Quarter Four of Six (Fingers crossed)

Monday, the Summer 2009 quarter commenced at the Art Institute and that means vacation is a thing of the past, at least for the next ten weeks. If this week is accurately indicative of how the whole quarter will turn out, I think it'll be my most enjoyable term of all time. We'll just have to see! This term, I am taking fundamentals of design (an art/drawing class run through the fashion design department), oral communication (apparently the same course from Oklahoma doesn't count?), artisan breads (we play with yeast and flour all day), and European cakes and tortes! I think all shall be delightful! I have really great professors for each of my courses, so I anticipate a lot of learning and a lot of fun!

Kind of a Big Deal

I just got off the phone with Chef Nina Hunter, my pastries teacher. We were discussing this weeks work schedule since I'll be her TA for the first half of the week and personal assistant the second half; during this call she called me, and I quote, her "favorite student right now." I know it's not her "favorite student ever," but that would be asking a bit much anyways, don't you think?

Count Down Update!

It's been a while- sorry! This quarter has been nuts! Lots of fun, but I've been crazy busy for a long while now! Fortunately through all of the insanity, the days have been passing, thus making my countdowns new and exciting numbers!

Grady and my third anniversary- 4 days
End of the quarter- 6 days
Visit DC with AJ and Tracy- 20 days
Start of the new quarter- 31 days
Christmas- 196 days
Graduation- 288 days

On the flip side, here are the rolling tallies:
Grady and I have been together for 1092
I've been alive for 7807 days

A Perfect Fit

I positively love my pastries and confectioneries class on Monday and Tuesday mornings! This week alone, I've had my products used for demonstrations twice! On Monday, I made pâte à choux (eclair paste) for the first time ever and turned out perfect eclairs, cream puffs, and Paris Brest's. See:Ryan, one of my partners, made the pastry cream, and while I piped out our pastries, he and Mary, the third of our group, made variations of the cream for each pastry: chocolate for eclairs, vanilla for cream puffs, and hazelnut for Paris Brest. Once the pastries were all baked up, Chef Hunter gave a demo on how to fill them and garnish them.



Tuesday was just as delightful- I made a lemon curd tart topped with Italian meringue, of which Chef used to demonstrate how to pipe the meringue on top of the tart with the special tip to make it all pretty and wavy. And she showed us how to torch it too!

Both days, my group has finished an hour ahead of anyone else and so we've been fortunate enough to have time to hang out with Chef and do additional projects. Chef Hunter told me that she has high expectations of me and believes that I could be great at this! I love my Monday and Tuesday mornings so much that I wish I didn't have to take any other savory classes!

New favorite bands: Flight of the Concords.
New favorite restaurant: Kostas Authentic Greek

Some Randomness of the Current Times

While everyone is taking their spring break to refresh for the close of their semester, I am starting to hunker down into a study hibernation. As of next Friday (March 27), I am completely finished with the Winter 2009 quarter, my second of seven quarters (maybe eight, depending on whether or not I "double major").

Saturday, I volunteered to wake up at the butt crack of dawn to gain extra credit points working the Best Teen Chef competition. Upon arrival, I was pleasantly surprised that it was actually a work-event, as in they had to pay me! In addition to an entire days worth of class points, I got $7.50 an hour! I know it's not much in the grand scheme of things, but all in all when you walk in expecting to gain $0.00 and you walk out with $60.00, life is good! It was a fun event to work too! AI and Food Network team up to give high schoolers the opportunity to compete to prove that they deserve a full ride scholarship to culinary school! It was a pretty interesting day and I'm more than glad that I got my butt out of bed on one of my few days to sleep past 5am.

Tripp and I have been together for 1005 days, and I just think it's kinda fun to be out of the triple digits! We went on a date last Wednesday (day 999) to celebrate- Pei Wei for dinner and Barnes and Noble for entertainment! I love my little book dork!

I get to go to Arizona in eleven days and I couldn't be more excited! I've missed my seester and brother-in-law, and I especially can't wait to eat my nephew's cute little cheeks!

I've been a slacker and haven't been running for the past few weeks, but I picked it up again yesterday and I positively love it! It completely slays me, but it feels soooo good! I ran 5- 3 minutes yesterday and 3- 5 minutes today and feel great for kicking both of their butts while they kicked mine!

I really need to go read my American Regional Cuisine book for my written final that I'm taking tomorrow...

That Silly Beeping Noise!

While doing writing my recipe cards for next week, I am keeping my self entertained by watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. [SIDE NOTE: ABC Family has the best movie marathons! I was wanting to have an HP marathon soon, this saves me the efforts and costs of renting them all!] Recall the scene where Harry is the only one awake amongst the Dursleys, wishing himself a happy eleventh birthday; as midnight rolls around, someone's watch beeps.

Although I've seen this moving a number of times, I somehow ended up feeling like an idiot this time around- at the moment the beeping started, I looked up from my cards, scanned the room and called, "Timer!"

I guess I hadn't realized how deeply rooted some of these new practices from the kitchen had already become! Fortunately no one was around to respond to my warning. :)

A Random Gem I Found Today

I have so many words and yet none at all!

I guess I can just sum it up with these ones: I love Grady E. Price III!

Visiting My Old Haunt

I am so excited to be going up to Norman, Oklahoma for the weekend! I'll be able to stay for more than one day this time too! I'm looking forward to catching She-sha's rugby match, my first experience with this sport! And of course I'm excited to celebrate Megan's 21st birthday! It still feels weird for me to be 21, so the idea of buying someone else a drink seems pretty crazy too! But what I'm looking forward to most is just being back in the comfort of "home." I've really really missed my girls, my apartment, my Noma... I know things have changed and none of those are "mine" anymore, (except for the girls- they'll always be my girls) but it is so easy to fall right back into the rhythm of it all and feel reconnected.

This week has been especially hellatious, so this weekend of fun and relaxation with my best friends could not be needed any more than it is right now.

In completely unrelated news- I am so tired of my long hair! I'm thinking I'm just going to give in on the bet and let Tripp win! He knew that I would get sick of it and want to chop it off; I'm thinking that's a testament for his understanding of me and thus deserves to win! I hate wearing it down so it's always in a ponytail or bun. And having it all pulled up makes it heavy and so I've been getting headaches! Not worth it. I'm getting it chopped back up to my chin! I don't know when and who by, but it's going to be soon! Very soon! Pictures to come!

Neverendingrecipewritting...

My hand feels like it might fall off... Recipe writing is the most dreaded of all homework! For example, this week's list looked like:

Golden Gazpacho, Puff Pastry Straws
Warm White Beans, Mesclun Salad & Mango Chutney
Pan-Seared Grouper, Tropical Fruit Salsa
Corn Custard
Rice & Peas
Fried Plantain Chips
Key Lime Pie

Seven menu items, seven cards, right?
No, try ten... I should know this by now, but those longer titles have a 50-50 chance at being a separate recipe.

Okay, so, I realize that three cards more than anticipated doesn't sound like much but golly gee, my hand and wrist are still throbbing!

PLUS this week is an exception since we have a midterm on Wednesday. So take fourteen cards and make it twenty! All of them are due on Tuesday because Chef Knifong prefers to not have to worry about grades on Wednesday besides participation and performance and all of them must be hand written.

That said, I think that I'm going to enjoy the Floribbean studies this week; I most look forward to the Fried Plantain Chips! And maybe I'll find out why the Rice & Peas recipe calls for kidney beans and no peas whatsoever.

Okay, It's Not THAT Bad...

Let's just act like that last post didn't happen, k? I was just at a rough patch in my day, really frustrated and all I wanted was a hug... A Grady hug at that.

I'm doing better now- I promise :) Although, I will admit that it is a daily battle and I continuously have to make the conscious decision to not allow the sadness I feel make my day go poorly. I had a moment of weakness earlier (more like a couple hours of weakness... details).

Things really are good in my life- I just celebrated my 21st birthday, school is even better this quarter, every single article of clothing I own is currently clean, my portion of the house is almost back to my standards, and I'm finally on the last of the Harry Potter books! All aspects of my life are really going nicely, including my relationship stuff most of the time.

If you do pay attention to anything in the previous post, definitely click on the link! It's my favorite song off of Ingrid Michaelson's cd, Be OK. The whole thing is spectacular, but You and I just makes me smile! Grady and I make a lot of silly promises or goofy deals about what we'll do when we're together and get older, most of which we acknowledge as jokes; this song is pretty much just that- simple togetherness, the inside jokes or random conversations exclusive to a relationship, and love!