"Stuck Like Glue!"

I almost do not know where to begin. Merry Belated Christmas and Happy New Year? I hope the holiday season was filled with love, laughter, family, friends, and, of course, sweet treats. And, I hope you celebrated the true meaning of CHRISTmas.

I am back in New York, after driving over 2500 miles in the little, old Acura (which turned 6 on the 23rd of December... yes, I know my car's "birthday") over less than two weeks. My break from school was too short, but I enjoyed time with my family and the boyfriend. I was able to rest and relax, when the family was not demanding I prove to them that I actually attend culinary school. I have two more weeks here, before I begin my externship at Kiawah Island. Can you believe I am almost done with my first "year" of culinary school?

Am I killing you by avoiding what everyone wants to know, if they do not already know? My Christmas break began with me PASSING MY 2ND TERM PRACTICAL. For Nate's sake on our twenty hour car ride to Thomasville, Georgia, I am very thankful I passed. I would say that, for the most part, the practical was a fun, positive experience looking back. I did not take the opportunity to take as many pictures as y'all would probably like, but I did manage to snap a few of my passing pastries (alliteration, Jess?). I guess I should note that you have to pass each of the three items, the butter cream cake, apple strip, and the eclairs, with a certain minimum score, and each score is added together for your final score (which does not really matter). I scored a 14 on my apple strip, the minimum passing score (phew!), and an 81.5 overall. All that really counts is the P circled on the front of your exam score paper!
Above: butter cream cake with tempered (poorly!) chocolate coins, a vanilla sponge for evaluation, and a sample of butter cream.
Above: 12 filled eclairs with pastry cream and coated with chocolate fondant, 12 unfilled eclairs, a sample of pastry cream, and an apple strip made with puff pastry.

Christmas break began around 8 pm on Wednesday, December 22. By around 9, I would say, Nate and I had the car packed, after a tiny argument that I have agreed to forgive and maybe forget about Nate wanting to bring too much stuff, and we were on our way to the G-A (rhyming, Jess?). Twentyish hours later, around 5:30pm on December 23, and we arrived at Friar Tuck Lane. We, of course, stopped to eat (breakfast at CHICKFILA for Nate's first taste of chicken and lunch at Zaxby's, where Nate realized the South would die without fried chicken), switch drivers, gas up the car, etc. Surprisingly, we didn't have too many arguments (yes, Nate and I "argue" a lot :)) about the music. I did, however, learn that Nate does not know how to properly use the cruise control, and he about drove (ha!) me crazy on I85. Nonetheless, we made it safely, to my mother's excitement.

Christmas is my favorite holiday. My mom and sis (along with other key members of my family) had the house decorated to perfection (including my favorite UGA tree). Mom even made some additions to the tree in my room, which is filled with baking ornaments. :) My family welcomed Nate (even though he's a Yankee) and helped him celebrate his first non-white Christmas. Nate cooked a lot. We ate a lot. We opened gifts. We drank a fair amount. It was glorious, but our time in Georgia was short-lived (my only complaint).
Above: What a great picture of the Barrett Family (my mom's side of the family) on Christmas Eve at Gamma's house in Monticello, Florida.
I could not decide between the above picture or this picture...
Nate and I (mostly Nate) can not take a normal picture to save our lives. These two pictures above though do a fairly good job at capturing our relationship.
Above: My dad bought me and Jess these hats for Christmas. We affectionately named them Ziggy (the ZEBRA not striped cow) and Monk.

On Monday, December 27th, we hopped back in the car and drove to Destin, Florida. I made Nate put his foot in the Gulf of Mexico, and he agreed that "my" beach was almost as beautiful, in a different way, as Michigan beaches (though they don't have beaches, just lakes, duh). After spending the night in Destin, we hit the pavement to drive to New Orleans, Louisiana. Nate is three weeks ahead of me in school, and therefore, the break was the start of his externship. Being the sweet Georgia peach that he knows I am, I offered to get him to LA and helped him settle in to his new home. Our time in New Orleans, one of my favorite cities in the entire world, included beignets at Cafe du Monde, muffalettas from the Central Grocery, many trips on the St. Charles street car, barbeque shrimp from Pascal Manale's, walking along the Mississippi River, etc. Nate did not know much about the city and I know a little (mostly about the great places to eat, go figure). We are a match made from scratch. Bahahaha.

Nate will be externing at Bourbon House (see below, recognize this sign for those of you who have visited New Orleans?) on Bourbon Street (shocking). Because I was only spending two nights in NOLA, I wanted to eat at his restaurant before I left. We waited a few minutes for a table and then were seated to one of the single greatest culinary experiences of my life thus far. Our entire meal was compliments of the chef, who even took the time to come out to our table to talk with us. Nate was uber impressed, as was I. My favorite thing about Bourbon House? It is hard to decide between the champagne raw oysters on the half shell with caviar, the bella nuit cocktails (champagne with pomegranate), the duck confit and fois gras salad, the chocolate chip bread pudding, etc., but the Bourbon Milk Punch we ordered with dessert was unbelievably tasty. When I fly back to New Orleans in two weeks, I will sit at the bar and drink these, while waiting for Nate to get off work. :)
On Thursday, Nate's first day of work, I drove all the way back to Thomasville to spend a few quality days (and New Year's 2011) with my mom. I was planning to spend New Year's in New Orleans with Nate, but I am so thankful that I came back to GA. Mommy and me time was just what I needed.

On Sunday, January 2, I drove to Atlanta to meet Katie Weiser (almost Mooney, the bride-to-be) and Katy Capers (MOHzilla) to talk about Katie's wedding. It was wonderful to spend the afternoon with both of my Kat(ie/y)s together. I miss Athens, UGA, and the two of them very much! This is such an exciting time for Katie, and I cannot wait to be a part of it all!

After a night in Athens with the sister, it was time for the endless day of travel back to Hyde Park for me. Doc Chey's Noodle House, creepy Eliot the cat, packing, Law and Order: SVU, Chickfila chicken minis, etc. happened all before Jess drove me to the airport. It was at the airport that I was forced to reconsider my shoe choice of the break of flip flops (I literally wore them the WHOLE break from the time we left the CIA before Christmas to when I landed at LaGuardia), as I braced myself for snow!

Class started on Tuesday. My last class before extern and of 2nd Term is Individual and Production Pastry with Chef Utera. Basically, this is a capstone class, where we produce individual pastries in large scale, or larger scale. For example, we know how to make eclairs. Now, we make eclairs, the same quality and size, for more than 24 people like we have been doing thus far. We focus on one particular subject and each team of two produces a different product based on our subject. I will more focus on the blog on what Team 9, me and Laura (NY), bake! It is only the end of week one, but I am really enjoying this class. I am glad I like the class and Chef Utera, or these last three weeks in New York would drag. :)

Tuesday, January 4 (Day 1)
*Whole Wheat Roulade for Smores Roulade. Our whole wheat roulade was made with honey and cinnamon to taste like graham cracker.

Wednesday, January 5 (Day 2)
*Medium Ganache. We smoothed the chocolate on our whole wheat roulades and rolled each roulade.
*Puff Dough
*Poached Pears in Burgundy and Chamblis (red and white wine)

Thursday, January 6 (Day 3)
*Rolled out our puff dough
*Italian Meringue. With gloves, we smeared the meringue onto the outside of two of our four smores roulades. Then, we torched the outside of the meringue to look like marshmallow. Here is our finished Smores Roulade.
Friday, January 7 (Day 4)
*Fruit Strip. For the fruit strip, we baked our puff dough. We made pastry cream and folded whipped cream into the pastry cream to make a diplomat cream. The diplomat cream was piped onto the puff dough, and fresh fruit was cut and added. I am rather proud of our strips. Below are two of the five we made (they were all different).
*Napolean. For the Napolean, we cut puff into three equal strips about 3.5 inches wide and 14 inches long. Between the layers of baked puff, we put equal amounts of diplomat cream (with gelatin). On the top, we spread fondant and created a feathered pattern with chocolate. We will cut these on Monday, and I will be sure to post a picture then.
On a random funny note, in class today, my chef compared two of our other puff pastries, the apple turnover, a Southern favorite, to the Holiday Inn and an apple dacquois (puff with a lattice design) to the Ritz Carlton. It's a good thing that the Holiday Inn (Express) has been my home-away-from-home for many years now.

Today, it snowed. I was hoping to escape any winter weather , as I am only here for three weeks total, but I guess I do live in the North. It has been falling since last night and is forecasted to keep snowing until tomorrow. I must say, this snow is the most beautiful I have ever seen (but I haven't seen it much). It looks like bits of feathers falling from the sky. It is mostly powder, and even though it sticks, it is still soft and fluffy. Now, granted, I am glad not to have a car up here right now to drive around in this stuff, but, as long as it doesn't affect my flight in two weeks when I try to leave NY, I am enjoying this snow (I fully expect this attitude to change next year).
Above: the view from my window this morning.
Above: The Baking and Pastry "wing" is the building to the right.

Plans this weekend? Watch tv. Sleep. Pack. Work on my project for class. Play in the snow (maybe)?! I do miss Nate (you can vomit if you want), and it is weird to be here without him. However, I am enjoying some much needed "me" time. :)

WINTER WONDERLAND

Haley

*Dad, get well soon! (He just had a knee replacement this week. Ow.)