Eleven Questions

I was tagged by Jenny from Magic Cat Jenny about two week ago and I've been slowly (but surely) filling out these questions as I've worked a hectic schedule! 

The Rules: Answer the 11 questions, tag 11 people & let them know, and ask them a new set of questions. I'm not sure if I know 11 bloggers to tag that have not already done this yet, but we'll find out.

1. What’s the #1 most played song on your iTunes/iPod/Phone/etc?
   Hating Every Minute by Alkaline Trio
2. What is your favorite body part?My butt...just kidding, not really, I guess I would say my legs. They may not be perfect but I've learned to love them.
3. What was one of the best parties you have ever been to?
   Not a real party person but if you call it a "mini" party I love doing double dates with my bff and her fiance, we always have a fun time.
4. Which celebrity do you get mistaken for?
   I've only been told I've looked like few people famous people: Winona Ryder, Shannyn Sossamon (when she was in A Knight's Tale) and some lady from J.A.G. I don't think I look like any of those ladies or anyone in particular
5. If you had to work on only one project for the next year, what would it be?
   Building a future business with a friend, we haven't had time to really work on stuff even though we have a majority of the idea down. It would be nice to just spend a year working on this awesome idea.
6. If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose?
   There are some many from books and television shows, probably I'd either be Katara from Avatar: The Last Airbender (cartoon NOT movie) or the Doctor from Doctor Who
7. What would you name the autobiography of your life?
   A Story Not Quite Finished
8. When was the last time you were nervous?
   More like when was the last time I wasn't?
9. What is something you learned in the last week?
   A few things this week at the Bakery.
10. Name a blog or two you always read.
    I always check up on my bigger blogs (like over 10,000 followers) because they always have something new but I love to check out Magic Cat Jenny (of course!) Wanderland Vintage, Of Corgis & Cocktails...basically everyone that I've met through blogger are on my frequent (if not daily) reading list.
11. What is your favorite thing about blogging, why do you do it?
    It's a place for me to record my life, I love looking back and just reading what I wrote in the moment. I also love sharing ideas with all my readers. Even though I'm not on here as frequently as when I started I still love reading comments and thinking of blog post ideas.

 

Birthday Wish List

Tattoo // Leopard Print Flats // Doctor the Recipe Shakers // KitchenAid Mixer // Drawstring Backpack //Denim Vest

Next Saturday will be my 23rd Birthday and I can't believe that it's only in a week! Even though I'm still unsure on what I'm going to do on my birthday I did have a good idea of what I wanted for it.

• New Tattoo- I've gotten money saved up and just looking for a time to go down and get another one. There were so many ideas but I like the idea of a ship wheel and possibly adding a Doctor Who spin to it.
• Leopard Print Flats- I love flats and wear them all the time so these leopard print ones would go perfect for my (slow) growing collection.
• Doctor the Recipe Shakes- I think they're just darn adorable and I love Doctor Who.
• KitchenAid Mixer- The item that inspired my recent tattoo is something I've wanted for a while, though I may not get it for my birthday it's too pretty not to put on here.
• Drawstring Backpack- Though I don't carry a backpack much, but I going to a concert/festival a few days after my birthday and this would be too perfect (plus cute) to carry all the things.
• Denim Vest- Who doesn't want a cool denim vest they and trick out with patches and pins? 

High Hair Headband Gang

I'm letting my hair grow out and even though it's only a little past my shoulders I want to play with it style wise. The last time I grew my hair to donate, Pinterest had just started, so all those cute ideas for long hair were not utilized to their full potential. This time I'm going to play around with different hairstyles and just have fun...like with my first attempt at a high bun that I always see on the fashion blogs.

So am I cool enough for the High Hair Headband Gang? 

Learning

I've survived my first week at the bagel shop, though the last two days I was at a different store and let me tell you it was an experience. It was a lot busier and was a challenge as I was still learning how to make sandwiches, all the while trying to figure out where things were in this store. The boss at the end of the was encouraging and said I did a good job for being so busy;  it's nice to know I wasn't as horrible at it as I thought. On another note I got to spend some time over at the bakery Saturday and made a batch of cupcakes, iced a few of their Chocolate Mocha cupcakes, and decorated one of their famous Stairway to Heaven cake. The owner is really nice and passionate about this business, I'm glad to be working there part time before my internship to get to know the business better. 

This is really a new experience for me, not the working part because I've had jobs before, but all of this learning all at once. Classes has helped me out at the bakery, but I'm still learning my way around there and then learning the menu at the bagel shop. I feel like I don't have a lot of time to do some of the things I have planned with all the random hours, and it doesn't help that when I do take a nap it's ends up being 2-3 hours long. It's a big adjustment on my time (I forgot today was Sunday!) and I'm just going to have to get use  to it.  

The Harder You Work

Art by MUTI

Sometimes you work your butt off and you don't feel like you're getting anywhere. Then there is that moment that you realize that those days have only built up to make you lucky. It's seems so surreal and I'm just feeling really lucky after working hard and going to school to do what I've always wanted. I recently got hired at a local bagel shop, which seems to be going very well, then the local bakery has invited me to work part time before I have to do my internship with them. Now the old me would feel completely overwhelmed thinking about holding two jobs, but things have just fallen into place. The bagel shop closes at 3pm and the bakery owner told me she would need me on weekends around 5pm, hopefully there'll be no issues trying to work around my schedule. I'm don't officially have my Baking and Pastry Arts degree until after the internship, however I can't believe I have found such awesome jobs during the summer time. 

I was wanting to do more for the blog since school was over and it's been lacking some, but I'm going to have to wait and see how my schedule interferes with it. I do want to start some new segments, restart old and kind of redesign a few so I can get them done quickly. There is also a side project I want to start again with making some jewelry, mostly just to get rid of my current inventory, we'll see how that goes. I'm probably putting too much on my plate already, however, like the quote says, "The harder you work, the luckier you get," and I'm starting to really see this in action.

Just Going to Leave This Here

//End of the Week 3/30

Last week flew by so fast and when you only have about two weeks per lab I felt this one would come and go quickly...yeah I was wrong. This week seems like it took so long to get here but I did have some fun and got started doing some wedding stuff, so here are some photos of what happened this week.

 Worked on cheesecake plate design and also made a chocolate mocha pots de creme, but I didn't like the platting design on that as much as I loved this one.

 

On Wednesday we had one of the Teacher Assistants come in and do a liquid nitrogen demo. It was crazy and amazing all at once. He made "dippin' dots" and those little red things are a shattered raspberry bits. He made regular ice cream in the mixer and did a champagne sorbet.

Thursday we had to create our trio plate. I decided I could just do a cheesecake trio and use up the rest of my left over cheese cakes I had. I have to say this was my favorite plate so far and it tasted delicious!

The last few weekends I've been doing a few wedding things. Last week I hung out with my friend Desiree and we picked up some fake flowers for boutineers, scrapbook paper for confetti and items for the dessert table. The other night I worked on wedding invites on photoshop.

Yesterday I had a girls day out with my Mom and Grandma and we got pedicures together, then Dustin and I hung out with our friends the rest of the night. 

I want to work more on wedding stuff but also bake today. I have some bananas and apples that need to be used so I was going to do a banana apple bread with a glaze and put chopped pecans on top. Hopefully it turns out well because I'm suppose to bring it to Easter lunch tomorrow at the Grandparents. 

How was your week? Are you doing anything special on Easter?

Trigger Warning: Don't View if Hungry

It's been a busy weekend and a busy week so far, with helping my Mom and her husband with their antique store and making entremets. Friday we had make-up class from school starting on Tuesday, then Saturday I went over to my Mom and her husbands antique shop they are opening up with his parents. We have "opened" the past few weekends as they finished setting up and had a few buys, but Saturday is the grand opening. They were going to offer free coffee and pound cake, plus I was going to make some cookies and cupcakes too. I hope the store goes well for them they do a great job finding awesome vintage and antique pieces and my Mom has done a great job upcyling some pieces as well. 

So now you're wondering why the trigger warning? Well that is because I'm sharing with you all the  tasty entremets I made in class.

This is the Fruit Bavarian I made last week and it tasted pretty good, just a few things I would have done better but I think it looked pretty good for glazing for the first time. The bottom is a short dough round (taste like a sugar cookie), layer of raspberry jam, chocolate and yellow sponge cake, another layer of jam, raspberry Bavarian, then cake again and more Bavarian cream. My group used razzmatazz in our mirror glaze, and made tuile cookies. I fanned out strawberries and tried to twist my tuiles to be the tops of the strawberry vines. I went with the leaf arch to go with my whole strawberry/raspberry theme. 

We made a Baumkuchen but mine didn't turn out like I wanted to and my pictures didn't either. This is what I finished today, Petit Gateaux (pronouced ghet-toe) which is filled with white mousse and sprayed with chocolate. I had chocolate cake on the bottom plus chocolate ganache I spread on top of that. I had to do chocolate pipping and fill some of it with my razzmatazz glaze, then I took modeling chocolate and did a spiral spike. There was also a raspberry on top which now I wish I put one in the center of the mousse but I guess there is always a next time.

I have three more classes today until I start another one. I can't believe how quickly this semester is going and can't believe I only have three more classes left in this course. Well I'll check in on you all later this week and hope you all are doing okay!

//First Day Back

Today was my first day back to school with my new schedule and new labs. I did okay waking up at 5:30 a.m considering I didn't fall asleep until about midnight. Class went well and though we had a lot to do we managed to get everything that needed to be done. I'm still learning to work with my group, not that they are bad, I just have to remember not to try and do all the things and learn to communicate more. One thing different from this term compared to the last two is that I have to create a portfolio from each class with a daily reflection on the item made. This is great because I can kind of record my progress and it gives me more motive to take pictures of my finished product, which I can share on here. My second class seems like it's going to be pretty easy since I took a similar class with my Bachelors degree. Since I get out earlier with these morning class I'm hoping to post more on the blog, but we'll see how that comes along. Well I need to finish some laundry and go straight to bed, so I bid you goodnight!

//Pie and More Pie

I'm taking a much needed break from writing a paper (that is coming along so slowly) and showing you all what I have been up to this week. My vacation was over on Monday then I headed back to school and back to baking. This week I started Pies and Tarts class and have been making pies literally everyday since. Here are some pictures I took from my phone of all the wonderful pies :)

Made my first lattice pie top!

The finished apple homestyle pie

Mini coconut cream pies; I did the snail & love in chocolate

Close up of the chocolate snail on top the coconut cream pie

Squirrel! pie pop

Mini tart pop

//More to Come

I know the blog has been looking a little drab lately but I promise things will change soon. I have more time on the weekends now and even though this week is dedicated to getting a  paper written for class I will be scheduling more post during the week. Also I have been considering opening up a new shop and create jewelry again. This will take a little bit longer than just a weekend but I'm excited about having time to get stuff done! Hope everyone has a great weekend.

//ALL THE PHOTOS!

I have been swamped with classes but have been learning a lot! Finally on Christmas break and so glad to be taking it easy for a while. Anyway here are some photos taken from the last class.

Making some bananas flambé 

 

Panna Cotta- my group was the short glasses in front with lemon custard with raspberry and Chantilly cream  

My practical with an "egg nog" parfait glace with cinnamon plus Chantilly cream. At the top I had mixed berry and white chocolate to resemble a candy cane. Then a star tuile and I pipped "For Santa" in chocolate.

My plates for Advance Dinning 

//Filigrees and Chocolate

So classes have started back and this first one I'm in is called Fundamentals where we learn basics such as knife skills,   poaching fruit, creams, writing and doing filigrees in chocolate. It's actually pretty easy going and I enjoy it. Today we worked more with writing and creating our own filigrees in chocolate. I tried to do a diamond and despite my bag being stupid a few turned out nicely. The teacher saw where I drew up the diamond as practice and said I should do a dollar sign so I whipped one up free style. Well I need to get a move on the paper I have to write for this class. We picked a random piece of paper that had a fruit on it and I got blackberries so I'm learning a lot about the fruit. Hope everyone's week is going well so far!

Your Right To Vote

I shy away from political issues on this blog and I'm not going to bring up anything that we haven't already learned in school so here it goes.

I've seen a bunch of helpful links going around and I thought I'd share it for those who were not planning to vote but are now inspired!

• Where to vote
• What time polling places close state by state
• The most important races aside from the Presidential election
• 23 ballot measures to keep an eye on
• Real time results, analysis and commentary

I know a lot of polling places have handouts or verbally tell you but just a reminder you have to vote for the President separately. So when you do a straight ticket it does not mean you voted for the President of that political party. 

Some states require photo ID so if someone is driving you remember to bring your license or some form of recognizable ID. 

It is too late for absentee ballots or to change your address so when looking for where you vote you must have the location you are registered under.

Also don't forget to look up facts about each candidate (don't rely on what the candidate says about their opponent alone) my best advice is to avoid .com (which is intended for commerical) and visit .org or .edu but still double check their sources as well :)

Make the change you want to see and ladies practice your right that so many women before you have fought for!!

I survived...

I survived Chocolates and Confections class! I know you're probably rolling your eyes but it was tough an when you had multiple recipes and a time limit there was a lot of pressure to get it done on time. My chocolate box got a decent grade it wasn't perfect but here it is.

 My original thought was to make it look like a skeleton was pushing open the grave lid.

 Then I couldn't find the molds for the skeleton fingers so decided to make a spider praline on top of the grave

When I tried to put the legs on the chocolate praline it didn't work and I barely got the two on each side. Then the crack I made on the lid didn't come out as planned so I tried to pipe chocolate over the line. Not to mention the chocolate piece for the lid was too thin an looked like it was going to sink in but it didn't fall apart!

It was a challenge and when I would get one thing right something else would go wrong. I think the only good thing was my milk chocolate was tempered so no swirls or fat blooms, just my finger prints from me trying to piece everything together in time. The next class is How Baking Works so we'll see how that goes :)

More Chocolates

This isn't nearly all the chocolates we have in class but sometimes it's hard to remember to take pictures when you're trying to get stuff done in the time limit.

Some white ganache pralines rolled in pistachios and in the back more white ganache pralines with dark chocolate drizzle. My group didn't do these but I think the ones in the back have mint flavored filling.

Here are some of the dark chocolate ganache pralines that I hand rolled in dark chocolate

Seriously so much chocolate and the teacher encourages us to eat them! The past few days we finished dipping the apricot pralines, made mocha sticks (mocha ganache dipped in milk chocolate and sprinkled with confectioner sugar.) I made caramel for my group that they put in round chocolate molds, sealed with more chocolate then we all hand rolled in milk chocolate. Other groups did a chocolate ganache filling in some of the round chocolate molds and made a "spiky" designs. Today we set up a few ganaches for pralines that we will work on Monday. I can't believe I only have four more days of this class!

NC Bloggers

(source)

So I created a link up on my menu page at the top called North Carolina Bloggers! If you are or know another blogger that is feel free to check out the page and read more about it :)