The end of week 1

So yesterday, we had a lecture on ingredients and it was loooooong.  We learned about ALL the different kinds of flour (there are a crazy amount!) and how they are all made.  We learned ALL about sugars, leavening products, starches, what makes different kinds of gluten, substitutions, and much much MUCH more.  It was a lot of info, but good info for us to know, but still a looooong lecture.  

We then had a demo on how to make cornets (essentially piping bags) out of parchment paper because we will have to make 12 of these with perfect points as one thing on our check off sheet.  Also how to make a good caramel sauce and chocolate sauce for making designs on plates during plating.  We saw the proper way to cut a cheese cake and the chocolate torte for the restaurant.  After that we learned out to use the ice cream machine.  Next we saw our four desserts (caramel nut tart, fruit strudel, chocolate torte, and brownie sundae) being plated properly, and that was the end of the night!  Mainly it was a lot of watching last night, but we actually start making all the stuff and plating it for the restaurant on Monday, so I took lots of notes because now they'll just critique us mostly and not re-show us again unless absolutely necessary.  

And yet again, we had a yummy dinner (of mac and cheese) thanks to Chef Hammer, though I think these dinners are ending now and hopefully the culinary students will start sharing with us soon instead!  :)  So now it is back to my homework!

Day 3

This will just be a short recap as I just finished my homework and am tired and ready for bed!  :)  But today was a pretty fun day of class.  We had our usual lecture, which was actually mainly just going over homework.  The rest of the lecture was utensil identification and so we went into the kitchen and saw all the tools we will get to use and learned where they belong to be put back.  Not much of a lecture this time, but that is okay!  We then got a demo from Chef Wilke who is OCI's Executive Chef and Director of Education.  I think this is Chef Wilke's first or second term not teaching, but he seems like he would've been a fun instructor to have though he was a culinary instructor and admits to not being the best baker.  But Chef Wilke demonstrated proper usage and safety for knife work since we do have three knives in our kit.  He demonstrated how to properly hold food while cutting, which way to cut, how to properly cut an onion (which is NOT the way they tell us in our book, which I find funny!), and how to sharpen the knives.  He even showed us "knife scars" and told us we'd probably each have a few by the end of school, which doesn't make me happy, but we'll see if I can keep mine to a minimum.  

After the knife demo, Chef Hall did his demo and we made 6 things tonight!  We first helped to make tart shells and those became caramel nut tarts (with freshly made caramel!), then we made some brownies, then we started on some pizza dough, but we had to let it sit for a bit before using it.  We then made a huuuge strudel filled with apples, raisins, and spices that smelled really good!  Next was a chocolate flourless cake (I've had this and it is super yummy!) that is a regular staple at the restaurant.  After that we made some ice cream that is vanilla flavored for the moment I believe.  We actually just made the base for the ice cream and we'll churn it in the ice cream machine tomorrow.  The brownies and the ice cream (which is going to be a coffee flavor) will be made into sundaes in tomorrows class.  

The finale tonight was that we got to make our own pizzas with the pizza dough.  Tessa and I decided to share one, though in the end most people were trying each other's pizzas.  We had a bunch of toppings to choose from, but we made a pizza with zucchini, mushrooms, garlic, tomatoes, cheese and a red sauce and it was super yummy!  We took turns stretching our ball of dough into a pizza shape and used more the tossing between your hands method than the in the air one, though I did toss ours into the air a couple of times and did manage to catch it each time, so I was proud of that!  I do admit, I didn't toss it high since we would've been very disappointed to not have a pizza at that point since we were all hungry.  :)  Ours came out less rounded than most others.  We like to say it was either a Christmas tree shape (with the toppings as ornaments) or just a big slice like from Chuck E. Cheese!  No matter what shape it was, we got it in the oven (and got to use one of those big wooden oven paddle type things called an oven peel) without it falling apart and ate half of it but still took big pieces home for lunch tomorrow.  I also got to take home another girl's pizza too since she had made a big one, so I might have lunch to get me through the weekend!  I will try to remember to take a picture of my pizza tomorrow before I eat it, though it might be one of the last few pictures I post up for a bit.  I can't seem to find my camera's power cord, so I must have left it in MT and will have to get another one.  So until then, enjoy the pizza picture tomorrow and I'll try to get another one soon or see how many pictures I can quickly take and quickly download before my battery dies.

This is an oven peel - the paddle thing the pizza is on.

Second day of class

Well I packed up all my things and trekked off to class only to be greeted when I got there by this one guy who is in the evening Culinary class.  He is from NC and seems very nice, really he does, but he just thinks he is funny and really he comes across more annoying to me.  Our student lounge is just outside of where his classroom is and they tend to go on break when we do (whether on purpose or not I am not sure since they are a smaller class), and everytime he comes out there, he makes some comment about the guys in our pastry group - there are only two - being "lucky to be surrounded by all these pretty girls in the pastry class" or saying that he should change to the baking class to "be near all these pretty girls", and really, yes in a way it is flattering to all of us, but this the second day of 2-3 breaks each day that i have to listen to it.  Today I had to leave and go use the bathroom in hopes that when I came back he'd be back in his classroom (he wasn't) because I just couldn't take it.  If he feels that way, then change class and get it over with - but please don't really because then I'd have to listen to it e v e r y day, aaagh!  :)

We lost our first classmate today.  An older woman from CA I guess decided to drop out for some reason.  She seemed really excited about it, but that drops our count to 15 students in the class now.  One girl commented "What?!? But she took the best notes in the class, I was going to ask to borrow hers if I got sick!" which was true, because I think I take quite a bit of notes, but she REALLY did!  So now we wait to see how many of us will be left tomorrow or next week.

So today we got a little more into the groove of things, though I think by next Monday we'll be much more actually into the regular routine for sure since Chef Hall said that by next week we'd actually be making the bread for the restaurant.  That means we'll probably be starting to prep and plate desserts as well.  We learned to fold napkins for the bread baskets and little ramekin dishes though, so that is the start of prep stuff.  But that was just something to learn while our bread was baking.  And it was sooooo yummy!  We had formed dough and let it ferment and proof overnight, so we took those out to finish proofing in the warm air today.  We also mixed up the biscuit dough, corn muffin mix, and baguette dough.  The kitchen smelled so yummy because besides our breads Chef Hammer made us dinner again and we had some yummy chili and got to taste test our medley of breads with it - we had biscuits, corn muffins, baguettes, butter braid bread (a white bread), whole wheat dinner rolls, sourdough bread, and yummy herb and cheese twisted breadsticks (these were the BEST!).  So yet again, I had dinner at school and tomorrow we are making pizza!  We broke into our groups and this time I was with Hannah, Natalie, and Michelle and we will now officially be group 3.  I guess we stay with the same 4 members for the term and then next term we'll change groups to work with everyone in the class.  Today we were the bread group, but each day we'll be a different group (eg. bread, prep, service, or specialty).  We were scaling things out for 2 batches of pizza dough, a chocolate sauce, and a carmel sauce.  I also got to "feed" the sourdough.  That pretty much means I take the sourdough starter and split it off into a smaller batch, add some water and flour and mix again.  We are supposed to feed it every day whether we use it or not because we do usually use it and if we don't feed it every day it will eventually die (and therefore not make sourdough bread and such).  We also had our usual lecture and the demo today was the biscuits and corn muffins.  Showing us the ovens and different folding, rolling, mixing techniques.  That was pretty much my day.  And now it is late and I am off to bed so I can make it up in the morning to go to the gym.  Nite!

Ladybugs understood.

Oh, I also found out what is up with the ladybugs.  So I guess every year the Rose Gardens here (which are big) let loose thousands (or more) ladybugs to eat the aphids and other bugs in the garden.  They do this every year for the roses but as all ladybugs do, they don't all stay where they are wanted.  I guess every year around October/November they all fly this-a-way and cling to all the buildings and climb in any opening they can find, like my apartment windows.  My manager said that when they are really all out, she has seen whole sides of buildings looking dirty but are really just covered in ladybugs.  Now that is too much ladybug for me.  Luckily I missed that part and just have the tail end of the problem.  I haven't seen one since Sunday, so let's cross our fingers that that is the end of them for me!

First day of class

So yesterday was my first day of class and it was pretty great!  It started with us getting more stuff - like an early Christmas haha!  We got 4 aprons, 8 towels, a calculator, and our "kit".  This is the kit below, it has spatulas, knives, a sharpening tool, shears, measuring spoons, measuring cups, and it all fits together in a little bag to carry!

 

Well, let me back up a bit.  To start off, I got in my uniform and as you can see, the arms are a bit long as are the legs.  Okay, not just a bit, they are flat out long!  I will probably end up hemming up the pants over the holidays because after one day of classes, I am already tired of folding them up to walk to and from class.  The daily uniform pretty much consists of the hat (so I don't have to wear a hairnet), the jacket, the pants, shoes that can withstand 400 degree oil being poured on them (a quote from the head of the department!), no jewelry except for a watch, an apron, a towel, and my kit.  

The hat.

The logo on my jacket.

The "uniform".

Ta da!

So back to the first day of class.  So after we got all our "stuff" we got a tour of the stock room, the big freezer, the kitchens, and the restaurant.  Then we went back to the classroom for our lecture.  We got our syllabus, a big recipe packet, and a check off sheet of what we should be able to "do" by the end of this term.  We heard about some of our big projects coming up: a menu project, a wedding cake, make our own flavor of ice cream (so if anyone has a flavor they always thought would be tasty, let me know and ill try making it for you!), and a big chocolate piece to name a few.  We will pretty much be split into four groups every day - the bread group (who starts making breads for the dinner hour at the restaurant), the prep group (who starts prepping desserts for the restaurant), the service group (who helps the restaurant finish getting the desserts and bread baskets out to be served), and the special group (who I think will just be working on whatever task we were shown during the demo that day).  Then we kind of reviewed half of our homework chapter on bakeshop math and today we'll finish the review on food sanitation.  After our break, we went into our kitchen and broke up into groups of four and started prepping the breads for today's baking.  My group was a girl named Tessa, a girl named Natalie, and a girl named Hannah and we were scaling out mix for biscuits and corn muffins.  

After that was all done, we watched Chef Hall demo making some of the yeast breads for today as well.  He made dough for a butter braid, wheat dinner rolls, and sourdough bread.  While Chef Hall was telling us the differences in breads and the ways it mixes together, our other instructor Chef Hammericksen (called Chef Hammer) came in and told us she made us veggie lasagna, so she started warming that up for us.  Chef Hall then continued on with the discussions of breads and while he was talking a girl in the class passed out.  She was standing across the circle from me and just seemed to lean back on the table (which has wheels on it) and it rolled out behind her and she fell to the ground, hitting her head.  I think it was more than a fainting spell, but she woke up real quick and declined an ambulance though if it was me I would have taken it.  It was pretty scary seeing her just go down like that, but she said she was okay and continued with the rest of the class.  She joked that it was sure a way to get noticed the first day of class.

We then got a break while the girl was checked out and when we came back we got to eat the lasagna which was delicious and right at the perfect time for dinner.  I heard something about maybe having chili or pizza later this week too, yummy!  After eating, we learned how to roll dinner rolls to make them perfectly smooth on top for a good presentation.  We all got to practice making the rolls for today's dinner and then moved on to the sourdough bread.  We learned the correct technique to load it into the loaf pans for it to proof overnight.  After that, Chef Hall showed us how to make a 2 strand and 5 strand braid.  He had given us a sheet with a diagram on it for a few different strand braids and the 2 strand is fairly simple.  The 5 strand is a little more complicated and it was pretty funny when even Chef Hall messed up on it (it wasn't all braided together in the end).  We then did the last of the dishes and got out a bit early since the restaurant wasn't open so we didn't have to finish getting desserts ready to go out late. 

The walk back was okay.  I yet again had a much fuller backpack then planned, but I think that was the last of all our "stuff" that we have to be given.  Oh except for a thermometer and I think I can handle that.  The amount of stuff isn't really that big of a deal, but the walk up the hills (why did I choose to live so high up in this hilly city???) is killing my calves.  I worked out the last two days at Curves and that was okay, I will get on the smart equipment this saturday, but I skipped my workout this morning because my calves were just killing me when I woke up.  I hope the more I make the walk the better it'll be though.

And so I am off to my second day of class - we'll see what fun happens today!

Oh how cute I'll be looking!

So I tried on my uniform and - wow - it is definitely a one size fits all!  The arms are down to my fingers and the pants, while I remember them being more MC Hammer-ish (perhaps it was when I tried on a bigger size) they are not quite so Hammer-style as much as they have some weird tapering going on at the ankle-ish area.  Usually I can fold the pant legs at the bottom and get an idea of how they'd lay if I hemmed them up, but these pants are... interesting.  They bunch up kinda funny from my knees down, and when I fold the pants up as if they were hemmed... the bunching doesn't go away.  I dunno, we'll see what happens.  I'll take a picture tomorrow of me in the fantabulous outfit for all see, woo!

Orientation

So I just got back from orientation at OCI and it was pretty normal.  Just a half hour of "Hi, we're your teachers, these are your books, and oh - here is your first homework assignment!" as orientations usually tend to go.  :)  Yay, homework on the day BEFORE the first day of classes!  Haha, but it isn't due til Wednesday so I'll probably try to do it tonight while I have the extra time.  Orientation was pretty nice though.  We got to meet all the instructors for both the morning and the evening classes.  Chef Hall is the main instructor for my baking and pastry classes with another chef helping as needed.  We also got a map of the school, which from the outside doesn't look all that big (and didn't seem too huge in my visit of the school in May), but little did I know there are 3 classrooms and 3 kitchens in the building -  not counting the kitchen in the restaurant!  I was pretty impressed!  I'll mostly be in kitchen 2 and classroom 2 though for my classes.  From what I heard tonight, my daily schedule will be something like lecture, break, demo, break, and then hands-on stuff.  And they said in the beginning we should bring snacks or a quick dinner so we aren't starving when we get out of class, but after the classes really start producing food, then our baking classes will trade with the evening culinary classes and then we can all taste test while in school - yummy!!!  :)

The trek from school back up the hills was definitely a bit harder tonight than when Kristen and I walked back from dinner.  Perhaps it was the backpack full of two uniforms and my books that made the difference... perhaps.  But I don't have to bring my books and back and forth from class everyday, so that'll be nice!  More room to bring cookies home in my backpack, right!?!  I mean... healthy baked goods, yes, yes, that is what I meant.

Well, there isn't much else to tell so I am off to ::sigh:: go do my homework and made some dinner.  I'll let you know how the first day of classes goes tomorrow!

Apartment pictures - finally!

So I finished unpacking last night, but waited until today to take pictures in hopes of getting nice pictures of the rooms in natural light.  Of course, just my luck, I woke up to a misty day and the sun did not break through until around 2pm, but then I quickly started taking pictures before the sun set, haha!  So here are a few pictures of my apartment and my holiday decorations (for now)!  :)  [Again, this blogger hates me and my pictures so it has taken me all night to get all of these up!  Any help on an easy way to do this would be wonderful as it lets me upload a picture or two randomly and doesn't let me upload the rest until I try it like 10 million times, geez!]

My hallway looking towards the elevators on the left.

The hall just outside my door (the open one that you see).

My front door from inside my apartment - the bathroom is just there to the right and the bedroom across from that.

The bathroom.

My bedroom.

Looking out from the center of the bed.

My couch and dining table.

My living room.

The view out of the windows that my table is up against.

The view from the windows in the living room and my bedroom.

Decorations!

My kitchen!

My oven that is being slightly temperamental with me.

My dishwasher which I used for the first time the other night.  It is slightly noisy, but perhaps it was because I wasn't expecting to hear the gushing of the water as it cycled through.

The view out my kitchen window, plus my extra dining chair.

My Christmas decorations in the living room!  My tree wouldn't quite support the ornaments, but I got them up anyways!

And my tree!!!  :)  Complete with its own jingle bells, yay!

And so after fighting with this darn'd blogger to upload my pictures, I am off to (try) to fall asleep.  Tomorrow I am going to try to start my routine back at the gym.  The Curves I am probably going to go to closes between 10am and noon, and I am trying to talk myself into getting into a routine where I go before they take their break, but we'll see.  :)  I AM going tomorrow though!  And then of course I have orientation in the afternoon, which I am super excited about!  SUPER excited!!!

Ladybugs

So the week I was here to sign the papers on the apartment and have the furniture delivered, the windows were leaking since they were old and did not close tightly.  At the time I also saw a few ladybugs in the apartment, which I assumed were from the slight gaps in the windows.  No big deal, I like ladybugs okay.  But now the windows are caulked shut and so that should be the end to the ladybugs, right?  I wouldn't mind just watching them on the other side of the window, but no, they are STILL coming inside!  I throw out about 3-4 of them every other day and (we all know how I am about bugs) I am tired of chasing down little ladybugs since I am short and they tend to like the tall ceiling corners!  Blah.  I will have to find out what the issue with ladybugs is in the building or if my apartment is just special.  I do hear that if you see a ladybug in the winter then it is good luck, and if that is true then I have my luck set for this winter, the next, and at least the one after that!   :)  At least they're just ladybugs though, I can deal with ladybugs.  For now.

Happy (belated) Turkey Day!!!

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!  I sure did!  I went to have dinner with some family in Vancouver and ate way, waaay too much and was sent home with tons of leftovers so I should be set through til next week!  I had meant to make this cranberry-cherry crisp to take with me to the dinner, but found out that I had bought the wrong can of cherries so I wasn't so sure how it would turn out, but Rick sure seemed to like it!  I think it was a little more tart than the original recipe, but it was still yummy.  Plus there was pumpkin pie and a razzleberry pie, so plenty of sweet stuff too!   

Well, today I actually ::gasp:: ventured out to the shops by my apartment to see what this crazy thing of Black Friday shopping is all about (for the first time ever) and actually found all those shops pretty un-busy compared to what I thought it would be.  Perhaps because they aren't the big chains, but that was okay with me.  I didn't dare go to the Fred Meyer until after 11am because I hear that their big sock sale is all kinds of crazy, and I really don't need to be fighting people for a pair of socks.  Good thing I went food shopping on Wednesday.

I can't believe this is the last weekend before school starts - I'm so excited!  We just have an orientation on Monday, but I am so excited about it!  I get my uniforms and books and a schedule, yay!  I don't plan on venturing out into the crazy Christmas shopping this weekend, so I should be able to finish the little unpacking I have left - hopefully I'll be able to get some pictures of the inside of my apartment up by Monday!  But for now, here are some pictures of the streets around my apartments.  Not much to see, just streets and cars and such, but yeah - this is my neighborhood!

This is my street - King Ave.  My apartment building is to the right of the "watch out for the stop sign" sign.

This is the street I will most likely walk down to get to my school.  Go down til you see those cars waiting at the light, and turn right and go down a couple of blocks.

This is the street I look out of my apartment window down onto (my apartment is to the right in this photo).

And this is my apartment building.

King Towers, ta da!

Whew, okay it took me like an hour to get those pictures up.  The picture part of this blogger doesn't like me, but it's done and so I am done!  :)