 26.2 mile run through New York's five Burroughs. My attempt at finding wool socks and long john's at Macy's failed miserably, but Dad did find a tie for his wedding. And, Macy's is starting to prepare for the parade and the holidays, which was fun to see.The three of us took a taxi to Stanton Social, a restaurant in the Lower East Side. We each ordered two dishes each (Dad ordered three) and shared them. My favorite was the french onion dumplings. The hot donuts and chocolate shots for dessert were not too bad either. :)

We took another cab to Grand Central, said our goodbyes, and I headed back to my home away from home. Thanks for coming to visit, Dad and Shirley. NY is a far cry from Pavo!

Monday, November 8 (Day 10)
*Chocolate Glaze (on chocolate mousse cake from Day 9)
*Pate a choux (eclairs)
*Fondant (for eclairs)
*Swiss Meringue piping

Tuesday, November 9 (Day 11)
*Ladyfingers (using roulade recipe)
*Each team (there are 9) made a "special" ice cream of their choice.
Pete (my partner) and I decided to make caramel apple ice cream, seeing as apples are in season and the Hudson Valley is famous for their apples. (Technically, our "ice cream" was a sherbet, as it had green apple puree and dairy, but caramel apple sherbet sounds weird.) We swirled in the caramel as it came out of the machine. We scooped our ice cream into green apple "shells." (We took the core and inside out of the apples.)
*Chocolate Souffle demo (see below)
Wednesday, November 10 (Day 12)
*Prep for Grand Buffet
Team 2 made Chocolate Cups, to be used as a bowl for ice cream. (One team made three types of frozen souffle. See below for two finished products.)
Thursday, November 11 (Day 13)
*Grand Buffet Day
Team 2 made the fruit tartlets, and we dipped our caramel apple ice cream in apples in caramel. Wowsers... say that fast. (I do not have a picture of the apples right now, but I hopefully will have one soon.)
These (above and below) are our trays for grand buffet. Eclairs, cream puffs, fruit tarts, creme brulee, etc. I wanted to sample each and every thing we made.
Friday, November 12 (Day 14)
*Cookie Day to prepare us for our next block, Cookies class
-Chocolate Chunk Cookies (Team 2!)
-Mudslide Cookies
-Peanut Butter Cookies
-Oatmeal Raisin/Craisin Cookies
Each person in our class took a box of assorted cookies home for the weekend. Mmm.
*Chef Schorner showed us how to pull sugar and do a little sugar work on Friday. Below is the cake he made. (The gold is SUGAR!)
This weekend included Five Guys for dinner and watching Home Alone 2 on Friday night, the Georgia-Auburn game and the Detroit Red Wings game on Saturday, and lots of laundry today. (I still love you, Dawgs. This season has not been pretty though.) Now, I am ready for clean sheets and a little television. (I may be busy but you can NEVER be TOO busy for clean sheets!)

Goodnight all. Cookies, Tarts, and Mignardises class begins tomorrow!!!!

MORE TIME TO BLOG WITH THE BOYFRIEND HAVING NIGHT CLASS? WE SHALL SEE.

Bee-aker Haley

*Happy Belated Birthday to my Gamma (even though I know she will not read this). I am so thankful for you and proud of you for being a survivor each and every day!

*CONGRATULATIONS to Katie Weiser, and her FIANCE, Kevin! My bff is ENGAGED, and I am could not be more excited for them and this new journey. The Lord continues a great plan for these two, indeed!

Ha(l)ley's Comet.

Another blog milestone: The time between this post and the last is the longest I have gone without blogging. I apologize, sincerely, from the bottom of my heart to each and every one of you. :)

If you know my blogging style, you know that I do not like to leave out any details. Well, if I wrote about everything that has happened since Baking Techniques, the result would be a book that I could publish just about the last week or so of my life. I will spare you all and give you a brief overview.

Last Tuesday, I started Pastry Techniques with Chef Dieter Schorner, who is 72 years old and speaks with a HEAVY German accent. I would not even know where to start with his background or experience, as it is extensive. Chef Schorner used to be the Pastry Chef at Tavern on the Green, if they tells you anything. Chef is a character:
*On the first day, Chef asked me if I was named after the comet. Well, of course, you know me, the girl who actually took two years of German in college, could not understand a word he said. When someone finally filled me in on what he had said, I responded, "it is spelled different, of course, Chef."
*He told us this story about singing "I Can't Get No Satisfaction..." at karaoke one time. I would pay money to see that.
*Cupcakes to him are just fancy muffins.
*He soaked raisins in rum for our bread pudding. I was sitting in front and he opened the lid for me to smell them. My response was to put out my hands to taste some. (Chefs WANT you to taste things. I thought this was a grand opportunity to do so.) He smiled and gave me a handful. Love him.

Tuesday, October 26 (Day 1)
*Classic Puff Pastry
*Pastry Cream
**Piping happens every day!

Wednesday, October 27 (Day 2)
*Pate a Choux for Eclairs (filled with pastry cream from Day 1)
*Marzipan Roses (see below for my best one)
*Palmiers (made from puff dough from Day 1)
Thursday, October 28 (Day 3)
*Creme Brulee (see below for before sugar torching and after)
*Panna Cotta (which is made with gelatin and therefore NOT baked)
*Bread Pudding
*Genoise (like we made every other day in our previous class, but my team scored the highest grade in the class of 95 so why am I complaining?!)
I like it the above way better. Nate claims I do not like creme brulee then ("creme brulee" means "burnt cream"). I like to argue that.
Friday, October 29 (Day 4)
*Vanilla Sauce (for ice cream)
*Applestrip (made from puff dough from Day 1)

Monday, November 1 (Day 5)
*Chiffon Sponge
*Buttercream (yum)
* Crumb coat of Buttercream on Genoise (from Day 4)
**Below is my best piping for me to date (sorry I should have rotated it).
Tuesday, November 2 (Day 6)
*Linzerdough
*1,2,3 dough
*Five different types of ice cream (vanilla, chocolate, coffee, peanut butter, rocky road)
*Finished our Genoise cake (see below for mine, complete with piping and marizpan roses. Chef looked at mine and said, "you make cakes before." "No, Chef.")
My dad comes tomorrow. Craziness. He will be here from tomorrow until next Monday. I will TRY to blog with him here. No promises.

MY SCHOOL IS BETTER THAN YOUR SCHOOL (UNLESS YOU GO/WENT TO UGA)

Hay Reh

*Happy Late "World's Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party" Day. I am sad my Georgia Bulldogs lost to the Florida Gators (I HATE the Gators), but still, I wish I had been at that game! Happy Belated Halloween!