I stole Julianne's pictures from camp (it was week before last) so I could share them here. Julianne's newest toy is her henna kit and she had fun with it at camp! She gave me a tramp stamp the night it came in the mail--a Chinese symbol that she says means "love" but I think it says "beef with broccoli".

Holli, Julianne, & Lauren

Julianne & Jenna

Jenna, Holli, & Julianne on Memorial Day, 2001

School is still going well. I had more tests this week. I did well on the written two but the practical was tricky. My mayonnaise and hollandaise didn't turn out as well as they did the first time I tried them. The mayo was awful. The hollandaise just wouldn't get thick no matter how much I whisked. I stirred the little bit that I had in a souffle cup for grading until Chef got to me. Amazingly, it did thicken that way. He even said it was good. My knife cuts test was better than the last one. My tourne' was even good. I'm still not happy with dices. It's hard to get a good cube. Mine are usually sort of rectangular on one side. At least I'm getting the sides straighter.

4-24-10:  I just found this on Julianne's laptop.  CUTE!!!

HUGE Prayer Request

This might not be something that I should blog but it's something that is important to me and it needs a LOT of prayers! My sister, Kim, & her husband, John, are expecting their first baby this September. It's a boy named William. The poor little guy has skeletal dysplasia and a club foot. He would be a very small dwarf. Apparently his organs are all perfectly formed and perfectly sized but his ribs don't grow all the way around to protect his lungs and his chest cavity is too small and too crowded for his lungs to develop. Little William's odds of being born alive are tiny and if he is he will probably only live for a couple of hours. Ultrasound pictures are so detailed these days. It's so hard to see pictures of his beautiful face and teeny little hands and to feel him moving around and kicking and know that we will never meet him or get to hold him. We're already attached! Kim was doing okay for awhile because she was determined to donate his organs if he didn't make it so that other babies would be able to go home with their families. Now she is being told that they can't be donated. His condition is in every cell of his body. I don't understand that but I'm not a doctor. Please pray for William and for his parents and grandparents. This is hardest on them.

LCB

I have three weeks of school down and it's going great! We made stocks and mother sauces this past week. Chef Shane demonstrated most of the sauces (we students will make them this week) but we made hollandaise and mayonnaise ourselves and he graded them. He warned us that it would take three tries to make hollandaise. He said that we would have scrambled eggs the first time and that we would try too hard to not repeat that and it would separate the second time. Mine was fine. The texture was perfect and it was seasoned well but was slightly vinegary. My mayonnaise was a little thin and a little salty but otherwise okay. I was pretty proud of them both. I've never attempted either before!

I made my own beef stock when I got home from school on Friday. I stopped at Sappington Farmers Market for produce (I spend sooo much money on fresh produce since it's most of what I eat and Sappington is the best place to buy it) and then went to Freddie's Market for whatever bones they could part with. They had beef femurs that they cut for me. I roasted the bones and mire poix and filled up my stockpot. The house smelled like Heaven for a few hours! I don't know what I'm going to make with this stock. I think I'll divide it and freeze it for now. Julianne will be getting her tonsils out later this year and I want to make her some really awesome soup. NO more canned crap now that Mommy thinks she's a chef! I cut processed foods from our kitchen months ago anyway. She's not thrilled with that but I keep telling myself that she'll be grateful someday. I'll be cooking more and better now that I'm getting excited to cook again.

Here are some pictures that I've taken at school. Most are with my phone. Even though I have a 12-megapixel camera in my bag at all times I seem to use the phone most! I feel silly getting the camera out in class. The pictures from the ribbon-cutting are with the camera. Notice that I'm not in any of them! Actually, one is a picture of a picture of me that is on the wall of the hall outside of our kitchen. We are supposed to be taking pictures during class (there is a camera in each kitchen) for collages on the walls of the halls but our class hasn't taken any since the first week. I stayed after school Tuesday to help get ready for the event that night. I was in the pastry kitchen most of the day. That was cool! I love to bake and am fascinated with making all of the little fancy pastries. I definitely want to do the patisserie/baking program when it's available. I'll get six weeks of it this fall but I want more than that!

This is all of the stuff that was issued to us at Orientation--four uniforms, lovely shoes (I know you're jealous) that may replace my ankle weights, books, t-shirt, cup, tote bag, and a knife kit.

My knife cuts test: tourne', batonnet, and small dice potatoes; julienne, brunoise, and large dice carrots; cissler onion; concasse' tomato; and minced garlic and parley.

Chef Shane grading our tests.

Rachel & Meredith

Kevin

Charles

Jaime eating the heavenly soup that Chef made for us while we took our tests. YUM!!! I want to make it but there is no exact recipe. He just cleaned out the walk-in. There were a lot of veggies in there from our knife-cutting practice. We have mostly practiced with carrots so it's mostly carrot soup.

This is Chef cutting the cheese. We made the cheese & fruit trays for the ribbon-cutting ceremony.

We're making veal stock here--or mostly watching Chef make it this time.

Deglazing the pans with red wine after roasting the veal bones and the vegetables.

Sergio & Towanna cutting melons for the fruit trays.

Straining veal stock

Chef Shane's watermelon sculpture.

What is hotter than a man mopping?

Except maybe one doing dishes?

Sergio's centerpiece contest entry. It is missing a few feathers since he left it in a walk-in overnight! He got second place, though, even without them!

This is Chef Cheryl, the pastry chef instructor.

Yes, she is using a paint sprayer to apply chocolate to these truffles.

Chocolate!!! I wore half of this home with the juice of the strawberries I brunoised! Thank God for Tide sticks! We all keep them in our bags.

Chef Nathan & his ice sculpture. There is a tube through it and they poured drinks through to serve them.

Rachel & Sergio

Rachel won the centerpiece contest and she totally deserved it! She covered this wine bottle (it's not empty and she said it's "good stuff" so she kept an eye on it!) with fondant, candied some grapes, and made the leaves and the truffles that are in the glass. Awesome!

^ Le Cordon Bleu means "The Blue Ribbon" so where did this red one come from? ^

^ This is my mayonnaise and my hollandaise. I'll never buy mayo again. Julianne is horrified! ^

One of the other classes brought us this platter the other day and five plates with different meals. We had a little feast after class! The green stuff was YUMMY!!!