Week 3 of Garde Manger....

This week's class was actually stressful! It was the first class I have felt rushed to get everything done on time! It should have been simple. I had to cut up a whole chicken into it's parts legs, wings, breast and weigh them all and do some math to get the cost per usable parts and such. Well, I haven't had Cost Control class yet and so it took a while to get the math part done! lol. 

So I had to make Buffalo Chicken Salad using the wings from all of our cut up chickens and Grilled Eggplant and tomato salad. Easy right? 

For these two salads I had to make from scratch:
Mayonnaise (I should get pretty good at making Mayo from scratch.... this is the 3rd week in a row I have had to make it!)
Roquefort Dressing (a type of Blue Cheese dressing)
Red Wine Vinaigrette
Hot Wing Sauce

Balsamic Vinaigrette

Celeriac Crisps (which didn't turn out)

and

De-bone the chicken wings.....

All totaled there are about 35 different ingredients I had to collect and mix together. I didn't have a lot of counter space since we have to share with 9 other students.... 

I was really stressed out this week and was rushing just to finish. The Celeriac Root Crisps decided not to get crispy so I had to leave them off. I guess I could have just shown the pictures and said what a wonderful class I had this week. But then, that is not real life. Everyone has a bad day once in a while and we learn from these bad days and look forward to the next time when we can do better and accomplish more. If life were too easy we would get bored. :-)

Here is the result of my running around like crazy and rushing to get my two dishes done. Yes, only two!

Buffalo Chicken Salad with a Red Wine Vinaigrette and Roquefort Dressing on the side.

Grilled Eggplant and Tomato Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette and Parmesan Cheese.

Everyone had to make two salads, so there were a lot of salads to critique. On the other side of this table is my workspace. There were 4 of us students along that row! Not a lot of space to work in! But, we deal. The others who got done their salads early were a big help to get my food done!! Couldn't have done it without them! Thanks Evan, Sonya, Ciaira and Katie! So glad class is done for the week!

Anyone need me to make a cake? I'd really love to make a cake..... anyone?

Garde Manger Cold Food Prep class Designs

I am really really excited that my spring classes have begun. I loved having break and spending time with family over the Christmas season, but it is so nice getting back to a weekly schedule! This past week was my second week in my Garde Manger (Gar- Maje') class. Basically cold food prep. Salads, cold soups, sushi, and appetizers among other things. I am excited to learn new ways to make things and present the final dish each week. This truly feeds my artistic side as well as the cooking part! 

This week I made some yummy strawberry soup with cinnamon croutons.

We also learned about the uses of Chaud-froid (sha-froy) which means “hot-cold”.  This sauce is applied hot and served cold.  It protects a buffet item from the air.  It acts as a background on which to decorate.  It can complement the favor of the coated item. It usually is white because gelatin is mixed with a white sauce. 

Aspic is a gelatin coating that is usually made with a clear broth or consomme' soup to coat foods and protect displayed food from the air. Each of us in the class had to make a design on a plate practicing with Chaud-froid and Aspic. At first my teammate and I forgot we each needed to do a plate so we worked together on a piece of artwork since we were both pretty artistic....

All of it is made from food. :-) We had a lot of fun putting this together.

I found out before we had to present our plates that each of us had to make one, so I went ahead and made a simple one so we had two plates! 

 I cut wedges out of the red onion and then separated the layers and put it back together with the edges offset to give it the look of a flower. I cut the leaves and stems out of a leek leaf. I added a carrot flower for more color contrast. I had about 15 minutes to throw it together before we had to finish!

I was sad when we had to clean up and throw these in the trash... they weren't edible. Oh well. They were so much fun to make. 

New Year's Cake

Here is to a new year....

 So I decided to make a cake for New Years Day. I threw it together and just kinda made it as I went along. I love seeing what turns up when I just wing it! :-)  

I used blue fondant on the top and blue edible spray on the sides.

This was a spice cake with butter cream icing.

Happy New Year to Everyone! Praying this year brings blessings to your family and friends. 

Nephew's bowling party cake.

My Nephew's 8th birthday party was today. So I made a cake. :-)

It is a vanilla cake with butter cream icing. 

The bowling ball and pins are made with marshmallow fontant.

Happy 8th Birthday to you nephew!! Much love to you!

Culinary Creations

This past fall I took Food Prep 1 and began my journey on the road to graduating with a double major Culinary Arts Degree and Food Service Management Degree. Where I will go with these pieces of paper once I finish (in 3 yrs?)? I do not know. But one thing I am sure of is that I LOVE to cook and bake. 

Here are a few of the creations made this past semester in class:

Braised Chicken with homemade pasta and green beans with almonds.

Salmon Croquettes with broccoli and tourneed potatoes.

Roasted Chicken, candied sweet potatoes and apple citrus cabbage.

Seared chicken, saffron risotto and green beans with almonds.

Beef Consomme with beef, celery and mushroom garnish.

Clam Chowder.

Stuffed Quail with candied sweet potatoes and broccoli.

Poached fillet of Sole with risotto, sugar snap peas and cream sauce.

Poached Fillet of Sole with Citrus Beurre Blanc sauce, Rice Pilaff and broccoli.

 

By now you are probably really hungry and wondering what I am cooking up for dessert! :-) 

My next projects in the next few weeks will be a cake for my nephew's birthday and possibly cupcakes for a wedding! Already planning and thinking up new creative ways to make these events special. 

Cupcakes and more cakes.

While we are on the topic of cakes, here are some pics of cupcakes I made for my sister's baby shower. A few of the ideas I got from online and others I just made up. 

 Red Velvet and butter cream icing.

Chocolate and butter cream icing.

Angel food cake and whipped cream topping.

Chocolate fudge and butter cream icing.

On this one I made sugar cookie squares and chocolate covered sugar cookies with cream cheese icing on pumpkin cupcakes. YUMMY!

Vanilla cupcakes with chocolate icing.

These ones had sugar cookies with icing with the little feet. I did find this idea online. Really cute! Instead of buying the cupcake holders I just used parchment paper cut into squares. Much cheaper that way! And still cute as can be!

Diaper "cakes" are fun to make! I can make these to order if anyone is interested!

Yes, of all the cupcakes I made that day, one did end up icing-side down... 

Here is the display at the shower.

So that was my adventure into cupcake making. Very time consuming because I am decorating individual servings, but they look so nice once done. It is worth all the work when everyone is happy and they all love to eat them! 

How it all began....

Last February I watched 2 seasons of Cake Boss in a 3 week period. I said, "I can do that!" I got some ingredients and made a cake and experimented with fondant. Well, There were some learning time in the beginning!! I learned from my mistakes and the cake making just took off from there!

This was my first attempt with fondant and found that if it is not cold enough, the filling will ooze out! It tasted wonderful! Just looked terrible! :-)

 My second attempt was a bit more successful. I experimented with sponge cake for this one. 

 My Valentines Day cake was chocolate cake with buttercream icing and ice cream filling. The flowers were also made from gum paste. The fondant is getting a bit easier too at this point!

 St. Patty's day cake. I found a graphic online and made a stencil for the top clover. This was 3 layers of vanilla cake with a chocolate cake layer in the middle with butter cream icing. 

 Having a bit of fun for an ice cream social we had at church. An ice cream cake with no ice cream IN it. :-) I used spice cake for the top and vanilla cake for the cone part. This was a lot of fun to make!

 I made this one for the MARK INC press release for their military PTSD resources. I was honored to make this for the occasion. 

 My Easter Cake creation. I saw something similar online and decided to make one too. Every flower was hand made and all the butterflies are edible as well. This took sooo long to make, but I am so happy with how it turned out! 

 This cake was made for one of my friend's daughter's 2nd birthday. I had alot of fun with this one too. 

This one was for a friend of mine who had foot surgery. Her hubby thought she would get a kick out of a foot on her cake! lol. :-)

This one I made for my Chiropractor. :-) Chocolate cake with cream cheese icing. Yum!

My latest creation. This one was made for my friend's parent's 50th anniversary! This was done over the Thanksgiving holiday! I had 26 people in my house the day before this was to be made and delivered! I was stressed and rushed and if not for my sister and brother and hubby there to help it would not have gotten done in time!!! It turned out great tho and got to the party in time!! :-)