I Heart Napoleons

Pear Cream Napoleons with Fresh Berries and Raspberry Sauce

Think back to when you were a child and you received some kind of achievement award. Your parents made you pose with your award and took a gazillion photos of you. You look back on those photos now and think, "why so many?, surely one snapshot of me with my blue ribbon would have been enough". But no, they had to get a photos from every angle. I think I understand now, this is something that happens when you are just so overwhelmingly happy and proud. I thought maybe I wouldn't understand it till I had children.

The unfortunate wreck of my Mogador cake made me realize, these pastries are indeed my children. I oooh and ah when they look great or do something outstanding. (Look at the beautiful crust you developed!) I guide them when they need straightening out, or proping up. I cry when they fail (or collapse in the back seat of my car), and secretly I might have caught myself telling them how beautiful and tasty they are. My latest crime of motherhood? Taking too many pictures. I will try to restrain myself from showing you my entire photo book of just one of my creations, and just show you what I consider the best of my photos here. (but I'll gladly show you more if you want, don't hesistate to ask).

Kahlua Cream Napoleon with Chocolate and Raspberry

Tuesday night's class this week was one of my favorite classes so far. I'm starting to feel comfortable in the kitchen, knowing where things are and falling into a rhythm with my classmates and getting stuff done. It was also a great class because it used basic pastry components; Quick Puff dough and Pate a Choux, but allowed us the most creative license so far. Not that we have been restricted, but it goes along with the feeling comfortable in the kitchen part.

The wheels have been spinning in my mind the past few days, fueled by the culinary stimulus of hours at Sur La Table and a stack of cook books from the library. I've started compiling a list of all the things I want to try, ideas for desserts, and recipes to delve into from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I've got it bad. I wish I was a sponge and could just soak it all in, there is so much to learn. I just wonder when I'm going to have time to do all of this, along with start looking for work opportunities. I need to get my feet wet in a real kitchen and start paying my dues.

St. Honore
(named for the patron saint of pastry chefs)

Tonight's seminar was our first on Serve Safe. I think some students may find this class boring. I was definitely doing the sleepy head-bob, but it was due to lack of sleep and definitely not boredom. A lot of the material covered in this class should be common sense to most people, more of it I have learned from working in various cafes. Now I am learning even more like the internal food temperatures for ensuring meat is fully cooked. What kind of foods are most likely to carry possible contagions and how to best prevent contamination. I find it fascinating, and am already looking at my own home kitchen differently. Most fascinating fact learned tonight: The flu is only an upper respitory ailment. The "24 hour stomach bug" you caught, was due to something you ate. Not necessary e. coli or samonella, but it could have just been a virus transmitted by that sandwich you had for lunch. Hope I haven't ruined anything for anyone.