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!